Video Blogging! (via The Path to Protect…)
Cove Guardian, Nicole McLachlan, adds a special touch to The Cove reports by delivering her blog via video. I am happy to see her take the time to reach out to us in such a personal way, but I am even happier that she has the time. As you may know, there have been no dolphins killed in over a week. We can only hope that fate will continue to smile upon the dolphins.
For The Dolphins,
Holise E Cleveland III
anagirlempath
Holise E Cleveland III
Monika Turner
Thomas O'Brien
Hi Holise, I had another interesting conversation with Yichun, my coworker on what’s happening in Taiji. She’s the Japanese liaison officer here at the Taipei City Government (TCG and several JP cities have town-twinning relationships, hence the need of such an officer).
Yichun said that to these Taiji fishermen, we are just a bunch of meddling foreigners with nothing better to do. Taiji, she said, is an extremely backward country town. The fishermen are undereducated, and killing dolphins/culling/selecting cute ones to dolphinariums is the only means of livelihood they’re aware of. To them, the Cove Guardians are just meddling in their “means of livelihood;” to the fishermen, these foreign protesters do not care about their well-being. She explained that it’s very easy for us to tell them to stop the killing, but if they stop the killing, how would they ever support themselves?
Yichun said the key lies in communication. The town of Taiji is part of Wakayama ken, and we need Japanese-speaking supporters of our cause to coordinate with the fishermen, and work with one (or many) international lobbyists (something like the Humane Society International) to push for some sort of legislation. The key really lies NOT in Tokyo, but the locals. To make this work, we need to know how about policy-making in Japan. Places like Taiji/Wakayama ken are local autonomies. They don’t really care about what the central government in Tokyo orders them to do b/c to the fishermen, it’s just a distant organization that cares not about their livelihood. Boycott won’t work, Yichun said, unless such a boycott can successfully slash the JP GDP by 1%. Also, to the fishermen, the boycott doesn’t mean much b/c it has nothing to do with them. Bear in mind that these people are a bunch of undereducated rednecks living in a backwater town. They are aware that the killing is cruel, but they don’t know what else to do to support themselves. If we are to change things there, we need to start some sort of project that guarantees a better financial future for these fishermen than what the culling offers. If we can successfully change things in Taiji with such a project, other fishing towns still engaged in the killing would follow suit, because, Yichun said, social constraints in JP are a very powerful influence that dictates people’s coming and going.
She asked me to look up a Japanese guy by the name of Toyohisa here in Taiwan who speaks English. Ask him to refer to me English-speaking Japanese people who’re interested in helping us. I found him just now on FB and will request an add. Yichun has been a great friend. Let me know what you think and we’ll talk soon.