Icesave - please think before you apply

p1an0player

DocProc wrote:

This reminds me a bit of how the country of Denmark lost lots of international export trade because a certain Danish newspaper showed cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed.

I did hear that whilst sales of Danish products were down in the Middle East, sales increased dramatically in parts of conservative America. The net effect was that Danish exports did better than before.

Secret_Wookie

Have to say that regardless of my own personal views on whether
Landsbanki are ethical or not, their marketing does invite this kind of disscussion

e.g this quote in their press release

"Our research suggests that people in the UK that have lump sums to invest love the idea of Iceland. They think of Magnus Magnusson and very warm, generous people..."

and the marketing on their website of

"reflects the best of modern Iceland"

If you decide to market on the basis of the brand of the country of Iceland itself you are going to invite comments into the actions of the country and have to accept the image of the brand good and bad.

Seem perfectly reasonable to ask them the question of where they stand on the issue of whaling if they have choosen to use Iceland as a branding tool.

I would be disapointed if they choose not to make a comment on their position and continue to use the country of Iceland as a marketing tool.

sham63

Sapphire,

Have you had a look at the Alliance & Leicester DirectSaver - 5.38%

You need at least £5000 - No notice for withdrawals although no interest is earned on the account balance in any month in which a withdrawal is made or the account is closed.

This is where the money that was destined for an Icesave will now be going.

Sapphire

sham63 wrote:

Sapphire,

Have you had a look at the Alliance & Leicester DirectSaver - 5.38%

You need at least £5000 - No notice for withdrawals although no interest is earned on the account balance in any month in which a withdrawal is made or the account is closed.

This is where the money that was destined for an Icesave will now be going.

Thank you, sham. I'd heard of this one but the fact that no interest is earned in a month in which a withdrawl is made put me off, since I may have to withdraw some money from time to time. I'll hold of changing from the Post Office savings account until I hear what happens about the BoE interest rates.

Sapphire

MORPH3US wrote:

Humans or animals...

Whats the difference, we're talking about saving dumb animals either way, in fact I think that might be a bit harsh on Whales, at least they live their life without trying to destroy everything they come into contact with, including each other.....

Oh and as far as I know, Whales don't go around thinking that they are the cleverest thing on the planet so therefore have a divine right not to give a crap about anything else like humans.....

M

My sentiments exactly.

Whales - and the other creatures that share this planet with us - are defenceless and cannot speak for themselves. They feel pain, terror and even sorrow just as much as we do, something that the apologists like some on this thread obviously care nothing about. They feel a few fractions of per cent more interest on their savings is more important than the welfare of such creatures. As usual, it is greed speaking.

In my view if we are so unsensitive in our dealings with other species, it's only a short step away from treating humans the same way (God knows we are capable of it, as history has shown).

As the strongest and allegedly most intelligent species on the planet, we have a responsibility to care for and speak out against injustices to those who are weaker than us. IMHO.

Cardew

markw5 wrote:

The Icelandic fishermen have decided to start whaling again. This means that the largest sentient creature of the seas is going to be harpooned and then targeted with a grenade to kill it.

The whale will take up to 30 minutes to die. It's taken years for the whale population to be revived from previous perilous levels - it will only take a few years for countries such as Iceland & Norway to decimate it again.

Mark

The Eskimos of USA(Alaska) Canada, Russia & Greenland have continued to hunt in their traditional manner with the sanction of the International Whaling Commission.

Hand held harpoons, and no method of quickly dispatching a whale, mean that death takes many hours.

So why suddenly this hysteria because modern methods of killing are deployed - the power of the media!

What should we be doing about Governments who allow their eskimo citizens to practice such barbarity?

Personally I would be happy for all whaling to be banned. However it is way down my list of unacceptable practices; and blanket bans on countries for this type of activity is plain stupid.

Chrismaths

They feel pain, terror and even sorrow just as much as we do, something that the apologists like some on this thread obviously care nothing about.

What a load of anthropomorphic nonsense. I blame Disney, people seem to think Bambi, Dumbo and the Lion King were documentaries.

margaretclare

p1an0player wrote:

I did hear that whilst sales of Danish products were down in the Middle East, sales increased dramatically in parts of conservative America. The net effect was that Danish exports did better than before.

We deliberately went out of our way to buy Danish butter, a tiny tiny drop in the ocean!

The person who was caricatured in those mildly-funny Danish cartoons did not have to endure a harpoon-gun fired into his guts and being dragged around the sea while dying slowly.

There are many, many, many abuses going on in the world today and as has been pointed out many times, where do you stop? One person can only do a limited amount. Most abuses are perpetrated by humans against other humans and by humans against the animal kingdom. I have not noticed a whale swimming up the tidal inlet less than half-a-mile from where I live, armed with a harpoon-gun to attack me.

BTW I do insist on ethical investments, but I can't boycott everything. I do what I can.

Margaret

Sapphire

Cardew wrote:

The Eskimos of USA(Alaska) Canada, Russia & Greenland have continued to hunt in their traditional manner with the sanction of the International Whaling Commission.

Hand held harpoons, and no method of quickly dispatching a whale, mean that death takes many hours.

So why suddenly this hysteria because modern methods of killing are deployed - the power of the media!

What should we be doing about Governments who allow their eskimo citizens to practice such barbarity?

This type of apologetic argument reminds me of conversations I used to have with a couple of the editors in the publishing house where I worked before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I would point out the evils of Communism, which were very well known at the time. 'Yes, but,' these would-be 'liberal intellectuals' would say, 'Nazi Facism was much worse,' as if one great evil cancelled out the other.

No one leads a completely 'moral, good' life, harming no one (or no other species). However, there are differences in degree and lines that each of us is not prepared to cross. This is one issue that I feel strongly about and am prepared to make a stand on.

As for the above post disagreeing that animals (apart from the human species) feel pain, fear and even sorrow - that is a very ignorant remark. You obviously know little about the biology and behaviour of warm-blooded animals. :cool:

MORPH3US

Chrismaths wrote:

What a load of anthropomorphic nonsense.

Oh sorry, I didn't know you had access to experimentation done on whales and whether or not they feel pain, please do share this information....

Or is the rhetoric nonsense that you spout all made up to try and make you feel big.....

M