For those of you who want to watch “The Cove”, here is a 15 minute excerpt on vimeo. (In English, with Japanese subtitles)
It’s terrible, and at the same time it makes me think about how any industry that involves the killing of animals on a large scale is usually equally bloody. I mean, dolphins are known to be particularly sensitive and intelligent mammals, which makes this particularly inexcusable, but this type of violence is probably present in many many other contexts. (In this case, after watching it, it made me glad to be vegetarian. I signed the petition, passed it on to friends to watch)
This question of “what does one do?” is one that continually haunts me. There is so much that goes on a local and global scale that it’s just really daunting at time where to start. This year I was part of a local protest against the building of a high-speed rail that would raze a village down, doing satygrha walks. I think it was my first real piece of civil disobedience, and it opened the door to me thinking about the extent in which I was ready to challenge the powers that be for a particular cause.
At times I feel that I’m not doing enough; but the least I can do, I think, is to remain conscious, and try to live in a way that is ethical. Sometimes I think the most radical things are not even the protests or violent action, but the ones that demand a lifestyle change.
I asked this question a while ago on ‘how far would you go’, and would you ever consider using violence in protests… perhaps this may be of interest.