tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14920606293896474312024-03-13T07:04:11.355-07:00Whale Like MeThe Film: Whale like me is a journey to the heart of the Japanese whaling issue by an African Australian conservationist and his Japanese pro-whaling friend.
The Campaign: to promote mutually beneficial, ethical interactions between humans and cetaceans, and between conservationists and whalers.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-18805120270061451932012-03-17T23:35:00.010-07:002012-03-18T00:23:54.212-07:00Origins<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ryMPZPtHNfE/T2WLAzMJd5I/AAAAAAAAAHo/rA2wtfxFbws/s1600/takinginTR.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ryMPZPtHNfE/T2WLAzMJd5I/AAAAAAAAAHo/rA2wtfxFbws/s400/takinginTR.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721131747501504402" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal">There is a house in Mississippi that is deeply connected to my past. </p><p class="MsoNormal">The longer I walk down the path of discovering who and what whales are, the more convinced I am that they can provide us with a greater understanding of who we are, where we came from, and new and beneficial ways to invent our future.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This gradual appreciation from my work with whales triggered the need to better understand my own origins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My mother had told me about Travelers Rest, the plantation where her father, Richard Wright, was born in 1908.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His grand father was a slave on that plantation, and the family stayed on as share croppers, as far as I understand, after slavery ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That is how baby Richard came to enter this world on that plantation, and went on to rock the world with his autobiographical story Black Boy – most people’s first genuine notion of what it was really like to grow up and become a black man in a deeply racist, exploitative and intellectually stagnant environment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I sometimes thought about Travelers Rest the way people tend to think about making a family tree… a passing curiosity with very little to connect it with the more pressing concerns and interests of the moment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But Whale Like Me changed this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In strange and synergistic ways that all came to spell the same message: the time had come to find Travelers Rest.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The first connection came from a dim but growing awareness that the aspect of whales that resonates so strongly in me is that, though they possess the characteristics of persons: self-awareness, complex and subtle social behavior, culture, abstract thought, etc… they are not recognized or treated as persons by human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their official place in our system remains that of a resource, to be exploited in various ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yes, conserved and protected to a certain extent, but not in a way that recognizes their actual nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The protection we confer to them is of the kind we might extend to a possession, rather than to a person.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When the awareness bloomed into its full picture: I saw as clear as day that because many of my own ancestors had been treated in this way, an unconscious bond with whales existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unconscious until that moment.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Not only the Africans taken from West Africa to become slaves in the Southern states of the USA, ancestors through my mother’s father… but my father’s ancestors, Africans who endured the colonial era in West Africa; my mother’s mother’s family, Polish Jews who endured the Holocaust; and my grandfather’s grandmother’s family, Native Americans who endured the theft of their land and the eradication of their culture.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If slavery had not been abolished, what would my life be like today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To who do I owe the chance I have been given at a relatively charmed existence complete with freedom, food, respect, a roof over my head, education?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Complete with rights and the inherent recognition of my personhood: the value of my individual essence as a valuable component of the greater society?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The answer can be a long one if we were to trace the thousand – perhaps millions – of people of all colors and creeds who in various ways helped weigh against slavery and segregation. Even longer should we include all those who saved their families from, and fought and resisted against Nazi Germany. Even longer if we consider those Native Americans who found ways to survive in the New World forced upon them, and the people who extended a hand of friendship to them.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There is a shorter, more direct answer if we remain focused on the heritage I identify most with and the core elements of that thread: my grandfather, and before him the people who started the process that culminated in recognizing the personhood and rights of Africans in the USA. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Abolition has its roots in a philosophical question: one that might sound quaint to us today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The question was: do Africans have souls?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The people who questioned the ‘common sense’ of the time started a ball rolling that has culminated in the relatively enlightened state of play today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I owe those thinkers a debt of recognition for their forward thinking and the courage to speak out against the absurd 'wisdom' of their times.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">More personally, I owe my grandfather the legacy of education, truth-seeking, and risk-taking in pursuit of that truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These things were more important than anything to him, and made him one of the most celebrated American authors of all time, at home and overseas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His words have profoundly affected the history of his country, and the lives of countless people for whom his experience resonated strongly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The moment I fully realized the connection between my curiosity about whales and my own family history was a moment of powerful gratitude, to all my ancestors, and all the truth-seekers who helped my ancestors survive their trials… and in the same moment, I knew this was something that had to be paid forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I had to follow in the footsteps of those to whom I owe so much, and give to another that which had been given to me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today, the modern equivalent of the question “do Africans have souls?” is “are whales persons?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is the same question about the essence of beings that are very different, and yet essentially the same as us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is the same attempt to properly define the relationship with that Other, as we begin to see the reflection of our own essence in its existence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Realizing this threw a sudden and compelling perspective on my journey into the world of cetaceans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Everything fell sharply into focus and from that point on, I no longer felt like I was wandering blindly, following clues towards who knows what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The end result remained unknowable, but the path itself had become reassuring and familiar – as the road home from somewhere new does, when the first moments of recognition set in.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So naturally the plantation, where my ancestors had been slaves, jumped from being a passing curiosity to a central piece of the puzzle I was grappling with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then there was the plantation’s name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Travelers Rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">During the production of Whale Like Me, I have been around the world four times, spread my life over three continents, taken so many stratosphere-polluting flights that making the film a game-changer has become a question of karmic balancing just to offset the harm my flying has done. I’ve gone a fair distance towards learning Japanese, spoken and written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Due to budgetary constraints I’ve performed the jobs of nine people at various times, and depending on the size of the actual crew at any given time, on average the jobs of four people simultaneously, for the past 3 years – always ensuring that the end-result met a required standard of quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And this not only without pay but while draining my own financial resources relentlessly and to breaking point, to make things happen, supplementing the generous but sporadic support of others. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The growing sense that the result of these efforts will be well worth it all cannot create energy and resources indefinitely – there comes a time when the tank really is empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">By the time I reached Traveler’s Rest three years after starting production on Whale Like Me, I was running on the last fumes available to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Would I find relief there?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hoit7EaxDk0/T2WLRLxRcJI/AAAAAAAAAH0/cNL8d8lF9JI/s1600/approachingTR.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hoit7EaxDk0/T2WLRLxRcJI/AAAAAAAAAH0/cNL8d8lF9JI/s320/approachingTR.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721132028977574034" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Locating Travelers Rest was a quest in and of itself, and with only 24 hours to spend in Mississippi and no map to the place, the success in finding it ultimately sprung from synchronicities I cannot begin to explain.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Accompanied by M, a dear friend who had recently lost her mother, and J, a cameraman referred to me at the last minute during the couple of days I had in Atlanta before heading south – we drove slowly around the long, circular driveway to the front of the plantation house.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For more, best wait to see the film.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-65975883751365052842011-11-12T02:56:00.000-08:002011-11-12T05:24:23.031-08:00The Desert<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oHSywbeOah4/Tr5Vc9y0UUI/AAAAAAAAAFo/wDkvttH5y3o/s1600/desertConclusion_screenGrab.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oHSywbeOah4/Tr5Vc9y0UUI/AAAAAAAAAFo/wDkvttH5y3o/s400/desertConclusion_screenGrab.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674066536645808450" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A huge thank you to everyone who cheered me on, and contributed to the desert run fundraiser.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The run is over of course, but we’re leaving the fundraiser page up for a while longer in case anyone wants <a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/WhaleLikeMe/saharadesertrun">to contribute after the fact.</a> <p class="MsoNormal">The Sahara was beyond beautiful, and punishing in the extreme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t suppose it is really possible to imagine what such a run will be like until the experience arrives – likewise, it might be pointless to try to describe it, but I can try.