Worldlog Week 25 - 2009 - Hoofdinhoud

There is still no news about who is to be awarded the Netherland’s 26th seat in the European parliament. It looks as though we will have to wait until after the autumn because the Irish will be organising a new referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon and we don’t expect ratification before the end of the year. We will keep working all out on securing that seat which from a democratic perspective (in terms of proportional representation) is rightfully ours.

A few more tips this week on setting up your own Party for the Animals.

First of all, it is essential that you hook up with like-minded people. I mentioned previously how you can use vegetarian dinner evenings and screenings of Meat the Truth to get people into the idea of political advocacy for animals.

The message in the film is gaining impetus in southern Europe, especially with the establishment of a Portuguese Party for the Animals and the continuing success of its Spanish sister party. Last week, the film Meat the Truth was shown in Madrid and Spanish national TV covered the story in detail. Moves are also underway in Iceland to get the film screened there and to possibly set up an Icelandic Party for the Animals.

Social networking sites are a great, easy and inexpensive way of coming into contact with like-minded people. A Party for the Animals Twitteraccount in your own language that lets you keep people abreast of the latest animal rights news via links can very soon develop into a kind of ‘news depository’ for items on animal wellbeing and animal rights. This way you will meet many fellow animal rights advocates in your country or language area.

The same is true for Animal accounts on social networking sites in your language, such as hyves, facebook, myspace, linkedIn and orkut.

It can be very useful to share your ideals and plans with others while at the same time advocating a more vegetarian - and hence animal-friendly - lifestyle.

Last week Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono called for the introduction of one meat-free day per week (Meat Free Monday) and here in the Netherlands I have called on restaurant owners to follow their lead, offering them a free copy of Meat the Truth (www.meatthetrut.nl).

As 70% of all restaurants in the Netherlands are closed on Mondays anyway, most of them are already meat free on that day 😉

I happened to see a cool film on YouTube ‘Sorry Earth’ that I would like to share with you. YouTube is a great medium for getting people aware of how animals are being treated.

And as your goal is not only to rouse latent but strong feelings of unease in people, but also to offer them concrete tools, a good idea is to check whether you can set up something in your language area like a petition site that allows people to do something to improve the lot of animals with just a click of a mouse.

The Internet is (just like your fork) a powerful weapon in the fight to create a better world for animals. And the great thing about it is that you can start using this medium today to achieve success for the Party for the Animals in your own language area.

Until next week!