Avarice Anonymous

A business opportunity for the non-thinking expert

For years, a number of enterprising but nefarious and dishonest people have traded successfully in exploiting an abundant resource of gullibility and greed. Surprisingly, this resource has been more abundant in the West than in the Third World where these business deals are hatched from.

It is with amusement that one has watched the re-living of that fable, moral, idiom or ditty - "A fool and his money are soon parted" [1]. Whilst one does not in anyway condone these activities, having an education and being dumb is probably the congenital illness of many who are duped into "Get rich quick - GRQ" schemes.

The only GRQ I tacitly approve of is the moderate activity of minimum funding of a licensed lottery where the fact is you have to be in it to win it, your numbers could come up, but it is not something to invest in and break the bank. One ticket with your chosen numbers is just as good as a thousand with your numbers, only one set of numbers would take the jackpot, if and only if Lady Luck called at your boudoir.

Dear Partner? Are you talking to me?

Anyway, back to this scamming business, I hardly get as excited about email as when someone out of the blue sends me some information with a header like this:

Attention,
Dear Partner

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

My name is Owen Kings; I am the credit manager in a bank here in the West Africa.

Then the proposition

I am the account officer of a foreigner named Gerald Welsh who died in an air crash along with his wife on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline 990 with other passengers on board. You can confirm this from the website below which was published by CNN WEBSITE.

Fine, there is a few million dollars to be made for masquerading as the long lost heir of a deceased Bwana; say William Wilberforce for example or a despot like Sani Abacha, warlord or corrupt African Mandarin, whatever.

In some versions of the letter the amount in words does not correspond to the figures. [2]

Take time to find out

A simple act of detective footwork – that is – searching the Web for either “Owen Kings” or “Gerald Welsh” reveals it is a 419-scam. [3] Otherwise known as Advance Fee Fraud. In my view it is simply Wily Fox meeting Stupid Chicken – the result of that meeting hardly needs extraneous imagination.

The conclusion of this deal normally includes you sending your account details and a fee to help unlock the account. This fee can run into millions of dollars with the hope of earning more millions.

However, you get fleeced, No not robbed; because you willingly parted with money with the inadvertent intent of being an accomplice in a crime that might bring great reward.

The business proposition at times end with this nice sounding part

Because I intend to retire after the conclusion of this transaction. If this proposal is acceptable by you, please endeavour to contact me immediately. Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you by informing you of this transaction from my bank as I will advise you to kindly desist from responding at all if you do NOT intend to render any assistance. Endeavour to respond via my confidential and official email address which is richschol_white@yahoo.com or call me on +234-8034-7444-81 for detail information.

Indeed, your partner intends to retire on your funds and does not take kindly to your further inquiries if you are not gullible enough to respond in the affirmative to the proposal. The cheek!

My Retort

I will help you; we are not stupid people here.

First of all, your CNN reference does not exist.

Secondly, a search for Gerald Welsh on Google reveals that your letter is a 419 scam.

http://www.interesting-information.com/nigerian-money-scheme/kings.htm

Thirdly, I have reported your nuisance to the ISP staff so your account would be removed forthwith.

Finally, get yourself a job and stop this dishonest stupidity, that you have the gall to call me partner in your nefarious scheme is too much of an insult to contemplate an effective response other than a rotten expletive.

Saving people from themselves

What one finds most surprising is the number of sites that offer help to people who have succumbed to their greed just as fish take to water. One wonders what help can be offered for the lacking of basic commonsense in the quest for easy money.

Luckily, I am not in law enforcement, the total redress for this situation is to both capture the scammer and the scammed who in addition to the shame of being humiliated and having lost money should be taken off the street.

These people are the selfsame sort who feed the beast of corruption that makes many Third World societies ungovernable.

Should there be a crime for giving in to your greed? Well not if you are having cheese cake, for the rest, the blame can only be yours - Surely!