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The terrain varied from hard packed dirt, to hard packed sand, to varying textures and composition of sand, soft and hard, as we progressed into the desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The dunes, when we reached them, were majestic and sensual in their shape against the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Depending on the place and angle to the blue above, the yellow sand took on tinges of green, pink, white, greys and blue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They offered no shade but their mere presence was refreshing compared to stretches of endless flat.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In many places, 40 million year old fossilized shells carpeted the sand under foot.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And of course there was the heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Everyone tried to cover as much ground before the heat really got going around 10am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For the better athletes, this was almost enough time to finish the entire distance for the day (between 38 and 43 kilometers). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This meant that on top of their physical advantage, they escaped most of the biggest hardship of the event – the crippling heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For the others (me included), the days invariably turned into a crawl through the swelter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Typically 42 or 43 degrees Celsius, without a cloud in the sky or any landscape features to seek shelter under – it was just us, our packs, and the furnace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Regular sips of water and electrolytes were the only weapon against dangerous dehydration.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">On that front, I did really well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Constant sipping allowed me to stay on par with the rate at which water and minerals were vaporizing from my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many times I felt light headed and a little nauseous but the scales never tipped beyond return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Others were not so lucky and had to receive IV fluids after fits of vomiting and collapse.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I only made it part way through day 3 of 7, however.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My weakness turned out to be my knees: by mid afternoon of day two, they were in agony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The right knee screamed upon impact with the ground, but the left one suffered the opposite problem and burned during the lifting of the right foot.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">One finds ways of negotiating with the pain: a rhythm and manner that works around the injuries to an extent - but the problem is these strategies are highly dependent on the terrain in order to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In most places, the resistance of the sand was unpredictable: what looked like a firm area could easily cave in, and what appeared soft could often be much firmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The pain management postures would backfire horribly upon such misjudgments – and anticipation of such mistakes made every step a roll of the dice.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">By the time the sun was getting low in the sky of day two, I had started chanting a spontaneous, wordless song, much like the songs my Choctaw Native American ancestors may have sung.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The tones created continuity for my mind to support itself with. The willing of the sound aided the willing of the forward motion, and gave a sort of timeless context to the pain, softening its jagged edges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would not have been capable of imagining how this could possibly help before the moment I started the hum and song, and before that moment, I had no idea I was going to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The sound gave birth to itself as an answer to the hardship, and the hardship welcomed it and responded positively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I really had little to do with it – I was a kind of bemused middleman, mediating the conversation between pain and song.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I arrived into camp perhaps half an hour before cut off time that evening, but without a watch, I couldn’t know I was going to make it: the twilight dumped adrenaline into me and my 2-3 km/h limp turned into a semi-run for the last stretch, which happened to be the scaling of an immense, soft dune, followed by an equally big descent and a succession of smaller dunes on up to the finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Adrenaline masks the pain for a moment, but the damage to already injured tissue is still happening whether it is felt or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Once in the tent, I lay down and when I finally realized food was necessary before sleep, getting to my feet again was almost impossible.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I saw others limping around the camp that evening and imagined that like me, they were hoping for a miracle to happen during the night: to wake up reconstituted and pain-free.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is amazing what the human body can do with a night’s sleep but there are limits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was able to stand easily enough the next morning, but the pain was still very much present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So I continued to hope that somehow, I would find a way to negotiate with my poor condition: some new posture and gait that had eluded me the day before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The desert progressed into full-blown dunes that morning: magnificent contours etched with light and shadow by the early light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sheer faces dropping into sinkholes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dune slopes rippled with microcosmic dunes of their own: sand echoing its patterns on and on, probably in ways my human mind could not perceive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The thought of the alliance of so many grains of sand to form such a masterpiece makes the mind become still with appreciation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But it doesn’t heal busted knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I monitored my pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This first couple of hours would be my fastest, with the air still relatively cool and my knees at their best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Things would inevitably only get worse as the sun angled into the best position to scorch this part of the earth, and my knees losing what small relief the night had given them and slipping further with the renewed abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">By the end of the first 8 km stage, I knew I would not make the cut off time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In order to do so I would have to maintain the current pace all day, without stopping to rest, and despite the increasing difficulty of the terrain lying ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The nerve channels from my knees conjured a recurring memory of Jim Morrisson’s musing on being ‘lost in a romance, wilderness of pain’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That was what lay ahead of me – superimposed on the physical wilderness: hour after hour of trying to bargain with a wilderness of pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It brought to mind tales of how people try to bargain with the devil, despite his infinite advantages in the realm of cunning.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The choice became either stopping there and then, or continuing on and risking permanent damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I opted to ‘live to fight another day’.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">That afternoon in the tent, Dan – who would go on to win the race – showed me exercises to foster proper alignment of the knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Movements you want to do alone really – to protect your street cred.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know I can fix this liability with the proper training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My mind is strong enough for the event, and so is my stamina.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I never lost my sense of humor, not even in the moments of greatest pain, and lack of physical strength never threatened to end the show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One year to correct my posture and gait so that my knees don’t flare up – and I think I have a chance of finishing the full 250 kms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In other words Sahara: I’ll be back.</p><p class="MsoNormal">The Valley of the Whales is intimately linked with the Declaration of Cetacean Rights in my mind, and I will return there reaffirming my commitment time after time.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In those 56 hours in the desert, I covered 88 kms – an average of roughly 40 kms per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Before the event, the most ground I had ever covered in a day was 25 kms, with a much lighter pack, on far easier terrain and in far gentler weather.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I returned to Cairo weighing a full kilo and a half less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was crippled for days but felt strangely free – my body more at ease than it had ever felt since childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The only way I could describe it would be a sense of infinite space within the body – joints open to the world, all currents flowing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My body was singing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I thought about the tens of hundreds of thousands of generations of whales that span the time divide between Archeoceti and the whales I have met in this modern world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I thought about how whales briefly walked the earth before returning to the sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The memory of the deepest, richest blue of the waters surrounding the Cook Islands painted such a contrast to the perfectly arid world I had just crawled through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The curious, playful intelligence of the humpback whales I met in the bluest of worlds now exists in my mind alongside the mute, fossilized remains of their ancestors, defying the eons in the dry vastness of the desert.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">My body sang, and I thought these thoughts… and felt to be the richest man alive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-89656048921172490682011-09-29T14:17:00.001-07:002011-09-29T15:14:59.355-07:00Three days to the Sahara run<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_7aX8szN1Zk/ToTg19_bNxI/AAAAAAAAAFM/-FZtOXV4gr0/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-09-29%2Bat%2B10.08.20%2BPM.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_7aX8szN1Zk/ToTg19_bNxI/AAAAAAAAAFM/-FZtOXV4gr0/s400/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-09-29%2Bat%2B10.08.20%2BPM.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657894249662461714" border="0" /></a><br /> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <br /> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been in Egypt for a week now.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We completed an underwater shoot in the Red Sea – and I have had a direct taste of the desert conditions that will be prevalent during the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The heat is merciless in the Sahara.