Martin Luther King said, "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."
It's been a while since I last blogged, more than 8 months in fact despite closing my last musing with this paragraph: "I thought that I was fully prepared for the experience of actually being a Cove Guardian but I now know that nothing prepares you for Taiji, there is always going to be a surprise around the corner. One pleasant surprise has been the warmth and pleasantness of the Japanese people we have encountered and I have no doubt that as more and more Japanese nationals become aware of what is going on in this village of hell that we are approaching the start of a credible solution for this solvable problem. I will explore that much more fully in a day or two when I am in a calm place and able to focus on the positive. For now, please accept that there is a lot of positive and it does give great hope for the future." Let me tell you that I thought I was fully prepared to continue blogging in "a day or two" but I just couldn't bring myself to push the "publish" button. Too many of my friends were still silent and it upset me too much to realise that. I also found myself increasingly unable to calm down as I realised more and more that the only people who really understood the true horrors of Taiji were either still in Taiji or were other returned Cove Guardians and Cove Monitors all of whom were resident outside Scotland. To date only two of us have traveled to Taiji from Scotland and we don't need to talk to each other about what is still happening there, we just need to look at each other to know. It is a dreadful place. It leaves permanent mental scars. But it doesn't need to be a dreadful place. It could be a beautiful place sharing moderate wealth from eco-tourism amongst all three and a half thousand residents rather than its present status as a capture/kill machine concentrating extreme wealth in the hands of a greedy, murderous few. Meanwhile the remainder live on in that village in relative poverty and their children leave for University in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan, never to return. Why would they?
But I am returning. Very soon.
I do still have far too many friends who choose to be ignorant about what is going on. Far too many friends who can discuss the best way to play Candy Crush or buy stuff from each other for an imaginary farm in cyberspace but haven't got a clue what is really going on in the physical world. Far too many friends who are so consumed with their own importance that they think it worth sharing their latest achievements in [insert latest facebook game name here]. Far too few who are prepared to make any sacrifices at all to change the entrenched mindset in Taiji.
I do still know far too few who are willing to give up even the cost of a pint of lager to support those who might be willing to make personal sacrifice of their own. To support those who are willing to accept divorce or redundancy or bankruptcy or to do whatever else it takes to stop the killings, stop the live thefts, stop the blatant barbarism and to drive and support whatever effort it takes to replace the captures and killings with something better.
To those who are and always have been supportive, I thank you. You are making a difference. the mindset is changing. Slowly for sure but it is changing and that change is gathering momentum.
There are now Japanese nationals campaigning in Taiji - a fabulous reward for years of investigation, education and intervention from some of the most courageous individuals I have ever had the privilege to meet.
Now is the time to add your own weight to that building momentum. Now is the time to make a difference.
Today's blog is all about seals. Scotland's seals. Did you know that since 2011 the Scottish Government has been issuing licences to hunters to kill them in their thousands?
Although I have only been involved since early 2011, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) has a long history of campaigning to protect seals in Scotland dating back to the early 1980s when our volunteers took direct action against the then Scottish Office instructed cull in the Orkneys, risking their lives by lying down amongst the seals which otherwise would have been shot without hesitation.
Capt Watson and crew visit Little Green Holm Summer 2011
The very happy end result of that campaign was the cull being stopped and to ensure that it could not be restarted wherever SSCS had control over matters, SSCS Islands Trust purchased the Island of Little Green Holm which exists to this day as a Seal Sanctuary.
A wide range of stakeholders, including SSCS, then continued to campaign against the illegal killing of seals which sadly commenced almost as soon as the state-sponsored culls had ended. Nobody can state with 100% confidence how many seals are being killed illegally every year but the Scottish Government told us that they put the figure at 1,000 and were aggressively dismissive of any other figure, higher or lower. I was at that meeting, the figure of 1,000 was actually shouted in my face by a senior policy officer from Marine Scotland. He would admit no deviation from that number and if that's the number he wants to use who am I to argue with a Government official?
On 31st January 2011 the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 became effective in law. The Scottish Government announced it with huge fanfare claiming that, amongst other things, it would provide increased protection for Scotland's Seals. Subsequent press releases have continued to be phrased in the most self-congratulatory style. How wonderful our Government is. We should all be very proud. If only.
Remember the figure which they insisted we use for illegal killings was 1,000. To protect those 1,000 seals from harm Marine Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government issued licences immediately to cull 1,298 seals which increased to 1,339 seals by year end. Talk about treating the electorate with contempt!
The following year they issued licences for another 1,167.
So to reduce the illegal killing of 1,000 seals we issue liences two years running to "legally" kill an even larger number. Hey presto, no more illegal killings, none, zip, nada, nil, how fantastic; the Scottish Government has eliminated crime. All it took was making this particular crime legal. All it took was criminals making sure they had a bit of paper allowing them to do what they were always going to be doing anyway and finding a Government Department willing to collude with them whilst they did so. I wonder what else that would work with?
Something else that was launched in January 2011 was the wonderful Visit Scotland advertising campaign, Surprise Yourself. I still love this video:
High point of the video is Mike Smith, the chef from Shirley Spear's wonderful Three Chimneys Restaurant on Skye, pointing out the seals to his diners. And so he should. The United nations identifies Scotland's seals as a flagship species invaluable to our country's tourist economy.
I still cannot for the life of me fathom why the Scottish Government should be allowing our essential tourist economy to be replaced with (mostly) Norwegian owned fish farms and (at least partly) non-Scottish owned hunting/shooting/fishing estates. All of these industrial and private commercial interests benefit only a tiny minority of already very wealthy people whilst destroying a(nother) generation of young rural Scots by putting tourism at risk allowing those non-tourism businesses to kill as many seals as they can get licences for.
Killing seals just for the crime of being seals. Please be under no illusion, our very fragile rural economy is at real risk, extreme risk and the very few that benefit from the decision to do this can not easily be shown to genuinely benefit any other part of our national wealth. Economically it is insane. Morally it is repugnant.
A very good friend with close connections to the Government described me (in the nicest possible way) as a "troublemaker" whilst very kindly promoting Musings on a Troubled Planet for me.
Yes I am. I'm exactly the sort of troublemaker as the little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Emperor's New Clothes. This is the short story about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, or stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a little boy cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"
Did you spot the two Emperor's new Clothes observations in today's blog?
Emperor's New Clothes #1
Licences to turn 1,000 illegal killings per year into 1,000+ legal killings. The little boy shouts out to the crowd, "The Emperor's Immoral!" At best the Emperor is an accessory to crime.
Emperor's New Clothes #2
Salmon farms and exclusive hunting/shooting/fishing estates to replace essential tourism. the little boy shouts out, "The emperor is an economic illiterate!" At best the Emperor thinks he can ignore the moral majority because the money men can afford better lobbyists.
New clothes for the Emperor
We need the good politicians that still remain to fix this before Scotland faces her new future either as a fully independent nation or as a much more autonomous constituent country of the UK, 2014 will not retain the status quo no matter what way the vote goes. Either way, post 2014 the World's eyes will be on us to see what sort of clothes we are wearing.
If you would like to know more about the campaign to save Scotland's seals from being killed please visit www.SealScotland.com
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