Worldlog week 11 – 2015
Last week, I went to the Parabere Forum in Bilbao in Spain. Parabere Forum is an independent, non-profit conference where key food issues are discussed. Here I spoke with Hilal Elver among others, who is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food. She emphasised that there is no need to increase the production of food but that the problems are, in fact, associated with access to food, cattle feed and biofuels. It was a very interesting meeting!
Last week, I was told that we, with the Party for the Animals, have been selected for the second time to join in the boat parade during the Gay Pride in Amsterdam on Saturday the 1st of August. The boat parade is an integral part of the Amsterdam Gay Pride where all groups sail in a parade through the Amsterdam canals. I think it is great that we, as a party, are given the chance to propagate major themes like compassion and freedom during the Gay Pride.
Our Party wants to ”renovate” the Senate! We have determined the draft list of candidates for the elections for the new Senate. We currently hold one seat in the Senate. In the polls, the Party for the Animals seems to have a chance to win at least two or three seats. It is expected that in many cases we will have the casting vote in the Senate. Depending on the new composition of the Senate, I will together with the Lower House faction submit a new proposal to ban ritual slaughter without stunning.
Renovate the Senate. Hold on to your ideals. Christine Teunissen is 2nd on the list.
The NOS (Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation), which provides the news for the Dutch public service broadcasting system, organised a debate of leading Senate candidates on the radio on Sunday the 1st of March. Only the major public parties were invited to this debate. They believed that the debate would not be clear and understandable if all political parties participated but that meant that the voice of the trendsetters in the debate remained unheard. That is why we decided to buy radio airtime around this debate. I recorded two radio spots, one on the banning of ritual slaughter without stunning and the other one on the slavish approach of the current Parliamentary parties supporting the minority government.
No less than 72% of the Dutch populations believes that amateur hunting should be banned. Amateur hunters are given every support by the government to continue exercising their hobby. In several provinces in the Netherlands, citizens have started an initiative against amateur hunting, called “Ban amateur hunting”. I think it is great that committed people have initiated these initiatives and we have therefore decided to support them.
In this animation it is explained in six minutes time how we have become addicted to economic growth and why this situation has become untenable.
Until next week!
Marianne