References

[1] A fool and his money are soon parted

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/a/a_fool_and_his_money_are_soon_parted.asp

[2] Foreigner Named Gerald Welsh who Died in an Air Crash along with his Wife on the 31st October 1999

http://www.interesting-information.com/nigerian-money-scheme/kings.htm

[3] Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

[4] 419 Known Operatives - FraudWatch International

http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/internetfraud/419_operatives.htm

Of Tsunamis and people

The Chain of years

Finally, one has gotten to that point where it is impossible to not realise that the New Year has come and gone and there are new things on the horizon.

In the time before Christmas 2004 and now, there have been such world changing events it has been impossible not to be affected, concerned or involved, but how much of the response to all this is genuine, reflective and the impetus to do better at working for a just and free world?

Tsunami of water

Starting with the tsunami which made a devastating visitation to the Indian Ocean wiping out almost 200,000 souls, it appears from all analysis that whilst the tsunami was not preventable preventative measures could have been taken to prevent that magnitude of loss of life if people who observed that earthquake had been more imaginative in their understanding of that event.

An earthquake of that magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale with its epicentre in the middle of an ocean would almost always result in a tsunami on its surrounding shores. In some cases people had up to 3 hours to evacuate before being overwhelmed with such damaging force.

Whilst there is no sophisticated tsunami warning system and outlying areas were inhabited by rural folk who live in standards of poverty unseen in the West, but also with dazzling amounts of contentment not seen in the West either, it is debatable that every house does not have a wireless and probably a town-crier.

A wireless, one must say is a radio, the news of impending danger could have gone out on the primitive communication device and been much help.

However, at the cost of probably billions of dollars an early warning system would be implemented for the sophisticated and hopefully, not to the exclusion of the less technologically savvy.

It simply goes without saying that the quantity of scientific brains lacking common sense is increasing alarmingly, the inability to use imagination in the useful salvation of life when pigeon-holed in the scientific laboratories and research centres without thinking of cost and profit is becoming unforgivable.

It is that same misguided notion that makes September the eleventh 2001 most poignant, America was not attacked with bombs, missiles or military weapons rather, it was 4 fully laden airplanes - passengers and fuel - that flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon - the advent of Mr George W. Bush's interesting presidency.

Basically, security, freedom, democracy, safety are in the hands of the citizens of the world, not the tools that we use to bring them about. What would seismologists have done if the earthquake were closer to home?

The exhortation rings along once again - always think globally, no matter what is happening locally. [1]

The Tsunami of aid

Yesterday at a benefit concert in the United Kingdom, GBP 1,25 million was raised for the victims of the tsunami disaster just at the same time that it was making the news that tetanus is becoming the biggest threat to survivors and the relief volunteers.

Pledges close to $2 billion have been made with so much noise made of the generosity of the West and the miserliness of the Arab states.

It comes to might that teaching of Jesus where He exhorts that works of charity should be such that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

For once, I have distanced myself from the hysteria of donations whilst trying to see where if the pledges would be fulfilled first, and then if all that would really be used for the affected.

The Tsunami of democracies

First with Ukraine, who have finally been able to inaugurate their chosen president because one principle was about the people and the other was about methods and tools.

Democracy should always be about people, and if any lesson can be learnt from the trial of democracy in Ukraine; the will of the people should and must prevail.

The Palestinians had an opportunity to elect someone after the death of the man who kept the Palestinian cause in the public eye. Mr Yasser Arafat did not lead his people to the chosen land, he was no Moses.

What he saw from the mountain top was not pleasing to him nor could he persuade his people of that in 2000. It was an opportunity missed, but he hoped he would get better. No matter how Mr Arafat is castigated, he remains the true spirit of the Palestinian cause any successor would be dwarfed in his shoes, but a new beginning beckons.

Next change? Israel.

An inauguration costing $40 million; and this for a re-election that nobody but Americans wanted. The tendency for a leader of a constituency of just under 300 million people of a global population close to 6.3 billion to intend and imply that that election leads to world presidency needs to be nipped at the bud.

