Favourable welfare outcomes

The re-application

Two weeks ago, I decided to avail myself of the services of my hospital’s social services department because my application for social security entitlements was stuck in the quagmire of bureaucratic indifference and basically in limbo.

I was to call the sickness benefit department last week but that was overrun with events regarding my new job so I just let things go and hoped for the best.

Two letters arrived in my post on Saturday with favourable decisions considering the lateness of my application and the complexity of the circumstances which had also suddenly changed.

All in to help

My very first formal application where I had the work coach fill in the forms at the unemployment office was in February and it became the datum for reckoning everything else.

All benefits can only go back 6 months at the maximum, so I will now be entitled to unemployment benefit at first and then sickness benefit from the day after I was admitted in hospital for treatment.

That would however end on the day I started my new employment which was last week – now one just has to wait for something to be paid into my account.

The system does work and in flexible enough if you know the system or having someone who knows the system sort things out for you.

Thanks and gratitude

I have been very fortunate that way and I have expressed thanks to all those wonderful people who contributed to making this work and I was so taken by the response when the social services expert replied saying she took great pleasure in helping me out.

The social security safety net is there for a reason and even for usually very independent people like myself, I find that anyone can need help and it is good to ask for that help, humbly but with a sense of entitlement too, if we have through our working lives contributed, it is there as a bridge through lean times to more prosperous times again.

Thanks to the system and its lifeblood of bureaucratic sustenance.

On the 8th day, the shop opened

Times are moving

One might just venture the idea that progress of sorts has come to my neighbourhood and that is in my local supermarket, 7 floors below my apartment and round the side to its entrance.

When I moved here just over 8 years ago, the supermarket opened for 6 days and closed at 19:00 hours, then a few years after it closed at 8:00 PM and soon after it closed at 9 ‘o clock.

The shelves were probably most empty on a Saturday night just as people rushed in for last minute shopping only to realise the goods had been cleared by those who shopped earlier in the day.

A different competition

If you found you had to shop for morning goods, you had to wait till Sunday morning for a shop opening 4 tram stops away.

Just about 2 months ago, a Turkish corner shop opened its doors on a Sunday and whilst you could not get the great variety of goods, it was nice to see that what you could get there was much different from the Dutch fare you got from the supermarket chain.

If I could muster the energy, I made the 500 metre walk to that store to feast my eyes of high capsicum factor peppers and other tropical foods I would have no idea how to for eating.

The look and the taste

The other day, I picked up what I thought were sweet potatoes only to peel them and find they were orange in colour, I was in two minds between binning or potting them, in the end they went in the pot and disintegrated into a pudding of sorts.

It reminded me of seeing “coco-yams” in an English supermarket and on cooking them they fell apart disastrously that the bin got well fed and I had an empty stomach, they were in fact dasheens.

Appearances are so deceptive, the grapes from my supermarket taste so different from the grapes in the corner shop, so synthetic as plastic behoves the beauty of supermarket chains over corner shops – food does not necessarily come from the farms without scientific intervention that changes it into something different and probably cheap too.

Open for the Sabbath

The perception of any of the Western European countries being Christian is slowly but surely gaining the spectre of secularism, very few shops except in tourist prone areas tend to open on Sundays and then we have Sunday-shopping days, usually once a month.

The Sabbath is losing its significance to Mammon, on the 18^th of April 2010 my local supermarket 7 floors below will be open on Sunday for the first time – I do wonder how many people in my neighbourhood would postpone their late Saturday shopping to brunch-time shopping on Sunday.

Forget the idea that Sabbath might be the Friday evening to Saturday evening, the Saturday or even the Sunday – man never seems to rest on any of the 7 days of the week, maybe we need an eighth day.

Is this progress or what?

The amazing prospect of Balkenende V

Balkenende IV collapses

I woke up yesterday morning to the news story on Al-Jazeera television that the Dutch cabinet had collapsed

Though we have had the same Prime Minister [2] since 2002 that was the collapse of the fourth coalition cabinet though this one lasted the longest.

The very obvious and challenging thing to realise is the politics of the Netherlands has changed irretrievably over the last decade from the traditions we have all learnt built the Netherlands into a country of global influence and economic clout.

The dyke collapses

Somehow, I am afraid that the thinking that allowed the Dutch to grab land from the sea for form the land mass we now have in the time worn fashion of the Polder Model [3] of consensus and compromise towards agreement has departed.

In political terms, we have had the equivalent of a dyke-break, I cannot find any outward thinking or celebrated act of statesmanship in the political landscape that has caused the collapse of all the four cabinets.

Rather, political infighting to self-destruction on such matters of local import looking for some political advantage in possible elections have bedevilled the system.

An ambiguous electorate

It goes without saying that we have the governments we choose and we have generally elected conservatives balanced by liberals and augmented by populist extremists, the last cabinet however was an uneasy grand-coalition of conservatives, the centre-left and an orthodox religious party – I thought it was a powder-keg, it only had a very long fuse.

In 2002, the cabinet of Wim Kok [4] dissolved in taking the possible responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre, this cabinet fell on the possibility of extending the tenure of Dutch troops in the NATO alliance in Afghanistan – they basically could not agree on the matter.

Our NATO commitment

Just less than 2,000 troops is not necessarily a significant number in Afghanistan and we do have a somewhat quiet existence there as opposed to the South of Afghanistan but we had been promised the troops will return this summer.

