new photos up, and speech matters

That's right, on Flickr. Please enjoy.

Speech contest is tomorrow and there is absolutely no hope of memorizing my monster of a speech. I could barely read some of the kanji while reading it to Otosan. But it'll be great to speak about whaling in front of an audience, especially in Japan. The gist of my speech is this: "Whaling is an issue worthy of our concern, but when compared to the damage being done to global fisheries by overfishing, trawling, and other destructive consumptive practices, the taking of whales by a few countries is negligible, regardless of our culture's view that whales are cute and therefore should never be killed. It's ironic that a country who once whaled its way all the way to Japan in order to open its borders to trade now wants to stop the practice altogether. Whaling can be ecologically sound if proper management is implemented and laws are abided by. After all, if prolific species are taken instead of imperiled ones, what's the big deal? Let's focus instead on the larger marine problems that plague our day." In much less dignified language, but with complexity enough to ensure my stumbling come presentation time, my speech was written. Wish me luck!