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just looking at the place makes you thirsty, and under exertion, the mouth and throat dry out within minutes. The Valley of the Whales is an exception: shade can be found beneath the rock formations... but I think 90 percent of the race will go through areas where there is no shade at all.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Valley of the Whales is incredible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I got the distinct impression that it is a place I will return to many times… not just because I knew I’d be running through it again just a week later, but because the place will draw me back many times in the years to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is objectively stunning – charismatic and majestic in its dry silence, gentle curves and timelessness, but it could be that it resonates particularly strongly with my own goals for whales’ rights.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Thank you endlessly for the donations already made – Ocean Alliance and Whale Like Me are very grateful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m hoping everyone who reads this will be able to make a contribution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Beyond the funds themselves and the powerful work you are enabling, you’ll be helping me feel that my ordeal is meaningful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’d like to feel I’m generating more awareness and funds running 250 kms through the 45 degree desert heat… than I would by standing in the street with a tin can and some fliers!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The environment will only gain effective protection once it is recognized as having intrinsic rights of its own, and whales offer us a natural starting point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’re at an incredibly exciting time: as a species, we’re finally on the verge of considering that life forms beyond our own should have intrinsic legal rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is a moment that will echo far into our future, the first step to LEGALLY defining our place in nature in a way that maintains balance.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But for now, though scientific evidence is accumulating, the notion of whales and dolphins as 'non-human persons' is still new and we have our work cut out for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So please donate, share this blog page, and the link to the fundraising page:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/WhaleLikeMe/saharadesertrun">http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/WhaleLikeMe/saharadesertrun</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You can also <a href="http://eepurl.com/cxvXA">join our mailing list.</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-55837845343532608072011-09-21T00:32:00.000-07:002011-09-21T10:11:21.287-07:00Twelve days to the Sahara<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sdfn37_Js74/TnmTf2J4dRI/AAAAAAAAAFE/3lseM-tGP_A/s1600/Desert.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sdfn37_Js74/TnmTf2J4dRI/AAAAAAAAAFE/3lseM-tGP_A/s400/Desert.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654712982462559506" border="0" /></a><br /> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">The question most of my friends have is: have you been training?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It's a sore subject, one I try to turn to laughter – but inside I know I’m in for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yes, I’ve been training – as much as I possibly could while devoting more energy than I thought I had to Whale Like Me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In other words – I haven’t been training nearly enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Probably just enough to maintain a basic level of fitness, but each run shows me my abilities do not extend far enough to imagine I might be able to complete the Sahara race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">What I don’t tell my friends, because it would defeat the need to laugh it off, is that the longest run I have completed so far is 10 kilometers, with about half the weight I’ll have on my back at the start of the real thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On a couple of occasions those 10 k runs have resulted in injury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Makes 35 kms per day, for seven days, seem unreasonable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And then there is the glaring fact that I have never covered 35 kilometers in a single day, walking or running.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But here is where I find strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I plan to walk the first day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps even the second day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To get a feel of what 35 kilometers are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To get a feel for this desert<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>- its terrain, heat, and character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Danger of serious injury, I am hoping, is greatest on the first couple of days, should I rush into things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On day three, I can start sprinkling in some runs and hopefully build upon them as the pack gets lighter.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">My mind is strong – I have tested it in the wilderness before, digging deeper and deeper for resources and focus in times of great exhaustion and solitude. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">My body, though unfit by marathon standards, has responded well to the training I have been able to complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ve lost 6kg (that much less to drag around the desert) since I started training in March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My tendons and muscles feel healthy – certainly far healthier than they have been during the 14 years I’ve spent seated in dark rooms, working on computer generated imagery.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Most of all, there is the X factor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The whales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Sperm whales of my dream 5 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Baird’s Beaked whales of the Sea of Japan: the sight of their death still seared in my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The humpback whales of the Cook Islands and how time stood still as we contemplated each other for over three hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the whales I will be running towards: 40 million year old whales whose bones attracted me to the Sahara in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Valley of the Whales in front of me, the dream whales, hunted whales and Cooks whales behind me – I have a thread leading my way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I may lack in fitness compared to all the other competitors, but I know why I am there and it is for something greater than myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If I can nudge us closer to the historic moment where we grant rights to whales and recognize them as non-human persons, I’ll marshal all the energy and resilience at my disposal to get to the Valley which lies 5 days into the race… and perhaps beyond, to the finish line.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In any event, there is no turning back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m somewhere over the Indian Ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The hollow rush of wind over the fuselage and the drone of the engines: that's the sound of the Sahara rushing towards me at 800 kph.<span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>---<br /><br />Please sponsor my run, and raise funds for Ocean Alliance's work and Whale Like Me.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/WhaleLikeMe/saharadesertrun">http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/WhaleLikeMe/saharadesertrun</a><br /><br />Share the page far and wide please - I need all the help I can get!<br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-46318020005619984762011-06-01T23:36:00.000-07:002011-06-02T23:33:22.059-07:00Got camera, can film<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ri_yRndBb1M/TecvzmL8GbI/AAAAAAAAAE4/vd138QKGja8/s1600/contestLogo_v04.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ri_yRndBb1M/TecvzmL8GbI/AAAAAAAAAE4/vd138QKGja8/s400/contestLogo_v04.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613508024011069874" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://eepurl.com/cxvXA">Join our mailing list</a><br /><br /></div><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Garamond; panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style>The <a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest">Whale Like Me Short Film Contest</a> has a new partner! <a href="http://www.wdcs.org/">WDCS, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society</a>. WDCS is international, and focuses its work entirely on the protection of whales and dolphins. We are excited about our work together, both in promoting the contest and making sure your films are distributed to have the most impact on evolving our relationship with cetaceans.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>“There is a very special connection between humans and cetaceans – lets explore it! Our environment will never be safe from human abuse until it has its own rights within the legal systems of nations. The <a href="http://cetaceanconservation.com.au/cetaceanrights/">Declaration of Cetacean Rights</a> is pioneering the first steps in this all-important direction. With the film contest, Whale Like Me and WDCS aim to allow everyone with a camera to take these first steps with us – this is new, exciting ground and everyone’s view point can help us navigate it successfully”</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: right;"> Malcolm Wright<br /></div><div style="text-align: right;">Director, Whale Like Me<br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Theme</span><br /><br />The contest aims to encourage people around the world to think about our relationship with these amazing creatures. Your films can explore how you view our relationship with whales. For instance, should they be protected or used for human consumption? What does whaling mean to you? Are you for or against it and why you feel that way? Are whales like us? In what ways do you feel we are similar? Different?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Grand prize</span><br /><br />Two return airfares to New Zealand and a whale watching adventure with world renowned <a href="http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/">Whale Watch Kaikoura</a> off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Should the winner of the grand prize be a New Zealand resident, they will win two return airfares to Japan and a whale watching adventure there.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Submissions</span><br /><br />The contest is already open for entries in the following categories: general public, professional filmmakers, under 16s, film school students, high schools.<br /><br />Film duration: between 30 seconds and 4 minutes. Deadline for submissions is 11.59pm April 20th 2012, New Zealand time.<br />Films can be uploaded to us after you have registered, at:<br /><a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/enter">http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/enter</a><br />Or you can send your film as a quicktime movie or .flv burned to DVD. The physical mailing address will be given after you register.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Schools</span><br /><br />The Whale Like Me Short Film Contest has special categories for film students, high school students, and under 16 year olds. There are awards for each category.<br />This is an opportunity for students to learn about whales, but also about the art and power of communicating through film-making to influence their world. They will grow from being directly involved in seeking new ways to understand and safeguard our oceans.