Monday, August 20, 2012

Dear Anonymous Australia and everyone else

Well, this really takes the biscuit!

This morning a number of Faroese websites were hacked by some people who call themselves Anonymous Australia in an attempt to harm the Faroese because of their pilot whaling practice. Now these people are threatening to do the same to a number of Faroese people and institutions - here: http://pastebin.com/aaPp5XKK - at least that is how I understand this claim: "To those who support killing whales we only have one thing to say, expect us". Subsequently, they've put up a long list of names (including mine!) whom this warning, allegedly, is addressed to.

Once again I've been named an "advocate" of the pilot whaling...! (The first time was by Capt. Paul Watson on the SSCS site. In fact he called me an "APOSTLE" of whaling....!) My goodness! And thus I'm an enemy of ... well, who? They are anonymous ... and if I get them right, they say that I can count on being the target of their hacker attacks.

I must say, I am completely baffled.

For everyone with an open and non-judgmental mind, who bothers to read what I've really written on this blog and elsewhere about the issue of pilot whaling, it should be totally obvious that I first and foremost have tried to create understanding both ways.

I have advocated for establishing dialogue between those who oppose each other in this matter and not be so judgmental. And I have defended the Faroese against arbitrary attacks.

I have never said that I supported pilot whaling unconditionally. On the contrary. I myself have advocated – mostly in articles written in Faroese to the Faroese public – for stopping the killing, IF it is not possible to continue this tradition on a sustainable and non-commercial basis. I have also urged people to take the health warnings seriously, and asked the Faroese authorities to issue stricter rules in regard to the pilot whale killings.

I have also pointed out, that as long as the health authorities in the Faroe Islands still claim, based on scientific research, that it is within safe limits to eat a certain amount of pilot whale meat and blubber, many Faroese have a hard time understanding why they should stop eating food they have been used to eating for more than a thousand years.

What I'm trying to do is to help outsiders understand the way many Faroese people think about this. The Faroese are not driven to do this because they are "evil" or "bloodthirsty" - or what ever bad things people might call them - not any more so than any other meat eaters and butchers in this world. As long as outsiders believe that the Faroese are somehow only killing pilot whales as some kind of "sick fun" just to be cruel, you will never reach the Faroese and make them understand YOU, because these assumptions about the Faroese are simply not true – and not fair.

You can only win this "war" with reasonable arguments and scientific facts. Only that way you might be able to convince people in the Faroes that you are right. NOT by name-calling, threats, hate-speech, attacks and hacking. All this has been tried for more than 30 years now, and with no result. It will only postpone a solution. It might take some time to reach mutual understanding, but the respectful way is the only way.

This world is insane enough as it is. Please, check your facts, be a good example to the Faroese and let reason prevail.


14 comments:

  1. As always, Elin, you present a calm rational viewpoint.

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  2. hetta hevur kanska tín áhuga
    http://pastebin.com/Z6KN6aYh

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  3. People who know Elin and people who are able to read both English AND Faroese also know that the above is the truth about her activities.

    However, as history has witnessed many a time before, when a public opinion has been created “out there” and a stronger and larger group decides to persecute a weaker party for whichever reason, then it is hardly possible to create any sort of communication or dialogue in order to reach a mutual understanding. The reason is simply because there is no interest in the complex truth. The enraged public wants scapegoats and enemies against whom to direct their anger – a wrath which in fact has arisen for reasons that are completely unlinked with their present target.

    To manage this utterly illogical change of focus area they need a simplified picture, a created “truth”, exaggerations and an absurd demonizing of the other party. Up against such mechanisms the hope of dialogue is a mere shade.

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  4. Here in the USA both farms and meat processing plants are under similar attacks from similar groups including doctored videos that certainly make city people who think meat grows in little plastic covered packages that everyone who raises animals for meat consumption and everyone who works in plants that turn that meat on feet into meat in packages are barbaric and love to torture animals.
    Our waters have been abused to the point that everywhere you find heavy metals turning up. The pilot whales and the fish in the Mississippi River and Illinois river are just some.
    Paul Watson is, in my personal opinion, a media seeking terrorist who has many convinced he is the good guy. He is not about protecting anything except his fun that others are paying for.

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  5. A follow-up, Elin:

    [ http://www.yardyyardyyardy.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/doktorbass-right-medicine.html ]

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  6. A further follow-up, Elin. It looks as if your antagonist may have "shot himself in the foot"!

    [ http://yardyyardyyardy.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/the-demise-of-doktorbass.html ]

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  7. Two months on, the question is, have they actually done anything?

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  8. Hi I'm Cynthia from a small Asia country
    I don't really believe the research by the scienctist that says the population of whales are growing and sustainable (who knows they might be bought over by some fishery companies!
    I only believe in logic.
    You cannot count their numbers in a great ocean in comparison to cows, sheepskin, chicken, pigs (animals that lives on land or rear by farmers are easier to count with more accuracy) don't you agree?


    You also can't compare them to fishes as they are mammal just like elephants and their gestation period is longer than human (elephant took 22 months- the bigger the mammal the longer is their gestational proof and pilot whales are bigger than human). Don't you agree? If the killing rate is faster than their reproduction rate which would definitely lead to decline isn't it?


    You also cannot compare them to chicken and pigs as chicken lays an egg everyday and piglets give a dozen or more every year (hence their reproduction rate is very much higher than whales) don't you agree?


    Furthermore when farmers slaughter the pigs and chicken or cows and Sherpa they do not slaughter the entire clan (their young are allow to grow and reproduce before they meet their maker) but killing of the pilot whales is the whole pod including their young hence the entire clan how can they reproduce? Don't you agree?

    There are many many more reason on why you should not kill these beautiful creature.


    It's human to err. If our ancestor committed a mistake in the past we shouldn't continue the wrong (just because it's tradition) and jeopardized our future generation.


    With all above mentioned don't you agree it's time to stop killing these whales and dolphine?

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  9. greetings from Indonesia. good blog. nice to visit this blog.
    thank you.

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