Worldlog Settimana 12 – 2009


20 marzo 2009

Che piacere accorgersi che il nostro messaggio sulla politica espressiva per i diritti degli animali stia trovando tanta eco, anche all’estero. La settimana scorsa il giornale Bihar Times ha riportato un’intervista con la famosa donna politica, ambientalista e paladina dei diritti dell’animale, Maneka Gandhi.

Nell’intervista l’ex-donna ministro indiana racconta il suo sogno di poter rappresentare un partito per gli animali in parlamento.

Dice fra l’altro:

“Animal welfare needs to become part of our political agenda. This is not such a distant dream. Environmental protection has already become a huge political issue. Obama’s opposition to oil drilling in the ocean won him the crucial environmental vote. Since his film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore carries more political clout than when he was Vice President. All European countries have Green parties. Holland has an Animal Party. The Dutch 'Party for Animals' leader Marianne Thieme, 34, is a jurist who until recently was president of an animal protection
agency. Her growing frustration over the lethargic attitude of established parties to animal issues provided the motivation to secure animals a voice in politics. Well known Dutch authors and opinion leaders have joined the party and a growing number of Dutch people are questioning why selfish economic interests should prevail over ethical considerations when it comes to animal and environmental protection. In its first election, the party has already won 2 parliamentary seats out of 150 (the Indian equivalent would be 12 seats, which is larger than
most parties in Parliament today. The party’s priority is to end all animal suffering. It wants a constitutional amendment, guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress caused by humans. India may not yet have a party for animals but there are plenty of reasons why animal welfare should be on every election manifesto. “

Maneke Gandhi

Clicca qui per leggere l’intervista completa:

Di continuo, noi cerchiamo di determinare nel parlamento olandese l’agenda politica predicata da Maneka Gandhi. Il democristiano Atsma, il nostro avversario più aspro, con regolarità settimanale sospira che “oggi in parlamento si parla di animali ogni giorno”. E il social-democrato Harm Evert Waalkens dice regolarmente: “Magari voi determinate l’agenda, invece siamo noi che determiniamo l’esito”. Queste osservazioni lasciano trapelare il dolore della politica tradizionale che combatte in retroguardia rispetto alla politica innovativa che allarga lo sguardo sull’intero pianeta.
In ogni dibattito siamo in grado di ribadire che sono i partiti tradizionali ad essere i partiti single-issue, avendo occhio solo per l’uomo occidentale e il suo denaro. L’attuale attenzione eccessiva alla crisi finanziaria oscura il fatto che qui stiamo affrontando la crisi più piccola: quella del nostro borsellino. Sono in arrivo delle crisi che travolgeranno la nostra vita molto più direttamente : la crisi del clima, la crisi alimentare, la crisi dell’acqua potabile, la crisi della biodiversità, la crisi delle materie prime (compresa l’esauribilità dei fosfati), le crisi delle malattie fra gli animali e la crisi morale che trasforma gli uomini in esseri privi di alcuna ragione. Si dice che solo tre cene mancate ci separano da una guerra e a mio parere si dice il vero. Secondo le Nazioni Unite, nel 2017 il 20% della popolazione mondiale affronterà una mancanza di aqcua potabile e il Consiglio scientifico britannico prevede una grande crisi di cibi e aqcua verso il 2030.
Per questo è una necessità assoluta che in tutti i Paesi vengano fondati pertiti politici che richiamino l’attenzione su questi problemi e che ribadiscano l’importanza vitale di un nuovo modo di vivere. Anche con l’esistenza di una soglia elettorale, un Partito per gli Animali può essere utilissimo a sollecitare la gente durante la campagna elettorale.
Proprio là dove la gente è abituata ai partiti politici i cui pensieri e azioni si concentrano tutti sulla propria umana specie, la partecipazione di un Partito per gli Animali nelle elezioni crea uno scioc. Porta un nome che suscita emozioni – cioè indignazione, speranza, rabbia, gioia o fastidio – e queste emozioni mettono in movimento la società, e non c’è cambiamento senza movimento.

It's wonderful to see that our message on expressive politics concerning animal rights has found such resonance, even in other countries. Last week The Bihar Times ran an interview with world-famous politician, environmental and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi. In this interview, this former Indian minister voices her dream of being able to represent a Party for the Animals in Indian parliament.
From her interview:

“Animal welfare needs to become part of our political agenda. This is not such a distant dream. Environmental protection has already become a huge political issue. Obama’s opposition to oil drilling in the ocean won him the crucial environmental vote. Since his film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore carries more political clout than when he was Vice President. All European countries have Green parties. Holland has an Animal Party. The Dutch 'Party for Animals' leader Marianne Thieme, 34, is a jurist who until recently was president of an animal protection agency. Her growing frustration over the lethargic attitude of established parties to animal issues provided the motivation to secure animals a voice in politics. Well known Dutch authors and opinion leaders have joined the party and a growing number of Dutch people are questioning why selfish economic interests should prevail over ethical considerations when it comes to animal and environmental protection. In its first election, the party has already won 2 parliamentary seats out of 150 (the Indian equivalent would be 12 seats, which is larger than most parties in Parliament today. The party’s priority is to end all animal suffering. It wants a constitutional amendment, guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress caused by humans. India may not yet have a party for animals but there are plenty of reasons why animal welfare should be on every election manifesto. “

Maneke Gandhi

Read the complete interview here.

The political agenda that Maneka Ghandi advocates is something we continuously try to establish in Dutch parliament. Christian Democrat Atsma, who is the most critical of us, often heaves a sigh and complains that “these days, every day in parliament concerns animals”. And Social Democrat Harm Evert Waalkens regularly says “You determine the agenda, we determine the result”. These sentences express the pain of the incumbent politicians who dislike the idea of a new political ideal with a planet-wide scope. We could of course make the point at every debate that these parties are also single issue parties that care only about Westerners and their money. The inordinate amount of attention currently given to the credit crisis hides the fact we're dealing with the smallest possible crisis imaginable – what will happen to our wallets. There are more crises to come that will have a far greater effect on our lives, the climate crisis, the food crisis, the fresh water crisis, the biodiversity crisis, the raw materials crisis (including the finite supply of phosphates), the animal disease crisis and the moral crisis that turns people into perfectly irrational creatures. They say people are always three meals away from war, and I believe that is true. According to the U.N., in 2017 70% of the world's population will be suffering from a shortage of clean drinking water, and the British Science Council predicts a huge food and drinking water crisis by 2030.

That is why we desperately need all other countries to establish their own political parties that address these kinds of issues and who make it clear that we need to live our lives differently. Even if there is an electoral threshold to overcome, a Party for the Animals can be an excellent way of stimulating people to think during an election.
Because people are used to political parties focusing on humans, it's a real shock to the system when a Party for the Animals participates in an election. It’s a name that evokes emotion – indignation, hope, anger, happiness or irritation – and these emotions cause movement – without movement there can be no change.