<br />For student entries, their teacher should first register their class at:<br /><a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/teachers">http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/teachers</a><br />Students can make individual films, or team up to work together on films. Any student can make more than one film submission, and work on any number of teams.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The march of History</span><br /><br />In Helsinki, Finland, on May 22nd 2010, experts in marine biology, philosophy, law, ethics and conservation met and determined that cetaceans qualify as non-human persons. They suggested that, as persons, whales and dolphins should be protected by rights.<br />The question of inalienable rights for whales is of great historical significance, as we have not yet internationally recognized such rights for a non-human life form before.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Online gallery of contestants</span><br /><br />We want the people who highlight this unique crossroads in human history to be remembered: send a photo and short description of what motivates you to make a short film for the Contest. We will give you a place on the ‘Whale of Fame’ online gallery of contestants. Send your photo and note to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/whaleoffame@whalelikeme.com">whaleoffame@whalelikeme.com</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://eepurl.com/cxvXA">Join our mailing list</a><br /></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family:Garamond;color:black;"> </span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:10.0pt;"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-47507116411730082752011-05-07T22:30:00.000-07:002011-05-11T09:35:22.900-07:00The Valley of the Whales<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dzxLIH_uhCI/TcYyx5_x_rI/AAAAAAAAAEo/Q06m0Bgig0I/s1600/495324367_f2f5a25186.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dzxLIH_uhCI/TcYyx5_x_rI/AAAAAAAAAEo/Q06m0Bgig0I/s400/495324367_f2f5a25186.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604222619272478386" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Jude Ryan got back in touch recently. He is one of my oldest friends from the days when, both nine years old, we met after moving to Paris and confronted learning the French language together in school.<br /><br />Jude has accumulated an impressive travel record, and amongst those travels, a penchant for endurance events.<br />He ran an ultra marathon in the Gobi desert, which involved covering roughly 250 kms on foot, in the space of 7 days.<br /><br />Although far from his level of training, I too have on occasion put my body through some grueling but rewarding adventures. In Tasmania with my partner Kelsi, we carried 30 kg packs for a distance of 34 kilometers in two days, sometimes through mud we would sink mid-thigh deep into AND stopping to film along the way. On a couple of occasions, alone and with Kelsi and others, I carried those same 30 kgs up into a remote region of the Northern Flinders ranges in South Australia, under a relentless sun.<br /><br />So Jude and I have long been toying with the idea of participating in an endurance event together. I doubt I could keep up with him as he is a runner. I really am not. But I might just make it to the finish line.<br /><br />The reality is that apart from those anomalous spurts of adventure, I have spent the past 12 years in dark rooms, in front of computers. The only rate I raised was not my heart's, but the speed of renders of computer generated imagery for blockbuster movies.<br /><br />Jude probably knew he had the perfect hook when he contacted me about the Sahara desert race. Same format as the Gobi desert more or less: 40 kms per day for 6 days, and 10 kms the last day, for a total of 250 kms in 7 days. But the race crosses a place called the Valley of the Whales, and as Jude explained this location to me, I felt the familiar tug of a decision I would many times curse, before ultimately treasuring it for the rest of my life.<br /><br />In the Valley of the Whales, paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains, millions of years old, of whales that had only just recently (in evolutionary terms) returned to live in the oceans after an abortive attempt at life on land. The remains had small rear legs which the whale probably trailed behind it as it swam, without much use for them (since they eventually completely disappeared).<br /><br />The poetry of running an endurance event through such a place to raise awareness and funds for Whale Like Me and the work of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society was too strong to resist. Somewhere, I would have to find my running legs to make it through the resting place of whale ancestors who had abandoned theirs. A part of the Sahara desert, that once shallow sea is now one of the hottest and driest places on our planet. To run there, and then by night imagine the sound of the sea and the call of whales now dead almost 40 million years...<br /><br />Training began at the end of March in Bali. I have to work my way up from a pathetic 5 minute run that first day along the Sanur beach front... to being capable of running roughly 2 hours and walking another 5, with a 10 kilo pack, day after day for a week.<br /><br />Without underestimating the difficulty, I feel I have a chance. Early May, and I am now able to run one hour per day with a 5 kg pack. After a few years of work for the advancement of a new way to relate to whales and dolphins, it feels amazing to be able to do something simple, direct and physical towards that goal along side the usual work with concepts, digital communication and pre-production work on the feature documentary Whale Like Me. The effects of abstract work are long term and during the effort itself, their results are hard to gauge. This requires a sustained act of faith - over the weeks, months and years of hard work - that the vision is worth it all.<br /><br />Running, in comparison, is pure simplicity. One foot in front of the other. Each step gets you a step further. After so many steps (a quantifiable amount), you reach your goal. Never mind that it hurts like hell. Never mind that this is the type of race seasoned athletes turn to as they seek greater challenges. I have embraced this and I'm grateful to Jude for having opened this door for me, to the Valley of the Whales.<br /><br />To all my friends, and all those who support Whale Like Me, there is a standing invitation to join us to run through the Valley of the Whales in October 2011. You can also sponsor our run. If you are interested in either, write to<br /><br />sponsor@whalelikeme.com<br /><br />If you have a friend who you think might be 'our kind of crazy', connect us please.<br /><br />You can find out more about the endurance event at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.4deserts.com/sahararace/rtpsrtp.php?SID=2&SBID=RD3">http://www.4deserts.com/sahararace/rtpsrtp.php?SID=2&SBID=RD3</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p-BKJKS5mD4/TcYzXmYYxcI/AAAAAAAAAEw/dyisbSc9HeU/s1600/solitary_contestant_01_cropped.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p-BKJKS5mD4/TcYzXmYYxcI/AAAAAAAAAEw/dyisbSc9HeU/s400/solitary_contestant_01_cropped.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604223266842002882" border="0" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-24487253572314927922011-05-06T07:14:00.000-07:002011-05-08T09:34:38.466-07:00You can have two but not three...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEFaz2CFXyU/TcQSSsW09II/AAAAAAAAAEg/-QCN1Fckq8k/s1600/IMG_0737.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEFaz2CFXyU/TcQSSsW09II/AAAAAAAAAEg/-QCN1Fckq8k/s400/IMG_0737.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603623948709590146" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Things do not always manifest in the order we expect them to - hence the lack of updates on the short film contest, folks: we're holding off so that we can give all of the pertinent info in one go, and we expect it all to be in place by the end of May!<br /><br />For now, I'm back in Japan, ramping up for principle photography to start mid June. I'm doing my best to learn as much Japanese as I can cram into my poor brain: a mission of some importance since I'll be spending close to a month on my own in the whaling town and will probably feel isolated and alienated as it is, without even considering the language barrier.<br /><br />Progress is good: I can write and read hirigana characters (if you give me long enough) and I will learn katakana next week. Vocabulary is expanding and I can recognize a few kanjis. Learning Japanese is a real adventure, with moments of intense love and hate. One day, I hate kanjis: I find them overly complex, with little squiggles that seem arbitrary and annoyingly slow to draw, let alone remember... sometimes representing a word that would take a second to write in hirigana, katakana or romaji. Other days, I love them: I see ones that I recognize on signs in the street and feel this warm glow of understanding, like getting glimpses of a cozy lounge with a fire place from outside in the cold. And they tell me that sometimes kanji can be very economical, using one ideogram to express what would otherwise take several words. I must trust that they do not lie about this.<br /><br />The tragic events here are still unfolding. The ground shakes every day in Tokyo, usually only slightly but sometimes with a good jolt - many more aftershocks of various magnitudes are expected. The Fukushima situation 'seems' stable but what do I know: the inner circles of nuclear tinkering don't share their inner-most thoughts with me. With so much controversy over the effects of 'low level radiation' exposure, I've found the most prudent path is to eat very few leafy vegetables, and to stick to bottled water. Though the movement of at-risk produce is supposed to be strictly controlled, there have been a couple of cases of tainted produce making it to market in Tokyo over the past 6 weeks. Likewise with the tap water: current levels of radionuclides are too low to really mention, but should that change following some nightmarish development at Fukushima, who is to tell the information would reach me before I took a long drink from a tall, cool glass of very hot water?<br /><br />Tokyoites are subdued right now - the national character imposes a general observance of propriety in the face of disaster. It is not appropriate to enjoy oneself too much, to consume too much, whether it be power or food or other goods. This is, in essence, an impressive show of solidarity in the face of hardship and I have great admiration for it. Its definitely preferable to looting, scamming and general selfishness often exhibited in other parts of the world when things go seriously wrong. It is the flip side of the sometimes exasperating respect for authority, protocol and established patterns of behavior, and a powerful reminder that we all have the flaws of our qualities, and the qualities of our flaws.<br /><br />Whale Like Me will not be the same film it would have been, had we made it before March 11th 2011. The changed face of this nation has influenced our exploration into the stalemate over whaling in a number of ways, and has increased the potent symbolism of a number of events and characters featuring in the film.<br /><br />Script, breakdown and schedule are being worked on simultaneously and organically, trying to optimize the work so that we are best prepared for the smaller shoots we will be doing before the real schedule in June commences.<br /><br />The reality on the budget front is grim: we're working with one third of what we need. So grim that even though it took all my energy and processing power to get myself and the gear over here and set things into motion, I am tempted to take up a VFX job offer in Sydney that would take me away from the work here for 3 weeks. It would be very disruptive to the film making process, reducing the amount of Japanese I can learn by perhaps two thirds, and halving the time I get to spend with co-director Hideki for planning and prepping... but the reality is that the money I can earn on this job could end up saving the Japanese shoot if nothing else bears fruit between now and early July.