THE GLOBAL DISNEY-WORLD

By © Elin Brimheim Heinesen, Head of Media and Development Department in Kringvarp Føroya, Faroese National Radio & Television.

The Faroese build their livelihood
mostly on available resources in the
ocean - including pilot whales.

Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherd activists, as well as others have declared war against the Faroese whalers and announced that they will be present in the Faroes in the summer 2011 to stop any attempt to drive or kill pilot whales.

The Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove” about dolphin slaughter in Taiji in Japan, has also brought attention to the pilot whale slaughter in the Faroe Islands. Many accuse the Faroese of being "sick in the head." But the Faroese believe that their practice is perfectly environmentally sound, and that it is the world out there, which has gone mad. In their opinion the world needs to learn from the Faroese much more than the other way round, if it wants to save itself from catastrophe.

Denmark's little brother in the North Atlantic, Faroe Islands, has now for a long time been at odds with a number of environmental and animal protection organizations, which fight against whaling – including the killing of pilot whales. But when the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen visited the Faroes this summer, he said that, personally, he had nothing against pilot whaling. Lars Løkke Rasmussen believes that the Danish Kingdom should support the Faroese, despite the many international protests, because, as far as he can see, pilot whales are killed in an appropriate way. As husband to a Faroese wife, Lars Løkke Rasmussen knows the Faroese position from the inside better than most. But there were many around the world, who were outraged by the Prime Minister expressing such an opinion.

Why does the Faroese pilot whale killings incite so much anger around the world? And what on earth makes the Danish Prime Minister support the pilot whale catch? Faroese people say that an important part of their identity is lost if they were forced to abandon the pilot whaling. But why is pilot whaling so important for the Faroese identity? Why do the Faroese stubbornly stick to this practice, although it obviously damages their reputation, not least their most important exports, which is the export of fish?

Faroese In Conflict With The Outside World
It is a fact that Faroese actions are no longer visible only to themselves. What they do is not only their own business any more. Just think of the current situation where fishing nations around the North Atlantic have been unable to agree on the distribution of mackerel quotas why the Faroese Fisheries Ministry has awarded the Faroese fishing vessels with quotas, which the others consider too big. It has made Scottish and Norwegian fishermen furious. At the moment they try to prevent the Faroese fishing vessels from landing mackerel in their ports.

In a world where resources are getting scarce, the Faroese can no longer be completely indifferent to what others think about their actions – no matter whether they themselves believe that they have the right on their side and the others are wrong.

Identity Evident In Cultural Divide
A controversy on mackerel quotas is perhaps not so much about identity and identity differences. But opposing attitudes to pilot whaling are an example of a conflict between the Faroese and others, which illustrates a very interesting issue, where the Faroese – at least the older generation – currently experiences a huge cultural gap between themselves and the outside world. This is something that definitely is about identity and identity differences.

The sense of identity occurs right there – in the breach of surfaces, where it becomes most obvious that we’re not like the others – in the differences between the ways to act and express ourselves. That is where we feel we have an own identity. What is it exactly that makes the Faroese identity distinct from other national identities? What is it, for instance, the Faroese do, which is totally alien to others. The pilot whaling is a very good example.

International Abhorrence Against The Faroe Islands
The Faroese have lived relatively isolated on these North Atlantic islands for one and a half millennium - and have never really been in conflict or have never provoked anyone outside the Faroe Islands (except from the Danes a few times in national community affairs, perhaps).

This was largely how things were until the 80s when the first pictures of the bloody pilot whale slaughter were shown in some major newspapers in England – after which there emerged an angry roar of unprecedented dimensions in the world against the Faroese, who suddenly became known as the worst scum, you could imagine.

All of a sudden it became evident to the Faroese – in a very direct manner, that there are other people in this world who have an entirely different worldview than they have. Suddenly, they were deluged with protests from people throughout the world. Suddenly they had to be accountable to others and explain themselves about something, which to them had been quite natural for at least 1200 years.

There are still thousands of protests pouring in through the mail slots in the Faroese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism Board. Also the Danish Government gets its share. People from all corners of the world express, very passionately, how shocked they are about the killing of pilot whales in the Faroes. In their eyes, this is an outdated, cruel and brutal way of killing wonderful, innocent and intelligent animals, which in no way should be accepted in the modern world today. In return, the Faroese should be punished by boycotts and exclusion from the international community until they have learned to behave.

Incompatible Concepts Of Nature
It is possible that the Faroese were shaken at their foundation – at least initially, but it was not enough for them to stop killing whales. They keep holding on to their practice, despite continuing protests from the outside world. So why do the Faroese whalers not agree with the world out there? Are they just heartless, thick-headed idiots? How can it be that in this modern age, these people still choose to perform so-called "medieval atrocities"?

This conflict is something that has helped to force the Faroese to become more aware of who they are and why they do what they do – or at least what some of them do. The Faroese have, for example, learned that there seems to be a huge gap between – on the one hand those who live directly by and use nature – and then on the other hand, those who want to preserve nature completely untouched, but not always live in this very nature...

For those who protest against whale killing, whales are an almost holy symbol of the unspoiled, promised nature, which the terrible human race is about to eradicate – and what will be the end of us all together when the last whale is killed? While to the Faroese the pilot whaling is a living symbol of an – unspoiled – old hunting culture, which related to nature in a practical and pragmatic – and somewhat less romantic - way and utilized it in a sustainable manner – something, which the new world seems not to understand at all.

Shock Tactics Get Media Attention
If everyone tried to cool down a bit, perhaps they would find out that this conflict is something that everyone can learn something from – not just the Faroese, but also everyone else – about themselves and how to survive in the world on nature’s terms.

But this is not the way the piano plays. It's hard to get heard in a world where people are heavily bombarded with media stories all the time. The media are competing fiercely and mercilessly with each other on who can tell the most incredible, most sensational, most tearful stories. Many are therefore tempted to use emotionally manipulative shock tactics and excessive, showy rhetoric to get the attention they need. And the media swallow it raw.

This is undoubtedly one reason why, for example, anti-whaling activists use such methods when they want to 'sell' their message. But the activist’s eagerness to paint with a cruel brush results too often in stories full of factual errors. They can only appreciate that so few media ever bother to look carefully for the holes in their stories.

The Faroese have at least learned how much nonsense the media bring and how manipulative media can be. They have learned about the incredible power and influence media have in this world; how the most powerful media determine what people think – and how hard it is to do something about it. They have learned that there is a media created reality. They're just not yet as familiar with the mechanisms of the media world as others because they are novices and rough diamonds in this area vs. others. Just think about the fact that television first made its entry in the Faroe Islands in the early 80s!

Reality Fictionalized
It is therefore not an easy task for the Faroese having to behave in a world where increasing numbers of people form their worldview almost entirely through the media and entertainment industry. Most people are now exposed to a constant, massive flow of media sensations, in which reality is fictionalized and fiction becomes 'reality'. Many seem gradually to be almost more familiar with the media created 'reality' than with the real reality, if I may say so. The reality, as presented in media becomes normal, and it seems increasingly difficult for many to distinguish between reality and fiction. In such an alienated world, dramatic stories – eg. about a “cruel massacre of innocent dolphins “ – resound perfectly in many ears. People 'buy' the story right away, so to speak, and 'forget' to call into question what it is they see or hear.

Most people never get to hear the other side. Faroe Islands is a very small country, which cannot afford to get its message across. Anti-whaling activists allegations will therefore stand unchallenged.

Activists Need To Point Out Scapegoats
Many people are scared and frustrated with the development in our ailing world. Especially those who live in the western world, who deep down know that their extravagant lifestyle greatly contributes to the destruction of mother earth. But it is something that many probably prefer not to think too much about. It’s part of human nature that we do not like to blame ourselves for problems. People need a vent for frustrations and they need to soothe their guilty conscience. So they like to contribute to "save the world" with a signature to petitions, for example, so they at least have the feeling that they do something to support – apparently – good causes like campaigns against the “cruel slaughter of innocent pilot whales”. This will buy a little indulgence to ease their conscience.

