Posted by buffy on 06/19/2006 11:00 am

day 4 now of the iwc in st. kitts - there've been 5 votes, with the anti-whaling nations having won the first 4.  things got quite heated yesterday with all sorts of not nice language being used.  again, i don't imagine it should come as a surprise, but for diplomats, a lot of these folks aren't very diplomatic!

 

i have had the good fortune of meeting a lot of amazing people here - true heroes to me ... some that have almost single-handedly turned things around for whales, the oceans, the planet ... admittedly, a lot of these people work for greenpeace, or have worked for us in the past. 

 

the energy and dedication ... the refusal to be dissuaded ... it takes a lot of heart. i was speaking last night with a couple from guatemala.  they were telling me about how violent it is there, how afraid the people are there to speak out.  60% of the population there cannot read.  they are essentially one of 2 organizations that truly campaigns for change, from what i understand.  they started their group years ago, just the 2 of them, and we can thank them (and their now-expanded staff of 5 total, including them) for guatemala not being here at the iwc, casting votes with japan. 

it's truly incredible, the power of the individual to affect real and meaningful change.  makes me think about my home, the u.s., and our relatively high literacy rate, our democratic government that affords the opportunity for its citizens to speak out and call on our elected officials to represent the will of the people - while it'd be easy to be a little discouraged by the lack of civic engagement, given all this, i remain optimistic - if not us, who?  if not now, when? 

 

so, i'm putting this out there in hopes of reminding myself and others to keep our chins up - and to use our voices to call on our government to back up their words and be real leaders on this issue, to step up and take advantage of the fact that the u.s. will be hosting the iwc next year in alaska, to be a true host to the interest of the whales and our oceans. 

 

here's to our blue planet ...

 

b

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by buffy on 06/18/2006 2:20 pm

[ i'm apparently more web-challenged than i realized, as i think this posted to the wrong page the other day, so am now trying again ... ] 

well, 2 votes in and so far, we're on the winning side ... by the skin of our teeth, as it were.  so far, the first vote here in st. kitts at the IWC was on striking the issue of small cetaceans (dolphins & porpoises, for example) from the agenda.  japan and their recruited allies wanted this to go through, but we scraped by with a 32-30 vote. 

next up was japan's proposal to implement secret ballots.  as this would be a complete violation of transparency and honesty, we are, of course, against such a move.  luckily, 33 votes were with us.  the anti-conservation (aka pro-whaling) side only had 30 votes.  we eked out a victory on this, but MAN - talk about too close for comfort. 

so, the big announcement is that greenpeace will return to the southern ocean this year to once again bear witness and confront the japanese whaling fleet as they return to the southern ocean (including the southern ocean whale sanctuary) to hunt & kill nearly 1000 whales, including 10 ENDANGERED fin whales.  so we know what we're up to - the question is what will the pro-conservation/anti-whaling countries do? 

more later on some of the dynamics here (as in, dynamics, but also the dynamic people i’m lucky enough to work with here … )

b

p.s. if you want to watch the happenings in the official meeting room, you can go to http://www.e-kujira.or.jp/iwc/iwcmeeting.html - click on the 'english' link ... if it comes up blank, that just means they're on break.  or it's not working (which happened as they were taking the vote on secret ballots ... grrr ... )

Posted by buffy on 06/15/2006 2:37 pm

i knew i’d have a lot of firsts over the last few days – my first time in st. kitts; my first time working with this fantastic team of fellow greenpeacers, all of them from different countries, with something like 60-70 years of experience in the whales campaign between them (i just started at greenpeace in the u.s. a bit over a year ago); and, i thought, i’d also get to be working on a greenpeace ship for the first time.  i was VERY excited about this. i've never even SEEN a greenpeace ship in 3-d – just pictures & videos – and, of course, heard the stories.  i was crestfallen to find out that, for unknown and unspecified reasons, the government of st. kitts had refused our application to come into port here.  even worse, not only were we not allowed to dock, the arctic sunrise wasn’t even allowed to enter st. kitts waters.  so much for transparency & freedom of speech … and so much for my much anticipated first stint as an onboard campaigner.

of course, this won’t stop our work here.  we’re here on the ground (versus the water!) and we’re not so easily discouraged or dissuaded.  we know the truth – that you out there are counting on us to represent you and let the folks here know that the global community is against whaling, as well as against these transparent efforts to stymie transparency!  

ok, sorry. it’s also my first blog.  i got a little carried away, and fear it reads as a bit preachy.  BUT this is definitely the kind of stuff that gets me going – i imagine it may be a bit naïve, but i still find shenanigans at an institutional/governmental level to be … well, incredibly disappointing, if not shocking.  not that i’m not fundamentally disappointed at dishonesty and manipulation at a personal level, but i still believe that those entrusted to govern have a higher responsibility – to their citizens, as well as to citizens of the world.  

speaking of what we expect from our governments, i’m off to a meeting with the u.s. delegation.  sorry for bloggus interruptus, but i wanted to send my first shout out blog-style before it got much later here …

stay tuned – i predict sightings of origami whales on the horizon …

‘til the next,
b