<br /><br />Its a diabolically imperfect situation, involving not only time working on the film and money to fund it, but my own personal energy which is stretched thin as it is. Carrying out all the pre-production planning for a third of the feature length documentary, script writing, cramming my brain with Japanese lessons, AND training to run an ultra marathon (yes, more on that later) might seem like some sort of hard limit. But flying off to Sydney to work long hours on a VFX job, added to that list, gives a perfect triangle of which I can choose two corners but not three. Enough physical energy to survive, enough money to scrape through the shoot, and enough time to craft the shoot so that it is worth all the effort being put into it.<br /><br />Fate may have decided for me already as the VFX job remains in limbo. It turns out the Australian company does not yet have a green light for the work, and this may be the best outcome. There is still time for funding to materialize from a couple of sources, but the time I would lose from prep work here with Hideki could never be recuperated.<br /><br />Also we have been graced by money-saving help from a number of sources. The team is proving to be highly committed, with all core participants willing to work with little or no pay during this period. My dear friend and colleague Dylan Neil is flying himself to Japan in June to join us as second unit DP, complete with his own gear. This, I publicly confess, means I owe him. Big time. Possibly 'my first born' big time. Dylan, would you like my first born?<br /><br />So we're going to scrape through one way or another. The alchemy of choosing which corners the film can afford to cut while maintaining its quality and core power is one we intend to excel at.<br /><br />So did I say something about an ultra marathon? I believe I did. Details to come tomorrow.<br /><br />Lots of love to you all, wherever you are on our magnificent Ocean Planet!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">--- Want to contribute to our shooting budget? Come toss us a few coins at <a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/help_us">here!</a> ---<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-54048556239904818652011-04-13T15:55:00.000-07:002011-04-13T16:20:25.321-07:00Whale Like Me Short Film Contest<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cgSMT80wHkU/TaYuzrXjCJI/AAAAAAAAAEI/5ZumbOPTRLU/s1600/contestLogo_v03.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cgSMT80wHkU/TaYuzrXjCJI/AAAAAAAAAEI/5ZumbOPTRLU/s400/contestLogo_v03.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595211052404115602" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />So the contest is on!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest">http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest</a><br /><br /><p><span style="font-size:small;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:small;">What does whaling mean to you? Are you for or against it? </span><span style="font-size:small;">Why? </span><span style="font-size:small;">How do you view our relationship with whales? Your film should explore some of these questions, and </span><span style="font-size:small;">will shine light on how close we are to - or how far from - accepting cetaceans into our circle of kinship.</span></p> <p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:small;">For the first time in history, a global community seems close to seeking protection and inalienable rights for a non-human order of species - Cetacea: whales and dolphins.</span></p> <p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:small;">Whether you see whales as 'persons' deserving of rights, or as consumable resources - join us in presenting to the world how humans view whales in 2011.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:small;"></span></p>Deadline for submissions is now April 20th 2012. Our Awards event will take place May 22nd 2012, anniversary date of the Declaration of Cetacean Rights.<br /><br />In the coming weeks we'll have a number of announcements to make about the contest, including contest partners and prizes.<br /><br />You can come like our contest Facebook page to stay on top of developments:<br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whale-Like-Me-Short-Film-Contest/123075754431806"><br />http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whale-Like-Me-Short-Film-Contest/123075754431806</a><br /><br />If you intend to participate, you can add yourself to our Whale of Fame wall by sending us a picture of yourself and a brief note on what moves you to make a short film. Send these to whaleoffame@whalelikeme.com.<br /><br />The question of rights for non-human persons is an important step on the road to defining the value of our environment, and to becoming a mature and balanced species. The Whale of Fame wall will serve as a historical record of those who got involved early by lending their voices to this process of reconsidering our relationship towards cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises.<br /><br />Whether your film is funny or serious, for or against whaling, humble or ambitious - we want to know how you feel about whales today!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-12118769714636694852011-02-03T03:36:00.000-08:002011-04-13T16:32:55.492-07:00Our good news...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TUqTnVUqPZI/AAAAAAAAAEA/V0M4aaOWuVc/s1600/contestLogo_v02.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TUqTnVUqPZI/AAAAAAAAAEA/V0M4aaOWuVc/s400/contestLogo_v02.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569426193145019794" border="0" /></a><br /> <style>@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A belated happy New Year to all!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">2011 is here, lets make it count.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">So, I'd promised some good news.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">We wanted to make sure of some of it before sharing it here, but now its time.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Hayden Family Foundation has granted 25,000 USD to the Whale Like Me production.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">In a single sweep, they have provided us with almost a quarter of our shooting budget.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Everyone here is immensely grateful for their generosity, and honored by the trust and appreciation the Hayden Family Foundation has for our work.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">We also have the pleasure of welcoming Gina Ross to our team, as a producer.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Gina has 8 years of production experience, and previously 11 years in various marketing executive roles at Disney and Nickelodeon.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">She joins EP Vincent Burke of Top Shelf productions, and EP Don Reynolds – both veteran documentary and long form producers.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">This was apparently not quite enough: we also had to launch the Whale Like Me short film competition.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Whether you are for or against whaling, we want your short films to bear witness to how the world views whales and dolphins and our relationship with them, in 2011.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">There’s more to tell about the competition – we’re really excited about it and we insist you find out why! </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I’ll wax lyrical about it in the next post – for now you can check it out at:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/intro">http://www.whalelikeme.com/contest/intro</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-12863638059194616282011-01-23T21:48:00.000-08:002011-01-23T21:59:23.935-08:00The Orca Project - a must-read<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TT0U_dbFTII/AAAAAAAAAD0/p51eBUESDNw/s1600/captivity.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 189px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TT0U_dbFTII/AAAAAAAAAD0/p51eBUESDNw/s400/captivity.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565627794962336898" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Hello again everyone!<br /><br />The next post was to be an announcement of a number of pieces of good news... That is still coming but for now, here is a link to a study which, at a first glance, appears to be of great value in the growing debate over cetacean captivity.<br /><br />I urge everyone to take the time to at least take in some of the information.<br /><a href="http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/keto-tilikum-express-stress-of-orca-captivity/"><br />http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/keto-tilikum-express-stress-of-orca-captivity/</a><br /><br />More soon!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-60738783964721094412010-12-27T03:41:00.000-08:002010-12-27T13:53:38.200-08:00Our first year online: a thank you<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TRiBk9wsrTI/AAAAAAAAADM/uCo81xGizpk/s1600/emily_and_greggy_cropped_bw.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 213px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TRiBk9wsrTI/AAAAAAAAADM/uCo81xGizpk/s400/emily_and_greggy_cropped_bw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555332612415597874" border="0" /></a><br />Whale Like Me's journey started in 2006. For those just tuning in: Whale Like Me is the feature documentary production poised to shake up the stand off between whalers and conservationists, and - we hope - open new ways of understanding whales, and the way humans relate to them.<br /><br />Our web presence started in May 2010, and in this space just after Christmas, before we launch into an exciting New Year for the project, I'd like to put out some very well-deserved thanks to those responsible for Whale Like Me online.<br /><br />Emily Frances Knox and her partner, Michael Gregg, devote time and energy to maintaining our Facebook and Twitter presence, and in the space of just a few months, they have established a cetacean news service many have come to rely on for interesting developments in what we know of - and how we relate to - whales and dolphins.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TRj6k0bip6I/AAAAAAAAADs/CqhTLv15U5w/s1600/sid_josh_beach_cropped_bw.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 172px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TRj6k0bip6I/AAAAAAAAADs/CqhTLv15U5w/s400/sid_josh_beach_cropped_bw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555465650817902498" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Web developer Sid Bachtiar, based in Levin, has patiently implemented our web designs - here he is with his dad... ok, just kidding. Here he is with his son Josh.<br /><br />As the site continues to grow, you can be sure Sid is to thank, weaving code.<br /></div><br />Sid's company Bluehorn is based in Levin, New Zealand... just a pleasant drive away from our beautiful city of Wellington.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />More news in the New Year - positive news: stay tuned.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-50309100437941407852010-12-11T19:51:00.000-08:002010-12-13T13:10:35.812-08:00We meet again<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TQSkKnB80CI/AAAAAAAAADA/l1tbyhfn3QE/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TQSkKnB80CI/AAAAAAAAADA/l1tbyhfn3QE/s400/photo.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549741143010103330" border="0" /></a><br />Apologies for the lack of updates - we have been busy working hard to advance the project, which leaves little-to-no time to actually blog about it. I’ll try to make up for this with more frequent entries this month.<br /><br />I returned to Japan in late November – my third trip there in the past 5 months.<br /><br />Hideki and I met with various officials, and were surprised by the good welcome we received. Of course there was caution, as we expected, but the bottom line was a very proper, official neutrality towards our project. Neutrality is the proper response, and one I would expect from both sides.<br /><br />As a point of interesting comparison, we have had more trouble meeting with Australian officials than we have had with the Japanese. Our work seems to be situated on an active fault line between both sides, where neither side feels sure of their footing. I have experienced initial distrust from Australian, American and Japanese interested parties alike – the Australians and Americans being uncomfortable with the presence of a Japanese co-director and a collaborative approach, and the Japanese being uncomfortable with my Australian/American nationality and the international nature of the production.