How can politics have a positive impact on the survival of the whales? 

I do not watch TV-news very often; there are too much negative affirmations and too few search for positive solutions in my opinion. It’s as if good news did not raise the same interest from the public.

But yesterday I switched on TV just in time to hear that Iceland, this northern country known for her volcanoes, her hot springs and her recent financial breakdown, had decided to apply for the admission into the European Union. Another one, I thought, for even though I had been a fervent supporter of the EU in the beginning, feeling the effects of it in our daily life I have cooled off a bit. It will take some more time and lots of talking until Europe will be really One and yet allowing each member to maintain its unique customs and qualities.

And now Iceland wants to join the big family. As we all know, Iceland has started whaling again last year. The big EU-countries Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, are strictly against whaling. So it would be impossible to allow a country into the Union that still practices this cruel and completely unnecessary industry, especially as it is for purely financial gain of some shortsighted and unscrupulous individuals and the indigene people do not depend on the flesh to survive. Iceland is a modern country and it’s not to her favor to continue slaughtering already endangered species. The EU could never admit a new country as a full member that does not respect certain essential conditions for the protection of the environment. So there is hope that soon, even before the admission is legal, Iceland will have to stop whaling.

Welcome Iceland and thank you for saving the lives of the whales.

Hopefully the time will come when the last two whaling nations Norway and Japan might be brought to revise their politics concerning whaling, dolphin slaughter and fishery practices, maybe by the power of economic pressure: cars, TVs and other products against the life of marine mammals …