Jugalator's Journal: Sweden Accidentally Votes "Yes" For Whale Hunting

Sweden recently accidentally voted "yes" in the question whether Iceland may proceed with hunting whales. Being a swede myself, I don't know if I should cry or laugh. :-)

Personally, I'm against whale hunting. If people from Iceland so badly need to make some money, they should look somewhere else than at the few majestic creatures left on Earth.

Also in Seattle Times:

STOCKHOLM -- Sweden said yesterday its representatives made a mistake when they voted for Iceland's membership in the International Whaling Commission earlier this week, a move allowing Iceland to restart whaling.

Sweden's Environment Ministry said the "yes" vote -- which tipped the international whaling organization in favor of Iceland -- was due to a bureaucratic problem and said the country still opposed whaling and would try to take back the decision.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said the Swedish delegation only supported Iceland's membership because of the whaling organization's complicated voting procedure.

Iceland walked out of the organization 10 years ago in anger over the worldwide moratorium on whale hunting.

Since then, it has made attempts to rejoin but has not been willing to recognize the moratorium. It succeeded in gaining readmission Monday after an extremely tight vote ending 19-18.

Several key players, such as Britain and the United States, opposed Iceland's membership.