True knowledge is to know the extent of one‘s ignorance.

 

Faroese traditional hunt of Pilot whales is used as propaganda to criticize Denmark and the EU.  If it is not cartoons, it is Pilot whales.   Regrettably, supposedly educated people in Canada and the US and other democracies are joining in and fueling the propaganda. If their concern is the Pilot whales, then the collaboration with the propagandists contradicts its own purpose.  The propagandists may be beyond reasoning. But perhaps people that support them in Canada and elsewhere are not, and this therefore could help them to increase understanding that could help society and the Pilot whales.  Faroe Islands is a Danish jurisdiction but self governed, located in the North Atlantic roughly between, Norway and Iceland, not all seem to know. 

 

Needless to say, the Faroe Islands is a modern society and there are no food shortages, hence the Pilot whale hunt is not essential for the island’s economy. It is hard to find a more humanistic society than Denmark and few Danes if any condone the Faeroe’s hunt of Pilot whales. 

 

However, the government of Denmark and the Danes also respect that the hunt of the Pilot whales is a part of the Faroese customs and traditions that dates back 1200 years or more.  Most Danes also know that it is not the Faroese hunt that endangers the Pilot whales existence. The danger to the Pilot whales, like many other marine species existence, is humans’ contamination of the Ocean.   Hence, people in Canada and other consumption driven polluting economies don’t need to worry.   The hunt of the whales will fade away, not because of the Faroese plus 1200 years of hunting traditions.  But because human’s pollution of the ocean is poisoning the whales that then becomes unusable for human consumption, which likely, would stop the hunt,  but also slowly extinct the Pilot whales together with other marine life.    

 

By the way, in Canada, seals are clubbed every year and pigs and cows killed by the thousands everyday.  He who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones.  It is not the Faroese 1200 years of hunting traditions that is a threat to the Pilot whales, the threat is ignorance and hypocrites.   

 

 

Westbank February 16, 2009

 

Kell Petersen