Tuesday, February 3, 2009: Part 1

Sorry about the lack of blog yesterday. It must have been 40 degrees! Also, the Superbowl.

Whales and shepherds: As today's front page carries news of another clash between Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean and the crew of the Sea Shepherd - a group of 'militant' anti-whaling activists - I can't help but wonder what good it does. Obviously, as a vegetarian and lover of animals both cuddly and slippery (except fish), I am in definite sympathy with their motives. I also think that if those shrinking violets who work on whaling ships can't tolerate a bit of protest, they're probably a bit sensitive for their line of work. But again - do the actions of the Sea Shepherd really help the cause? One would really think that international pressure, if it was going to work, would have worked by now, and it seems likely to me that the day Japan stops whaling will be the day that the Japanese body politic decides it doesn't want to kill whales anymore. Frankly, as far as this goal goes, the antics of groups like the Sea Shepherd seem unlikely to bring this about, in that they really preach to the choir, rather like the 'anarchists' trashing the McDonalds outside a WTO meeting. They seem unlikely to change the mind of the Japanese public, and they seem unlikely to scare off the whalers. In that sense, they seem to be in a no man's land of action; it seems to me that they would be better off either using their money to run anti-whaling PR campaigns in Japan or, alternatively, going all John Brown and actually attempting to sink the whaling vessels. Of course, maybe they just like taking self-righteous action, regardless of whether or not it does anything. In that case, however I'm not certain why we should be interested.


Vroom vroom: Christchurch is in the news again, for all the wrong reasons (again), as boy racers take hold of the popular consciousness once more. Whether it has actually got worse recently, or whether there is simply not much else to report, I am unsure but it seems like a crackdown is finally coming. Now, I have no love for 'boy racers', the antisocial behaviour they manifest, the proliferation of car-pimping businesses or mouth-breathing 16 year-old boys in general. But I am positively Jesusesque in my forgiveness compared to the treatment they recieve on 'Your Views'. Admittedly, this seems like exactly the kind of issue that talkback and its bastard son 'Your Views' were designed for, pushing just about every button: young people; loud noises; modern technology; lack of etiquette; non-standard wearing of hats and pants; and staying up late. Nonetheless, here's a brief sample for those of you with jobs, and hence not enough time to spend all day perusing 'Your Views' and cricinfo.com:

Lukey Boy (Mt Roskill): "All you people who think crushing a car is going to fix it, your [sic] dreaming, it will make it worse and a lot of dead police men [?] and boy racers we are going to see." [emphasis mine]

Ginegerbreadman [sic] (Newmarket): "We have the knowledge and technology, why don't we introduce a spreadable disease? The so called "boy racers" are tight group of people who socialising [sic] within themselves- soon we can wipe them out and sell their cars for scap [sic] metal."

Bandwagon (Wellington): "The answer is guns, big guns."

And so on for 44 pages. That should fix the problem then.


Unfortunately, at this point I have to go and move some furniture. I will finish later, but here is a sneak peek at the headlines for this afternoon - just so you can imagine what they imght be about, and get your rage on at the implications thereof.

World's most 'efficient' plane

Dream job, dream marketing

Enjoy your cruise

Regrets, I've had a puff