Not to mention the erstwhile Secretary General of NATO was Dutch, so we have a significant and influential member of that coalition pulling out with some consequences and hopefully not too damaging.

Generally, many would prefer that the war in Afghanistan come to an end with all our troops back home, which for me also includes the British troops but we cannot afford to leave a quagmire in that region, I am saddened that if that venture does yield results the footnote the Dutch might attain could be closer to ignominious by reason of little-country politics.

However, with the change of tactics in pursuing the war in Afghanistan there was a need to reconsider the pullback as part of the Dutch contribution, between the parliament and the within the coalition partners there was no agreement leading the Labour Party to withdraw from the coalition because they were against the extension.

Some fearful possibilities

Now, Prime Minister Balkenende might have the opportunity of forming another cabinet, the fifth – it really beggars belief, in July 2006, I wrote No to Balkenende III [4], I cannot believe I am looking at a possible Balkenende V.

I would suppose Jan Peter Balkenende does have some political savvy for holding on for so long even though his Calvinist inclinations might well reflect why he is somewhat invisible and some policies are parsimonious – but with another election the only worse thing that could happen is to have people be persuaded by the vitriolic rhetoric of Geert Wilders [6], the fact is he could be the next Prime Minister.

Sources

[1] Al Jazeera English - Europe - Dutch cabinet falls over Afghan row

[2] Jan Peter Balkenende - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Polder Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Wim Kok - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] No to Balkenende III [akin.blog-city.com]

[6] Geert Wilders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [1] and I was not that surprised.

A walk of healing

Coming a long way

The neighbourhood nurse was here today and he was the first here just after I left hospital, he has paid the most visits and basically knows the most about the progression of the lesion wounds under my feet to date.

We both inspected my left foot and came to the conclusion that it was healing very well and apart from patches of dry skin that were pulled off, the only thing left was for the sole skin to thicken up just as it should be for normal soles.

Critical to his observation was the fact that the wounds which were quite severe had healed over a relatively short time. The neighbourhood nurse is used to seeing and dressing wounds like mine which never seem to heal.

A miracle, no doubt

In my case, it appears the natural process of healing had been speeded up in what one would call a miracle without bating about the bush. When I suggested it was like a healing miracle, the nurse who is generally an agnostic quickly concurred. We agreed his last visit would be on Friday.

I had a miracle working in me all the time and I never really realised that was happening, in the last few weeks, the progress has been quite rapid, I am off most of the pain medication apart from the patch which seems to run well over the 72-hour period without any noticeable discomfort.

I have not crawled round my home for about week, the crawling necessitated by a few areas of acute pain I used to have in my foot, for the first time in almost 3 months, I was also able to wash under running water my right foot.

Walking has been very comfortable, it might end up giving up my orthopaedic shoe after meeting with the consultants today and start using normal shoes from now on.

I still use crutches for support but soon, I might just need a cane and eventually ditch that altogether.

Thanks and gratitude

Great thanks indeed should first of all go to God, there is no way I could have successfully come through any of this without His mercy and His grace upon me, I have also seen amazing advances in medicine and healthcare that have helped me through these times and finally my friends and well-wishers who contributed in ways that leave me in deep gratitude, I just have not found ways to be thankful enough.

My neighbours who cared for me in the darkest times doing the most menial tasks and feeding me at strange hours when I was completely without strength, my dear friend who came to live with me and cared for all my needs beyond what friendship demands – I thank you all.

The only way is up from here, God who has seen me thus far is helping me rebuild my life again, my hopes are high, my expectations are great, my vision is gaining clarity and purpose.

Thank you.

A relocation from the cacophony

Travails of a morning doze off

The day started a bit rough, I was in some serious discomfort through the night, I had to ask for additional medication.

In the meantime the intravenous infusion mechanism has now been attached to my right wrist, so I am tethered again and have needed help getting around on the crutches.

I eventually got some deep sleep after dawn broke just when my friend came alive with cries for sister, brother, doctor, please.

There is no doubt he is in pain, I know but rather than use the call system he calls out loud and incessantly, I lost it – So from within my deep sleep, I mustered my best Dutch and shouted out to use the call system.

Flipping pancakes in beds

He also turned 82 today, which is sad but, he has been congratulated by all, I can honestly say they are bending over backwards for him and really one must commend the selflessness that come with this line of duty.

The bed has been adjusted so many times short of having it flip him like a pancake every few seconds, not much else might happen apart from just completely sedating him, but that has its dangers.

When he was put in the wheelchair and he did not relent, I clearly told the nurses, this just cannot continue, I am no more sure if he is leaving hospital today anymore.

They took him out of the ward somewhere else for about an hour during which time I steadied myself on the crutches and arranged to visit the gym tomorrow.

Serious but quite manageable

Results of the biopsy are not complete but the initial suspicion has been confirmed, they do need to determine the best course of treatment, it probably would be aggressive because it is putrid, fungating and in more serious cases can become gangrenous and lead to the loss of the foot.

In base terms, it is a type of cancer but don’t get so struck by the word, some can be cured others subject to palliative care; I have been told medication should suffice. So far, the doctors have been positive, optimistic and encouraging, it allows one to build faith from a perspective better than the despair of things being terminal.

