Whale of a time!

Who knows what the international whaling forum will decide to do in the next few days.
We do not understand the value that Japanese put on whales. We do not understand, I think, Japanese attitudes to cuisine. The rather extraordinary "Iron Chef" on SBS on Saturday evenings at 8.30 p.m. gives us something of an understanding that for the Japanese food is more than just nourishment. We, the English and the Australians, may never have appreciated this. Iron Chef is an exquisite campy show which nevertheless shows us that eating has real value. This is not a dollar phenomenon it is social experience. It speaks of what society regards as having high value. This is perhaps too sociological a way to look at things, but it is good to look at things in a way vastly different from the modi operandi that we normally adopt.
Into all this the whale fits. They are not just food, they are value. We might appreciate something of this if we were told we could no longer eat lamb or beef, because they were now protected. I in no way defend the Japanese position, but there is more to it than meats (sic) the eye!!