Greenpeace, PETA, Blue Cross and other assorted loonies

Call them ultra-liberal organizations, enviro-nazis, environmental terrorists - what you will, the fact remains that these are extremely powerful organizations. These are not your neighborhood lost-puppy lovers club.

Perhaps you can recognize the Blue Cross logo from recent news reports. Yes, this is the organization that spearheaded the ban on the ancient Tamil sport of Jallikattu. Fortunately this ban was subsequently lifted.

PETA is also no stranger to us, mostly because of pictures of Bollywood stars in weird costumes that occasionally adorn the magazines. Right about now PETA is engaged in a protracted high profile campaign against Japanese whaling ships. Things are getting really twisted over there. Apparently a PETA vessel attempted to obstruct a Japanese whaling ship which resulted in the Japanese crew capturing a PETA activist and holding him on board. He is being offered whale meat for food. All this drama is accompanied by the usual visuals, young women drenched with fake blood (and wearing not much else) making protests at prominent Japanese landmarks.

Greenpeace is relatively unknown, but it is making its presence felt in India. Greenpeace has a huge ship which they use to travel around the world and terrorize oil companies. They often storm oil rigs and wage protests. The most famous case involving Greenpeace was the Brent Spar fiasco. Long story short, it eventually turned out that Greenpeace had way over-estimated the residual oil on the rig and their suggested method of disposal would have caused much more environmental damage.

Such is the fearsome reputation of these organizations that business schools offer special courses to counter their effect on business operations. Case studies of the Brent Spar case is often part of the curriculum.

These organizations are largely self-sustaining, i.e. they are run by volunteers. They receive donations from supporters. They are extremely well organized outfits and run with the efficiency of the best of MNCs. Their moves are hardly ever random, they are guided by the best in strategy and economics. Their tactics border on blackmail and people are often left wondering about their true motives. Nudity seems to be a favorite form of expression.

So far, the activities of these organizations were limited to North America and the Eurozone, occasionally Japan. This is for two reasons, these countries offer the most vulnerable shakedown targets. Also, these countries have a much higher tolerance for free speech or activities in the guise of free speech. You are not likely to see Greenpeace in the Middle East or China. Similarly you are not likely to see PETA demanding mandatory stunning of animals prior to slaughter - for obvious reasons.

India is emerging as a soft target for these terrorists. So far the economic potential was not strong enough to get the attention of Greenpeace & Co. Now they have arrived and they are here to make trouble. Already they have Amarnath pilgrimage etc. on their radar. Of all forms of animal cruelty, they targeted Jallikattu! One wonders why!