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JUXTAPOSITION

Late yesterday afternoon a Press Release arrived from SSCS in the PR Folder of NAUTICAL LOG. We looked through it, were quite amazed by some of its content and decided that the AFC and NFC Championship Games were more important - life does have its priorities. This morning we are reading through it more carefully over breakfast coffee and what a piece-of-work it is.

It has been over a week since the last PR, other than the shopping trip information, the tone and content of the latest 'Wats-his-name' effort is somehow rather different. Unlike his usual dramatic bombastic style this one is filled with explanations, excuses and how wonderful the crews morale is. This latter comment in a report is usually a sign that all is not well in a ship. One definitely gets the sense that there has been a division in the ranks of the SSCS Pirate Group in these three vessels and perhaps ashore as well. All this is in contrast to another troubling incident in our maritime world that occurred this week during the SSCS silent period. This is "A Question of Mutiny" that saw the dismissal of a German Commanding Officer from the German Navy's premier sail training ship. This was done by the German Defence Minister, an aristocrat, to save his political skin. Now the future of a magnificent vessel is in jeopardy due to socialist political thinking.

In contrast 'Wats-his-name' is talking about this being the last campaign, the complexity of planning one of these campaigns, the difficulties of supplies, fuel and crew changes. Also he seems to be thinking of his legacy. There is this grandiose egotistical statement, we quote:

"It is never an easy task and not quite as simplistic as many of our detractors seem to think it is. Our campaigns are major Antarctic expeditions in every possible way. They are grander in terms of ships, crew and equipment than any of the famous Shackleton, Scott, or Amundsen expeditions of nearly a century ago".

Wow hear this y'all !! This person is actually comparing himself to explorers who had not even a fraction of the equipment available today and describing himself as superior to them, not even equal to them but superior. This is an ego carried to extremes and is quite typical of cult leaders in general according to research by NAUTICAL LOG. For the safety of those crews whose morale he says is good it would seem time has passed for this cult leader. But wait there is more, read it for yourselves in "Halfway Through Operation No Compromise", and we shall quote some key statements:

"The article titled Japan's whaling fleet on the Run recently published by the Sydney Morning Herald is indicative of the kind of positive media we are achieving in Australia".

The article seems to be by one of the SSCS tame reporters which NAUTICAL LOG has been told about by Australian commenter's. The article is complete "Watsonese" and biased to the point that this becomes clear immediately. While an activist maritime blog can take a somewhat biased point-of-view on occasions a newspaper is supposed to be balanced. So the Sydney Morning Herald must be a New York Times style of newspaper publishing only one side of things - rather pointless.

Finally we come to a classic piece of cult leader logic, we quote:

"In reference to the argument that our efforts are entrenching on Japanese resistance to end whaling, we can only remind people that the alternative is to surrender to the will of the whalers, and that we simply shall not do. The same argument was said during the movement to oppose apartheid in South Africa. Yes, the white South African regime did entrench but then ultimately they fell under the weight of international public opinion".

This did it for NAUTICAL LOG to us this man has clearly lost all sense of proportion and cannot put together a logical argument. Comparing a complex political situation in a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-national country to a campaign to save and protect whales is away beyond comparing apples and oranges. There is no aristocratic foreign minister available to remove him from command so SSCS must do this themselves and for the sake of the crews the sooner the better.

Good Watch.

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