arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

D14 already found 2000 sleeping places. In addition, Brussels universitys and small organisations are after some negociations prepared to provide sleeping places for a few hundred people. But this is far from enough.
Last sunday a network of NGO's and D14 gave a press conference about this. D14 has been sended by the Verhofstad cabinet to the city of Brussels, and the city of Brussels sended them back to the national government. The mayor of Brussels, Thiemans, says that the protestors are for them "normal tourists", and the city never provides free sleeping places for tourists.

After some commotion about the parcours of the protest on the 14th of December, the Brussels government now gave permission for protesters to sleep in the Tourn Taxi. As an industrial archeologic site the place is a beauty. As a place to sleep it's a nightmare.
Lots of birds live there, both dead and alive. There is no toilet and during the night it's extremely cold. Sleeping outside in the rain is basicly the same.

Therefore D14 decided to organise a protest for more human-friendly places to sleep.
Today (wednesday) at 14:00 this will start at the Grote Markt. Especially the fact that the Belgium government does have a budget for the extremely expensive summit and the security for that (every cop working during these days would get a premie), is a pain in the ears of D14. Also, there would be extra men at the airport of Zaventem, becouse the government is affraid of having anti-globalists sleeping at the hall of this airport. The absurt thing is that with this extra police-budget it would be easy to pay for a place for thousands of people to sleep.

Thurn & Taxis offeren building B yesterday. "That's an insultance and a joke", Goeman (ATTAC Flandern) says. "An unheated building without windows in the middle of the winter. If there's really nothing else, we'll just tell the protesters to sleep at the trainstations."

You come over to my place and you start knockin at the door , crying that you do not want my parents to educate me the way they do now ...
You try to do this evry time my folks get home togheter .
Now , because it would be a lot easier for you , you ask for a place to sleep , in our house .

Get it ?
What would you want them to say ?
A government has to do well to all the people in its nation , in case of more posiibilities , preferably the one that is best seen .
In this case : policemen ...

Protesting the 14th is a good thing to do ,
Crying for a bed , is absurd ...

Crying for a bed is demanding Political Justice

Protestors are performing their duty as citizens.
Demonstrations are a form of participation in the political process.

Belgium encourages, nay, REQUIRES its citizens to vote.
Given that demonstrating requires more personal investment than voting, Belgium should encourage demonstrators, as it does voters.

A bed is barely even a minimum...