Moved

Finally, the best bit of news is that since my hearing is considerably more keen I have been moved to another ward where I have been practicing my Dutch with two ladies and a gentleman, Though one of the ladies does not speak English at all.

It is a bit shrewd to put hard of hearing people in the room with someone turning out to be a shrew, one of the medical personnel called him a drama queen, well, this is one luvvie that could become unloved.

Can you believe it? I can hear him from here. Save our ears. Save our sanity or as restraint overcomes whoever decides the cat of throttling him – save that man from himself.

The Netherlands rises above sea level

All out, all out

I could almost wager that the parts of the Netherlands below sea level which includes Schiphol airport at -5 meters World have risen to a mean above sea level at least for a week.

I say this because as I was leaving for holiday on Saturday morning, the taxi queues for departures were quite long and the departure lounge was brimming with people trying to escape the dreary weather of Northern Europe despite the rare improvements in weather with some sun and rising temperatures.

One can only be so grateful for services like priority check-in, access to lounges to relax before a flight and being known by name as you take your seat on the flight - it all takes away the stress of travel.

Deluge of holidays

Netherlands usually has the least number of bank or public holidays in Europe, numbering a paltry 8 days and there are no breaks between the middle of May and the Christmas holidays.

This year, with Easter being so early, we have very rare bunching up of holidays that probably happen one in a lifetime in Calvinist Holland – the government seems to hate free days.

So, on Wednesday, the 30^th April, we have Queens Day which is the day the great unwashed come into the cities and defile it buying bric-a-brac and drinking to a stupor, why people get excited about the day escapes me – we the city-dwellers take the opportunity to desert town before they arrive.

Tolerant dimensions of the Dutch

Thursday ushers in a Christian Holiday, Ascension Day, celebrated throughout continental Christian Europe and most organisations have decided there is no point having staff come in on the Friday, thus reducing the week to a 2-day week.

In that decision, you find the subtlety of Dutch tolerance – the appreciation of human inclination or frailty and an accommodation of the situation.

It explains why we appreciate people have a need for liberal sexual gratification or indulge in mind-altering substances – we recognise the situation, and accommodation it by providing a location for the activity and regulate it such that the criminal element is considerably reduced.

All abroad

Having a week set up like that, people reckon the number of sick calls on the Friday might make opening offices unprofitable so it is better to close and allow the goodwill of people having Friday off without having to feign some sickness or tell tall tales.

That explains why making of the Dutch have gone sun-seeking, then May the 12^th is another holiday – Pentecost, so like me have just merged the whole weekend-holiday, week-holiday stretch into a 2-week getaway – as easy as, get me to the sun PDQ. (Pretty Damn Quick)

Microsoft: Give me English in the Netherlands

English still matters

I have endured this for quite a while that I have now decided it is enough. I live in the Netherlands but professionally my business language is English.

Now, I know that my grasp of Dutch is not that strong having spent a good few years here but that is beside the point – correspondence that I receive concerning my private life usually arrives in Dutch which I can read and sometimes get a friend to help with the context and interpretation.

However, as many companies have their European or Global Headquarters in the Netherlands, you can have the choice of either English or Dutch as the language of correspondence in mails or emails.

They speak English

The interesting thing is a majority of the local supply companies for energy or services have staff that are multi-lingual. I have perfected my second sentence after my “Hello” greeting.

Ik spreek maar een beetje Nederlands, kan ik met Engles spreken? The quality of my Dutch is bad, can I speak in English?

Most of the time, the people are quite obliging and the business gets done, where they have not been able to raise an English voice, I have sometimes muddle through if I have a request or closed the call especially if it was one of those cold calls.

Technical speak favours English

My crusade is now on a war-path with Microsoft, a company that has a global reach beyond any other that tries to localise its content based on the country of operation and tailors its services accordingly.

However, I have worked for a good few “Dutch” companies that have plumbed for English concerning all their software. Whilst Dutch might help people understand processes, most of the technical terms are in English that technical experts seem to prefer English.

With my Microsoft Hotmail account, I have found it impossible to switch the language of communication from Dutch to English; my emails have ended up in some communication black-hole in that behemoth.

Dutch privately, English professionally

This is considering the fact that I am probably one of the rare fee-paying users of Hotmail and I have been for many years for all sorts of reasons including being able to expect a level of customer support and service.

I have endured that, but after joining the technical forum called Microsoft TechNet, I was not going to keep receiving stuff in correspondence I barely understand, this considering the fact that after the façade of Dutch emails you ended up one websites that were in English.

So, I asked that I receive my correspondence in English and an email ping-pong ensued where first I was told it could not be done because the content was tailored for the Netherlands.

Let us say, if the content was tailored for Dutch-speakers that would be a valid point, but if it is for residents of the Netherlands, whilst Dutch is the predominant local language, it almost shares an equal footing with English in businesses that have an international focus.

It is a request not a complaint

I informed the responder that I would be publishing my concerns in a blog, interestingly; this request which should make business sense to any company doing business in the Netherlands has now been pushed to the complaints department within the behemoth.

Are they now going to send many other people like me who live in the Netherlands on Dutch courses or just translate the stuff and give us options on the Microsoft portal to receive correspondence in either the local language or English?

It makes you wonder how they handle Switzerland which is a country that has the option for 4 languages and where a German-speaker lives in a French-speaking area having only learnt German, Italian and English in school.

Basically, I am not impressed at all.

