Tag Archives: St Kitts

Arrested and Deported

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That is why I like travelling! The uncertainty of what we will find, by leaving behind a frontier and entering a new realm…
I almost didn’t get to St. Kitts to start with; Melanie (Global Ocean) forgot to pay my ticket and I was left stranded in Lisbon , but only for a day. On the 16th she had everything sorted and I took off around 0845 to arrive around 2020 at the Marriott Resort and Casino in St. Kitts Island, Caribbean.
Little I knew what awaited me! The 58th anual meeting of the IWC was a pool of a diverse and antonym stimulus, from both the whalers and conservation governments. I witnesses with a reminiscence of anger and despair the St. Kitts declaration to be approved by a simple majority (33 against 32), being this the first Japanese victory in 2 decades!

I also had the opportunity to meet people who I’ve met through books and e-mails, but now I have a visual reference for each of those names.
I also got arrested and deported after taking part in a Greenpeace action. Got locked up for 38 hours; and even though I wasn’t charged of anything… I was not presented to court… BUT I was pronounced guilty! And convicted to immediate deportation!
For now find out more on the Greenpeace Weblog. I’ll write some pages on this after finish writing my memories of South America.

IWC – International Whaling Commission

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The environmental movement is facing one of its biggest-ever reverses, over one of its most cherished causes: Save The Whale.
The leading pro-whaling nation, Japan, with a remarkable diplomatic “coup d’état” is self-assured to clutch control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), formed in order to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry, and so hasten the return of commercial whale hunting, which has been officially banned worldwide since 1986.
Despise the international moratorium and the instituted southern ocean whale sanctuary in 1994 whales are still hunted down and killed, in the cruel and inhumane same ways as ever

Apart from the whaling concern Roger Pain wisely sated in a press release by the IFAW that “military sonar, fishing gear entanglements and global warming all pose a huge threat to whale populations struggling to recover from historic commercial whaling. The added toll of Japan ‘s growing commercial whaling will simply be too much for many whale species. This continuing slaughter, and the ominous Japanese effort to gain international approval for commercial whaling, are serious threats to the survival of whales, and should be opposed in every way possible before it’s too late.”

I have a personal and professional interest in the subject, I always felt attracted by all the debate about the whaling issue, after met Sidney Holt in Ireland who later revised and article of mine published last year about the IWC its history and controversy and reading the book Whaling Season by Keiran Mulvaney I felt like I had definitely bitten the hook.
Convening with Milko Schvartzman from Greenpeace and accompanied him on our dusk to dawn encounters with the politicians and media of Montevideo (Uruguay ‘s Capital) set the ground for the work I’m doing now in Europe with the campaign I’m trying to lead in the best way I can. The outcome of our efforts is still to be known, but we are up against a ghastly adversary – Japan.

Next IWC meeting will be on the 16th June at St. Kitts, where not only the future of whales will be decided but also from the oceans and science has a total.