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Globalization And Whaling

Decent Essays

Cultures change with time. Change is the only thing that is inevitable. Globalization has accelerated this change and the rate of change will continue to increase. There are situations where globalization imposes its values on local cultures against the desires of the local culture. Since local cultures should be self-determinate in the manner and speed with which their culture evolves (or devolves), many trade agreements contain exceptions for situations where foreign entities are forcing a local culture to modify their values. One example of this is the global ban on killing whales. In Norway and Japan there are local villages that have been hunting whale for centuries for food and commerce. If the global ban on whale harvesting is imposed …show more content…

This is a direct challenge to the sovereignty of those nations. I compare this to deer hunting in my nation. The impact of deer hunting is different in each state in my country similar to how whaling has a large impact on some villages but not the entire nation of Norway or Japan. If a foreign group put intense political and economic pressure to ban all of deer hunting in my country, that would be an infringement on national sovereignty just like the whaling ban in Norway and …show more content…

A committee from an organization such as the WTO may be a good starting point for deciding who should participate in the negotiations for promoting the whale ban. Because an issue this complex and involved needs to have negotiations on who will be participating in the negotiations. The villagers are much more limited on the resources they have for such negotiations. It is fortunate that the nations of Norway and Japan appear to be aligned with the villagers so that additional resources are there to promote the values of that culture. And since the impact of the whaling ban is so large on these local cultures, the negotiating parameters should be weighted to their side in some manner to prevent a large number of people with little to lose out-weighing the small number of people who have everything to lose. But keep in mind, these weights cannot be determined without accurate (unbiased) and timely data on the impact to the environment and the

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