Tag Archives: Palau

Cool Runnings vs selling out the whales

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Forget putting together a Winter Olympic delegation to tap into your nationality’s PR budget, the real money is in the International Whaling Commission. Right now Japan is showering aid to nations willing to enroll in the IWC, to help Japan overturn the whaling moratorium. The IWC convenes a special session tomorrow in Florida and Greenpeace reports the whales have just lost the majority.

Of great concern is that the US and New Zealand appear to want to switch sides, despite Candidate Obama’s pledge to support the whaling moratorium.

The traditional pro-whaling nations of Japan, Norway, Iceland, Peru and Russia have allied with land-locked entities to vote to resume whaling. Mali and Mongolia are among recent recruits. Other aid recipients include Antigua, Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St Kitts, and the Solomon Islands.

Anti-whaling leader Australia is joined by Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Switzerland and San Marino.

Other members include Argentina, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Kiribati, Laos, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palau, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, United Kingdom and Uruguay.

If your nation isn’t on the list, contact your state department. Forget assembling a tropical bobsled team, you’ll be able to pay your own way to Sochi, because the big money is in killing whales.

NY Times perfumes the 18th UN condemnation of Cuban Embargo

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Does this seem like an appropriate headline to you? US EMBARGO ON CUBA FINDS SCANT SUPPORT AT U.N. –that’s how the NYT titled its article whose first sentence was accurate: “The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn the American trade embargo against Cuba.” Then the NYT dismissed the non-binding resolution as “an annual ritual” instead of the 18TH YEAR IN A ROW the US finds itself in defiance of a unanimous count of the community of nations.
 
You say 187 vs 3 is not unanimous? The only nation-entities voting with the US were Israel and Palau, with the Marshall Island and Micronesia abstaining — basically all former or quasi US territories. American NYT readers are made to think their country stands as lone vanguard against the Cuban peril, instead of a gang leader bully breaking international law. And get a load of the Zionist paper’s other headline: From Iraq, Lessons for the Next War.