Worldlog Week 39 – 2012

This has been an interesting week. Tuesday was Prinsjesdag, and Thursday saw the instalment of the new House. What's more, we saw the definitive election results. We received two votes too few in every Dutch municipality to reach three seats. That is a shame, but we did manage to run the most successful campaign of our 10-year existence!

I wore an amazing 'battle dress' for Prinsjesdag, and combined it with a munitions belt filled with ecologically grown summer carrots from my husband's farm. The dress created quite a stir! It was inspired by Che Guevara's granddaughter Lydia Guevara – it was her idea to wear a munitions belt with carrots for PETA – an international animal welfare organisation. Lydia is the face of PETA's South American campaign to promote vegetarian diets.

A young artist on Twitter was so inspired by the Vé Guevara outfit, that she made a paper chain of it that you can hang up to protect your room. If you like the idea, it's easy to do! 😀

I used my bullet-free munitions belt to call attention on Prinsjesdag to our up-and-coming legislative proposal against hunting for sport. I also wanted to highlight the growing resistance to exhausting the earth’s resources and the fact that the economy is outgrowing its strength!

The message that we cannot continue this way with eating meat is gaining momentum all across the world. Read, for example, Roger Ebert's Journal in the Chicago Sun Times about vegetarianism.

On Thursday, Esther and I were once again sworn in as Members of the Lower House. We're resuming the good fight to make the Netherlands a more animal-friendly and sustainable country. After we were sworn in, we debated the cabinet formation. The two biggest winners of the election – the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) – will be the first to discuss Cabinet formation. I believe a VVD/PvdA cabinet is the most obvious choice.

During the election campaign we saw a battle of the titans between Rutte from the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Samsom from the Dutch Labour Party. It's so hard to believe that a cabinet with two fighting cocks is now suddenly the most logical choice. For this reason alone, forming a cabinet such as this one will probably take an unnecessarily long time in a period that requires decisiveness to fight the crisis. If only for form, Rutte and Samsom should take a long time to show they worked hard to overcome their insurmountable differences on the campaign trail, now that forming a government still seems an insurmountable task. As far as we are concerned, the next cabinet needs to abandon and replace the small, people-and-money-oriented way of thinking with a vision of the future which focuses on compassion and sustainability.

As I mentioned last week, Australia is showing us how it is done with their decision to exclude the Katwijk-based mega-trawler Margiris from Australian waters for at least two years. The Australian government is hereby protecting its marine nature against possible dramatic consequences. I am incredibly happy with the Australian government's unambiguous statement. It temporarily raised awareness concerning the danger to Australian marine life. They happily choose healthy marine life over short-term economic gain. Because we think this is such a good decision, we've sent a telegram conveying our endorsement!

The telegram to the Australian government ran as follows:
Many compliments and much gratitude from the Dutch parliament for your decision to ban the world’s second largest mega-trawler from fishing in Australian waters for the next two years. We would like to let you know that many Dutch citizens are worried about the future of marine ecosystems and support you in this decision. Marianne Thieme (Leader of the Animal Rights Party, House of Representatives), Esther Ouwehand (MP, Animal Rights Party), Niko Koffeman (Senator, Animal Rights Party).

These photos absolutely wonderful!

And here is a cute little film by Lightlife you won't want to miss. It shows that animals are usually built of plant-based food. That should be food for thought!

See you next week! Marianne