Moby Dick v2.67

"Facts that are not frankly faced, have a habit of stabbing us in the back."   Harold Bowen. New Zealand has recently accused Japan of  "persuading" minor nations to vote in her favour to make whale hunting legal.  Money for whale meat is NZ's protesting catch cry.  In reality, money for votes might be more appropriate.  Naturally NZ would never stoop so low.  Kiwis are whale lovers and will defend to the death our right to make money from tourists gapping at the splendid mammals cavorting off our coastline.  Our love affair goes back many years.  In fact the first NZ settlers, c1820's,  were whalers who hunted the whales to virtual extinction.  By the 1950's it was all over.  We ran out of whales.  That's when we decided to become whale lovers. The mountainous landscape of Japan means that bulk agriculture is restricted and the Japanese have always relied upon harvesting the oceans to feed themselves.  So do many other island nations.  This seems logical enough.  However, humanely murdering fluffy baa lambs has always been NZ's mainstay.  The catch cry that NZ survives on the sheep's back is quite true.  We avoid starvation scoffing barbecued lamb chops and red wine and Japan utilises whale meat and sake for much the same socially acceptable reasons.  Naturally enough, government taxing food essentials has nothing to do with financing government expenditure.  It is politically distasteful to even think along such lines.  It's just not done in Godzone.  Truth is currently politically incorrect and neglected. Unlike the obviously duplicitous Japanese (they should be hung drawn and quartered), NZ politicians never use tax payer's money immorally.  The Labour Party is not bribing Kiwis by offering financial subsidies to families in exchange for votes in the forthcoming election.  Nor could the National Party offer to lower taxes, be regarded as vulgarism.  The host of minor parties offering this and that financial incentives are equally innocent.  Bribing people with their own money is simply not the Kiwi way. Our politicians are well meaning and inevitably put the citizen first.  Ask them and they will go out of their way to emphasis their undoubted sincerity.  When one considers politicians are incapable of producing money by their own initiative.  Just where does the money they so generously offer in exchange for votes come from?  Pennies from Heaven? The art of political hypocrisy is well developed in a world plagued by ever increasing corruption.  The obvious is never as obvious as it appears.  When Japan tries to feed her people, that's bribery and corruption.  When NZ does the same, that's our politicians looking after their own interests.  Chicanery has nothing to do with the political process.  Only the everyday citizen has the capacity for dishonesty.  The law comes down hard on the sagacious Kiwi who suggests truthfulness is desirable.  Maybe that's why politicians place themselves above the law in parliament? When one tells a lie, the politicians mutter well done.  But when one tells the truth, righteous indignation abounds.  How dare a mere peasant insinuate political impropriety? Incidently, whales are delightful creatures and every home should have one as a pet. Extremely cuddly, they will defend their masters from unwanted impositions.  What more could a ravenous whale lover ask from the amiable giants?