It's this kind of mechanisms in the human psychology, activists can take advantage of – and the fact that so many people know so little about this small group of people, who live in a remote place in the North Atlantic, and who happen to eat pilot whales. Who does such a thing in the 21st century! It is very easy for activists to make this small group of people into the world's scapegoats. It also helps a lot that most people in the world aren’t allowed any longer to see what happens to animals in enormous farm factories and slaughter houses where meat is produced in huge masses to satisfy the insatiable market for meat products. There's a reason to why the industry tries to keep this practice a deep secret. Meanwhile the Faroese – naively perhaps – perform their bloody pilot whale slaughter in the open for everyone to see, who cares to look.

Hollywood-style Media Stories
The activists have been adept at getting attention, and they are much better and more trained than the Faroese in telling captivating media stories. By this they can win supporters and earn money, so they can get even more space in the media and entertainment industry. But in reality they do not make much difference to the cause they supposedly work for ... perhaps rather the opposite: There is much to suggest that the intrusive and often rude and disrespectful attitude of the activists, only intensify conflicts, slow the process down and defer solutions.

If the activists really were interested in making a difference and change the Faroese attitude to eating pilot whale meat, they might have more success by trying harder to talk sense to the Faroese – for example, make enlightening films about pilot whales, perhaps in Faroese language, showing respect for Faroese intelligence – rather than making a lot of noise throughout the world, moving people’s attention to their own role and highlight their own so-called 'heroic deeds', whereas the Faroese are presented as 'barbarians' and dehumanized. How much positive responsiveness from the Faroese can they expect to get out of that? What is the purpose of trying to portray the Faroese, as if they deliberately want to insult the whole world with their actions, while in fact they’re only providing food for themselves the way they’ve always done?

The Faroese have never made a secret of what they do in the Faroes and they certainly do not reject a respectful dialogue with others about how to improve their methods, if it’s possible to further improve it. But some activists just turn out to be more interested in keeping distance than to approach the Faroese. They probably need the Faroese to be their enemies to maintain and strengthen their own hero-image and to keep alive the stories about themselves in the best Hollywood-style, for instance, as "under-cover" agents "revealing the atrocities committed in the Faroe Islands" in imminent danger of being discovered and attacked by the "brutal whalers."

Such dramatic imaginative stories provide much greater resonance in the media world. Most media do no longer respect the principle of presenting the world as objectively as possible. They will rather worship hero figures fighting against evil, because such stories, based on Hollywood's narrative principles, sell a lot better.

Balance vs. Exponential Growth
The Faroese themselves see the pilot whaling as one of the few reminiscences left in the world after an old and artless way of life, well-tested through more than a millennium, where survival is based on local self-reliance, shared responsibility and solidarity, natural balance and sustainability. It is possible that this is a hard – and sometimes apparently cynical – life. It has its hardships and victims. But it’s necessary, if you want to live on what is available in your close neighbourhood, the Faroese say. This is indeed some of the principles, which experts all over the world say we need to restore, if humanity wishes to have a future.

Why should the Faroese be forced to let go of this way of life completely and go all the way and implement a modern lifestyle, which implies 100% dependence on an unstable, unsustainable system, which rewards greed because it’s based on the illusion of infinite exponential financial growth? The catastrophic consequences of such a system are – as we have seen already – that resources become extremely unevenly distributed and are used up, while the ground, the seas and the air become polluted and poisoned with accelerating speed, and sentient animals are tailored into consumer products by the billions and treated no different than exactly that: products among other products. This system is basically life-threatening and exposes us all too serious danger in the long run – not just humans but all living creatures on earth – including whales.

Isn’t this much more horrifying than the pilot whale slaughter as such? Shouldn’t all these activists, who claim that they are so much in favour of environmental and nature conservation, rather spend their energy on reversing this deadly progress and do something serious about the system that creates this development?

Can One Escape The Media Web?
But who cares? How many media bother to concern anyone with such issues and put them on the agenda? Simple and easily digestible stories about heroes, who save poor innocent whales from malicious people, are much more interesting and manageable. That other stuff is too confusing, so let’s close our eyes, so we can lull ourselves into a much more comfortable false sense of security. This is the reality the Faroese – and everyone else is up against ...

How should the Faroese relate to this reality created by the entertainment industry, which is so predominant in today's world? How can they stick to themselves and their identity, when the foreign media waves wash over the islands like tsunamis and threaten to wipe out their identity? How to tackle the fact that activists and the media out there use them to create lucrative sensational stories designating them as the villains? How to tackle the risk they face of sudden exclusion from the global community unless they start to behave like 'all others'?

What should the Faroese make of the fact that they live in a world where a global financial crisis rages because of an illusory monetary system based on false trust, while oil resources are running out, and where they – most likely – suddenly might find themselves isolated out in the North Atlantic, only able to survive by means of renewable energy, available on site – water, wind, currents, waves, their own muscle power, using skiffs and sailboats and the plants and animals that live there - on land, in the air and in the sea ... yes, whales not least ...

Admission Ticket To A Good Lifeline
The above scenario is very likely the serious challenges ahead, which the Faroese (and others) face. But it’s, perhaps, very difficult for many to imagine that such a kind of reality might be waiting just around the corner, because we are indeed 'safe' here in our lavishly decorated lounges in our lifted end aboard the Titanic. The water has not reached up to our deck yet. The lights flicker maybe a little, but we are sitting in first class and the orchestra continues to play as if nothing is going on. And we cannot see what happens in the darkness out there.

But all probability calculations show us that water is rising faster and faster and may already have reached the point where the ship is floating so heavily that it will tip and then slide straight downward in a sharp curve, pulling the whole ship down with it, fast.

But ... maybe the Faroese have just a slight advantage, if or when the world's oil resources run out or the oil becomes so expensive that the global infrastructure collapses. Instead of having to cling to the sinking ship, the Faroese are fortunate to have access ticket to one of the rescue boards, which might prove one of the safest to sit on after the sinking.

Wisdom From Before The World Went Mad
The Faroese are in the relatively fortunate position that it’s not that long ago that they entered the modern age. At the same time as the Faroese live this modern life – very similar to life in other Nordic countries – on the industrial world's terms, which also has brought them wealth, they have still managed to preserve parts of their old knowledge of how to live a simple life and survive in solidarity with each other on nature's terms in a sustainable way. Alongside the modern life the Faroese have kept these old traditions alive. They have passed this old wisdom on generation after generation.

They have not held on to this life style merely because of some kind of nostalgia, but primarily because the Faroese homogenous economy, almost entirely based on fishing, has shown to be very vulnerable. Some years everything goes really well – oil prices are low, fish prices are up – and people get relatively much money on their hands, which they often choose to invest in improving the conditions in the society – for instance the infrastructure, of which they can enjoy the benefits in harder times. At other times a combination of unfortunate factors tip the economic stability with dire consequences for many Faroese, who have lost everything during these periods. The deceitful modern monetary system seems to further increase the severity of these crises.

The Faroese have experienced several of these severe crises in modern times, which have forced many of them to live a very simple life from time to time. This means that many of them have not yet forgotten the old traditional self-sufficient way of life, based on other, more sustainable principles than the fraudulent system, which most of the world is relying on today.

The Faroese might therefore likely be able to "switch" back faster than most others, just because many of them have not forgotten how people survived back then, before the world went mad in an illusory oil adventure, wrapping itself into a pecuniary pyramid-scam carousel that spun the world out of control in a consumption celebration frenzy.

Are The Faroese Lesser "Evolved" Than Other People In The Western World?

Some believe that the Faroese are somewhat untimely backwards or ‘old-fashioned’ in their way of thinking, because they have preserved some old traditions, which others might perceive as conflicting with a more ‘modern’ mindset, but the Faroese don’t see it that way. Is everything ‘old’ dispensable, just because it is old?

It is a myth that the Faroese are lesser "evolved" than most other people in the Western world. Although the Faroese have been able to hold on to some old traditions, they have not at all been reluctant to change as a whole. For the last 150 years the Faroese have been very eager to evolve and to adapt to the industrial world as far as it was possible in this relatively remote area with it's limited resources. The Faroese have in fact been very successful at this, which today's high standard of living in the Faroes proves. But this evolvement is not always for the good.