<br /><br />My impressions may certainly evolve, but it seems to me that the Japanese concern is the more natural of the two, since they are the ones under scrutiny by the international community over this issue, and since foreign media attention is so often one-sided against their interests. This makes it all the more interesting that we have had more trouble meeting with Australian officials than we have had with Japanese ones, while benefiting from personal references and introductions on both sides.<br /><br />Next, we journeyed to the coastal town I am becoming better and better acquainted with – to meet the whaler again.<br /><br />I must refer to him as the whaler for now, until all formalities have been taken care of and we have agreed on how his identity is revealed.<br /><br />The meeting was informal, and as we talked, I realized that I like him. As with the first meeting, the difficult issues brought tension to the air – there is no escaping this and on the contrary, I am glad we are both staunch defenders of our positions, but in all other instances there was almost a sense of camaraderie.<br /><br />This makes our interaction all the more interesting – what I seek would spell the end of his livelihood as a whaler, and what he seeks would spell the continuing practice of what I see as murder – yet we seem to be embarking upon a friendship, based on the rare conviction that our stories should be told alongside each other, and at least for me, on a sense of wonder that such a thing is turning out to be possible.<br /><br />My Japanese is improving incrementally: I now hear the language very well. The different words register clearly in my mind as I hear them, even though I only understand a fraction of them. The whaler’s English remains a blessing, making communication easy, and allowing co-director Hideki Fuji to be a full participant in our conversations rather than a translator.<br /><br />During this meeting, we were advised of a fascinating event which we will have the honor of attending and filming, in January 2011 – details to be revealed in a future update. We also discussed my attendance of Japanese language school in March followed by 4 to 6 weeks of immersion, living in the coastal town, meeting its residents and absorbing something of its nature.<br /><br />More news very soon, and best wishes to you all – wherever you hail from on this Ocean Planet.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-72156050670114104762010-08-19T00:07:00.000-07:002010-08-19T11:19:01.342-07:00The Gatekeeper, part 2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TG1nGJ1WqFI/AAAAAAAAACw/PDB1FLxE2L8/s1600/IMG_Japan01_0093_sm.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TG1nGJ1WqFI/AAAAAAAAACw/PDB1FLxE2L8/s400/IMG_Japan01_0093_sm.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507171274760562770" border="0" /></a><br />Hideki leaves me waiting in the car: this first contact is to drop off our proposal. <br /><br />Hideki will then seek to meet with the head of the whaling operation the next day and perhaps arrange a meeting that includes me on the third day... should we even get that far.<br /><br />I step out and walk up and down the waterfront, intending to spend the 5 minute wait in appreciation of the sea. <br /><br />Rather than stress over the outcome, I’m now in a meditative zone – I look out across the Pacific and draw up memories of the days when I lived in Venice Beach, California, in the early 90’s. That familiar boardwalk lies there, beyond thousands of miles of deep, mysterious waters in which untold, watery lives unfold.<br /><br />Most weekends I would get the hell out of LA and its infernal grid to hike through the arid canyons north of Malibu. The memory of the hikes washes over me now: probably because of how I would enter the same meditative state on these walks, where everything falls away leaving only an expanded, more vibrant present awareness of the world around me. In these times, there is a feeling of connecting earth and heaven, and the senses extend beyond the body to fuse with the air, the water, the earth and the life they are all host to.<br /><br />Hideki has been gone 30 minutes, and I continue to walk.<br /><br />Hideki has not returned after an hour – I choose various vantage points along the beach to stand and observe the universal rituals of the beach-going public.<br /><br />After an hour and a half, I laugh at how tortured this wait would be if I were in any other state of mind. <br /><br />Surely, either this long absence is a very good sign, or a very bad one.<br /><br />The inhabitants of this region are far more friendly than the bustling denizens of Tokyo – most nod or smile as they pass me. Only a few seem to not know what to do with me, and so remain impassive or stern. <br /><br />The butterflies flit about. The hornets fly about their business.<br /><br />A cat pads out from the bushes, across the road and down the stone steps to the sand, where it promptly digs and squats. I look away out of respect for the keen sense of dignity cats have – especially in these embarrassing moments of public body function - then back again in time to see it paw a token amount of sand over its business before returning back the way it came. <br /><br />Well over two ours have passed, and finally, there is Hideki, alive and smiling.<br /><br />The film will be made, he says.<br /><br />We sit and look out over the water. The details come out gradually, some of which I can share here.<br /><br />The head of the whaling operation is a very reasonable man, intelligent and well-traveled, Hideki explains. And most importantly for us, he shares the vision of exchange of Whale Like Me. Many details remain to be discussed but in principle, we have a meeting of the minds, and this creative partnership of a conservationist with whalers will move forwards.<br /><br />The next day, the three of us meet. I agree with Hideki’s impressions of the man. <br /><br />Whale Like Me proposed this meeting but could not know in advance who the whaler would be: now that I have him in front of me, I see that he is perfect. He will represent his perspective with intelligence, and give my conservationist approach real questions to grapple with. Already during our first brief meeting, we left each other with some potent challenges to chew upon and the tension in the air was thick: there is no doubt we will - all three of us - grow and evolve through the making of this film.<br /><br />My time with him during the shoot will be tense, confronting and real – but the outcome, I know, will mark progress towards unlocking the stalemate over whaling. He and Hideki will represent to foreigners a more honest representation of who the whalers and the Japanese are, what they do, and why. I will represent to Japanese people a more honest view of who conservationists are, what we do, and why. <br /><br />The dice are not loaded: after following this chemical reaction between opposites, caught on film, the chips will fall where they may.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-77304246446768956282010-08-06T23:58:00.000-07:002010-08-09T22:00:09.768-07:00The Gatekeeper<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TF0NzRhGfqI/AAAAAAAAACo/9NblC2-hsjQ/s1600/IMG_Japan01_0125.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TF0NzRhGfqI/AAAAAAAAACo/9NblC2-hsjQ/s400/IMG_Japan01_0125.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502569494243344034" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta name="Title" content=""> <meta name="Keywords" content=""> <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 2008"> <meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 2008"> <link rel="File-List" href="file://localhost/Users/Malcolm/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_filelist.xml"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment-->The sky is unmercifully blue today, and Tokyo bakes beneath it.
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<br />I walk the now familiar route from Shinjuku Higashi to Shinjuku Station, to print our proposal at a Kinko’s where most of the staff speak no English, and all the software interfaces are locked in Japanese. A paradox of globalization if ever I saw one.
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<br />The drive to the whaling town is familiar. We had driven it two years earlier on a trip where I was to see for the first time a freshly killed Baird’s Beaked Whale butchered and processed.
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<br />During the drive, Hideki helps me push my Japanese language skills a little further – we recite the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and I compose nonsensical phrases all involving the middle of a rice field.
<br />
<br />Malcolm lies down in the middle of a rice field.
<br />The pigeon sits with a wild boar in the middle of a rice field.
<br />The owl stands in the middle of a rice field.
<br />Boku no dai koku bashira tanbo no naka ni desu
<br />
<br />A huge part of the fun of being new born to a language is you get to put together your new words any which way you want, and people accept its not because you’re weird, but merely because you’re foreign. It allows the return of a valuable playfulness that adult life, within our culture of origin, can often restrict.
<br />
<br />The lightness of the nonsense conceals considerable tension: we are headed towards what feels like an almost impossible mission – to speak with the head of a coastal whaling company, and attempt to convince him of the value of our project.
<br />
<br />For those of you just tuning in for the first time, the mission seems impossible because Japanese whalers have become very wary of foreign media. Even before The Cove was made, they knew that foreign media coverage of their activities generally catered to the anti-whaling perspective only, and portrayed them in an unflattering and uni-dimensional light.
<br />
<br />After The Cove? Well, that impression increased somewhat, to put things mildly.
<br />
<br />Its quite easy to imagine that no foreigner could convince a Japanese whaler to trust him with this topic at this point in time – and I have been living with this thought for a couple of years now, constantly tricking myself into believing that somehow, Hideki and I would find a way.
<br />
<br />Such positive affirmations tend to work best when the moment of truth is far off and abstract. We grope forwards into the future, taking what steps we can towards our goal, thinking we’re putting in place the correct conditions for the outcome we desire. It is only at the doorstep of that goal that we realize with strong immediacy: the door may remain resolutely shut, no matter how hard we have tried.
<br />
<br />Concretely, most of our efforts have consisted in designing a balanced film, which honors truth, direct experience, and honest, respectful dialogue above all. For me, it has been an exercise in letting go, because I am against whaling. I have had to put into action the Taoist principles of wu wei: to let go and accept that the outcome I desire may or may not come as a result of my commitment to openness, and truth. To strive by not striving.
<br />
<br />What it boils down to is this: truth is more important than my desire… and this may be the hardest truth for one to accept. I can’t say that I have won that battle, but I am at least conscious that it is a battle I need to wage, and I remind myself of it daily.
<br />
<br />What outcome do I desire? First, that the whalers accept to let me walk a mile in their shoes, and that they then accept to walk a mile in mine. Second, that this might lead to whales no longer coming to harm at the hands of men.
<br />
<br />So, at the doorstep of Whale Like Me’s ultimate gatekeeper, the whaler himself, I have to accept that he also must fight that inner battle in order to accept that this adventure is worthwhile.
<br />
<br />No matter how hard I have tried to trust that our goal of exchanged experience will lead to a future I can accept, I must now face that if the whalers cannot attain that same trust – the journey will end abruptly here.
