Hope is a fish

It is rare that good news hits the headlines. But a report on the strike by fishermen in Europe is indeed joyful.

For decades industrial fishermen have been raping the seas, putting at threat of extinction innumerable marine species, polluting the waters with their waste. Basically taking whatever they can without a thought for the future. And each time someone tries to make them behave themselves, the spineless bureaucrats of Paris and Brussels give in to them.

Finally, help for the world’s fish comes from a surprising corner: oil. The very weapon with which oil companies have wiped out fish and seabirds in the past, is now so expensive, that the fishermen cannot afford to buy fuel. So they have dropped their anchors, and are allowing the fish a moment of respite.

Why should Brussels help the fish industry? This is an industry which has been living on the fat of the sea in an utterly irresponsible manner for decades, and now goes begging to Brussels for help. If Brussels has to offer help, in return it must impose exacting and rigorous controls over the way fishing is done.

Let us meanwhile hope that the striking fishermen can persuade their chums in Iceland, Norway, and Japan to follow suit. Dare we hope for a global fishing strike? Or even, perhaps, a permanent, global fishing strike?

This entry was posted in Environment, society, politics and economics. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Hope is a fish

  1. Anonymous says:

    The Green Dictatorship

    According to a report by the Food Climate Research Network based at the University of Surrey, UK, quoted in The Guardian’s 30th of September issue warns that campaigns that encourage people to change their eating habits are doomed to fail. Instead of inviting people to change their eating habits voluntarily the author of the report urges governments to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to force people to eat considerably less animal protein, as the livestock industry is blamed for much of the greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries. At the same time, another article also in The Guardian urges supermarkets to reduce choice and sales of meat and dairy products.

    The fact that such recommendations are generated in the UK, a country in which creeping authoritarianism is causing quite some anxiety doesn’t come as a surprise. What’s surprising, though is that the impending arrival of green dictatorship can go unnoticed. I am sure the proponents of this rationalisation of food supply would argue that it’s all for the better: people eat too much meet anyway, and the less animal protein they eat the thinner and the healthier they will be, etc. The thinner the people the less obesity-related diseases the debt-burdened health systems will have to deal with, and so costs to the said health systems will go down. Because that’s what’s behind all that data showing you the benefits of turning vegetarian: not concern for your health, but for pulic finances and the fear that in a few years from now the brave neo-liberal and free-market loving West will default en masse on pension payments.

    The US and some EU countries are nationalising the huge debt of their crippled financial systems. The hegemony of what John Gray calls “free market fundamentalism” is reaching the end and the Anglo-Saxon governments that yesterday were imposing economic deregulation on the rest of the world are now frantically regulating their finances. And this, combined with the ideology of the green crusaders makes me wonder: what is the West turning into…?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.