Michael started out on the grass, but it didn't last long.
Hmm, somehow I don't think this was part of the course. Anyone see that Seinfeld episode with the golf ball and the whale?...
Ronan found some sand to play in too.Good thing these two don't take the game too seriously.
Meanwhile, I ran across an article reporting on a sting a couple of UK reporters did to catch countries in the act of accepting bribes for votes related to whaling. In this case, the undercover reporters offered bribes NOT to vote for whaling. The idea was to 1) see if the country reps would take the bribes; 2) get them to admit they accepted bribes from Japan during the last vote; and 3) see if they were in negotiations to accept Japan's bribes this time around. Of course, St. Kitts was one of the countries who got nabbed - on tape.
The end result was a resounding yes to all 3 questions. Is anyone really surprised? I mean, St. Kitts had already started a new fisheries building in Nevis with the expectations of the Japanese handout after this week's vote. It was obvious that St. Kitts was going to vote with Japan despite the fact that now St. Kitts officials weren't so sure the whales were eating all the local fish (maybe we didn't really have that many whales) and was a little ticked off that Japan didn't seem to care about all the flack this island was taking from tourists who didn't like St. Kitts' stance on whaling. Huh - I was more surprised the guy had noticed any such backlash (keep it coming guys).
Is it even possible to become a politician and not be corrupt? Anywhere?
And do we really need to wonder now why Japan (#2) is ahead of St. Kitts (#3) and 128 other countries in national debt? Because they're paying everyone off so that 5% of their population (and a bunch of rich people worldwide) can eat whale sashimi. Which leads me to another question - why is it that as people become richer they seem to become less moral? All of a sudden they could care less about the environment - they have huge houses sucking up tons of resources; fly their private jets everywhere, buy several cars that have the lowest mpg available, etc. They eat the most disgusting and "wrong" foods they can find from rare caviar, to monkey brains, to whale meat, to shark fin soup, to foie gras. They have to wear exotic animals in the form of fur coats to reptile bags/shoes and maybe even buy wild animals to keep in cages. They buy products made of elicit materials like ivory, tiger skin, whale bones, etc. and don't give a crap how the stuff was obtained or how much suffering the animal went through so they could have it. What is the point of this do you think? Well, if anyone rich out there is reading this, how about putting your money to better use by bribing the St. Kitts government (and others) not to allow increased whaling. Throw in some female "masseuses" and you've got a sure thing. What do you get in return? How about a conscience?