It's a girl again

The Queens of the Netherlands

The joy of new birth comes to the Netherlands again with the birth of the eighth grandchild of Queen Beatrix of the House of Orange-Nassau.

Fortunately, in the Dutch monarchy, is not subject to Salic Law else they would have been in the crisis of the ruling house of Japan where until recently the absence of a son for the second-line of succession had put many a princess under unbearable stress.

Absolute primogeniture has allowed the Netherlands to have 3 Queens in succession with the possibility of a King after the reign of the Queen extant, in Prince Willem-Alexander, the heir-apparent and father of the new born child.

A peculiarity is how all the Queens married German consorts and the current one did cause such uproar as the Dutch were still smarting from the travails of the Second World War - though all consorts acquitted themselves well as Dutch gentlemen.

Also, the Queens did have a penchant for abdicating for their successors, Queen Wilhelmina (57 years) for Queen Juliana (32 years) in 1948 and she for Queen Beatrix in 1980, it is not clear if this Queen would abdicate for her son, one is not sure how ready the Dutch would be for that kind of upheaval.

Male maelstrom

However, one might be astute to say that it appears the Y-chromosome is somewhat recessive in the succession line even though this Queen does have 3 sons. She only has one grandson amongst her 8 grandchildren and in about 50 years time we would be celebrating probably the advent of another Queen of the Netherlands depending on the reigns and longevity of both Queen Beatrix and Prince Willem-Alexander.

Now, all births must be well celebrated regardless of gender, but there is something about hereditary monarchies that the birth of a girl excites exasperation rather than elation - as most newspapers would read - It's another girl!

She arrived last night just before 10:00PM on the 10^th of April 2007, weighing 4,135g and 52cm, a very healthy baby.

Congratulations to the Queen, the Prince and his Princess as we all celebrate with Beschuit met muisjes, the traditional Dutch treat served to commemorate new births; the muisjes being pink for a girl.

It's a girl again!

Cricket World Cup 2007 - lbw - Ligature Butchers Woolmer

Making up the numbers

It is an open secret that cricket hardly has the demographic following to truly be a world sport. Beyond the seemingly shared colonial heritage shared with England, we have India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and West Indies - political interference in Zimbabwe cricket left it on the verge of dropping out of the elite - six minnow teams are needed to create a world event.

What is even interesting is that once cannot get a worthy representation from Scotland, Wales or Ireland, I take that back, Ireland has caused ructions in the current World Cup event taking place in the geographical expanse of hop-scotch islands that make up the West Indies.

The Netherlands prepared for the World Cup in the cold winter of the Northern Hemisphere made up of amateurs who probably just like English tea and have graduated to having cucumber sandwiches as a sign of anglophilia demonstrated by swinging a bat must have envied the elite teams that crowded down to the Southern Hemisphere for summer tans and practice where England dumped the ashes back in Australia with a whitewash.

Obfuscating cricket

For many, the rules of cricket are as inscrutable as the rules of American football which rarely sees the foot near the ball; and really, when the scores are toted up, who is Extras and when did he bat and I did not see him run?

However, the danger of the Cricket World Cup 2007 tournament coming and going as a non-event has passed with the death of the English Pakistani coach who was found unconscious on the floor of his hotel room in Jamaica after Pakistan was dumped out of the World Cup by Ireland the previous day.

The passion for cricket in the sub-continent cannot be overstated as effigies of the players were burnt by fans back home, disappointed by the performance of their team, but the death of Bob Woolmer has overshadowed the whole episode.

An English Murder Mystery

Now, the World Cup might just be remembered for being the one in which the coach of a team was asphyxiated by strangulation, though no other person implicated or ligature has yet been found - we have a murder mystery, one that would be a difficult one to solve.

All we now need to complete the Englishness of a game that probably can only be understood in English language is a Miss Marple or the nuisance of an Hetty Wainthropp, whilst a budding novelist might just be penning the first lines of a life as the new Agatha Christie with the Hercule Poirot of 2007 putting clues together for Sherlock Holmes and Dr John H. Watson to unravel.

Who cares about wickets, bowling, googlies, creases, fours, sixes or boundaries when the plot thickens to solve a Murder, most horrid?

Seriously, there is a serious crime to be solved about a nice man who has been tragically murdered for reasons we might yet never know, leaving a family behind in South Africa and a game that would miss a much loved man.

I take this opportunity

The nuisance of association

I have for years shunned gatherings of Nigerians for any kind of activity. The one I joined recently which pertains to my membership of the Nigerian chapter of students on my Masters course more or less ended up looking like subscribing to a SPAM generator and as if that was not bad enough, one email inadvertently sent to all included a squabble that was far from edifying to all concerned.

I was of the good mind of withdrawing from that chapter, however, the moderator prevailed on me to accommodate a few of those nuisances as part of what is Nigerian rather than protesting from a too Westernised perspective.

From buyer to guest

So, the proprietor of the African foodstuffs and goods store at the entrance to the Central Station Metro platforms in Amsterdam passed me an invitation to her 50^th birthday celebrations which I gladly accepted.

We continually have all this idle banter about all sorts of events and issues that leaves us all with belly laughs that could leave some in tears too. When she said she was looking youthful, I asked for the secret and if it was on sale; exceedingly nice lady.