<br />
<br />Hideki and I talk openly about the upcoming meeting now. Then silence again.
<br />
<br />I again fight to practice wu wei: I should not worry or have a heavy heart if I believe my efforts and principles will lead to a future I can accept. If Hideki and I have done our best, and the whalers still cannot see value in our approach – then that is the truth of this matter, and I must embrace it. The film then becomes a chronicle of that truth – a sadder story with less potential for mutual understanding and reconciliation, but truth nonetheless.
<br />
<br />It is now in the hands of the whalers. Or some would say, in the hands of God, the Universe, or Divine Providence. In any event, it is out of my hands.
<br />
<br />Optimism springs from nothingness, and hangs about inside the car like a miracle.
<br />
<br />We enter the town.
<br />
<br /><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-30234572420749009362010-08-02T23:28:00.000-07:002010-08-02T23:43:39.942-07:00Whale Like Me in the press<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TFe6WOOxLBI/AAAAAAAAAB8/tfk09JrA-qg/s1600/flyingWhale.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TFe6WOOxLBI/AAAAAAAAAB8/tfk09JrA-qg/s400/flyingWhale.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501070360796277778" border="0" /></a><br />The past few weeks have been busy for Whale Like Me.<br /><br />A fair amount of interest has been expressed by the press, even at this early stage. Here are some links to an article by The Australian’s Tokyo correspondent Rick Wallace, and follow up article by Elizah Leigh:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/whaling-debate-to-hit-cinemas/story-e6frg6so-1225899215511">http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/whaling-debate-to-hit-cinemas/story-e6frg6so-1225899215511</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/07/30/new-film-whale-like-me-highlights-both-sides-of-whaling-debate/">http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/07/30/new-film-whale-like-me-highlights-both-sides-of-whaling-debate/</a><br /><br />We will conduct a radio interview with Radio Australia soon – more news on that to come shortly if you want to tune in.<br /><br />This is exciting in and of itself, but all the more so because we are saving a lot of the most interesting aspects of the film for later (else why would anyone watch the film). If the generic overview we can give of the project at this early stage is raising eyebrows, we feel confident the film will surpass expectations.<br /><br />We are very busy at present in Tokyo, but Hideki has started to provide for press coverage in Japan. Our project seeks to provide more balance to this issue, and it is important that the Japanese press be able to comment since commentary has started overseas.<br /><br />We remain in need of your support – your donations make all the difference.<br /><br />Please use our crowd-sourcing tools to donate and spread the word:<br /><br />http://www.whalelikeme.com/help_us<br /><br />Whale Like Me aims to unlock the stalemate: we cannot accomplish this adventure of experience exchange and dialogue without your help.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-25241643342535023572010-06-23T13:50:00.000-07:002010-06-24T23:24:04.489-07:00Legal commercial whaling plan shelved at IWC: moratorium remains in effect<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TCJ0xq0WxPI/AAAAAAAAABc/Hi42vBso07s/s1600/CHIBA_butchery_25_cutOpen_01_blog.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TCJ0xq0WxPI/AAAAAAAAABc/Hi42vBso07s/s320/CHIBA_butchery_25_cutOpen_01_blog.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486075692746982642" border="0" /></a><br />The world of marine conservation has been somewhat divided concerning the IWC's compromise proposal to allow a controlled return to commercial whaling, under consideration at this year's meetings in Agadir, Morocco.<br /><br />The Whale Like Me team feels legalizing commercial whaling, regardless of promises that strict quotas would be enforced, is a very dangerous path to head down. How many other nations would have stepped up to join the whaling industry, upon seeing that Japan, Norway and Iceland were allowed to do so legally?<br /><br />The proposal claims no new nation would be allowed to start whaling, but it is not so hard for countries to simply opt out of the IWC to pursue their own agendas when need be. Any assurances that legalized whaling won't psychologically legitimize whaling activity from new players... ring hollow. <br /><br />How would we enforce quotas effectively when it has proven impossible to do so in other areas of marine resource management?<br /><br />And the saddest question of all: how should we be expected to trust Japan’s fisheries to respect the quotas given the ample evidence of corrupt proceedings surrounding the treatment of the Tokyo 2, and the bribing of developing IWC member nations?<br /><br />So in this respect, we feel this is a very positive development. In the words of Patrick Ramage, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Global Whale Campaign:<br /><br />"Had it been done here, this deal would have lived in infamy. This was an intense three year effort but one conducted behind closed doors and focused on defining terms under which commercial whaling would continue rather than how it would end. The proposal it produced could not withstand public scrutiny and ignored the overwhelming global support for permanent protection for whales. Any future process of negotiation should not leave the views, expertise, and perspective of the global NGO community sitting outside."<br /><br />Full article <a href="http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2010/2010-06-23-01.html"> here.</a><br /><br />It appears however that the IWC might simply postpone voting on a return to commercial whaling until next year, allowing the uproar surrounding the Japanese corruption scandals to diminish. So vigilance remains important. We will probably face the same danger just one year from now, and if we have forgotten the reasons why the proposal is flawed, our national delegates to the IWC will not necessarily remember it for us. We are their conscience.<br /><br />The production of Whale Like Me retains the same goal as ever: to promote reconciliation with Japan through open exploration of our different ways of relating to cetaceans. The corruption problems unfairly taint an entire nation in the eyes of the world. Whale Like Me will show that they originate and are enabled by a small group of people. The Japanese people and the whalers themselves are not all to be held responsible for the policies of small factions within their government.<br /><br />Likewise, despite the dismay the world is experiencing surrounding the exposed corruption, it is our conviction that the basic desire of anti-whaling nations is still to explore common ground and overcome the corruption together. Whale Like Me’s overall message of friendship between ‘opposing sides’ has become all the more urgent, if hope of such reconciliation and cooperation is to survive.<br /><br />And of course, direct experience of cetaceans remains our focus: we believe nobody can hold a fully informed opinion on whaling without some experience of what it is like to meet cetaceans at close quarters, without any other agenda than the experience itself. Our exploration of the ramifications of such encounters remains the Rosetta's stone without which 'opposing sides' will eternally find understanding each other almost impossible.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-83789463682761811172010-06-19T19:38:00.000-07:002010-06-19T19:41:26.444-07:00Magic more often whispers than shoutsI am somewhere above the Pacific ocean again, hurtling towards New Zealand at a snail’s pace. Most passengers are sleeping but my sleeping patterns don’t know what to do with themselves anymore, so I am not surprised to be awake.<br /><br />In May, I made 17 interstate and international trips in just 27 days, from Australia, to Europe, to the US, and on to New Zealand – meeting deadlines along the way, and sometimes receiving confirmation of journey segments just three or four days before booking tickets and making traveling. The trip to New Zealand involved selling a vehicle in Sydney, and shipping belongings: it is a move of sorts, although it certainly did not feel like one when I left for Japan only 2 days after arriving in New Zealand. <br /><br />The final journey that will earn me some real rest is in one week: a spell back in Sydney.<br /><br />They say the soul takes a while to catch up with one’s international travels, and it certainly feels that way – a whale might keep pace with its soul as it travels the oceans but I’ve quartered, sliced and diced mine and left it strewn across the planet to stumble, crawl and swim its way back towards unity.<br /><br />This third time in Japan was in character with the land and culture: subtle. If I were tuned to only feeling the big splashes, I would feel nothing right now. But magic whispered regularly, like the frequent, almost imperceptible earth quakes that shake Tokyo.<br /><br />Hideki and I have refined our process for the Japanese whaling family. We shot some footage geared solely towards a revision of the trailer, in order to present a more balanced impression of the film’s arc. And during sleepless nights, I wrestled with sequence breakdowns, playing with that jigsaw puzzle that is a feature film. From roughly 2am until 9am, the splintered pieces of the whole shifted around, always settling closer to their final resting place, sometimes revealing new pieces that were hidden just a moment before, but without which the film would be but a limping shadow of itself.<br /><br />These new pieces did not leap out with a shout, full of a sense of their own importance. They just stepped out of the shadows without a word. They had always been there, lying dormant. Like Stephen King says, the story is a dinosaur fossil and the storyteller’s work is archeological work. Unearth as much of it as possible. Listen to its silent confessions. Allow it to exist again.<br /><br />The bones don’t scream their presence. And we remove them one by one with gloved hands, precision hand tools and brushes, not with jackhammers. We reassemble them one by one in to the coherent picture of a behemoth kept hidden for millions of years. Until the final bone is in place, the whole will remain shrouded, even to me... I am not its maker, only its discoverer and curator.<br /><br />There will be tales of action in the weeks to follow, particularly when principal photography gets underway in August - if our fundraising hits its mark - but this week was a nocturnal haze of magic whispers: whale bones telling of how to assemble them into a whole, in preparation of its owner’s resurrection, and immortal life in film.