The Faroese have the same obligation as everyone else on earth to take part in the efforts to save this planet from destruction. And they do not do that well if they're exploiting nature in an unsustainable manner. Unfortunately, when it comes to fishing (not pilot whaling!) some Faroese are getting a little off course for the time being. But this greedy way of dealing with nature is not the way the Faroese used to deal with nature in the past. It seems to be the modern world's ways of dealing with business, which urges some Faroese to adapt to unsustainable practices, very common elsewhere.

The Faroese had found a very fine balance which they are about to overturn, which is sad. They have evolved, like so many others, by being seduced by the modern life’s luxury and amenities. They are also infected by the western world's material greed. And it’s true that they in many ways live as people in other Western countries, first class, which demands a high level of consumption.

But by entering into the modern industrial world, the Faroese have made themselves dependent on oil, and thus vulnerable, like all others who also depend on oil. We see how the Faroese currently are fighting fiercely with others about ocean resources in order to get enough fish to be able to afford buying oil for their fishing vessels and maintain the living standards they have achieved.

Identity Strengthening Survival Strategies
But the Faroese have not commercialized the pilot whale catch. In this case they stick to the old tradition of communal sharing, so they have yet, still – unlike the rest of the world – preserved some kind of barter economy to some extent. Many of them get a portion of their food directly from nature's larder, and they still share food with each other – such as meat and blubber from pilot whales. This practice has proven to be of great advantage for them at a number of occasions when economy crises have hit them hard from time to time.

The Faroese have relatively often experienced periods, not so far apart, where they could not rely on their usual lifelines. The crises set in, in a quicker, more dramatic manner than most people on the European mainland are used to in their countries. The Faroese have grown accustomed to this fluctuating economy and the risks that follow. For instance, during World War II all connections to the 'mother country' Denmark were cut. There was a severe bank crisis in the mid 50'ties. Then again we had the oil and fishing crisis in the mid 70'ies. But also in modern times in the 90'ies a bank crisis forced the Faroese to their knees once again. A lot of people were ruined and a fifth of the population was forced to emigrate. But already after eight years the Faroese fought themselves out of the crisis, had paid their debts and re-established their economy – something experts otherwise predicted would take at least 20 years.

And now again we have a world crisis which started in 2008, which of course has affected the Faroese severely too. One of their two main banks just crashed recently – and we haven’t yet seen all the severe consequences, which surely will follow after this crash.

Their old local survival kit, if I may say so, has come in very handy in these periods of hardships. This is the main reason to why the Faroese still partly rely on old ways of surviving – including pilot whale hunting.

When the crisis hit, the above principles and the Faroese supportive culture proved to be very effective. This is one of the main reasons, why everything up until now has turned out so relatively well, because people helped each other through the crisis by sharing available resources as much as possible and by providing each other services – without interfering money into it. By this, everyone got an increased opportunity to be able to survive with the skin on the nose. It's this kind of valuable survival strategy that have strengthened the Faroese common identity, which is the source of their courage and capacity to face challenges – also in the future.

Nature As A Pantry Or Zoo
People could perhaps learn something from this. But instead of thinking about how to save themselves, while the water rises deck by deck, threatening soon to engulf us all, they are much more keen on spending time and effort to put these "primitive savage islanders" in place out there in the middle of the ocean and get them to stop perceiving nature as a pantry.

Instead, the Faroese – and everyone else is forced to accustom themselves to just enjoy the sight of all the beautiful sceneries in nature and the cute, cuddly animals in it as pure pastime and entertainment. Welcome to the Global Disney World. But for how long can the human race afford this luxury? How long will it be able to survive that way?

Why I Fail To See The Purpose Of Typical Anti Whaling Rhetoric

I have in former blog posts tried to explain the Faroese tradition of pilot whaling. Let me state right away: The main purpose of this blog post is not to defend pilot whaling. It is to question the rhetoric of extreme anti-whaling activists.

I'd like to give you an example of a claim, very typical for many anti-whaling activists. This is part of an argument I read in a debate forum about whaling:

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that lowbrow, knuckledraggers like you exist and are being vocal about your "right" to slaughter marine mammals. I suppose it never occurred to you that every creature on this planet did not evolve for the sole purpose of being killed or exploited by man.  It truly amazes me that anyone would even consider killing anything as magnificent as a whale, or any other creature for that matter. You would think, or at least hope, that mankind would have evolved beyond the Neanderthal urge to bash everything it sees over the head and drag it back to the cave. Apparently, and you are a testament to this, that is not the case. I guess those of us who are more enlightened and actually give a damn about the other creatures we share this planet with can only hope that your primitive, ape-like kind will soon reach the extinction that is long overdue and leave the rest of Earth's inhabitants alone!"

It's obvious that this man (could be a woman, but lets' say it's a man) feels very strongly about this issue. He starts by saying:

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that lowbrow, knuckledraggers like you exist and are being vocal about your "right" to slaughter marine mammals."

I get it… People in favor of killing whales are so primitive that they must have a Neanderthal-like look…  He's probably referring to the 'stupidity' of these primitive people. Funny comparison, perhaps, but if this had been said about Afro-Americans, for instance - jokingly or not - one could rightly accuse this man of being a rabid racist.

He goes on claiming that people who do not think like him, might not think at all – or as he puts it himself:

"I suppose it never occurred to you that every creature on this planet did not evolve for the sole purpose of being killed or exploited by man."

This is a statement, which should be followed by a more detailed explanation, because it raises more questions than it answers. The main questions might, for example, be: If not every animal is evolved for the sole purpose of being killed or exploited by man, which animals are? And why is it that these animals are more suitable for exploitation than others? And why is it that others are not? Clearly, in this man's view, the whales are not... but why? I guess he is trying to explain that in the next sentence:

"It truly amazes me that anyone would even consider killing anything as magnificent as a whale, or any other creature for that matter."

This shows that this man has attached himself emotionally to animals as a whole, but especially to whales. To him whales are a symbol of something ‘magnificent’, almost sacred, which – in his view obviously – has the right to be untouched by man. As sympathetic as this might seem, it is not a rational claim. It is based on emotions and belief.

Many whaling activists claim that whales are so highly developed and so intelligent that they might even be superior to humans in intelligence. But he forgets to mention that many of these intelligent whales he allegedly wants to protect are meat eaters themselves, and thus kill other creatures – sometimes including humans. I guess we have no other option than to accept that fact. But why is it okay for highly super-developed animals like whales to kill other animals, if it’s not okay for humans?

This man is of course entitled to believe what he likes, but then he goes on:

"You would think, or at least hope, that mankind would have evolved beyond the Neanderthal urge to bash everything it sees over the head and drag it back to the cave."

To me this is a peculiar claim, because mankind has probably never in history killed more animals than it does today. Furthermore, I fail to see any logic in this argument, because ancient food providing methods were probably much more humane than today's highly evolved modern industrial ways of providing food, which include mass breeding of domestic animals. In comparison with the cruelty, revealed in slaughterhouses all over the world, where massacres occur everyday, hunting of wild animals seems almost insignificant, unrelated and irrelevant – at least when we talk about sustainable hunting of not endangered species.

Note, that I do not in any way endorse killings of endangered species, but I really can't see why sustainable hunting should be much worse than the industrial way of mass-killing animals, which to me seems much more torturous and holocaust-like than killing and hunting free animals in the wild has ever been. But anyway...

I wonder why he expects the human race to have evolved significantly in such a short span, which a million years is in the big perspective. Just because we've developed very fast in a technological sense the last 200-300 years, it doesn’t mean that basic human nature as such has changed much since the time of the Neanderthals, who, by the way, were extinct 30.000 years ago. We're not even related to them, since we’re a whole other different species called Homo Sapiens. Anyway, as he rightly states:

"Apparently, and you are a testament to this, that is not the case."

This is true. We have not evolved much - emotionally. But what makes him believe that he himself and his allies are any 'better'? As he then goes on to state:

"I guess those of us who are more enlightened and actually give a damn about the other creatures we share this planet with can only hope that your primitive, ape-like kind will soon reach the extinction that is long overdue and leave the rest of Earth's inhabitants alone!"

Take a good look at this sentence. This man is obviously so angry that he's lost sense of what he really is saying. The first thing you notice is, that this man holds himself and his allies in such high esteem that he assumes that he and they are "more enlightened" and, thus, the only ones who care about this planet and about those who inhabit it – while others who disagree with his views about animal killings are labeled as "ape-like" - i.e. lesser evolved – and should not be allowed even to exist! He’ can’t think much of apes, since he compares these atrocious human beings to apes.