Hail Mary or Bloody Mary

The Africa House was to be the venue of the event which would have started with a Roman Catholic Service at noon, but since I was already going to my church, it meant I missed having to mouth my Hail Mary’s which might lead to the Mother of God streaming tears down from the eyes of a statue somewhere on the premises – Our Lady of Africa House might leave some thinking the shrine was animist rather than Roman Catholic.

Anyway, as I got there, it was obvious that we had gathered for a big party, most of the women in traditional wear with skyscraper headgear and antennas pointing in all directions.

Scruffy dressers in esteemed company

Many of the men were in jackets or suits, but the sloppy dressers with all buttons done up really irritate the dormant snob in me, I still cannot believe any well brought up person would do up all the buttons on their suits or jackets.

If one were to quote Sir Hardy Amies – one time dressmaker for the Queen, one would say, “How scruffy you look today, dear boy”. I do remember him saying you could not trust a man who did up all his buttons; somehow, subconsciously one takes a dim view of such appearances, if their conversation could ever result in anything better than piffle.

The look the problem

On the woman, I could not help but notice the ones who probably in the Igbo tradition had been fattened for marriage that they had a rolling or maybe revolving gait visible from behind, if that was not arresting enough, some definite accentuated the gyration, it was so deliberate they would be needing a hip replacement not too soon.

The men approaching middle age who had their hair shorn all seemed to have these double folds of flesh at the back of their heads, in fact, I did remember my father has those folds, they were substantially muscular and felt like Achilles tendons only that they were at the back of the head.

It had me feeling the back of my head towards the neck for signs and the silent prayer that if it is avoidable, then I do not want that additional feature as part of my pose in a silhouette.

Ceremony or cacophony

There was a programme distributed and the MC arrived a bit late, but as things got going, 30 minutes of getting people to the high table must be a record, because it Nigeria, it takes a lot longer with speeches from everyone that is anyone.

Every introduction started with, “I take this opportunity to invite …” from chiefs to untitled proletariats, space was found to be occupied by the honoured and privileged.

The celebrant all dressed up beautifully and flamboyantly made an entrance; a group of ladies all bedecked in the same attire waving white handkerchiefs surrounded her signing songs and dancing.

Then later the children of the celebrant presented her with flowers to the music of Prince Nico Mbarga of Sweet Mother fame, then I noticed money being sprayed – flinging, throwing, flooding or pasting of currency – on the celebrant.

Dollars trump the Euro

Ah! The Euro does not lend itself to this kind of hedonistic aggrandisement that characterises Nigerian parties, European notaphily begins with the 5 Euro note, and so, it was dollars (one dollar notes) which by the time I left had been gathered to fill a decent sized bin bag.

This, apart from the brisk business of money changers that could fill you with Jesus rage, only that one cannot go upturning the high table.

Food and drinks flowed along with situations where certain favoured guests end up with unopened bottles of wine to take home and I did attain favoured status in company.

The Master Chatterbox

The MC however never really got to excite or control the crowd, be it for getting up for prayer, or getting people to respond to chants of Praise the Lord or Igbo Kwenu, but I definitely did give apploss (sic) when it was asked for.

I never got to meet the celebrant but I got her daughter to deliver my card and present after attending for 3 hours in what looked like it would go on late into the night. Interesting event and strange practices, I think I have become a lot less Nigerian than I thought I was.

Much terror out of a mobile phone and a plastic bag

We too are now in it

One has at times commented about how the large and influential country of the Netherlands sometimes adopts a “me too” persona, to as it were, appear involved, relevant and at the centre of issues.

The Netherlands is in many cases quite influential in many ways, the international courts of justice are resident here; for a country with such little land space we are one of the largest food exporters; we used to be the most tolerant and liberal democracy and society amongst other things.

What has changed is that we now have little-minded politicians and leaders whose lack of initiative, foresight and stature projects the face of the Netherlands in less grander terms than when leaders of greater standing and stature ruled this beautiful land.

It is my prayer that come November when elections take place, a better crop of politicians come forward to lead this land; though, that is not to say that society itself has not changed to accommodate the mediocre over the better qualified.

A flight of fantasy

Just to illustrate how this war on terror has become an irrational fear of terror exciting hysteria, histrionics, and subjective conjecture we have now had our own flight scare which involved aborting a journey to Mumbai (Bombay) with the return to Schiphol and the arrest of 12 passengers.

Apparently, several passengers were fidgeting with mobile phones and plastic bags in what the Minister of Justice has now said is behaviour not normally seen amongst average passengers.

The cabin crew observed the behaviour in which the pilot and captain of the aircraft would have acted; the decision to turn the plane back would have been taken after some consideration and consultation with airport security – this led up the chain to the Minister of Justice who probably in conjunction with other cabinet colleagues like the Defence and Internal Affairs ministers scrambled two F-16 fighter planes to escort the plane back to Schiphol.

The F-16 fighter planes could have under certain circumstances been permitted to shoot down the plane that contained 149 souls and the crew, thankfully, that did not happen.

However, before landing, a good deal of the jet fuel was let out over the IJsselmeer to lighten the aircraft.

It now transpires that this terrorist scare might have been an overreaction to a perfectly normal situation where coincidences might have appeared as some pre-planned activity – the 12 would be freed and released without charge.

The big questions about air travel

My concern with this new event highlights a few issues that need serious analysis.