The slanted American democratic practices which I have covered in many ways in my blogs do not have the kudos to be extrapolated to mean global leadership.

One could be forgiven for thinking the inauguration speech was a Sunday morning TV evangelist sermon on freedom and liberty, but then for someone who has such strong moral values, determination and convictions, I am at loss in seeing the difference between Mr George W. Bush and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – the former leading a democracy masquerading as a theocracy in the US and the latter having lead a theocracy masquerading as a democracy in Iran.

Basically, the government of the people cannot move back to a theocracy in the earth that we live in today, because the concepts of God, authority, leadership and attendant interpretation of those issues impact of the citizenry in different ways.

The agreement of purpose cannot only be imposed by accepted tyranny as in Iran or the Patriot Act in the States exemplified in the so vividly in Guantanamo Bay.

Next on the democratic list is Iraq, where the candidature is hardly known to the electorate and chaos reigns as if the birthplace of chaos is Babylon, it is unlikely Nostradamus foresaw that amazing genius that has used the force of freedom to sacrifice life, peace, sovereignty and common sense in one blow.

If there is any change, it cannot be the increase of peace for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, it appears the year 2005 would be ever so interesting – how you read interesting would depend on if you are a native English speaker from Britain or from elsewhere.

References

[1] The Asian Tsunami: Think Globally, Locally, Journalistically
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=76241

My heartfelt gratitude

Dear Friend, Supporter and Reader,

I want to thank you very much for supporting my blog. I appreciate the time you have taken to donate in acknowledgement of my work and I am flattered by your contribution borne from your interest in my writing.

I assume you have been a regular reader of my blog which I started in December 2003 and probably have left comments on my blog in the past either on http://akin.blog-city.com which will close in January 2012 or http://akinblog.nl which is the new location of my blog.

Writing has been a hobby and sometimes a serious pursuit, your contribution is both an endorsement however tacit and an encouragement.

I hope you will continue to visit my blog and support my efforts; your kind contribution will be helpful. Please leave a comment if you can about how you have found my blog and writing, it will provide an opportunity for me to personally thank you for your generosity.

Accept my gratitude and kindest regards,

Akin Akintayo

To lose a loss of life

To lose a loss of life

The deluge of Malapropisms that flow off the lips of that graduate of Harvard University does make one wonder if his graduation thesis was written in a dialect of English that makes everyone prick up their ears at the commencement of each utterance.

This time, having just visited wounded soldiers in hospital he walked out into the glare of the usual media circus to express a few thoughts about the carnage that resulted in the loss of twenty-something lives of soldiers and civilians having lunch under a tent in the confines of an American base in Iraq. [1]

Having stuttered over a few words expressing condolences, regret and anguish, one turn of phrase came out as "... to lose a loss of life ..."

The peace in Saddam's time

It is without doubt that the seemingly peaceful Iraq under Saddam Hussien in which a few people were terrorised and abused to death by a handful of despotic psychopaths has turned into a terrorist insurgency where live and property in every town is constantly threatened.

The rape of Fallujah in which many of the self-same terrorists were holed lead to a dispersal of these insurgents to relatively peaceful areas of Iraq which included Mosul in the North.

As governor of Texas, he presided a record number of death penalty executions, it appears there is a numbness to the realities and emotion of death, both criminal and young American alike are expendable in the quest to appear tough. [2] The numbness that informs the mechanical signing of letters of condolence from the Secretary of Defense, though he has now offered to personally sign each letter [3]

Whilst, it might be argued in the president’s defence that he is protecting the American people the land of Iraq has probably seen on average more blood spilt in the 21 months of visitation than when Saddam Hussein ruled with terror.

Derailing history from the tracks of reason

One version of history might suggest that the Butcher of Crawford who lead a "free and fair" America in the debunking of the spirit of the Geneva Convention, had in conjunction with being caught napping at the crest of events of September the Eleventh expended the lives of over 1,000 youths and probably 100,000 Iraqis to pre-empt the re-occurrence of 9-11.