But when it comes to ethics or moral standards, are we humans, basically, really so different from animals, aside from our technological advancement? Does history prove that we have evolved much beyond other species in that field? Just to mention an obvious example. Is intelligence any guarantee of higher moral standards?

My point is: Isn't it self-exalting megalomania beyond any rationale to believe that humans are any better than animals? And to believe that whales are almost humanlike – at least when it comes to intelligence – and therefore better than any other animals?

What about the intelligent animals that happen to 'think' that it is okay to kill other animals? Should they be wiped out too? Do whales never attack other creatures – including human beings? How can we convince them to stop killing other creatures? Maybe we should suggest that it would be a good idea for them to become vegetarians…  Joking aside. Whales are mostly kind creatures like many other creatures, but do whales have moral standards that exceed moral standards of other creatures – including humans?

Why do some people think that whales are superior to other animals? What about all the stupid animals? Is it okay to kill them just because they are stupid? And why would we want to rank animals like that? Or humans for that matter… How would we do that? I mean: Which criteria would we have to use?

If we should follow this man’s logic – and fulfill them, it could have disastrous consequences… So what is this really about? I don't say that this man is wrong in everything he believes, but what really is disturbing to me is, that he obviously hates people who happen to disagree with him, so much so, that he wishes to wipe them all off the face of the earth!

Let me quote our anti-whaling activist again: "(We) ...  can only hope that your primitive, ape-like kind will soon reach the extinction that is long overdue and leave the rest of Earth's inhabitants alone."

It runs shivers down my spine when I hear such claims because they remind me – in  an eerie, familiar way – of what a certain person, which rose to great power for a while in the past century, consistently claimed year after year until he made enough people believe in him and all hell of World War II broke loose. This man was also known for having a quite sentimental love for children and animals.

The hatred, which is revealed in this last sentence, is not in any way consistent with this man's claim that he loves all creatures on this planet. After all, some obviously don’t qualify to fall into the category of those worthy of this man’s love…. The inconsistencies in this man's claims are so obvious. But still, he fails to see the inconsistencies himself.

The problem is always that the self-righteous are too self-righteous to notice their self-righteousness.... What exposes their self-righteousness, though, is their firm conviction, which almost always is based on emotion and beliefs rather than on facts.

I couldn’t say if this is true for this man, but ignorance and insecurity does often turn people into irrational fanatics. The more insecure you are, the more you need to hold firmly on to something to believe in… And the more firmly you hold on to something you believe in, the more you attach yourself emotionally to your beliefs – so much so that you’re unable to accept anything that contradicts your belief. And thus you become: a fanatic.

This man is far from alone. Claims like his are seen in many, many forums on the net. Many are far more hateful and aggressive. And weirdly, other people admire the viewpoint this man and others express. They encourage it and think these activists are heroes, because they stand up for the poor whales’ rights. Which confirms to this man and his allies in the extreme wings of the anti-whaling movement that they really ARE more ‘highly evolved’ and better persons than others.

He doesn't like the fact that people kill animals for food – or not for any reason. It gives him the impression that he must love nature and animals more than other people who happen to think that humans need to kill animals for food, as they’ve done for millions and millions of years. It’s easy for an anti-whaling activist to jump to such conclusions about themselves. Those, who aren't as opposed to the killing of animals as this man is, are – in this man’s view – emotionally handicapped, and therefore they’re labeled inhumane primitive ‘knuckledraggers’.

As a result of the fact that the activists really believe they them selves are more ‘humane’ than others, they think they have the right to tell others – the primitive monstrous people – how to behave.

But this seems to be extremely naïve and reveals very little understanding of the fact that life is not just black and white. The man I've cited above obviously lives in an almost childlike universe, where good and bad is split up. He seems - just like a child – to be so convinced that he represents all that is good in this universe, while all bad things are being projected onto other human beings who do not share his beliefs. He even dreams of an Utopia where he can be freed from all evil - including the bad, bad whalers.

This clearly shows that he and his allies have become so alienated to the true nature in themselves – which includes both good and bad, as it does for everyone living on earth – that they seem to have lost any sense of reality.

It's only when man is incapable of seeing and acknowledging the bad in himself that he is truly capable of committing evil things. It's eerie that he and many others fail to see this.

I can’t see how this man's belief is any different from other religious beliefs – and as we know: fanatic religious beliefs is perhaps the most dangerous phenomena on earth. Religious beliefs have lead to wars that killed more people than any other phenomena – including natural disasters – in mankind's known history, because people really believed that their cause was SO right and unquestionable – and SO important that it gave them the right to rise above others and, in the name of God (read: good), actually kill other people. Believing in one's own pure goodness is to take the direct route to pure evil...! 9/11 is just one example in a very long row. History shows – again and again – what self-righteousness can lead to.

One can of course discuss back and forth, whether pilot whaling has a significant or severe impact on the pilot whale population or not - or whether it is right or wrong what a few whalers in the Faroe Islands, for instance, do to a small number of a not endangered whale species as part of a traditional way of providing food - a sustainable tradition, which has been taking place for more than a thousand years, perhaps even longer. In fact it is not much different from the Indian tradition of killing buffalos on the American prairie in the old days - a hunting method, which had been done sustainably for thousands of years before guns and rifles where introduced by the white man, which, consequently, lead to the extinction of almost the whole buffalo population, which you hardly can blame the Indians for. The pilot whale population is not so unlucky yet, though the increasing levels of methyl mercury and PCB in whales causes great concern for the health of the animals and those who eat them. But are the Faroese to blame for that?

Regardless of that discussion, the obvious self-righteousness and lack of doubt expressed in this, quite typical anti-whaling activist’s arguments cited above, is what disturbs me the most, because such rhetoric does not solve any problems – it just increases the gap between the two sides, entrenches rigid positions, and creates frustrations and even hatred. If one really is concerned about the whales and wants to reach actual results in favor of the whales, why on earth would one choose to express oneself in such a confrontational, unconstructive way? Which is why I don't get the rhetoric of extreme anti-whaling activists...

Are The Faroese People Caught In A Conflictive Time-warp?

This is a response to a comment made by an anonymous reader to my blog post: "The Global Disney World" (http://elinbrimheimheinesen.blogspot.com/2010/09/global-disney-world.html).

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for a thoughtful reply. I appreciate your reflections to my blog post "The Global Disney World". I'd like to make some comments to your thoughts – and ask some questions, because I'm not sure that I'm quite getting what exactly you are trying to say. It puzzles me. Let’s start with the beginning. You say:

"The Faroese people today are caught in a conflictive time-warp, from which many other societies have since evolved. There is nothing unusual or exceptional in any society's resistance to change. In terms of "human nature" it is far more familiar and comforting to cling to a traditional lifestyle than to venture into the new and unknown."

From what you are saying, it seems that you have the impression that the Faroese are somewhat untimely backwards or ‘old-fashioned’ in their way of thinking, because they have preserved some old traditions. You and others might perceive these traditions as conflicting with a more ‘modern’ mindset, but the Faroese don’t. Correct me if I’m wrong, but between the lines I read a – slightly patronizing – attitude, as if you’re really saying to the Faroese: Hey, you’re in the 21st century. Why don’t you wake up to reality and evolve, just like the rest of us…

But what is it exactly you’d like the Faroese to evolve into? Do you believe everything ‘old’ is dispensable, just because it is old?

Since you choose to be anonymous and I have no way of knowing who you are, where you come from, or what relation you have to the Faroes, and why you're concerned with the Faroese, I don't know either how much knowledge you have about life in the Faroes. But from what you are saying, you seem not to be quite familiar with life in the Faroes – or aware of that the Faroe Islands is, in fact, a very modern society in most matters.

Although the Faroese have been able to hold on to some old traditions, they have not at all been reluctant to change as a whole. For the last 150 years the Faroese have been very eager to evolve and to adapt to the industrial world as far as it was possible in this relatively remote area with it's limited resources. The Faroese have in fact been very successful at this, which today's high standard of living in the Faroes proves.

