Commentary by Paul Watson
Founder and President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

New Zealanders are a nation that respects nature and whales. There is no doubt where New Zealand stands and that is firmly in the camp of the whale defenders.

But there is one New Zealander who has chosen to make himself the enemy of the whales. He's doing it for the money, of course. His occupation is Public Relations Whore, and at the moment he is whoring for the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), the people who ruthlessly slaughter the whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.

During World War II, the Japanese had Tokyo Rose and the Germans had Lord Haha. Today, the Japanese are employing Glen Inwood, who we like to call Ginza Glen, as their chief propagandists to justify their cruelty and slaughter.

Ginza Glen founded Omeka Public Relations. He likes to affiliate himself with a Maori image believing it lends credibility to his clients.

When asked why he has chosen to work for the whale killers, Ginza Glen responded by saying, "The simple answer is because they have the right to do it. That's not to say that I don't think whales are magnificent creatures. I just don't believe they are sacrosanct -  despite the best efforts of the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 to make them so. The other answer is more complicated but is related to the environmental belief that the best way to monitor and protect whale stocks and achieve transparency is to end the moratorium and bring about a return to commercial whaling where the regulations are obeyed and seen to be obeyed."

Defending merciless slaughter is not an easy task.  The Japanese do not have the right to slaughter endangered whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. Saying that the best way to protect whales is to kill them is the kind of ridiculous justification that we have come to expect from those who make a living fabricating lies to justify exploitation. He also admits in this statement that the Japanese are not obeying the regulations with regard to the moratorium.

Inwood has a big bag of tricks arguing that eating whale is no different than eating lamb, that the Maori once whaled so why can't the Japanese, even going so far as to say that it is an insult to Maori culture to rescue stranded whales because they are a gift from Tangaroa.

Inwood has turned on his own people, labeling whale-loving New Zealanders as "bigots" for opposing Japanese whaling.     

Glen Inwood also works as a PR spokesperson for the Maori. Green Party MP Metiria Turei says the Maori fisheries settlement trust should stop using Japanese whaling industry spokesperson Glen Inwood as its communications advisor. Ms Turei says the Japanese deliberately blur the line between indigenous whaling, which some Maori support, and Japan's industrial whaling. She says by speaking for both the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research and Te Ohu Kaimoana, Glen Inwood is laying Maori open to claims they are supporting whaling in the southern ocean.

"The Japanese commercial whaling, which is effectively for human food and for dogfood, of whales which are supposed to be protected in our own Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is outrageous, and no Maori organisation should have an association with that kind of behaviour, and I don't believe the Maori owners of the resource want there to be that connection," Ms Turei says.

If given the choice between working for the Maori and whoring for the Japanese whaling industry, Ginza Glen will most likely opt for the Japanese. They pay more. And he has concocted some good stories for the whalers. For example, after the confrontation with Sea Shepherd, his task was to present the Japanese as the victims of "ruthless whale defenders." Therefore, a full twelve hours after the incident, the world is notified that two Japanese whalers were injured. No evidence was presented, of course, just a fabrication from the New Zealand office charged with the task of making the killers out to be the victims.

Inwood said that Sea Shepherd could not find the Japanese whaling fleet because of "bad seamanship." Of course, we did find the whalers the same day he said that, but how would he describe the disaster onboard the Nisshin Maru? Sounds like bad seamanship. But as the fire raged out of control, Ginza Glen was more interested in reporting how the whalers would be returning to the slaughter than in addressing the potential for a major ecological disaster should the 8,000-ton factory ship sink. 

Now Ginza Glen has the task of explaining how the whale meat - tainted by chemicals used to fight the fire, and exposed to the heat of the fire at the same time the refrigeration was off for days - is now marketable. Thousands of tons of rotting, chemically-tainted whale meat will be heading for the Japanese market. Perhaps he will say that the chemicals will preserve the meat and rotten whale meat is a traditional Japanese delicacy.

Ginza Glen is a graduate of the Joseph Goebbels School of Propaganda. He has learned that if you repeat a lie often enough, people may begin to believe it, so this is why he continually chants the mantra that "eco-terrorists are attacking innocent whalers."
I am sure his rhetoric is a hit on the Ginza but it is not winning him any friends in New Zealand.

Ginza Glen fancies himself to be a humourist and thought it was really funny to say, "I like to eat whale, but I've never been able to eat a whole one." 

Maybe he should quit PR and try stand-up comedy.

If you would like to send a message to Ginza Glen to tell him you are not amused, send him a fax or an e-mail and speak up for the whales. Tell this whale-hating New Zealander that betraying the whales for a few pieces of silver is despicable, deplorable, and downright monstrous.

Glen Inwood can be reached at:

Omeka Public Relations 
PO Box 12-490 Thorndon, Wellington 
New Zealand 
Ph +64 21 498 010 
Fax +64 21 787 570 
E-mail omeka@omeka.com