Tags for this video have been changed from 'cove, taiji, japan, dolphin, whale, ric' to 'beeb, bob, banned' - edited by paul4dirt

I can't stand the Sea Shepherd Society/Paul Watson and I hate Whale Wars. Why? Because the Sea Shepherd Society is actually hurting their own cause and Whale Wars is glorifying it.

Let me explain. I lived in Japan for eight years and I saw that every time the Japanese whaling fleet was attacked by the Paul Watson's group sales of whale meat went up in Japan and the resolve to continue hunting strengthened. The sales of whale meat has been falling for years in Japan, to the point now where there is over 1000 tons of frozen whale meat, some of it going back 12 years, in government freezers. The government can't give it away, but they try. If this trend continues it just won't be financially viable for Japan to continue whaling.

I taught at a university in Japan and I would ask my students if they eat and/or like whale meat. The vast majority of my students (90%+) said they didn't eat whale meat (however almost all of them had eaten whale meat at some point, usually served to them in their elementary school lunches, of course provided by the government). Almost the same number said they didn't like whale meat. Then I would usually give them the above statistic and ask if Japan should continue whaling, again a big majority would say "No". However, when stories about the Sea Shepherd Society attacking Japanese whalers hit the news (and it hit BIG TIME), attitudes would change. Then most of my students would say Japan should continue whaling. This was not just found in a university setting either. Editorials and opinion letters to newspapers would echo the same feelings.

In direct response to the Sea Shepherd's attacks on Japanese whaling ships supermarkets, restaurants, street vendors, etc. would suddenly begin carrying whale meat. More schools would serve it in their lunches (kids don't get a choice of what they can eat at school, one meal for everyone), and a restaurant in Osaka made headline news when they began to sell 'whale burgers'. There was a line around the block for those burgers and many of the people in the line made it clear that they were there as a giant 'fuck you' to the Sea Shepherd Society for attacking the Japanese whaling fleet.

As I said above Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Society are hurting their own cause. What they need to do is put more effort into better information campaigns within Japan. Record and photograph what's going on then use Japanese bloggers and YouTube to get the info out there. This worked very well when the Sea Shepherd Society and others documented the Taiji Dolphin Hunt:
http://www.seashepherd.org.uk/taiji/taiji_sscs_in_taiji.html
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Many people in Japan were shocked to find out that Dolphins were being hunted by Japanese, and the hunt now gets regular news coverage in Japan which has led to Japanese themselves protesting.

Pacifism has been so ingrained in the Japanese people since the end of WWII that using even mild violence to get what you want will assuredly turn the average Japanese person against you and whatever cause you are promoting, even if the cause is a 'good' one.

This fight will be won only if the Japanese people can be turned against whaling and make it too expensive for the Japanese government to continue to fund the whaling fleets, it won't be won by using the tactics of the Sea Shepherd Society.

Sorry for the long rant, but you can probably tell that I feel strongly about it.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'The Cove Sundance Film Exposes Japanese Dolphin Slaughter Grisly Footage' to 'documentary, dolphin, taiji, japan, activist, fish, fishing, whaling, whales' - edited by SlipperyPete

Looks like there was a typo in the embed, but nothing malicious. I removed it so it should be okay now. Thanks for reporting.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Can you take a look at the embed for http://www.videosift.com/video/Taiji-Chen-Style
Something is weird. It tries to install a plugin on IE, Chrome and Opera.

Can you take a look at the embed for http://www.videosift.com/video/Taiji-Chen-Style
Something is weird. It tries to install a plugin on IE, Chrome and Opera.

No harm in an academic interest, as you say, in hitting people, as long as you're up front about it. I've always had more of an interest in grappling than the other aspects of martial arts, myself. San shou has always looked cool to me, though, I would like to compete in it some day.

I used to fence Olympic-style, years ago, but I know that's very different as a sport from the more combative historical fencing. What's taiji sword like? Do you guys do mostly forms, or do you gear up and bang?

In reply to this comment by lavoll:
no i don't have much time for training. what i mostly do, is that i train (and instruct) in taijiquan. the club also has a sanshou team, so i have done a tiny bit of that, but i feel that when it comes to actually being hit and hitting someone, my interest is more academic. hehe. i am too old, and i need all my fingers alive for my job (as a composer, at the piano).
i also did 2-3 years(?) of aikido, and then some medieval european fencing with sword and buckler... and fencing is actually what i miss the most so when i get the time again, i think i want to start training more fencing and taiji sword as well.

no i don't have much time for training. what i mostly do, is that i train (and instruct) in taijiquan. the club also has a sanshou team, so i have done a tiny bit of that, but i feel that when it comes to actually being hit and hitting someone, my interest is more academic. hehe. i am too old, and i need all my fingers alive for my job (as a composer, at the piano).
i also did 2-3 years(?) of aikido, and then some medieval european fencing with sword and buckler... and fencing is actually what i miss the most so when i get the time again, i think i want to start training more fencing and taiji sword as well.

In reply to this comment by rembar:
From order of most to least experience, for unarmed martial arts:
Brazilian jiu-jitsu / Submission grappling
Judo
Boxing
Muay Thai
Kickboxing
Wrestling

By this, I mean I'm a lazy sub grappler, a shitty striker, and an even worse standup grappler. Hahah, but I still love doing it.

I have also trained krav maga, wing chun, hung gar kung fu, and aikido for varying amounts of time, but I don't consider them "arts I know" for various reasons. I remember you sifted that old-school GJJ vid, do you train BJJ or something?

In reply to this comment by lavoll:
upvote for rembars comments. but now i have to ask, what art(s) do you do know, rembar?