But this evolvement is not always for the good. As I state in my blog: "It’s true that the Faroese have, like so many others, been seduced by the modern life’s luxury and amenities. It is true, that they are also infected by the western world's material greed. And it’s true that they in many ways live as people in other Western countries, first class. But by entering into the modern industrial world, the Faroese have made themselves vulnerable, like all others who also depend on oil. We see how the Faroese currently are fighting fiercely with others about ocean resources in order to get enough fish to be able to afford buying oil for their fishing vessels and maintain the living standards they have achieved."

As a Faroese I'm not too proud of the latest development in our fishing industry.  I think that in the long run the Faroese would be much better of if they rather stuck to the admirable qualities in their lifestyle from the old days, which are all about social responsibility and sustainability.

I acknowledge that the Faroese have the same obligation as everyone else on earth to take part in the efforts to save this planet from destruction. And we do not do that well if we're exploiting nature in an unsustainable manner. Unfortunately, when it comes to fishing (not pilot whaling!) some Faroese are getting a little off course for the time being.

But I have to say that this greedy way of dealing with nature is not the way the Faroese used to deal with nature in the past. It seems to be the modern world's ways of dealing with business, which urges some Faroese to adapt to unsustainable practices, very common elsewhere.

I do not think that the Faroese are any better than anyone else… I mean: as human beings. But they had found a very fine balance which they are about to overturn, which is sad.

At the same time as the Faroese live this modern life – very similar to life in other Nordic countries – on the industrial world's terms, which also has brought them wealth, they have still managed to preserve parts of their old knowledge of how to live a simple life and survive in solidarity with each other on nature's terms in a sustainable way.

They have not done this merely because of some kind of nostalgia – as you seem to believe – but primarily because the Faroese homogenous economy, almost entirely based on fishing, has shown to be very vulnerable. Some years everything goes really well – oil prices are low, fish prices are up – and people get relatively much money on their hands, which they often choose to invest in improving the conditions in the society – for instance the infrastructure, of which we can enjoy the benefits in harder times. At other times a combination of unfortunate factors tip the economic stability with dire consequences for many Faroese, who have lost everything during these periods. The deceitful modern monetary system seems to further increase the severity of these crises.

The Faroese have relatively often experienced periods, not so far apart, where they could not rely on their usual lifelines. The crises set in, in a quicker, more dramatic manner than most people on the European mainland are used to in their countries. The Faroese have grown accustomed to this fluctuating economy and the risks that follow. For instance, during World War II all connections to the 'mother country' Denmark were cut. There was a severe bank crisis in the mid 50'ties. Then again we had the oil and fishing crisis in the mid 70'ies. But also in modern times in the 90'ies where a bank crisis forced the Faroese to their knees once again. And now again we have a world crisis which started in 2008, which of course has affected the Faroese severely too. One of our two main banks just crashed recently – and we haven’t yet seen all the severe consequences, which surely will follow after this crash.

As I have explained already in my blog, our old local survival kit, if I may say so, has come in very handy in these periods of hardships. This is the main reason to why the Faroese still partly rely on old ways of surviving – including pilot whale hunting.

Note that my primary goal is not to defend the continuation of pilot whaling as such, but simply to explain the circumstances and the reasons, why it still exists. Bottom line, I guess the Faroese fail to see that they really have any better alternative, because other options seem – from their viewpoint – scarier and even more hazardous.

"Presently, change is upon us all. Nature governs our existence, and nature is, as always in a constant state of change. Unfortunately, through no fault of the Faroese, eco-systems and the very bio-diversity of our planet has been adversely affected in recent history by mankind's greed and disrespect of nature through commercial and industrial exploitation and greed."

This is exactly my point in my blog. Couldn't agree more. My point is, that nature has always governed human kinds existence. Some humans have just been more aware of that than others, which is why they have been better at taking care of nature than others. I happen to believe that the Faroese have done just that with their way of living with and off what was available in their own environment in a sustainable manner. This is what I'm talking about, when I say that perhaps the world could learn something from the Faroese.

You say: "The destruction of our oceans and it's limited resources must be addressed globally. In a time of new environmental awareness and our unprecedented ability to communicate beyond man-made borders, the message to your shores is one in the same for all mankind."

Yes, of course... and it should be. Agree. Of course the Faroese should still take care of nature in a responsible way. They have done so in the past. So they should do that now too, instead of adapting to the destructive ways of the modern world.

"If we continue to live as we have in the past, the depletion of our ocean's resources is inevitable."

Yes, it’s true – given that “we” means “people living in the industrialized world”. But I’d like you to clarify: When you say “we”, do you include the Faroese? I ask, because the way the Faroese have been living ‘in the past’ has not endangered nature as much as the way people in the industrial world have lived. Very far from it.  So it doesn’t seem to be a very good idea to ‘force’ the Faroese to adapt to modern, industrial exploitative ways of today completely and thus endorse them to make the same mistakes as everyone else. Which by the way, actually is about to happen, ‘as we speak’, unfortunately.

"It will be virtually impossible to resort back to survival techniques of the past when the ocean's resources are gone."

Very true again... on the other hand: I believe that if it comes so far – or close to it – every man will try to do what ever it takes to survive, and forget about the future, because nobody will have enough energy to think about what's best for the future, I'm afraid. They will have too much to do, struggling for their own lives here and now. The Faroese will perhaps be no better than anyone else. I assume it will not be pretty, anywhere...!

But given the fact that there are only 48.000 people living in the Faroes – a number which hasn’t increased for the last 20 years - I'd say, seen in the big picture: How big a threat can they really be to the world’s resources in comparison with the masses in the rest of the world? Not to take the responsibility away from the Faroese, but shouldn't we try to view things in the right perspective? 

"It may sound dramatic but the international scientific community is predicting dire consequences as our global population increases while unsustainable food sources have and continue to decline at an alarming rate. Overfishing and pollution as well as climate change are now of global concern."

Agree again. This is very much a concern of mine too, as I have stated in my last blog post as well as in former blogs posts, which I am sure you must have read… or?

"Warning signs in nature are evident, as in the Faroes we see the very pilot whale meat that sustained your people's existence through countless generations, now poisons and threatens the health and survival of your future generations."

Which is why I, in several of my blog posts, urge everyone – also outside the Faroes – to take a look at their own behavior. Because the modern way of life contributes much more severely to this alarming development than the Faroese pilot whaling as such has ever done.

This does NOT take the responsibility away from the Faroese. They are also obliged to live in this world not harming the overall balance, but the Faroese can only deal with their own lives first and foremost, and do what is within their own power. I can assure you that all this is very much subject to debate in the Faroes, so the Faroese are not a bunch of ignorant morons (not that you said that, but many think so...) The truth is, that the Faroese are very much concerned – and that they are not blind to these warnings, even if it may seem so to an outsider.

"Nature's reaction to man's contribution of toxic waste can now be measured and has found it's way to your shores. In 2008 your Dr Pal Weihe issued a gov't advisory warning that pilotwhale meat was "unfit for human consumption". His research conducted on Faroese test subjects found a high incidence of irreversible neurological impairment and other disablities attributed to the excessive PCBs and methylmercury levels found in pilotwhale meat. Yet, grindadrap continues."

Yes, true. I have read the advisory warning. And the report. It has caused great concern here in the Faroes, as I said.

I have stated in a former blog post that, personally, I am not for the continuation of the Grindadráp, regardless. I acknowledge that it must stop if there is evidence that proves, beyond any doubt, that eating pilot whale meat is directly life threatening – or severely damaging people's health. The research, which has been done, should of course be taken very seriously. However – though this particular scientific paper's conclusion is that pilot whale meat ought to be regarded as unfit for human consumption – it is not perfectly clear on exactly HOW hazardous it is to eat pilot whale meat – for instance, in comparison with other kinds of widespread available food.

Don't be mistaken. I’m not saying that I don’t believe in Pál Weihe’s research, and I can assure you that people in the Faroes are very worried about this. But it is confusing to the Faroese, that there have been reports which claim that not all scientists/doctors agree with the conclusions in the report made by Pál Weihe's and others. There have been other scientific researches that contradict the conclusions in Pál Weihe's report.

