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April 09, 2005
Greetings from the Whale Embassy
I am sitting in the big green dome (I am apparently hereforth to be officially known as Risso's Dolphin. Personally I'd like to be the hourglass dolphin but that could be asking for trouble considering how much food I've been eating! You can just call me Risso). We have Buena Vista Social Club on in the background, and the green dome is romantically lit with generator-driven fluorescent lighting. It's a bit chilly, but we've tried to make it cosy with lots of children's drawings, photos of whales, and the warming scent of pot noodles. Most exciting for me is the broadband internet - I think it's amazing! In Amsterdam, where I live, you have to sign your soul over to an internet company to get broadband, but here it seems all you have to do is ring up Korea Telecom and say "Hi, we're in the whale embassy. That's right, the big green dome in the middle of the street. Think we can get broadband?"
It's been a calm but industrious day at the Embassy, with a lot of home decorating going on, and the construction of several more whale tails. We have also hung flags and messages of support from the public around the site, and at night we sling hammocks across the dome for people to sleep. The embassy also posesses a brand new football, we're hoping to organise some matches with the locals.
Unlike most embassies, ours is staffed 24 hours a day. We've already had meetings here with local officials. There was a false alarm this morning when masked men in matching bandanas were spotted in cars outside at 5am. It turned out however that it was an industrial protest being organised down the road, and the participants actually supported our presence, but it gave us an insight into the style of Korean protests!
It was great to read some positive articles in the press about our work here in Korea, one even proclaimed "Let's make Korea's waters a playground for whales." We've pinned the articles up around the embassy. I think we're really making progress. The only overtly negative response we've had has been a few old men on their morning power walk, who decided to take some time out from their exercise to vigorously pretend to stab the large inflatable whales in front of our camp.
The KFEM crew have just arrived to take over watch duty at the site, so this will be a short entry, more tomorrow I promise!
And BIG thanks to everyone who's taken part in our cyberaction. We have over 12,000 responses so far, so keep them coming!! If you haven't taken action yet, please check out:
Posted by Adele at April 9, 2005 04:26 PM