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-76811641918054879342010-06-12T09:28:00.000-07:002010-06-13T02:45:07.503-07:00Walk a mile in my shoes and I'll walk a mile in yours<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TBO4P451HNI/AAAAAAAAABE/PAJqfCTzwpI/s1600/image-2.670.394.s.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 188px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TBO4P451HNI/AAAAAAAAABE/PAJqfCTzwpI/s320/image-2.670.394.s.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481927754552515794" border="0" /></a><br />I wake up to the sound of a foreign, very polite-sounding voice intoning from a megaphone. It is in motion, probably coming from a vehicle, and it repeats the same couple of sentences over and over again, with the loyal precision of a recording.<br /><br />Where am I? I slip in and out of sleep.<br /><br />Another megaphone voice goes slowly by – as it gets more distant, I can no longer hear individual words. Not that I could understand any individual words.<br /><br />Now they are a soup receding into the soundscape, with only inflection remaining intelligible.<br /><br />I’m in Japan. And now I am awake.<br /><br />My Japanese improves a little with each new visit, but even though I may one day be able to hold a decent conversation, the meaning of those half-dreamt megaphone announcements will not be decipherable from that distant future. They will remain a mystery – a token of my alien status in this other world, and I like that. What were they saying? I’ll never know.<br /><br />Muscles groan from the hardcore adventure of dragging luggage and camera gear for 2 hours on trains, up and down subway stairs and corridors, and through the streets of Tokyo - all this an overdone antidote to 11 hours sitting in a flying sardine can.<br /><br />I climb down the narrow stairwell of Hideki’s house and there he is, just back from his last bit of work. He too has been insanely busy for the last few months: we are both glad to have the next few days together to focus on Whale Like Me.<br /><br />Hideki lays his understanding of the best approach to connecting with the right whaling family. We rapidly agree that rather than taking our best shot at meeting families on this trip, with a very low chance of success – the time will be better spent shooting some of the challenge sequences.<br /><br />Success in connecting with a good whaling family will hinge on cultivating alliances with figures the co-ops will respect and defer to. Those figures are the ones we must convince of the mutual benefits of the film, and their support will open the way.<br /><br />The climate is particularly difficult for approaching the whaling co-ops without authoritative Japanese support. The spotlight on the dolphin massacres has pushed some fishing communities into defensive victimhood. Extreme right wing factions have rallied to take up a nationalistic response to foreign environmentalist finger pointing.<br /><br />I believe the whale hunts must end, but I believe as strongly that giving a voice to the hunters alongside my own is the only decent way to engage with the problem. If I am strong in my belief, I must be willing to let it be directly, experientially challenged. If they are strong in theirs, they must be willing to do the same.<br /><br />Chanting ‘Save the whales’ in one land, while others chant ‘Whaling is our right’ in another, in the end, is nothing more than a huge lack of constructive communication.<br /><br />Whale Like Me will show us the outcome of both ‘sides’ walking a mile in each other’s shoes. Is true reconciliation ever possible without a healthy dose of that?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1492060629389647431.post-48537451980345939432010-06-01T00:14:00.001-07:002010-06-12T19:04:26.989-07:00Of beginnings<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TASzlb_HoVI/AAAAAAAAAAM/47RC8bT0NrA/s1600/wlm3.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 188px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nvF58aU5iyM/TASzlb_HoVI/AAAAAAAAAAM/47RC8bT0NrA/s320/wlm3.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477700502538395986" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal">Tomorrow I board a plane for Tokyo, Japan, on a difficult mission.<span style=""> </span>To find the appropriate Japanese whaling family for Whale Like Me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is a good beginning – a good place to start a blog as far you are concerned, but we have been working on Whale Like Me for 4 years now, and in earnest, for 2.<span style=""> </span>Some of the earlier events in this process will naturally find their way into this narrative, but for now focus with me on this one mission.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The mission is a difficult one: the Japanese whaling community is understandably wary of foreign media, as they feel they are invariably portrayed with a one-sided approach, casting them as the enemy.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Japanese sense of honor and loyalty is constantly aggravated by a perceived lack of sensitivity in international coverage of the controversy surrounding their whaling activities.<span style=""> </span>To them, we irrationally obsess over animals that could be sustainably hunted, and our obsession sometimes leads us to extremes that most Japanese people have been raised to find distasteful.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Until I get a chance to explain what Whale Like Me is about, this is how the Japanese Whalers will perceive me.<span style=""> </span>Without the contacts cultivated over the past couple of years, and the assistance of Japanese friends, that chance - to show them how Whale Like Me benefits us both - would probably never even arise.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are other hurdles.<span style=""> </span>Working coastal whalers in Japan organize themselves into cooperatives, and one family accepting to participate in a foreign film runs the risk of earning the disapproval of the community.<span style=""> </span>The drive to conform is strong in Japanese culture, making the prospect of such community disapproval especially difficult to endure.<span style=""> </span>The proposal I have for these families will put them in an interesting position, and I have sympathy for the difficulties they will no doubt experience in making the right decision.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What is the right decision?<span style=""> </span>Haha! – what answer do you expect from me?<span style=""> </span>To participate in Whale Like Me, of course.<span style=""> </span>Beyond the obvious self-interest in saying this, I truly believe this collaboration is in the interest of everyone involved.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here’s why.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For reconciliation and a constructive outcome, the only way forwards is open communication.<span style=""> </span>Both those in favor of and those opposed to whaling need to actually speak to each other without posturing, without propaganda, without devious politics - in a sincere effort to understand the true reasons behind the beliefs of the other ‘side’.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A lot can be said of the IWC, but it is certainly not the place to go to avoid posturing, propaganda and political manipulation.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">With Whale Like Me, Hideki, Nan Hauser, myself and a Japanese Whaling family have a very special opportunity – one that the IWC representatives will never find in the plush conference venues they meet in every year.<span style=""> </span>We have the opportunity to all come face to face with the realities that have created this stand off.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><describe></describe></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This experience will change us – in what ways, nobody knows for certain.<span style=""> </span>What we can know is that we will understand each other better for it, and that is the only valid path to a constructive solution based upon truth.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Japanese complain that all they get from foreign media is negative, biased coverage over whaling: how ironic and sad it would be if because of this fear, they turned down the one film with the ambition to create honest dialogue.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Honest dialogue will result in an improvement in international opinion of Japan<span style=""> </span>and Japanese whalers because whalers are human beings, just like the rest of us.<span style=""> </span>We can’t demonize them if we discover their humanity: their livelihood but also their loves, their fears, their day-to-day experiences. <span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The value of seeing a committed conservationist sharing meals and co-existing with whalers, remaining on respectful terms while exploring their differences, is very high at a time where confrontation levels are escalating.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">We cannot change their culture from the outside. Nobody will force the Japanese to stop killing whales, or the Norwegians or Icelanders either, for that matter. What we can do is foster new awareness through shared experience, and this African-American descendant of slaves, born in Europe and resident of Oceania, has some perspectives to share with the whalers as well as some introductions to make with some whales.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">We can also open ourselves to learning. I want to meet a whaling family, spend time with them and gain insight into the many facets of their reality rather than remain stuck with just the one image we, in the West, do not get beyond. And though I admit to a deep fear of it, I want to witness the hunt, the detonation of the grenade harpoon, and the death of a whale. Well - I really don't want to, but I must - it is necessary to this process of experience exchange, and I must want what is necessary for the process to take place - I am driving this and where my desire falters, so does the process.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The science is in to support what many of us who have met cetaceans already knew: they are sentient beings who deserve the status of person - witnessing the killing of one may well be the most difficult experience of my life - but how else can I really know what whaling and whalers are? So many of the Japanese hold their own stereotype of anti-whalers being immature, and unable to accept the cycle of life and death - the relationship of predator and prey. I must face this reality, confront my beliefs to the facts on the ground, and show that I can overcome my fear and allow my belief to evolve through direct experience. In what way it might evolve, nobody yet knows.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001964084800375473noreply@blogger.com2