At the same time we are bombarded with information about all kinds of other hazardous foods. I am talking about common industrially produced  food, which we all buy in the supermarket or at the burger or pizza chains, full of hormones and other questionable, health threatening, perhaps even poisonous additives. We remember cases of cow disease, for instance, and we are also worried about contaminated foods mostly caused by extreme monocultures in the agriculture industry. We’ve learned that if you eat only MacDonald burgers for a month or so, you could actually die. If you smoke you're in extreme danger of getting cancer and all kinds of diseases too. It doesn’t make people stop though.

Therefore people here believe that pilot whale meat is, after all, perhaps not the worst food to eat – if you only limit the intake and let children and pregnant women avoid it. It is still very nutritious food, despite the fact that there are too high levels of mercury and PCB in the meat.

"This resistance to change at all cost is cause for worry and makes little or no sense to outsiders, many whose governments have officially classified dolphin meat as hazardous waste decades ago. Is it unfair to warn or advise the Faroese to stop this consumption from a humanitarian perspective?"

No, it is not unfair. Not at all – but I have difficulties believing this is the greatest concern of most of the people who claim they worry about the Faroese. It seems more to me that this is first and foremost used as an excuse to try to get the people of the Faroes to spare the whales. So why not call a spade a spade?

As I have stated earlier, Faroese people are not resistant to change – not if the change is for the better. They just fail to see if changing this particular tradition – the pilot whaling and everything that comes with it – really makes their way of life any better for anyone. Go to www.whaling.fo to study this issue further, if you like.

“Cruelty of the slaughter itself aside, as one Faroese friend once told me "nature can be cruel"... but as I see it, we must ALL acknowledge and adapt to these changes in nature before it's cruel vengeance disallows us the opportunity."

Well, I am sure that the Faroese will listen to arguments, which make sense to them. I am also quite sure, that they will be much less reluctant to change their ways than the global industry, the agriculture and the transport companies are. These are in fact the true dominators and destroyers of this world. Tell the multinational companies to stop polluting, because they kill people and animals by doing that – perhaps in a subtle and slow, but still very cruel way. But will they listen?

The pilot whale kill that went wrong

The pilot whale killings, which have taken place in the Faroe Islands this summer, especially the one in Klaksvík, which a member of the Sea Shepherd organization claims he witnessed "under cover" and reported about to the world media, have, once again, created worldwide outrage and generated tons of protests from all over the world – also from a row of NGO’s.

This does, of course, instill respect, because these are powerful organizations with the means to influence a lot of people in the world.  That is precisely why it’s a shame that some of the allegations in their protest are simply incorrect, while others are questionable, but that is expected, because they are based on beliefs. Nevertheless, it makes it difficult to have a fruitful dialogue holding beliefs against each other. When two sides have different beliefs, it is therefore even more essential to stick to the facts and get them right. It is also essential to separate facts from beliefs and emotions.

Sea Shepherd tactics 

It was the report from Peter Hammarstedt, Sea Shepherd activist, from the Klaksvík kill, which triggered the current reactions. But as almost always when it comes to Sea Shepherd, their reports are exaggerated and emotionally manipulative – for instance the claim that baby whales are cut out from their mother's bodies and just left to rot... When one's errand is first and foremost to make anti whaling propaganda, graphic and dramatic sounding examples like these are always very effective, especially if you want to get people really agitated and angry. But it is not true that the baby whales are left to rot. Yes, they are cut out of their dead mothers bodies and are killed like all the other whales in the group. Sounds harsh, yes, but it is done, because - except from the bones and intestines - they are used just as everything else from the whales.

Another explanation

However, the way this particular whale kill in Klaksvík was carried out was not acceptable...! I was not at the site, but I've seen TV footage from the whale kill – and it didn't look pretty! I’m not insensitive and I understand perfectly why people would be outraged by what they saw on TV. As a matter of fact: the Faroese people are generally opposed to whale killings carried out like this. They agree that incidents like this must never happen again.

I'm not making excuses for this kill, because I would, personally, never applaud any kind of unnecessary brutality myself. I’m just trying to explain, because I think it is important to understand why it happened – and not just judge the whalers as evil maniacs that enjoy torturing whales, because that is not the case. 

It is important to understand that these people regard pilot whales as a food resource. You might disagree with this viewpoint, but the whalers are carrying out a job, which in their own view is pretty much the same job, a butcher carries out in a slaughterhouse – only in a different, more difficult environment.

What went wrong?

What made this particular kill more difficult than usual was that the Klaksvík bay has been changed because of stone fillings on one side of the bay. This meant that it was hard for the whalers to get all the whales to beach themselves on the sand beach – like they usually do – where it would have been much easier to make a swift kill. Some of the whales where caught in deep water by the stone fillings where some whalers had to use quite forceful methods to pull some of the whales up onto the stones to get them killed.

What people might not understand is that it is almost impossible to kill a whale in deep water where you can't stand firmly on the bottom. That is why they dragged the whales up unto the stones. The problem was that it was almost impossible to do this, which caused the whales to be harmed. This is not an incident, which happens normally – but as I understand it, the whalers did what they did in desperation, because of the impossible circumstances to make a proper quick kill.

           

It was not possible in this case neither to move the whales to shallower water or let the whales go free, because the whales will swim right back into their deaths, since their instinctive urge is to stay with their group. Sad, but true. This must, of course, have seemed quite dramatic – especially to an outsider, who has a whole other view on whales and does not know, that this is NOT the normal way of carrying out a pilot whale kill.

Not a normal kill

Outsiders don’t know that this was not a normal whale kill. It went wrong – not all together, but for some of the whales. Most whales in the kill beached themselves on the sand beach and were killed in a swift way as they normally are. It was very unfortunate that a few of the whales did not swim up onto the beach, but where caught by the stones.

Unfortunately, incidents like this happen, but very rarely. There is a slight risk that things can go wrong during a hunt – like in hunting of any wild animals. If it happens in the last moments of a kill, there seems to be no way, entirely, to avoid some force – or  'brutality' – to get the kill done as quickly as possible. And this is sadly what happened this time.

It was unfortunate, first and foremost for the whales caught by the stones... but also for the Faroese people, because of course the news spread throughout the world immediately – and the story is used everywhere right now by the anti whaling campaigners as proof of the Faroese whaler's brutality – to anger people all over the world and make them boycott the Faroes.

The Faroese want to prevent this from happening again 

I for my self think, that the kill should never have been allowed to take place in this particular bay... Now we at least know – what the whalers obviously didn’t anticipate – that there is a risk in this particular bay that some of the whales might make a sudden turn in the last moment and swim towards the stone fillings and not the beach.

People in the Faroes worry about this and have been discussing it eagerly in the Faroese media. The local animal protection society protested against the way the killing was conducted, and most people here are sorry about this incident and agree that we must do everything possible to prevent such things from happening again.

Politicians have suggested to ban whale killing in this particular bay and have also made suggestions to make rules that only allow people with special licenses to participate in a whale kill to minimize the risk of errors that might lead to situations like these, which get out of control. Some people even talk about banning whale killing as a whole.

The Faroese are not ignorant to animal suffering

I don't think, though, that this last suggestion will happen right now, because people here also know, that what happened in Klaksvík was an exception. And it doesn’t change the way people in the Faroes look upon pilot whales. They are still regarded as a food source. But I am sure that something will happen as a consequence of this that will help prevent that whales suffer more than absolutely necessary in future whale killings.

Even though many Faroese still support whale killing, because hunting and eating whale meat is so integrated in the culture, they are not ignorant to animal welfare. They are able to realize when something is inhumane and should be dealt with.

But this is – of course – not the picture the Sea Shepherd is interested to paint of the whalers or the Faroese out there. To them this is war... a war against the acts of the Faroese whalers – and in a war you're allowed to use any method to make your opponents look as bad as possible...

Does not help to dehumanize the whalers 

But I'm concerned that it does not help the pilot whales much to dehumanize the whalers... I think that the best way to protect the whales from suffering, is to appeal to the whalers as the humane beings they are – because as such they are open to reason.... and emotion also, of course. Acting as if you're dealing with monsters, will not create grounds for a reasonable dialog, but just make people shut their ears. Nobody likes to be accused of being a monstrous maniac.

Okay, I just wanted to cast a little more light on, how the Faroese look at these events. This explanation, though, might not make much difference to those who have difficulties accepting that the Faroese regard pilot whales, first and foremost, as a food source, while to them whales – including pilot whales – are sacred creatures. I realize that it might be impossible to reach common understanding between people with such opposite views on the matter.

