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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (206573)	10/19/2006 8:46:12 PM
From: Ichy Smith	Respond to of 281500

The First Nations have on occasion hunted whales for ritual or teaching purposes, I assumed from your name that you would be aware of those hunts. Obviously the habits on North America's First Nations are somewhat unknown to you. They go out in a boat and hunt whales the way the native people always have in accordance with their traditions. To die in such a way would be an honor. An excerpt from the discussion of Native hunting of whales. ncseonline.org Many arguments have been made against the Makah whale hunt with new arguments arising all the time as whaling opponents rally opposition to the hunt. Some of these arguments are fundamental to the motives of whaling opponents and some are made out of convenience. To a disturbing extent, whaling opponents have condoned or perpetuated neo-colonialist rhetoric in order to achieve their ends, rhetoric that serves to control and dominate indigenous peoples. Many peoples from non-whaling cultures oppose the killing of whales because they believe whales are intelligent (comparable in this regard to humans) with sophisticated forms of community and communication. In one conversation with a whaling opponent, I was told that whales are also spiritually enlightened, in the Buddhist sense of being well advanced on the path to Nirvana. These cultural beliefs about whales stress the survival of individual whales rather than the species as a whole. However, these values, when expressed as part of a coherent animal rights worldview, are rejected by a majority of westerners (e.g. vegetarianism is on the rise, but by no means a majority behavior). Perhaps for this reason, animal rights arguments are a strong motivation for activism but less frequently form the basis for public opposition to Makah whaling.[17] Whaling opponents also fear that Makah whaling will escalate whaling generally, and lead to the decline and possibly the extinction of whale populations. The Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations on Vancouver Island have the same whaling traditions as the Makah and they have already expressed an interest in commercial whaling. Opponents also argue that Japan and Norway, two countries looking for an end to the ban on commercial whaling, will be able to use Makah whaling to return to their own “whaling traditions.” The Makah have essentially expanded the IWC definition of a “subsistence” hunt by returning to whaling after seventy years without it. Japan and Norway might thus attempt to expand the definition further, although other nations of the IWC may refuse to accept this argument. Whaling opponents have legitimate fears about any attempt to manage whaling, at least if one looks at the management of Pacific salmon and Atlantic cod straight into endangered status. Not only must whale hunting be managed, but other threats such as ocean warming or development off the coast of Baja will have to be addressed if whale populations start to drop.[18]