Japanese Fishing Village from “The Cove” Begs, “Please Don’t Hate Us Just Cause We Kill Dolphins”
The documentary The Cove has opened a lot of eyes to the dolphin slaughter practiced in the Japanese village of Taiji – and now that the film has won an Oscar it is sure to open even more eyes, causing even more scorn and derision to rain down upon Taiji’s residents. Hoping to stem the tide of negativity sure to come, the mayor of Taiji is asking the world not to judge him and his people simply on what is depicted in the film, arguing, “[it is] important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories.” Sorry mayor, but there’s something even more important than your dolphin-murdering regional food culture: the feelings of Academy voters. Seeing all those dolphins killed in that movie made them feel bad, and now they will do everything they can to make sure the world understands how evil they think your people are. That “respecting and understanding regional cultures” stuff only flies when said regional cultures don’t engage in practices that make us sick. Academy voters would rush to defend you if you if you were, say, being threatened by loggers or oil men, or if there were some more-powerful group of people oppressing you…but the dolphin thing, no fricking way. Flipper mass-murder is just plain wrong.
Filed Under: Features
