How to win at whaling
'Tactics dear fellow, tactics', I am sure someone said that, - if not I
am claiming it.
I am watching the statements from some of the
countries that Japan regularly encourages to attend the IWC, and I don't
mean the ones about wine women and song as reported by the UK's Sunday Times. When I talked to a Japanese
representative years ago, he described Japan's 'encouragement' of
countries to attend the IWC as one of 'simply doing business'.
Interesting sort of business approach I suggest.
What I am
following closely however, if the statements of countries like the South
Pacific island state of Palau which has said it's ending its
support for
Japan's scientific whaling program in favour of the catch quota
proposal
being considered by the International Whaling Commission, i.e. the
deal.
This may sound like a weakening of support for Japan, but
think of it in a different way. What if japan is going to play hardball
all the way through the forthcoming IWC meeting?. Maybe Japan has no
intention of actually voting for the deal as proposed by the Chairman as
the quotas it will give will not be politically acceptable (i.e. cannot
be set by Japan) but would be happy to see commercial whaling endorsed
I was also thinking that if these accusations were made at something like the world cup, there would be a global outcry.
PS: I just noticed that the Netherlands beat Denmark in their opening round game, maybe one for the whales we could hope 
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