• What training have cabin crew all around the world received to appreciate possible terrorist threats from normal behavioural patterns to be expected from people in an enclosed space on a long-haul flight?
• What really constitutes normal average flight passenger behaviour in this day and age? Everyone is tense and anxious, these emotions could very well becloud observation and vigilance.
• What evidence would have been required to shoot down the plane along with its “innocent” passengers and crew and where would it have been shot down, since the flight path towards Bombay would most likely have been over land?
• What are the consequences of releasing thousands of litres of kerosene fuel into a lake which has active wildlife and human usage?
• Have captains on flights the requisite skills to make objective assessments of potential terrorist situations which are quite different from passenger irresponsibility situations?
• What has happened to the joy of air travel in the last few years?

The world, a bigger place

In the end, if air travel is to become so fraught with uncertainties, the world which became a smaller place in the 20^th Century is on the verge of becoming a much larger place in the 21^st Century as we switch back to land and sea travel.

Basically, what is required is greater sophistication in passenger screening before they board flights, but this all has to be in proportion without infringing on rights and freedoms and subjective profiling.

The complexities and logistics of airport security are illustrated in the Air Travel Security Planning Map on pages 4 and 5, there is no doubt that there have to be new ways of doing things for air travel to return to a pleasurable and exciting experience – that could be a long way off.

References

Donner plays down terror link after Schiphol scare

BBC NEWS | Europe | Jet alert suspects 'to be freed'

An Air Travel Security Planning Map (Pages 4 & 5) [The Wayback Machine]

Attack your castle

Down South with down talk

This is short; I was out in Valkenburg, a city in the deep south of the Netherlands which lays claim to being the first city to have a railway station and a tourist office in the Netherlands.

There was a lot to see and I did take a lot of photographs to be unveiled in the not too distant future.

Some of the tourist attractions include the castle ruins and networks of caves that are supposed to serve as a nuclear shelter and so on.

What really grates me as we have seen on African Shirts is why people in tourism do not employ good translators to translate information properly into other languages.

This sign in particular makes interesting reading.

Wreck your castle

Here I am, in castle ruins reading about fortifications for the castle only to find the rulers attacked their own castle from the city side – well, why give the enemy the pleasure of destroying your castle when you can do it yourself.

Someone definitely has been tampering with the tourist fare of Valkenburg, have I been duped?

Besides, I was later assaulted with a variant of English that was so bad, it was entertaining.

[The Dutch part of the notice does talk about enemies attacking the castle]

A Dog's Dinner from your Grocery

No Dutch on my palate

I have not been one to heap praise on Dutch cuisine, but it is not fault of the Dutch, the fact is a national dish depends on the kinds of crops, ingredients and animals for food that can be obtained local to that region.

Potatoes, pulses and members of the cabbage family feature in many dishes which are either dark or bland compared to colourful Mediterranean or Tropical dishes.

Like the English, many cuisines have come from the sub-continent to augment local dishes; the English variety of Indian cooking is probably the most eaten kind of food in England, here exotic tastes from Indonesian are very prominent.

There was a time I had a salad full of grit which I took back to the chef, rather than replace the salad with a fresh one, he took one leaf ate it and the declared the salad gritless, you could imagine my amazement.

Food snobs they are not

However, that exemplifies the difference in care and attention that the Dutch have towards food compared to the French, Italians or even Spaniards.

Furthermore, I have the advantage of a supermarket on the ground floor of my apartment block. For light shopping, I take down a bag, for serious shopping, I wheel the trolley home – living on the seventh floor of an apartment block which has a supermarket should count for something.

Albert Heijn is the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands as part of the Ahold group of companies. There have been lots of improvements over my last 6 years of residence in the Netherlands – shelves are better stacked and labeled, you rarely find out-of-stock stuff, tills get opened when queues get longer, they have not gotten to a bagging service yet.

Unfortunately, what has gone into a decent and organized shop floor has been lost in food psychology.

Yikes!

I picked up a pack of meat – heart cubed for stews – I use it for pepper soup and an assortment of stew recipes. Apart from the label signifying what it was, it had another sticker – (Dier Voeding) – Pet food in Dutch.

Don’t get me wrong, I would suppose most human food is dual purpose, that is, it can be served to both humans and pets, but that should be an unwritten prerogative of the pet owner.

One other explanation might be, the cost of gourmet pet food might be so high that preparing you own pet food is a cost saver, and there are humans whose work it is to taste the edibility of pet food. That, said, this would have better be put in the pet corner and not amongst food for human-beings.

To put that dual-purpose label on food in a supermarket beggars belief – need I say more? I think we can conclude the Dutch have no clue about the concepts of food psychology; this is the fundamental of good cooking, if you could get that from Dutch ingredients.

Albert Heijn have now done the Dutch a disservice, but, if it is acceptable to the Dutch, I would not complain, basically, anything labeled dual-purpose like that, is for the lowest common denominator – in this case, I would not be eating pet food.

Mind that language

Doing the Double Dutch

Not that I can say much about my command of languages, having been in the Netherlands for 6 years and find that I cannot string together one sentence without looking like a clown on Sesame Street. Back to classes for me.

The Dutch are generally known to be polyglots, the notion is that that can speak a number of languages at levels of proficiency that rate better than average.

I can agree to some extent if the purpose is basic communication, however, when it comes to serious conversation in the adopted language, the cracks and the holes begin to show.

