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Forums - Community - An Unnumbered Emergency Drawing Challenge

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1. 5 Jul 2012 00:23

chelydra

Today's news reports that South Korea, with the blessings of the IWC, is going to join Japan in the grotesque charade of "scientific whaling". For me, this is a crime comparable to the Final Solution, and calls for a fierce and immediate defence of the races that will otherwise be exterminated (the rest of the way).

Coinciding with (and contributing to) both the current showcase (aquatics) and jaybuddy's current Mugdots Challenge (hunting), I hope others will join in creating some TD propaganda to support the work of Sea Shepherd, which is probably the only conservation group in the world that's currently doing anything (not only about whaling but about anything).

Since TD is not generally used as a propaganda organ for personal beliefs (outside of Christianity), contributions advocating more and faster whaling (or support for money-hungry do-nothing environmental groups) will also be accepted.

Remember those grade school poster contests, where all the kids had to design a poster about looking both ways before you cross the street? It's like that, only more fair, as if the school also invited posters urging you to cross without looking.

Perhaps this will evolve into another on-going series of challenges, with each winner naming the next propaganda campaign subject (with the most compelling work by dissenters winning a different prize, and dissenters/opponents always allowed to fully participate, but winning only when their work changes the mind of the judge/jury).

I will add a bit about Sea Shepherd sometime soon. It won't be 100% positive about its founder and fearless leader, but political perfection is beside the point in emergencies.

So - post your contributions in the showcase and in Mugdots, as well as here. Maybe we can turn the best ones into printed posters, as well on-line mini-posters suitable for email, facebook, etc.

2. 5 Jul 2012 00:38

chelydra

An off-topic note:

Lest anyone feels offended by the phrasing "propaganda organ for personal beliefs (outside of Christianity)" please note that I am a proud professional propagandist (sometimes for hire, sometimes self-motivated) and have done poster campaigns, cartoons, etc, for more causes (most worrthy, some mercenary) than I can remember for about fifty years. So for me, "propaganda" is not a bad word. And if 'm not mistaken, the propagation of one's personal belief system is precisely what the New Testament tells true Christians to do.

3. 5 Jul 2012 00:50

chelydra

Back to the Emergency Challenge:
Bear in mind that the most effective propoganda is moving and memorable; it can whisper rather than shout. Humor, grim or otherwise, can be effective even when dealng with the most appalling and tragic subjects. Beauty matters, too. Horrific images, to be effective, have to be handled with sensitivity.

I mentioned South Korea and Japan, but Norway and Iceland are also shameless diehard whalers, and there are many black Caribbean and African states that have succumbed to Japan's bribes to change their votes in the IWC. So by all means, feel free to depict (or caricature) people of specific races involved in this horrific practice, but be sure to all the guilty parties.

4. 5 Jul 2012 01:18

chelydra

Another footnote: There are of course millions of people fighting hard for conservation who have mostly never even heard of Sea Shepherd — but it seems to me that they're all doing it outside of the Environmental Establishment, the big famous organizations that generally treat their members as mere sources of money and rarely if ever engage in grassroots struggles. The legitimate campaigners include rainforest tribes sacrificng their lives to defend their land, the low-caste farmers of India resisting Monsanto's GM seed scams, and all sorts of sponteanous ad hoc responses to destructive "development" schemes in cities and small towns, and so forth and so on. Counterpunch, PR Watch, and the Earth Island Institute are good sources of information and analysis.

But Sea Shepherd stands alone in the realm of action. Captain Paul Watson is our equivalent of Winston Churchill, the flawed and quirky character with all sorts of nasty opinions, who alone had the balls to stand up to Hitler when everyone else was standing aside and watching and waiting, or surrendering, or collaborating. And the Sea Shepherd fleet is the equivalent of those RAF Spitfires that kept going after the Luftwaffe, never giving up—and if it hadn't been for the heroism of the Battle of Britain, Hitler would have won the war. (He still could have run in trouble invading Russia, but that would then have been a different war.)
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Sea Shepherd's little navy is fighting on behalf of the whole planet — and I think the Earth War that's coming is probably going to make World War Two look civilized, because the other side won't stop until it has everything it wants (which is apparenting everything there is).

5. 5 Jul 2012 01:56

chelydra

I wasn't aware of this news while writing the above:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/03/1105679/-Action-Paul-Watson-of-Sea-Shepherds-facing-e xtradition

6. 5 Jul 2012 06:58

arty

I agree with all the above. I don't know if South Africa is a member of IWC, I hope not, I would be ashamed of my adopted country of over 40yrs. We have a dreadful slaughtering of our rhinos. Since 2008 we have lost 1,200 and increasing daily. Horns are brutally cut and the rhinos are left to die an agonising death. These horns are used by China, Thailand, and other such countries as a supposed cure from cancer to many other medical problems. It is also considerd to be an aphrodisiac. We have a number of websites dealing with support against this dreadful slaughter.

7. 6 Jul 2012 07:22

indigo

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=172869

Live....and let live!

8. 6 Jul 2012 22:56

sandm

Just have read the above (made a print-out yesterday:) and now want to tell promptly, that I support your project. Its such a good idea for TD and it concentrates the forces on one important subject.

I cant work on the screen, therefore I cant draw a pic, - so I give a kind of mental contribution.

