Freaking Out Bob Carr and Drinking Nudies

Gosh, I'm a natural with politicians. I attended the Voiceless Awards night at The Mint last week. All the usual suspects were there - Malcolm Caulfield, Katrina Sharman, Angela Radich, Stephen Lee, Rasha Skybey, John Mancy, Nick Patrick, Brian Sherman, Ondine Sherman and Maryland Wilson. The tight-knit group that is the Australian animal rights law community, and some of my favourite people. We stood around before the awards bit kicked off, drinking Nudies and chatting about live exports and kangaroo culling. You know, normal party conversation.

Hugo Weaving is the Voiceless spokesperson/mascot, so he hung around looking unshaven and famous and discharged his duties by shaking hands with the awards recipients.

After the awards were handed out Bob Carr launched the new Voiceless report From Nest to Nugget. His speech was impressive and he spoke of the 'killer facts' in the report that ultimately win the animal rights debate. Some time after that I was waiting outside for MBH to pick me up when Bob Carr sauntered outside to wait for his driver. I said 'Good speech Bob' but I didn't expect him to come over and strike up a conversation. Unfortunately, I immediately developed a bad case of blathermouth and said many, many irrelevant, embarrassing and downright weirdy things. He looked deeply relieved when his carr (geddit?) arrived and he sprinted into it and off into the night.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Fundraiser

MBH and I attended the Sea Shepherd fundraiser at the Argyle Hotel last night. We were drawn by the promise of hearing the great man, Captain Paul Watson, speak of his experiences protecting marine life since the late 1960's. Cpt. Watson was one of the founding members of Greenpeace, although he now criticises the organisation for wasting money on advertising campaigns and trying to get more money, and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) in 1977. All Sea Shepherd funding is used directly to protect marine life.

The mission statement of the SSCS is to "end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations."

Sea Shepherd's operations are expensive, hence the fundraising event. It costs $13,000 per day to run an anti-whaling boat, even though the boats are crewed by volunteers. Years ago they had trouble attracting volunteers but now they receive more than 500 applications from volunteer crew members for each mission. I guess I'm not the only one to fantasise about running away to join Sea Shepherd and become an "eco-terrorist".

Cpt. Watson emphasised in his speech that despite media hyperbole to the contrary, the SSCS are an organisation that advocates non-violent intervention. I was talking to a friend about this issue today. He had heard that Sea Shepherd was responsible for pouring acid on the deck of a whaling ship, which apparently was widely reported by the media. What they did do was lob spoiled butter (aka butyric acid) onto the deck, which causes it to become slippery and therefore difficult to walk on.

Cpt. Watson spoke eloquently and compassionately about his decades of work protecting whales, sharks and seals. He spoke of the cries of pain made by a whale when it is harpooned. He also spoke of the moment of profound understanding he shared with a male sperm whale that was harpooned in the skull as it breached the water to protect a female from the same pod who had also been harpooned.

There is a wealth of fascinating information on the Sea Shepherd website, including the fact that a sperm whale's brain size is 9000 cubic centimetres (the largest on the planet), much bigger than the human brain at a pathetic 1300 cubic centimetres. 

Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part I

Are bumper stickers a window into the soul? I like to imagine the type of person that belongs to a particular bumper sticker, and why they chose to say that particular thing about themselves and/or their interests for the world to see. Stickers like 'I fish and I vote' don't tend to arouse too much interest, nor the ubiquitous 'Your Rights At Work' campaign stickers. They are simply too common and too broad. Unions and lobby groups send those kind out and sometimes the members use them. End of story from my perspective. Although, I still remember the time I saw an Energy Australia car parked in Centennial Park sporting a sticker reading 'I Work and I Vote', which was nicely counterpointed by the 'worker' sleeping soundly within the vehicle. As one of my friends said, 'I Nap And I Vote' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Another time I was stopped behind a van in traffic and noticed with mounting delight a full array of animal rights bumper stickers pretty much all over the back doors and window of the van. First I saw an Animals Australia sticker: 'Live Export: Indefensible' and Animal Lib's 'Ban Battery Cages' and the Animal Lib logo sticker, plus lots more that I am well acquainted with along the meat-is-murder lines and the oft-seen Greenpeace sticker. When the lights changed I attempted to drive up next to their passenger window so I could offer some acknowledgement of kinship. I don't really know what I was going to do, and I was spared the decision when they turned right ahead of me and out of my life.

Other bumper stickers grab my attention for entirely different reasons. The picture, above, illustrates a perfect example of that 'other' kind of bumper sticker. The kind that makes me feel that if I met the owner of sticker at a dinner party it would be a decidedly uncomfortable situation. There might even be tension and hostility if alcohol had already sufficiently disinhibited us before we met. Having said that, I'd love to meet the owner of this particular bumper sticker. The sticker's savage poetry intrigued me. When I first saw it I even wondered where such a thing could be bought!

I've never quite had the brass monkeys to put a bumper sticker on my own vehicle. The boring reason is they cause uneven fading on the duco and the more convincing one is the thought that everyone will think I'm a maddie. And who could possibly stop at one sticker? All too hard, which is why my ride has always been sans sticker.