Friendly and tolerant Dutch colleagues

In my case, I cannot hold it against any of the speakers, their attempts are a lot better than my attempts at Dutch and I am very appreciative of every attempt they make to me feel welcome and comfortable in their environments, despite the aberrant nationalistic inclinations of their populist politicians.

However, some university research now shows that the basic command of Dutch itself amongst the young Dutch is poor; this presents a problem because if one does not have a firm grasp of ones mother tongue it is difficult to formally learn another language from the grammar/usage perspective.

I perceive you know less

The research goes on to assess user perception of language knowledge to actual knowledge and understanding of the language. It appears managers believe they have a good command of English when in reality the standard is very poor.

That perception is an aspiration in some cases, I like to think I understand a lot more Dutch than I do, and I remember when someone commended me for my African dress and that the clothes make a man, which I did understand, then she said maybe I do not understand her – and that, I did not understand. Funny, the way Dutch just pays you up.

Et tu?

The twist in this research is the finding that other Europeans are less confident of their command of other languages, but they are a lot better than they think they are, the Dutch however are the opposite.

Sometimes, generalisations are not the best source of useful knowledge.

Verdonk back with new controversy

She is controversy personified and breathing

Sometimes I wonder if this woman courts controversy or exemplifies the evil personification of controversy itself.

Despite the overworked proposals that pertain to almost hapless immigrants who decide to emigrate to this land of a hard and difficult tongue, Mrs Verdonk having kept a lower than low profile with regards to how she wrecked the last cabinet and government is back in the news again.

Double Dutch and triple hurdles

Already, there are hurdles as high as the Israeli wall, which include having to learn to fluency the Dutch at the port of embarkation to the Netherlands.

Anyway, there is no doubt that there should be a way of processing illegal immigrants and deporting them back to ports and locations of embarkation where we are assured that their life, security and well-being would not be compromised.

It cannot be said the Mrs Verdonk as been scrupulous in these matters though, having offered names of asylum seekers to home governments that could waylay the arrival the "traitors" and lead them to situations that would be considered untenable according to our standards.

Besides, being called to the Second Chamber to explain her actions several times which either prejudiced people or make a public spectacle of the Dutch in the most unflattering ways, she remains interesting popular, but also am impediment to good integration policies.

Announcing a new controversial policy

So, her low profile purdah has ended with the news that she intends to make it difficult for once illegal immigrants to return to the Netherlands even if this time they have obtained through proper process the leave to return and settle in the Netherlands.

One wonders what this is supposed to achieve if the once illegal immigrant now legalises their presence in the Netherlands, which should be the right thing to do.

As usual, we are informed that this is not related to any case but some recommendations given in some pre-existing report.

Once illegal now legal to study law

Exactly, as I now note that Taida Pasic, the Kosovan and the unfortunate political pawn immigrant who was thrown out a few months ago within weeks of her examinations, will return in September to study law in the University of Leiden being sponsored fully by an organisation that advocates the emancipation of women.

Somehow, this minister just has a way of presenting policy to make anyone and everyone suspicious of the intentions, motives and goals as one despairs for the sad and sick Machiavellian glee that satisfies the people who craft such dastardly ideas as policy.

References

Verdonk plans to block former illegals

Verdonk survives censure as she admits more mistakes

Verdonk in the wars again over Syrian deportees

Data authority questions Verdonk's handling of Taida

Student Taida gets permission to return

Losing every flicker of interest in Flickr

Having been snapping away over the last few weekends, I had come to that point where those captured digital moments could be uploaded for viewing.

To safe-guard my original and future activities, I decided it was time to upgrade to the Pro version of Flickr with all its benefits and so on.

Most importantly, it allows me to lodge complaints if I have any and expect prompt, efficient and good service.

I had already gone off Picasa at Google because of the requirement of a Gmail account and the fact that without an introduction the mobile authentication option does not cover Europe.

So here I am with Flickr and I find I have to write the mail below:-

The email

Hello,

I am interested in upgrading to the 2-year deal but have been met with unfriendly and unreasonable interfaces that are frustrating my request.

I first tried to pay with my Amex card and the moment I chose the Netherlands where I live everything switched to Dutch and I lost the Amex option.

OK! I can read Dutch, so I switch to my Mastercard and on entering my information it tries to force me to use the PayPal service to pay up because it matched my email and credit card details to a PayPal service I rarely use.

Yes, I want to pay to use Flickr, No, I do not want to use Paypal if I choice between that and my credit card.

Is there anyway of removing this extra and extraneous web intelligence such that I can make the choices about the language I want, the way I want to pay without being second-guessed by technology?

Thanks for your help.

Regards

I would be lucky if there is any better way to get this done - God forbid that I have to grovel for a Gmail account to get on Picasa - It is a hard life on the web - I sigh!

Tone blind

Beat the heat

Were now experiencing a major heat wave in Europe. The mercury is playing on the 90s Fahrenheit and on some places would exceed a hundred.

We can expect 35 Celsius in Utrecht which just about 40 kilometres from Amsterdam such that it is a blessing to be in an air-conditioned office.

Those have their dangers, only last week a good 5 days were expended in finding source of an outbreak of Legionnaires disease, which end up in the cooling towers of Post CS, the building temporarily housing Stedelijk (Town) museum. That resulted in a fatality.

