OPTIMISTICALLY CAUTIOUS By ERROL OH
Award-winning documentary on dolphin slaughter in Japan should be a wake-up call for palm oil industry
ANYBODY who cares about the palm oil industry should watch The Cove. It's an Oscar-winning documentary that skewers Japan's whaling industry primarily by highlighting the killing of dolphins and porpoises in a town called Taiji. The filmmakers say the slaughter is an annual affair that the Japanese fishermen and authorities wanted to keep a secret. The efforts to film the culling despite the many obstacles, supplies the drama and suspense that make The Cove so gripping.
It plays like an ecological Mission Impossible. We see how a team of specialists (including technicians, divers and activists) was assembled for the daunting task of covertly recording the goings-on in a remote spot the cove that gave the feature its title that was off-limits to outsiders. Unique skills came in handy and clever improvisations helped save the day. Then there were the cat-and-mouse games when the filmmakers ventured out to survey locations and to install equipment without being caught.
The end result was stark footage of fishermen nonchalantly spearing the aquatic mammals, which had been herded into the cove and had nowhere to escape. To the fishermen, it was apparently another day at the office, but to many of those who have watched the documentary, it was a horrific example of brutal and unnecessary blood-letting.
All that needs to happen is for the right people to come together to combine resources, and the palm oil industry may well have a PR disaster on its hands.
These scenes are the emotional epicentre of The Cove. They are bound to invoke outrage and disgust in most of us, particularly those who see dolphins as intelligent, lovable and harmless creatures. Few of us can imagine ourselves stabbing a helpless dolphin to death so as to earn money. And the documentary claims that 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed off the coast of Japan every year.
But it's not the imagery alone that powers the documentary. The Cove is also presented as a work of investigative journalism that uncovers shady conduct linked to the Japanese whaling industry. For example, it alleges that the dolphin meat from the Taiji slaughter is passed off as whale meat, and that's a problem because the meat contains toxic levels of mercury. The portion of the film that dwells on mercury poisoning via seafood is likely to make you think twice about eating sushi.
The documentary also takes aim at the International Whaling Commission, claiming that it's toothless and that Japan has used aid funds to bolster the pro-whaling lobby within the commission. In addition, it rubbishes the claims that the dolphin population needs to be controlled to slow down the depletion of the global fish stocks.
Another of the filmmakers' targets is the international trade in live dolphins. The Cove makes a persuasive case against keeping dolphins in captivity, and there is no better person to argue this point than Ric O'Barry, who is easily the film's most pivotal and compelling figure. In the 1960s, O'Barry caught and trained the five dolphins that were featured in the TV series Flipper. He made a 180-degree turn when one of the dolphins died he said it committed suicide and became an activist bent on freeing captive dolphins.
It's no surprise that The Cove was given the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 2009, among a host of other accolades. It's a well-crafted film that tells its story with utter conviction. And the subject matter leaves little room for fence-sitting; you're either against the dolphin-slayers or you're not. And let's face it, after watching the documentary, how many people living far away from Japan can comfortably ally themselves with the fishermen of Taiji?
There are complaints of inaccuracies and bias in the film, but these seem feeble when stacked against its sheer visceral impact. Who pauses to think if the fishermen have got a fair shake when they have obviously gone to great lengths to hide what they're doing to the dolphins at Taiji?
The documentary has increased international pressure on Taiji and Japan's whaling industry. At the very least, anybody who has watched The Cove will come away with a vague notion that in Japan, dolphins die cruelly in the name of commerce. And for sure, there's greater awareness now of the anti-whaling movement.
Imagine if one day somebody decides to produce a documentary providing shocking images that support the accusations of the anti-palm oil lobby. Instead of dolphins, the filmmaker may want to focus on orangutans; after all, they're just as cute and cuddly. And it's not a new idea. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have attacked the palm oil industry by saying the development of plantations in Borneo and Sumatra is pushing the orangutan towards extinction.
Such a documentary can have several other aspects to zoom in on the environmental damage and global warming caused by deforestation, the displacement of indigenous people, and the exploitation of labour.
These are the issues that have driven campaigns against the palm oil industry. The difference is that a documentary can potentially be more damaging, especially if it's as much-lauded and well-publicised as The Cove is. All that needs to happen is for the right people to come together to combine resources, and the palm oil industry may well have a PR disaster on its hands.
Of course, it's terribly unfair and absurd to liken oil palm growers to fishermen who kill dolphins. Yet, when you consider that the anti-palm oil NGOs probably have the same fierce passion and spirit that fuel the groups opposing whaling, there's no reason for the palm oil industry to believe that it will never be the villain in a movie.
The key here is to be honest and transparent. The fishermen and the authorities in Taiji were arrogant in thinking they had done enough to keep the outside world from seeing what went on at the cove. The Japanese fisheries official interviewed in the documentary appear to have been either ignorant or untruthful.
The Malaysian palm oil industry has done plenty to counter the moves of the anti-palm oil lobby and to engage stakeholders here and abroad. These involve telling people about the right things that the industry is doing. But what about the black sheep and the shortcomings? What is being done to address these? Is there a willingness to acknowledge the problems and to punish the wrongdoers? If the industry and the government don't do this, somebody else may.
And if this person is a talented filmmaker with solid financial and organisational backing, it's possible that Malaysia may finally make its presence felt at the Oscars ... but for the wrong reasons.
Deputy executive editor Errol Oh is now in the midst of deciding whether zoos and marine parks are a bad thing.
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