Commercial whaling coming back soon?

Nice substantive article in the Independent which distinguishes itself by covering the most important issues behind the current dramatic Antarctic confrontation between on the whales' side: one of Greenpeace's founders, Paul Watson on Sea Shepherd's Farley Mowat and two Greenpeace ships (one of them a speed demon capable of dogging the fast Japanese ship and boats) and,
on the side of killing whales for food: the Japanese factory ship and harpoon boats. Kudos to the Independent for revealing the high stakes behind the confrontation and the upcoming whaling commission vote this spring.

Also on the environmental reversal-of-history front, a friend in Bangkok informs me that the Prime Minister of Thailand is promoting an exotic animal zoo in his home district with giraffes,zebras and crocodiles from Kenya on view and on the menu in several restaurants. I wonder if the Hon. Prime Minister has seen The Freshman, a 1990 comedy with Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick, a film, for which, ironically I knew someone whose employer at the time in Toronto, a large pet shop, supplied an exotic lizard to play a starring role as the main course in a FICTIONAL millionaires' endangered species banquet. No animals were harmed int he making of THIS movie. I hope that the Thai, Kenyan and world environmental groups succeed in convincing the Hon. Prime Minister that any real project also must prove that no exotic animals were killed, consumed or harmed if Thailand is to remain a favored trade and tourism partner of people of good will around the world.