Each of us sees the world through the window of our own experience and culture. The lights that shine through that window are the many kinds of information that inform us about what we see "on the other side", as well as those "facts" that inform us about the world of our own lives, on our own side of the window. In modern times, people have developed ways of sharing their differing views of our common world, through the lenses of diplomacy, negotiation, and attempts at mutual understanding and cooperation. This strategy for having working relationships outside one's own culture was formed when it dawned on many people that the old ways of persuasion, through force and violence, were not all that effective or beneficial over time.

The ICRW was formed as an effective way for many nations to find mutual benefit from blending the perspectives of whale conservation with those of whale utilization. Thus we recall that famous phrase in the ICRW preamble which states: "Having decided to conclude a convention to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry;"

Today, sadly, the windows through which many in the western world perceive whales and whaling are admitting fewer sources of light than formerly. Two distinct views have emerged at the house of the IWC because of two very different kinds of information that have penetrated the consciousness of common citizens and their national leaders. Some of us are in cultural houses with windows on the world that admit only one scene, while no other light penetrates through the shadows that have formed around us.

Anti-whaling proponents resist all attempts by those in other cultural houses to remove the clouds that cast shadows of prejudice and suspicion. They refuse to admit the lights of science and cultural tolerance. Their view of whaling is seen through the lens of political power to be gained at home through strategies of coercion and political blackmail. What national leader would decide to make pro-whaling decisions based on science and respect for cultural differences when he or she is aware that at home, the opposition party and green NGOs will use all manner of untrue, negative information to cause a loss of office at election time? No national leader wishes to be labeled "anti-environment", which is just what happens any time that there is a possibility that decisions would be made in accordance with the mandates of the Convention; i.e., all whale management decisions are to be made on the basis of science.

If the leader's own citizens do not participate in whaling, or do not derive some cultural or economic benefit from it, then the national policy of obstructionism at IWC will not change, regardless of words written long ago in a Convention preamble, and regardless of increasing and overwhelming evidence that a cooperative, multi-species approach to whale and fisheries management is the only scientifically justifiable answer to newly perceived problems in the marine environment.

Our world is viewed through many windows. The lights of science and the lights of tolerance for human differences are still beacons for many people. We at IWMC fervently hope that the darkness of intolerance and hatred can be overcome in the future so that all people can work together towards the goals of sustainability and lasting conservation of all the earth's natural resources.