Bas Tervuuren was on his way to the parlement.
He did feel the tension of the coming long day, with meetings about the CETA pact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a lot of opposition against it and lobbyists, the pro\u2019s, were agressively promoting the supposed huge benefits of this agreement.
The opposition, the no\u2019s, clearly stated that it apparently was not intended for the benefit of people but only for more corporation profits and less control of the quality of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nwas a well known person and a supporter of the people and frequently they\nwanted to have a little talk to him, they liked his enthousiasm and his honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The buildings of the Parlement were dominating the environment.
From far away you could see the beauty \u00a0but, they originated from an other period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A time where the king was almost almighty, the ruler, the dictator.
Now it was a democracy and this evolution resulted in a strong\u00a0 and conscious population where education was free and consequently the people were involved and of a high expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bas\nentered the building and after the necessairy security checks he was welcomed\nby some of his colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\ninformed him about the last novelties and told him that the first meeting was\ndelayed by a quarter of an hour, so, time to take a cappuccino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nwent to his office to collect the necessary documents, inspected them for\ninteresting or important issues and went to the large meeting room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nmost important issue today was the discussion about signing, or not, the CETA\npact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heavy\nand intense discussions were expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\ndiscussed some little aspects with his co-fellows untill the signal came for\nopening the meeting and the start was made with the usual opening ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then,\nthe discussion about CETA started wit Mrs. Jason-Ambigail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\nwas a good diplomate and could explain the advantages of the deal very well but,\nwith no word she talked about the wellknown disadvantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bas\ninterrupted her and mentioned the need of people who wanted to know how the\nknown disadvantages could be handled wihin the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nreaction was clear, don\u2019t worry about it, we all want to deliver the best\ncontract for the countries and we will act with respect to the population and\nthe actual law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of\ncourse, Bas interrupted again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\nshould be glad if you added this into the contract so, all parties would be more\nsatisfied with that clear text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs.\nJason-Ambigail, while showing a little bit of agitation, answered with the\nstatement that all parties of the deal should have trust and confidence, the\ncorporations, also the large, have enough selfregulation to make it a real big\nsucces for all parties involved, also for the people of the countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now\nanother person, Mark Lobsci, was allowed to give a dedicated explanation\nconcerning the corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\nwas a friendly person and he was capable to give his teachings in a very\ndetailed and enthousiastic manner so, students always listened and did not want\nto miss any word, he was a good teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\nalso he was a very smart communicator, able to give massive explanations\nwithout committing to anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nwas strongly in favor of the CETA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within\nthe opposition he was called \u201cThe Lobby Scientist\u201d, suggesting he was for sale\n!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With\na projection of the map he mentioned the yearly rise of the income of the\ndifferent countries together with the rise in cooperation with the supposed\ninfluence of large corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas an amazing and very interesting monologue and everyone listened to the\nexplanations that did suggest the importance of the corporations for the total community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\ndid not interrupt one second but waited for his moment and the confrontation of\nthe audience with the real facts, it came sooner than he expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\ntested the microphone by saying good moorning to the audience and started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My\ndear friends ! He looked around and\nknew that everyone was listening, some because they loved him, others to find issues\nto attack him lateron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now\nhe continued. The last years, say\nhunderd years, the businesses always did grow, some even from small to\nsupranational, and still are growing, without additional CETA contract so there\nis no real need for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides\nthat, it does not regulate the rights of the civilians. They are left without\nany rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immediately\nthe pro\u2019s reacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nagreement is based on mutual trust, so stop with those ridiculous arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nreaction was as expected and Bas continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes,\nwe should be able to trust each other but a large number of corporations don\u2019t\nact that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nGroningen, the Netherlands, a big corporation started with the extraction of\ngas, after a number of years suddenly the earth began to shake resulting in\nlots of damage. The period before the gas extraction there were no earthquakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And\nof course, if you extract from below the surface, consequently the surface will\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\ncorporations did not take their resposibility, lobby-scientists produced lots\nof evidence, lobby-politicians asked year after year for new studies and\nlobby-judges asked the people \u201ccan you prove one-to-one that it is caused by\nthat way of extraction\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas one big game to delay as much as possible and to bring people to the moment\nof giving-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So,\nhow can we TRUST corporations ??<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\ninterrupted and said that it is just an incident !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bas\ncontinued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nsame we see with fracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vast\nareas in America are contaminated and poisoned by fracking, yet,\nlobby-politicians did promote fracking in the Netherlands. (TRUST !?!?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vast\nareas in Nigerea are contaminated with oil but companies don\u2019t take their\nresposibility. (TRUST !?!?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vast\narea\u2019s in the north of Ecuador, partly rainforest, are contaminated with oil\nbut companies don\u2019t take their resposibility. \n(TRUST !?!?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immense\nmercury poisonning caused by gold mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vast\nareas with plants, our food !, contaminated by different toxics to destroy\nunwished insects and plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After\nsome time, more and more is necessairy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again,\nMark interrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\nis caused by the people, not following the rules !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nwere some rumours in the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No\nMark, if a corporation only is interested in profit and not in collateral\ndamage, prevention and solving, than people become angry, of course !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More\nreasons not to trust and believe what corporations say are the textile industry\nin developping countries; a highly toxic environment for people to work in and\nhighly toxic for the environment and water management. Almost no corporations\nshow their compassion and responsibility with respect to people and\nenvironment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rice\ncultures in other countries such as Cambodja. Corporations buy the rice at the\nlowest possible price causing the farmers to live in utmost poverty, no\ncompassion from the corporations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just\npay a fair price !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within\nthe big meeting hall there were soft rumours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bas\ncontinued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nshould be a CETA for the civilians, for the people on the street, for working\npeople, to give them the right share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nrumours became louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some\nsounds did look like \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. yes !! \n\u2026.. ter \u2026 vuuren \u2026\u2026.. tervuuren\n\u2026\u2026\u2026 tervuuren !!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bas\ncontinued: Also Big Pharma doesn\u2019t care about people, they can raise the prise\nfar beyond the production costs. They don\u2019t care about people, only maximizing\nprofit is their goal. And, there were rumours that some medicines were made in\nsuch a way that they caused the lifelong need for other medicines, so, profit\n!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within\nthe hall many people and many voices joined and made a magnificent choir \u2026\u2026TERVUUREN\u2026\u2026.TERVUUREN\u2026\u2026..TERVUUREN\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas overwhelming and Bas, for a moment, was silent and listened to the\nenthousiast voices of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nasked for silence and spoke the following message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes,\nwe all should vote for a CETA with PEOPLE FIRST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voices\nbecame louder and louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026\u2026..PEOPLE-NOT-PROFIT\u2026\u2026PEOPLE-NOT-PROFIT\u2026\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also\noutside, on the street, this words could be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People\nwere enthousist. Tervuuren should be the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\npro\u2019s left the meeting hall where they lost the final battle, silently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nweek later the CETA signing was cancelled and Bas was asked, with a team, to\ndevellop the new PEOPLE-CETA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bas Tervuuren was on his way to the parlement. He did feel the tension of the coming long day, with meetings about the CETA pact. There was a lot of opposition against it and lobbyists, the pro\u2019s, were agressively promoting the supposed huge benefits of this agreement.The opposition, the no\u2019s, clearly stated that it apparently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-236","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacquesruiter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}