Worldlog Week 36 - 2009 - Main contents

The run-up to the new parliamentary year is in full swing. And in the midst of all the attendant hullabaloo we received some fantastic news from our German sister party.

In the Saxony federal state elections, the Tierschutzpartei, the German party for the animals, received 2.1 percent of the votes. A great result! The Tierschutzpartei is making great strides: at the previous elections, the party captured a mere 0.2 percent of the vote. Now Germany, after the Netherlands, seems set to soon have a party for the animals represented in the national parliament.

A total of 36,914 Saxony citizens voted for the Tierschutzpartei. With 2.1 percent of the votes, however, the party still failed to reach the electoral threshold of 5 percent. Yet seen in the context of the party’s impressive growth, this still qualifies as a great result! The Party for the Animals hopes that the success of the German Tierschutzpartei will inspire other parties for the animals around the world to participate in elections. In Brazil, for example, just half of the percentage obtained in the German election would have been enough to secure a seat in the parliament!

We also just received some good news from Brazil. The very active Marly Winckler informs us that our film Meat the Truth received an honourable mentioning during the 1st International Film Festival for the Rights of Animals, which took place in Curitiba, Brazil on 29 and 30 August. Meat the Truth was one of three films awarded prizes at the festival.

Meat the Truth had already been awarded an honour from the Film Council of Greater Columbus on 15 November 2008 during the Columbus International Film and Video Festival in the United States.

The documentary has now been screened all over the world in countries such as Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador, Canada, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Singapore, Portugal and Great Britain, and has been translated into 6 languages: Chinese, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian and Italian. Work is currently underway on Turkish, German and French translations. The Dutch, English and Portuguese subtitled versions are currently available free online in an effort to get a large audience acquainted with the film. Click here for the Dutch and English versions and here for the Portuguese version.

15 September of this year is ‘Prinsjesdag’, the day of the Queen’s speech in the Netherlands. As usual, all ladies will be wearing eye-catching hats and it has since become a tradition at our party to wear a hat that sends out a message about animals rights. Watch for the photos I’ll be posting on the Worldlog after 15 September.

I’m keeping it short this week as last week the translators had a lot work translating a rather lengthy Worldlog.

Kind regards and until next week!