The world needs more heroes in these parlous times when most people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There are several instances where heroic attempts are being made to right some of the more obvious abuses of which governments are aware and about which they choose to do zilch.
The first hero is Paul Watson, the admirable captain of the Sea Shepherds' fleet, attempting to spoil the activities of the Japanese whalers who are illegally slaughtering whales - for what they claim is for scientific purposes - in the Southern Ocean, a whale sanctuary for which Australia is responsible.
Paul Watson is almost piratical in his no-holds-barred methods in attempting to spoil their efforts.
Watson writes, "We have them on the run! And when they're running, they're not whaling! Right now, during Operation Divine Wind, we have two ships in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary defending the whales against illegal slaughter. We are chasing the whalers, and we intend to chase them out of the Sanctuary - forever!
"Our clients are the great whales, other sea creatures, and the people of the world who desire their protection. Our weapons are the truth through the eyes of the camera backed by a courage born of compassion and sustained by a fiery passion for the sanctity and respect for all life and for the upholding of international conservation law. We will end the slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean and other marine atrocities worldwide, but we need your help to make it possible. Our approach is unconventional, yet our results are undeniable. Please stand strong with us. The time is now."
Another possible hero is Julian Assange, responsible for the release of hundreds of thousands of classified US documents through Wikileaks, revealing many very embarrassing hypocrisies committed by individuals of all political/national shades, showing that what they say publicly is not necessarily what they think and do privately.
Assange is presently appealing against Swedish efforts to extradite him from the UK for what seems to have been a classic 'honey trap' with strong suspicions that, if he is successfully extradited there, the next step will be for him to be claimed by the US government, much embarrassed by the Wikileaks revelations, and where there have even been demands that Assange should be executed or imprisoned for life.
What these two cases have in common is the federal government's unhonoured obligations by doing nothing effective about the illegal whaling by the Japanese and of giving absolutely no support to Assange, who is an Australian citizen.
Obviously, too gutless to put principles above expediency for fear of upsetting, on the one hand, the Japanese and trade and, on the other, the Americans for political reasons.
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