Hate Campaigns Only Make It Worse

The Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove” about dolphin slaughter in Taiji in Japan has drawn worldwide attention to the practice of killing dolphins. I don’t think that the Grindadráp practice - the pilot whaling in the Faroe Islands - can be compared to the dolphin slaughter in Japan. But many people do compare it. There is no doubt that the documentary "The Cove" will bring attention to the Faroese practice of Grindadráp also – perhaps raise and international outrage against it, once again. 

I can see it coming. In many ways it is already happening. The Faroese are quite defenseless against a massive international outrage, because they are so few – only 48.000 – against millions of people who really don’t know much about how people in arctic regions like the Faroes live and survive. But I'm not sure that such an outrage will have any significant effect in regard to saving the pilot whales in the sea surrounding the Faroes.

"Wipe them off the face of the earth"
The Faroese will stop eating whales anyway – probably very soon. Most people in the Faroes have already stopped. But they will stop killing pilot whales because of the contamination of the whale meat – not because of international anti-whaling petition campaigns or boycotts.

Earlier campaigns seem only to have postponed solutions because most of them have described the practice of Grindadráp and judged the people in the Faroe Islands in a way the Faroese could not identify with, at all. Thus the Faroese were not open to influence. The only thing that the anti-whaling campaigns so far have seemed to do is just to condemn and dehumanize the people of the Faroes – all of them, also the people living in the Faroes who do not kill or eat whales.

Many people in the world have come to hate the Faroese because of these aggressive campaigns. So much so that they wouldn't care if a nuclear bomb made a big crater on the islands and killed everyone there. We see such arguments all the time. As a Faroese myself, it is very hard to hear people say such things. And I understand why some Faroese get sad and angry because they feel that this hostile attitude is so unfair.

I’m afraid that any new campaigns caused by this new interest in the issue now launched by “The Cove” will hit the people in the Faroe Islands hard. That would, perhaps, be okay if it could make a positive difference. But I’m afraid that it will not make any difference – not for the good anyway.

A Hollywood-like world

I have not seen "The Cove" documentary yet, but I have an impression of it because I've read about it and seen trailers. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that it might be like so many other anti-whaling campaign films - just made made more professionally.

I have, unfortunately, seen too many anti-whaling campaign films using Hollywood‘s narrative techniques to emphasize a particular position – i.e. dramatizing emotionally manipulative effects, typically a set-up with protagonists and antagonists: "the good people" (or "the heroes") against "the evil people” – not giving the other side a chance to argue their position. These films might be excellent pieces of artworks but do not give a fair, accurate or nuanced portrait of reality as it is.

"The Cove” has obviously fascinated a lot of people in the world, and I am sure it is a masterpiece seen from a film narrative perspective. But from experience I’m a little afraid that it's angle might be too unilateral – like in so many other films with the same message. There are so many agitating propaganda-like videos, circulating the net – many about pilot whaling in the Faroe Island – often full of overly dramatized, misunderstood and incorrect claims about the Faroese people and their whaling practice - not focusing on creating understanding between people, but mostly on finding villains or scapegoats to put the blame on for the problems in the world - as if the world were a place of Hollywood fiction.

You can't reason with people who have already made up their minds

It's not that I don't sympathize with people who love animals and want to protect them. I just don’t agree with them when their love turns into so much hatred that it overshadows their sound reasoning.  

To be fair: A few anti-whaling campaigns are fair enough in their claims, but I have experienced that a great deal of these campaigns don't respect facts. They’re very emotional and almost entirely built on non-confirmed rumors – and they don’t acknowledge that there might another just as valid view on the matter. The "other side" is just portrayed as pure evil. Many of the anti-whaling film-clips, YouTube is so full of, are examples of this.

The people who make these films are not interested in listening to the other side. They have made up their mind in advance about people like the Faroese, and they will believe anything they hear that confirms what they already think. They don’t bother to check, if the information they get is right or wrong.

The goal justifies the means... or does it?
So many of the claims in these films or petition campaigns are simply not true. Some of the people behind them – or people that spread and distribute them all over in social media and elsewhere - say that they don’t care about these ‘insignificant details’ because the whale slaughter is cruel and wrong no matter what. They feel that they are in war against animal cruelty. And in a war the goal justifies the means. Even trespassing ethical borders. So it doesn’t matter to them if the claims in these films might not be quite accurate, as long as the films serve the purpose, to help stop whale killing practices.

But I believe that you should never trespass ethical borders, no matter what, because then you become part of the problem yourself. I believe these films in fact do more damage than good because they dig ditches and incite people against each other. Of course they do. Nobody accepts it if other people throw accusations at them based on inaccurate or incorrect rumors accusing them of being brutal beasts. Not the best way to create grounds for listening, I would say….

Postponing instead of accelerating solutions
So it is necessary to get the facts right and to be accurate and truthful. And it is crucial to make an effort to understand why people do what they do – come to the bottom of the matter and not just condemn it as evil acts, even though it might seem so on the surface. People might have reasons to do what they do that you just don’t comprehend…. yet.

I'm afraid that unilateral propaganda is not opening a dialog and promoting understanding both ways – it's just creating enemies and making everyone more fixed and determined that they should hold firmly on to their opinion. Consequently it brings the situation to a standstill instead of clearing the way for dialog and a positive development. It just pushes the goal further ahead and postpones solutions that perhaps could have been reached much earlier if people chose to communicate with each other more respectfully and with a will to find out and understand each other.

A Right To Eat What Is Available

If you are opposed to Faroese food traditions, consequently, you will also have to question if the Faroese even have the right to inhabit their remote islands any more. In fact you will have to question whether any people should live in arctic areas! Because how can people live such places if the rules of metropolitan people should apply?

The people in arctic areas can’t grow vegetables because of the scarce sun and the harsh climate. And they can’t live off the natural resources at hand because people elsewhere don’t want them to maintain their traditional ways of supplying food by hunting. And they can’t import their food because the food transportation pollutes the environment too much. The agricultural products they have to import might also have been produced unsustainably. Also there is no guarantee that the imported meat comes from animals treated more humanely than the whales. … How can these people even live in these areas then…?

Would it be fair to ask the Faroese just to move somewhere else? Where to? Or… should they perhaps be allowed to continue to do what is least damaging to the world’s ecological balance and eat what is available to them locally? But… even that option is ruled out now, because much of the food provided this way has become too polluted. What option is left to them then?

Alienated urban people
The Faroese are quite unhappy and sad about the fact that the old traditional and sustainable ways of utilizing the natural resources at hand are in imminent danger of being exterminated. Increasing centralization and urbanization - with more and more people living in big cities – has alienated humans from their true origin – nature itself.

When people see animals today, they don’t connect them any longer to what’s on their dinner table. Animals are something we have for pets or see on TV or in Zoos. People have very little knowledge of where their food really comes from and how it is processed because they’re not part of that process personally anymore.

People have so little contact now with most animals that the animals have in fact become almost completely alien to them. In order to feel comfortable with animals – and perhaps their own bad consciousness – people have begun to humanize the animals. They project them selves into the animals to identify with them. The mass media and the entertainment industry have "disney'fied" our relation to animals – especially people in urban areas who live relatively protected lives and never have to deal with being directly or personally responsible for providing and killing their own food.

An artificial world
It might be an unpleasant discomforting fact, but it is nonetheless true that most people are meat eaters – and thus in fact predators who need to have animals killed to meet those needs whether they like that fact or not.

But having grown up with Disney's way of portraying animals – not least Flipper in TV and Kelkoo (the Orca) in the cinema - it is difficult to face this truth about ourselves and much easier to displace the facts and just let somebody else do "the dirty work" somewhere where we don't have to watch it happen, so we can forget all about it – forget that every meat eater actually eats sentient beings. You could say: in that sense no meat eater is better than any Faroe Islander - they're just being hypocrites living in an artificial, fake world, as some Faroese would put it.

I think, actually, that the Faroese might have a point there that other people should take into consideration. They don't have to agree with the Faroese – just understand why the Faroese think and behave like they do and that they’re not doing it because they're evil people. They are just doing it, because they live in a place where hunting has been the most natural way of providing food for more than a thousand years - it still is.