9. 7 Jul 2012 10:07

clorophilla

hope it could add my little drop to the sea
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=172976

10. 7 Jul 2012 14:09

clorophilla

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=172997

11. 7 Jul 2012 14:43

five

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=172999

12. 7 Jul 2012 16:06

indigo

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=173001

Spouting

13. 7 Jul 2012 18:17

lesley_gene

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=173008

Whales frolicking in save seas.

14. 8 Jul 2012 08:53

chelydra

Great to see some responses materializing. Whales and whaling (the classic kind) happen to be great TD subjects, and some of these are very fine as 'message' pieces too. The Sea Shepherd angle opens possibilities for sea battle scenes (Marky are you there?). And anyone who wants to take a really gruesome and disturbing aspect of the crisis could try a picture of the IWC holding a meeting and voting on quotas (which is really where the murderous contempt for life on earth is at its most malignant, far more than in the harpoon crews sending their explosives out to blow those awesome brains to bloody smithereens). Thanks again!

15. 8 Jul 2012 08:58

chelydra

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=104393

Apologies if I already re-posted this here. I just checked the link on message 11, and it is still working as of now --the background is in the article is pretty important, and it's a quick read.

16. 8 Jul 2012 09:25

Dragon

Just had to comment on this thread as I think it is such an important topic. Thank you chelydra for bringing it here to TD. I've been familiar with the Sea Shepard team for a while from the show Whale Wars which documents thier fight against so called "Scientific Whaling". I'm disheartend to find out that Korea is now involved as well.
The Sea Shepards have also worked tirelessly to try to stop the horrific slaughter of sharks for their fin for shark fin soup. I would encourage anyone out there who is interested in sea conservation to watch the documentary "Sharkwater". It's shocking and heartrending, but so important too.
Once again, thanks chelydra for encouraging discussion!

17. 8 Jul 2012 15:11

AFSOUTH

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=173064

18. 8 Jul 2012 18:09

kata

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=173062

19. 9 Jul 2012 07:03

chelydra

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=173086

This one by Lolla is accompanied by a hair-raising childhood memory, worth reading, which makes all this whale-talk terrifyingly real.

20. 9 Jul 2012 07:30

chelydra

This just arrived in my in-box... I'm reminded of one of my fathers-in-law, who (I'm told, I never met the man) had a habit of shaking his head and muttering "bad monkeys" whenever he saw anything in the news indicating what a hopelessly depraved species we belong to.



Help Save Whales and Otters in California from Seismic Testing

Please help us save Blue, Humpback and Fin Whales in California waters by supporting the new State Marine Reserve areas set aside for conservation under the Marine Life Protection Act.

Using the best science available, a broad coalition of stakeholders created an unprecedented series of Marine Protected Areas along the west coast of the United States. Among these MPA’s are a series of State Marine Reserves, where no ‘take’ (killing) of living marine resources is permitted. But no sooner did the California Fish & Game Commission designate the last of these coastal gems than did Pacific Gas and Electric company announce they were going to start seismic testing near their Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant off the central coast of California by pounding the coast with 240db blasts. These blasts will happen every 63 seconds, around the clock for 42 straight days and nights, starting September, 2012!

http://noyonews.net/?p=6344

They admit it will kill about everything in Point Buchon State Marine Reserve, from Great Blue Whales, down to minute larvae, as they blast along a 90 mile stretch of California coast, trying to ‘prove’ the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant is ‘safe’, sitting on 3 earthquake faults! Most alarming of all is that the very first two State Marine Reserves ever made (Morro Bay Estuary and Point Buchon) are both already under pressure to be ignored and violated, business as usual. But business as usual will not bring the ocean back to a state of health and abundance, which is the whole purpose of State Marine Reserves.

Please contact the folks in charge and tell them to protect the integrity of all Marine Protected Areas of California, especially the State Marine Reserves now threatened by dredging (at Morro Bay Estuary) and by seismic testing blasts (at Point Buchon).

Thanks for your help!

Joey Racano, Director
Ocean Outfall Group


Here’s a sample letter:

Sirs,

The Marine Life Protection Act was created to bring our depleted oceans back to health and abundance, and State Marine Reserves is how that goal is to be accomplished. With sea level rise, ocean acidification, pollution and overfishing, it is more important than ever we take meaningful action. Please do not allow exceptions to the rules protecting the integrity of State Marine Reserves anywhere, and specifically do not allow the Morro Bay Marina to be dredged because it may contaminate the adjacent State Marine Reserve by unleashing mud-bound toxins, and do not allow P.G. & E. to use 240db blasts near Point Buchon State Marine Reserve where it will kill Blue, Fin and Humpback Whales. Such exceptions will threaten all State Marine Reserves in California, and keep them from returning our precious coastal resources to a natural state of health and abundance.

Respectfully, (your name here)

Send or call to:

Ken Wiseman, Executive Director
Marine Life Protection Act
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 533-6971
e mail: Wiseman@resources.ca.gov

John Laird
Secretary of Resources
California Natural Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653-5656
(916) 653-8102 fax
e mail: secretary@resources.ca.gov

Sonke Mastrup, Executive Director
California Fish and Game Commission
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1320
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone Number: (916) 653-4899 Fax Number: (916) 653-5040
E-Mail: FGC@fgc.ca.gov