Generally, I wear a suit to work, but never in this kind of weather, my full African garb consisting of a white guinea caftan with trousers to match and a traditional Yoruba cap is good fashion against the heat and the sun.

Whereas this offers an opportunity to dress up or dress down depending on how you look at it, the amount of exposed flesh observed on others sometimes leaves much to be desired.

The tone of a raccoon

As I waited at the bus stop, there were signs of what that sun and more at done to many; people who take off their sunglasses and you see the facial equivalent of a panty-line the barely tanned eyes in the collage of a face that makes the people look like happy raccoons.

Somehow, everyone wants a tan of sort regardless of the risks, even if they have slapped on gallons of sunscreen.

The converse is the tone, darker skinned people who attempt to lighten up using chemicals that are probably better tested on gullible humans than helpless animals.

A lot can be done to tone skin and other exposed parts of the body like the legs and the lower arms.

Knuckles, Elbows, Knees all darker

Summer however affords the opportunity to dress light, expose more and in effect reveal the stubborn dark parts that the creams could not lighten.

This lady in front of me as I tried to board the bus had been at it, and her elbows so contrasted with the general skin tone one would have thought those were tailored patches.

Another stubborn region is the knees and the knuckles; I would not make too much fuss about palm prints.

Vitiligo might be the haven for some, but the uniformity of skin discolouration would leave one rather suspect of that diagnosis, but with goes without saying that when these issues come up, Michael Jackson is a full appreciation of bigger considerations as your pigment deserts you.

Reference

Skin Bleaching vs Tans

Skin Bleaching/ Lightening & Its Dangers

6th of July - 1942, 1946 & 2006

Seeking refuge finding little solace

As Europe changed under the scourge of Communism, Fascism and Nazism, people negatively affected by these developments began to seek succour and refuge in other countries where the effect was less evident.

Men sought to protect their lives and lives of their families as they moved from persecution state to another hoping to outrun, outdo and outlive the tragedies that were knocking at their front doors.

This was a time when trust mattered but suspicion thrived, your good neighbour of yesterday became your sworn enemy the next day as the sufferings gave way to the desire to obtain reward for the despicable acts of telling on others for personal safety.

As so, 64 years ago today, Otto Frank, his wife and two daughter sought refuge in a backroom apartment in Amsterdam to avoid being taken by the Nazis and sent to ghettos or concentration camps as part of plan of Jewish extermination which became known as the Holocaust.

Men of evil persuasion

These were times when probably people could have claimed other allegiances or heritage to escape privation, but no, Jews owned up as Jews and stayed true to being who they were, in the process, they were corralled and gathered for death in concentration camps.

Only a few weeks before this event, Otto had given his daughter Anne an autograph book which she had pointed out to her father, however, on receipt of this 13th Birthday present, she decided to use it as a diary.

For 2 years and 29 days, they sojourned in refuge in the Actherhuis (Secret Annex), unbeknownst to anyone but a few trusted staff of Otto Frank's business.

Accounts reveal that there were Jew hunters who were rewarded handsomely for those deprived times for seeking out Jews, and so it happened that Otto Frank, his family and other Jews in the annex were betrayed and apprehended for transportation to concentration camps.

There is no doubt from those studies that quite a few of the Dutch citizenry were collaborators in fishing out Jews for horrors beyond words.

Anyway, for blackmail, for fear or for honour, the Franks were apprehended and sent to away - only Frank survived that ordeal.

Ensuring a legacy

He returned to Amsterdam where his ex-employees had gathered most of Franks' belongings and papers, which ended which contained writings that became known as "the Anne Frank diary".

I first came across information about Anne Frank in a church exhibition in England, and then when I visited Amsterdam in 1996, we went to the Anne Frank House to be enlightened about life in the Netherlands during Nazi occupation and how it affected the Jews.

The brood of collaborators

Like today, we have another dimension of immigration problems where the collaborators in sending immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers back to places of misery, privation and death are the rule-keepers in the guise of ministers of the Dutch crown.

There are immigrants today who were just as integrated as Anne Frank, her diary was written in Dutch and then translated into many other languages.

It is amazing that there is a still a lot of angst about conferring Dutch citizenship on Anne Frank an issue that has been refused on the technicality that citizenship is not granted posthumously - for people who speak a language that has so many exceptions, one would expect an exception to the rule in this case.

This even in the light of Anne Frank almost being voted the greatest Dutch person.

The problem is not necessarily that of everyday Dutch people, rather it is their unconscionable leaders given to populist notions and deceived by presumed popularity that stoke the embers that bring out the worst in us.

July the 6th - auspiciously inauspicious

Beyond this is the issue of legacies; Anne Frank ensured her legacy by journaling the events of her times, which gives insight into a dark period of Dutch history.

Four years after the Frank's sought refuge, George W. Bush was born; he is in the process of ensuring a legacy which history might not judge to nicely if Iraq, Afghanistan, the War on Terror continues to gather the headlines.

The lesson is simple, we can find good in all men, but when adversity strikes, many good men fall; we can also find truth in all men, but when in the skin of politicians - better be bitten by a rattlesnake than listen to their populist poison that destroys communities and societies.

References

Who Betrayed Anne Frank?

Ex-Liberal boss compares Verdonk to Le Pen

Here lies … About the greatest Dutch person

The Greatest Dutch Person - the official Anne Frank House website

Anne Frank on Dutch 'greatest' list stirs citizenship debate