Aggressive campaigns make matters worse
Shouting 'bastards', 'murderers', 'nuke'em' and other more or less hateful obscenities at the Faroese as if they are the worst scum of the earth will never make the Faroese understand the campaigners view or make them change their way of thinking.

The ‘tragic irony’ of it all, some would say, is that if the campaigners succeed in their effort to blacklist the Faroese people, getting large crowds of people outside the Faroes – or even countries – to boycott Faroese products or to refrain from traveling to the islands; this will isolate the Faroese people even more, making them less susceptible to other ways of thinking that could change their minds, and it might very likely cause an economic crisis in the Faroes which, consequently, will force the Faroese to continue living off what is at hand in their own environment more extensively – e.g. killing pilot whales... despite of the fact that the meat is contaminated. Simply because they might not have any other option. So maybe it is a much better idea to back off a little and not be so aggressive with the Faroese if one really wants to save the whales… and the Faroese children from contaminated food.

Save the world - not only the whales
We need to stop condemning each other and be more understanding in order to achieve peace and tolerance, which in my view is absolutely essential – and crucial – if we want to find fast and effective solutions to all the extremely serious problems we face in this world – first and foremost pollution and not least the problem of how to provide healthy and sustainable food to the world’s increasing population, wherever they live on the planet. We need to think thoroughly about how we are going to feed the 6-7 billion people on earth in a less polluting and more sustainable way in the future. We really need to focus on and address the problems that are the real threats to everyone's lives – humans as well as animals.

I understand the deep and sincere wish to protect the whales, but if one really wants to protect wildlife and the habitat in which it lives, it is perhaps not the most efficient way to do that by agitating and creating hatred against a very small population of only 48.000 people, which beforehand are relatively isolated, quite vulnerable and just trying to survive in their own way like they've always done, for instance by killing a few pilot whales a year, already very much aware of the problems and on their way to stop eating the contaminated whale meat.

Alas, it is not enough to put all one’s efforts into saving only the whales just by making life intolerable for the whalers. It is much more necessary for more people to put their full effort into stopping pollution and humankind’s damaging behavior to save, not only the whales, but all animals, ourselves and our environment as a whole.

An Old Life Style Near Extinction

The Faroese are in a crisis in these times because a very important part of their meat supply has been declared unfit for human consumption; namely pilot whale meat. Even though they have been warned not to eat pilot whale meat, they are still afraid to give up on the skills of pilot whaling because they’re accustomed to provide food this way. They can’t imagine living without this traditional food. If they stop pilot whaling completely, they will also be much more dependent on expensive imports, which creates other problems - also environmental problems.

Why don't they just stop?
If you were told that it might be hazardous for you to eat something you have always considered normal and have been eating regularly – with pleasure – since childhood, wouldn’t it be difficult for you too to stop eating it?

It’s very common in the world as a whole that people don’t always listen to warnings. Which is why we have so many people literally dying of obesity and heart diseases. It’s not that they don’t know it is unhealthy for them to eat what they eat, the way they do. They’re just used to eat stuff like that in this way. And it is just very difficult to change what you’re accustomed to, even though you might be confronted with the fact that it is ‘wrong’ or even dangerous for you.

When the Faroese heard that they could not eat pilot whale meat anymore, it was just as shocking for them as it would be shocking for most people in the world if they suddenly were told to stop eating burgers - because meat from cattle for some reason would be declared unfit for human consumption. The Faroese are trying to deal with this situation now. But it is not easy. Because what is the alternative…? What should they put on their plates instead?

It would seem a little hypocritical to ask the Faroese to replace whale meat and start importing more industrially produced meat from other animals – maybe treated less humanely than the whales, all considered.

To ask the Faroese just to become vegetarians, for instance, might be difficult, considering that the Faroese can't grow fruits and vegetables, and how expensive it is to buy fruits and vegetables in the Faroes because of the long distance freight costs.

Adapting a new modern life-style
You can grow a few… very few potatoes, some kind of roots and rhubarbs, for instance. But far from enough to cover the population’s need for fruit and vegetables and the essential vitamins that go with them. The Faroese have imported fruit and vegetables at least since the 50’s by freight ships only. The population has doubled since then and this import has slowly increased to quite substantial amounts today.

But the fact is, that it is expensive to buy fruit and vegetables in the Faroes in comparison with much cheaper prices on the European mainland. Furthermore, the Faroese do not get them as fresh as they are in European supermarkets. Until recently it was regarded unfamiliar and strange – and for most some kind of a luxury to eat fruits and vegetables. In recent years, though, prices have come down to a level where most people can afford to buy fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, though it’s still relatively expensive.

It was, until recently, much easier and cheaper to cover the need for proteins and vitamins by eating pilot whale meat – a diet the Faroese are much more accustomed to than eating fruit and vegetables. But people are aware now of the dangers eating contaminated whale meat. Consequently, today most people in the Faroes – especially in the bigger villages and the capital – have gone through some kind of a transition period where people eat more and more fruit and vegetables – adapting to a more European-like life style.

Well, this might be the only alternative for the Faroese now that the whale meat has become too contaminated. But is it really a better solution?

Which life-style is the most destructive?
As I said earlier, all of this food has to be imported and transported over long distances. The food comes in heavily polluting freight vessels that damage the habitat of all living creatures living in and off the ocean – including the whales. This transport contributes severely to the contamination and in fact, in the end, also the extinction of whales and many other animals... So in a way it doesn't solve the problem. It just moves the problem somewhere else.

Many Faroese think that people who care about the whales should rather try to understand who's the real 'sinner' here when it comes to endangering the whales as well as the natural balance in this world – and put their attention and efforts into solving that problem rather than leading hate campaigns against a small number of people in the North Atlantic who are already victims of one of the biggest problems in the world – namely pollution and all the side effects that come with that.

Instead of living off what our close natural environment provides, like the Faroese did for a long time, people of the world – also the Faroese – have become increasingly dependent on the modern world's farm factory food providing systems. These systems are basically built on a heavily polluting agriculture, an extensive not less polluting transport system and a destructive mass industry that utilizes domestic animals, often in a torture-like way, exploits and pollutes nature, exhausts the soil and contaminates meat, including whale meat.

(To know more about this, watch, for instance, the documentary film “Food Inc.” or read, the book: “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer, and you will know what I mean. Watch interviews with the author Foer here and here.)

Old sustainable ways of living near extinction
It is difficult for many Faroese to understand this: What gives people outside the Faroes the right to impose this kind of modern life style onto them? Why should they buy products produced by an industry that is much more dangerous to life on earth than their own survival methods are? Is the modern world’s industrial way of providing food really a better alternative? Is it less cruel? Less dangerous? More life-sustaining? More nature-friendly? Aren't pigs, cattle and chickens cute too? Aren't they also sentient beings? Aren’t some of these animal species as social and intelligent as pilot whales? What is the difference? Why is it more 'natural' and 'humane' to breed and kill these animals in enormous farm factories? Where is the natural boundary to, which animals are okay to exploit and which not?

The Faroese therefore ask: Why should we completely adapt a modern life style, which – seen in the big picture – in fact is much more destructive than our own old ways of living and supplying food were? Is it people like us living in arctic regions who are just trying to live off their surrounding nature respectfully in a sustainable way, keeping nature's balance intact, who are the real threat to the whales – or to the world – here?

The Faroese have – as some of the very few people in the western world – been trying to keep their old ways alive until this day because it is a tradition that in their understanding represents survival in solidarity and a well tested, sustainable and basically much more balanced and more life-sustaining lifestyle with much less impact on the world's ecological balance – at least up until this day if it hadn't been for the pollution.

So they ask: Is it right to condemn people like us more than other people? Why are we made into the scapegoats of the world more so than so many others? Why don't the people of the world boycott Italy also for killing the near extinct tuna and condemn all Italians? (The tuna fish is in fact also an intelligent and a very social animal). Why don't they condemn and boycott all Canadians for killing the seals? Icelanders for the whales, Spaniards for the bullfights? These people might, perhaps, have much less reason to preserve their traditions than the Faroese have. So why is there so much anger directed specifically against the Faroese? This is very difficult for the Faroese to understand.