On Wednesday, Japanese whalers tried to murder five New Zealanders. There is no other way to put it. They ran down a ship many times smaller than theirs in the high seas. It is only luck that the ramming did not sink the Ady Gil. The lives of the crew of the Ady Gil were in great danger*.
The idea that the crew of the Ady Gil purposely got themselves hit by a ship so much bigger than their own in the frigid ships of the Southern Ocean is just ridiculous. That would have been tantamount to attempted suicide and is not backed by the evidence. It is a claim only being put up by people who disagree with the protesters and, for that reason, seem to think that the protesters’ lives are forfeit.
It’s quite clear that National simply doesn’t give a damn about protesters whose causes it doesn’t support. Their attitude is that the protesters should get what is coming to them. Incredibly, Murray McCully just said on the radio that if people try to kill New Zealanders on the high seas, the Government has no duty to try to prevent that. In essence, he said it’s the protesters fault for hassling the whalers.
What a pathetic, pathetic response. Taking the side of the big business whalers rather than the Kiwis they attacked. Worried more about trade relations than Kiwis’ lives. But, that’s this government for you. If you’re not a proponent of business interests, they don’t want to know you. They govern in the interests of the business elite and everyone else can get stuffed.
*Farrar’s comment that there was no danger because the protest vessel Shonan Maru was close by and able to rescue the Ady Gil’s crew if the boat sank would be laughable if it weren’t so stupid. I’d like to see that guy floating in the Southern Ocean waiting to be rescued and then say its no big deal to be overboard in the world’s most hostile ocean.
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