.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

6/19/2006

 

IWC 2006: Joji Morishita telling it the way it is

"The organisation is serving for political applause back home (but) should serve for responsible management (of whales)"

-- Joji Morishita on grandstanding by Australian, New Zealand, and British representatives at the IWC.

Comments:
Joshi Morishita telling it the way it is -

"We are glad this is not a secret vote. Japan will remember which countries supported this proposal and which countries said no."

Japan proposed a motion to allow Japanese coastal communities to hunt whales. This would have effectively circumvented the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. The vote was 30 for Japan and 31 for the whales with 4 abstentions. The abstentions were China, Solomon Islands, South Korea, and Kiribati – all expected to have voted for the whalers.


Because the Japanese Fisheries Ministry and its delegation at the IWC never puts any pressure on anyone and that comment isn't to be construed as any kind of threat..of any sort....no really..no pressure...not a threat at all..honest!

:-)

:-)

:-)
 
And didn't Morishita illustrate the hypocrisy and double standards well?
 
I am glad to see and hear that Mr. Morishita is clear that he does not really support secret ballots. But like many other members is able to throw out a veiled threat, very subtle double speak.

David, you seem very perceptive, however miss Lamna nasus use of sarcasm to illustrate a point.

You in your support of Japan use the mighty reinforcement of nothing wrong look how well he put them in their place tactic. mmpph.


Martin
 
Martin,

I think you misunderstand what the secret ballot proposal was.

What it is for is to extend the use of secret ballots at the IWC. In fact, secret ballots already do exist there - the venue for the meeting is voted on by secret ballot, for example, as with some other procedures.

The secret ballot proposal, supported by the majority of nations in your region, is simply to extend the possible types of votes for which secret ballots can be employed.

The reason for this is because powerful NGO groups in western nations have threatened the nations in your region with tourism boycotts in recent years. I'm sure you must have read about these threats in your local media.

The proposal did not request that all ballots be taken in secret. Only under certain circumstances, where a certain number of commissioners request it, would the secret ballot be used.

In the instance in question, Japan stated that it would not have asked for a secret ballot to be taken, anyway. Japan is certainly not vulnerable to threats of tourism boycotts, as nations in your region might be.

Those nations that voted against Japan in the proposal, all voted against secret ballots - so they clearly had no problem with their votes being open in the first place.

> however miss Lamna nasus use of sarcasm to illustrate a point.

You seem quite perceptive yourself, but perhaps missed Joji Morishita's irony in the way he noted Japan would not have asked for a secret ballot on the issue of coastal whaling, because they would like to know who is with them and who is not?

Indeed, it is irony in itself if you can not recognise this irony.

Take care,
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

Archives

June 2004   July 2004   August 2004   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   January 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   January 2010   February 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   February 2011   March 2011   May 2013   June 2013  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?