I have no intention of getting all political on this blog, after all, it is purely about what it’s really like to live in Australia. But I couldn’t let this one pass by without a mention.
The big news out here, which I’m sure you have heard about, is who hit who? Yes, I’m talking about ……
The Japanese Whalers versus the Sea Shepherd Group
So the big question here in Australia is did the big boat ram into the little boat or did the little boat deliberately get in the way of the big boat. You decide!
First, the view from the save of the whale side. Before you press play, a strong language warning. I’m afraid the F word is mentioned twice in this short clip. In fairness, I believe it is out of sheer horror at what the guy knows he is about to witness. This word is still regarded as bad language here in Australia.
Also, in the background, the girl possibly utters the S word which I now have realised is standard parlance here in Australia. Anyhow, if these words are likely to offend you, please turn down your volume.
Second, a view from both vessels. Before you press play, a quick strong language warning from the Japanese side. I am pretty sure I heard the ス word mentioned twice during this short film and some of you may find that offensive. Also, at some point, somebody utters the 文 word which is okay amongst the lads, but you wouldn’t want to use it in front of your mum.
What do you think?
It’s amazing how much debate this incident has caused here in Australia and how divided the opinion is.
On the one hand you have those that say “those murderous whale slaying Japanese blubber bashers, they kill whales pretending it’s for science while scoffing them for breakfast, we should go to war right now!”
and on the other hand are the …
“Serves those wissy wossy, love and peace, tree hugging, greenie, lefty, do gooders of the save the whale campaign right, it’s about time somebody stuck it to them and whale meat tastes real good anyway, so what’s the big deal?”
Me, I was immediately reminded of Margaret Thatcher. If she was in charge here, she wouldn’t care if it was in International waters or Australian waters. She wouldn’t care if the little boat hit the big one or the big boat hit the little ‘un.
Right now, the navy would be on its way to Japan.
Popular opinion here is Kevin Rudd will probably hold an enquiry. Instant decisions aren’t really his thing. From the videos above I think it’s clear how amazing it is that nobody was killed.
Without doubt, this is a serious incident. It’ll be interesting to see how Australia copes with this crisis.
Tomorrow, I’ll be talking about “Skippy”.
Hi Steve
Happy New Year to you and yours as well Steve. Ours has been good AND it stopped raining. Today is hot, sunny and 34°. Back to normal.
I think the Ady Gil was caught on the hop a little bit, I’m not sure they had time to get out of the way. Having said that, the position they were in one would have thought they should have been alert, would have made sense. I also heard it wasn’t insured, but if it was, I’d love to be present when they argue over whose fault it was.
Cheers
Bob
It’s a shame what’s happened, the boat had only just been donated to them a few months before hand, and now its sank. The Ady Gil was moored up in Auckland in November, my wife got to go out on it around the harbour and met the guys who were going to be operating it. Real down to earth folk apparently.
But it certainly looks to me as if they could of done a bit more to get out of the way of the Nishin Maru, especially considering the power the Ady Gil has. Still i presume they had it covered by insurance and can replace it again.
Happy new year by the way Bob, hope you and your family have had a good one, certainly looks like it going by the events you’ve posted. Shame about the rain though.