ALICIA DOYLE on SAVE THE WHALES PLEASE

Look in BREAKING NEWS! Hear Alicia Doyle write-up on SAVE THE THE WHALES PLEASE in the Ventura County Star!

(Whaling) GAME ON!

Pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, made it known they are determined to win a crucial vote at the upcoming International Whaling Commission meeting in Portugal in June. Thirty-two countries who support the resumption of commercial whaling as early as this summer took a vote in a meeting at Tokyo to stand united at the IWC vote. This sets up a confrontation with the European Union which took a similar bloc vote to oppose Japan and its pro-slaughter allies. Since neither side has a majority, the international deadlock on the issue could continue indefinitely. Earlier, the British Parliament reiterated it opposed all whaling, including Japan’s “scientific and research” hunts.

SHOT OF FICTION #5:Up and To the Right

I hope I don’t have it. Yo No La Tengo. Wait…. Is that right?
It’s been so long since I’ve taken Spanish (twice). Taking a language course in high school is as useless as the D.A.R.E. program to a college aged kid, but in college, I really enjoyed it. Finally, a class that was basic, simple, but still challenging… a curriculum with succinct answers as opposed to the myriad of questions that bloom as you go deeper in the subject. Well, the only question I have now is: do I have it? I hope I don’t.

I have been SOOO damn interrupted in my “whale-age”, my time to me, myself, and kinetic journey that is Save the Whales Please. I have been boy, interrupted, and it’s been annoying. Work, sleep, hunger, lethargy, Coachella, divine music making, meetings for Sutasi, it’s all been great, except that little corner in my head I reserve for myself and whale adventures. The perhaps that is my managing the relationship… afterall I hate it when I know the end is coming. The once fat book with all the pages in world is slowing coming to an end and maybe I have delayed, read in small bites, because I know it will be over soon. Shows like “24” are awesome/terrible because you have that damn ticking clock that’s winding down and the multiple screen of different scenarios playing out like a choose-your-own-adventure before they focus on one of those cells and its this horrible cliffhanger that leaves you screaming at the TV. I hate 24. (Sorry 24, it’s just that you drive me crazy with your ways… I love you 24.)

So in this world where things are out of your control, slow reading is at least something I can exercise. Gosh, I almost wish there was more of a line in this Urgent Care. I am now the only one in the waiting room (I really gotta submit my insurance papers to SAG…grrrr…) and it is quiet and sterile like … well, an empty hospital with only the cool sound of the air conditioner as my companion… my keystrokes sound like drunk elephants in a curio shop.

I been seeing the author of Save the Whales Please posting these whaling related links on Twitter and I wonder… the book does have an environmentalist/ecological viewpoint, sure, but I feel more over it is the backdrop to good old fashion actin packed story telling. Yet, those links being posted offer a view that the authors (at least one of them) really is keeping a watchful eye on all things whales… I guess I just thought he was more storyteller and the subject matter was just a device… so in a way, writer, this is a compliment to you that this reader believed you were “story first”, which if you think about the boring heavy handed, un-sexy pap that is out there for causes, it’s better serve to have the art/style at a high level to better deliver the message. (Speaking of ‘causes’, I found this great website that does exactly that: make causes [for lack of a better word] …cool: www.causecast.org]).

Oh, the Doctor will see me now….

ICELAND LAUNCHES "BLOODY" ADS

Iceland, another country in a deep economic crisis, has launched a “pro-slaughter” ad campaign on radio, TV and in newspapers. Interweaving patriotic imagery of the national flag, historical pictures of whaling, the PR campaign touts that whaling will generate up to 300 jobs—which represents 1% of the country’s population. If Iceland returns to whaling, the hunters would likely face confrontations with militant green groups. Earlier this year, the Sea Shepherd group harassed Japan’s “scientific” hunt in the Antarctic. Just a few days ago, Agenda 21, another ecowarrior group , sabotaged the Norwegian whaling ship Skarbakk near the Norwegian Lofoten Islands by flooding the engine room. Considering Iceland’s currency is worthless and the banking system has collapsed, it is hard to imagine Iceland’s whalers will be able to sustain losses like the Japanese and Norwegians and keep killing.

EARTH DAY BE DAMNED, JAPAN TO KILL AGAIN

Japan's government announced it plans to kill 60 minke whales off its northeastern coast. Four vessels from the northern Miyagi prefecture will leave Ayukawa Port, with one ship is being designated a "research" ship. Japan continues to hunt whales despite international pressure using a loophole in the International Whaling Commission called hunting for "scientific and reseach," though it is widely believed the meat from these slaughters are sold in restaurants. This new hunt is set to continue until the end of May.

AMAZON REVIEW: WHALING & POLITICS COLLIDE

Jan is the most famous eco-warrior in the world--not only is she beautful and smart and daring, she also happens to be the First Lady of the United States. Her husband, Casten Everett, is the first independent to ever be elected to the highest office and nearing the end of his term, his re-election numbers aren't looking so hot. The couple are soon put at odds with one another when Jan discovers that Carsten has made a quiet deal with the Japanese that allows the country to harvest a huge, stranded herd of blue whales. Determined to save the whales herself, Jan sets off on an impossible mission--to drive the whales across the globe and protest them from the Japanese hunters. From the East Coast to the West, Alaska to Norway to Japan and back again, we see the story play out in politics and conservatism. The war between the two is unimaginable.

I thought this book was absolutely great. I've always liked whales and been against the hunting of the endangered species (yeah, I've never bought that "scientific research" bit, either). But it wasn't until I read the grisly descriptions of the whales being peeled apart (a few of the passages made my stomach turn a bit) that I really found my opposition. Some of the story is a bit over-the-top and you definitely have to suspend all notion of reality in regards to most of Jan's activities (the First Lady would NEVER have the kind of freedom that she enjoyed--and no matter what her marital problems, the Secret Service wouldn't stop surveillance of her). But the book reads like a movie (understandably, since the authors have a history in screenwriting)--the short chapters immerse one in the book, and the fast pace keeps you hooked. A good read with a great message at the core of it.

REAL WHALE WAR BREWING

Keeping up the pressure on six Japanese whaling vessels, which returned to Shimonosek after a five-month Antarctic hunting expedition marred by standoffs and confrontations with activists like Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace activists held up signs that read: “SOMEBODY HAS TO BE ON SHORE TOO!” and “SOUTHERN OCEAN WHALING: COVERUPS, LIES, 1.2 BILLION YEN IN TAXES!”

Japan is already embroiled in “Whalergate,” which are back room negotiations being conducted under the auspices of the US and Australia that could resume commercial whaling as early this summer if a crucial vote goes the pro-whaling nations’ way at the May meeting of the International Whaling Commission. But anti-whaling forces received a boost when Mr. Pete Bethune, skipper of Earthrace, promised to join Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherd group of militants. Bethune would use his faster bio-diesel powered vessel like a strike weapon around the Sea Shepherd’s slower Steve Irwin.

The next whaling season could see a real “whale war.”