November 2012
I’ve never understood what people makes enthusiastic with patriotism. For me,
artificial constructs of nations and national identities make no sense therefore
I usually don’t think in structures like this.
But sometimes I can’t help and start to find a particular group of people more awful
than others – depending on their behaviour.
Sometimes some groups of humans or nations even become a symbol for
seemingly boundless human ignorance: Japan, Malta, Italy or Faroe Islands
for instance.
For many years I have been working on research vessels and some of them sail under the flag
of the Faroe Islands. It is well known that Faroese every year mass slaughter hundreds of
Pilot Whales Globicephala melas and Atlantic White-sided Dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus
– a “tradition” they call Grindadráp.
Staying at deck under this flag sometimes produces quite a bad mood. Here’s is the sound of
it flapping in a stiff breeze.
PFR08220, 121029, flag, 5bft, Baltic Sea, MS Laura, MS-Stereo
Nevertheless staying on deck of a ship in a stiff breeze or even a storm is great fun
– crushing waves, every part of the vessel resonating…
PFR08563, 121029, wind, 7bft, Baltic Sea, MS Laura, ORTF
121106, wind, 5bft, Baltic Sea, MS Christoffer, ORTF