Peter Espeut
IN 1982 in order to get the "three-quarters-plus-one" vote required to place a global moratorium on commercial whaling, anti-whaling nations used a strategy to pack the IWC with countries who voted their way - including some of the eastern Caribbean states! After getting what they wanted, the anti-whaling nations dropped their support. All Japan has done is take over the countries whose votes are for sale (now they vote with Japan), and added more to the list; they call it 'vote consolidation'.
Standard practice seems to be to build fisheries complexes in the political constituencies of the Prime Ministers of the client countries. Atherton Martin, former Dominican Minister of Fisheries, explained how it operated in Dominica: "In the mid-nineties, Japanese aid allowed the construction of a fisheries complex in the constituency held by the then sitting Prime Minister, Hon. Mary Eugenia Charles. Japanese aid for the construction of a second fisheries complex was promised to Prime Minister Edison James in the late nineties [that complex was not built when promised as the James' administration wavered in its support for Japan at the IWC; it was eventually the subject of grant aid in 2002, by which time Dominica was fully realigned with Japan]. Japanese grant aid was then promised to the late Prime Minister Roosevelt Douglas. The facility was to be built in Mr. Douglas' constituency.
NOT FAR REMOVED FROM US
All of this is not far removed from us. Jamaicans need to recall that Japan built a fisheries complex in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, in the constituency of then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. I went to the IWC meeting in 1999 because I had heard that Jamaica was to attend and I wanted to see with my own eyes. The seating sign was there, the pigeonhole was there, but the delegation did not arrive. The (Jamaica) National Council on Oceans and Coastal Zone Management (on which I sit) based in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had ruled the previous week that Jamaica should not attend, and plans quickly had to be aborted.
I am disappointed with how our fellow CARICOM nations are conducting their affairs. Whether you agree with whaling or not, the buying and selling of votes at the IWC or anywhere - by any side - cannot be right.
But there may be real negative consequences for us. We are in the midst of delicate negotiations with the anti-whaling EU concerning our sugar and bananas. Jamaica could be tarred by the broad brush and lose out.
Speaking at a press conference on behalf of the coalition of the 'likeminded' (anti-whaling countries), the Hon. Ben Bradshaw, British Minister of Fisheries, stated that it is not in the best interests of any nation to vote for the killing of whales, especially countries which depend on international tourism. Even Japan, he said - a major exporting country - depends on international trade, and could experience a backlash from consumers if it continues to kill whales.
On March 31 this year, the Japanese food company Nissui - owners of whaling ships and a whale meat cannery - announced that they will divest these assets and exit the whale business. They also own part of 'Sealord Tuna' based in New Zealand and 'Gorton's Seafoods' based in the USA, both of which have been targets of a sharp and successful consumer boycott in New Zealand, the U.S.A. and the U.K. which began last year.
I hope we are not tarred with the same brush when the consumer boycott of tourism in the pro-whaling Caribbean begins.
I hope that Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and Belize are able to persuade the brethren that their pro-whaling stance is neither in their national interest nor ours, and indeed could cost us all dearly in the medium term - maybe sooner than we might think!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
