THAT’S ENOUGH !

First BSE and now foot and mouth disease. The madness comes from humans not animals. If we were animals we would have become sick and mad a long time ago. Animals cannot bear the cruel methods of modern factory farming systems any longer. Human standards cease to exist when cows, the symbol of a peaceful vegetarian lifestyle, are forced to eat animal meal made from the remains of slaughtered animals. When animals cannot be vaccinated for economic reasons the bleak cynicism of profit is the single ruler. Large areas of land have become forbidden leaving thousands of sheep and cattle to starving to death. The pictures shown to us on television are the pictures of dying animals. Over two million animals have already been killed throughout Europe, with many more planned. This is all ,supposedly, in order to protect against infection.

However, foot and mouth disease has existed for a long time and currently exists in almost all parts of the world. It is not dangerous to humans and rarely lethal for animals. In the past simple vaccination methods have helped. Today a massacre is occurring, making us want to cry out in anger and striking us silent with terror. What pretends to be measure for our protection is in reality organised crime for the domination of global economic and political interests . It is a nameless terror because it is not against the state, it is ònly‘ about animals ( Throughout the history of barbarism the actions against animals have invariably been turned against humans at some point).
Even though they rarely cry or scream animals have a soul. Animals, like ourselves, are one organ within the organism of life. When we destroy them we destroy part of the organism as a whole. Animals are part of the joy of life and, if allowed, meet us with unconditional friendship. We are not allowed to kill or to torture them. Life exists to be praised and tended, not to be destroyed.

What will we say when our children ask us one day why we let this destruction of life happen. Will we answer: We did not know. Or: We are powerless against the state and the economy.
There is no easy, sensible answer to this because we are not dealing with a single case but with the global systematic abuse of power and destruction of life. This system occurs ever more in a totalitarian way. Corporate agencies, banks, military organisations and secret services are all currently testing their power. How far can they go without finding resistance? If we allow them they will continue this strategy to its ultimate conclusion. They will claim that the infectious viruses (themselves partly responsible for circulation) are persistent transmitted by new carriers. They will, on the pretence of medical safety, reduce our freedom of mobility, the exchange of goods, and our choices in work location, leisure and continual shopping. Biotech industries will argue that only genetically manipulated food can be bought. They will drive the feeling of powerlessness into the bravest souls, pushing their globalisation using totalitarian methods. The much quoted term `globalisation’ is a globalisation of violence which can never be realised by democratic means. Democracy has only been a short transitory phase between old (national) and new (global) dictatorship. People are being prepared for the structures of a totalitarian bureaucracy. Renate Künast (current German minister for Agriculture) will try to prevent the worst but in her heart she knows the game being played. All those committed in politics, either now or in the past, understand it. We call upon all of them; use your position to stop this development. Take care that the killing comes to an end. Vaccinate the animals but let them live.

If we persist in our habits of consumption we act in complicity to this system. Only by stepping out of this circle of violence can a different and sustainable concept for agriculture and nutrition be realised. There is only one way to step out of this criminal meat market: by saying no to meat from factory farms and the consumption of meat in general. This is said in spite of our compassion for the concerned farmers. Changing the perception of animals as objects of use or luxury goods is the only way to reinstate for animals their right to live. Only by doing what we say can we regain credibility. We cannot get stuck in anger and tears. We must use all means to make the concept of a culture based on friendship and co-operation become reality. It is not only corporate banks and companies which fuel this insanity but the dead end road of a civilisation gone wrong. We must find a realistic and profound alternative now. The matrix of violence must be substituted by the matrix of life. The globalisation of violence can only be answered adequately by an even better, more effective, and more determined globalisation of peace. For this reason we want to initiate the Movement for a Free Earth. We ask all those who are willing and able to think in this direction for support and the forwarding of this text.
We look forward to a strong co-operation.

Dieter Duhm and the team of the Institute for Global Peacework (IGP) in Tamera, 2002