Then he balanced that on the principle of offering freedom, justice and democracy at a cost that is becoming the most expensive purchase of freedom in civilisation.

Death for many is FINAL

Being a committed Christian who might believe in the existence of life after death, as well as the realities of heaven and hell does not confer on anyone the right to despatch so many to the great beyond. This earth might for him be transitory, but for the grieving relations and family of the departed, there is finality, a vacuum and an absence for those left widowed, orphaned, fatherless or motherless.

Without doubt, the lure to join the forces on the premise that they would provide opportunities for a career and secure future is as much a loaded mouse-trap where many get trapped before they've had a whiff of the cheese bait. Dead, maimed or completely traumatised. There ought to be better ways of getting out of the ghetto to becoming successful apart from joining the forces and definitely not just by being a musician.

A cult of bizarre people

The draft would eventually be re-introduced because America being the country that it is, has all the hallmarks of extreme conservatism whilst trying hard to display liberal values.

Most are at ease with the death penalty and the choice of abortion is based on a public morality rather than a personal, conviction or medical need; stem-cell research is not a cause for scientific advancement and the choice of partnership is not the reserve of the few to decide on what alternative relationship they are inclined to have; little wonder that personal liberties would be further curtailed as the gullible rally round the flag and the American people would be deservedly governed as they have chosen.

Oceans of blood

This Iraqi quest has been so blood-thirsty that the demon that so feasts on the blood of the innocent and guilty alike would hardly be sated regardless of the developments. Time and again, we have been assured that for every step-change in offering sovereignty to the Iraqis the insurgency would subside; that is still a pipe-dream. [3]

Finally, to quote directly from The Economist - Christmas Edition 2004 a comment by an Englishman with regards to the Potemkin Steps in Odessa, Ukraine [4] "an ill-conceived design if intended for ornament; its utility is more than doubtful, and its execution is so defective that its fall is already anticipated" - So can be said of the Iraqi quagmire, I pause, reflect and sigh!

[1] BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Eyewitness: Carnage in the canteen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4116343.stm

[2] George Bush: death penalty,capital punishment,George W. Bush,Texas,political polls

http://www.texecutions.com/

[3] CNN.com - Signature on death letters fuels Rumsfeld criticism - Dec 19, 2004

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2004/US/12/19/rumsfeld.signature/

[4] Casualties in Iraq - 2004

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

[5] VirtualTourist.com - E-Diogo's Odessa Travel Page

http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/38554/abbcb/

The Potemkin Steps - 192 Steps with 10 landings; if viewed from above, one sees just the landings and when viewed from below, one sees just the steps.

39 Steps

Steps as years

The unlikely story of an ordinary man being thrust into a situation he had no control over and then fighting in everyway to prove his innocence, is the stuff of one of the greatest films called The Thirty-Nine Steps [1], directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock [2] and released in 1939.

The making of this film was what took Alfred Hitchcock to the notice of the Americans, the rest is purely history.

My 39 steps started on the selfsame day in 1965 on a cold winter's morning where eventually I was to be found not in a manger but in an incubator where I was for 2 months. That story was told last year. [3]

Having been through a very eventful year that started with grim uncertainties about my career and future, through an acrimonious resignation to a new job and starting a Master's course in Information Technology and then almost being kicked to death by some rotten misfits only 16 days ago, I do have everything to be thankful for.

The process of learning, recognition, appreciation, acknowledgement and communication continues to stimulate me, that above that niggling thought of one's supposed frailty, the will to live life to the full and enthuse everyone around me with that exhilarating experience is so profound to me.

The joy of living

Sometimes, I miss myself if I am not just ready to make a situation better by any means at my disposal and I have disposed a lot, the life of a spendthrift could be quite nerve-racking, but beyond just surviving I am constructed to overcome and create that purpose in every situation I am in.

I have a full calendar ahead of me to completing a majority of the modules of my Master's degree and start preparing for my dissertation and sounding out universities in which to do a research degree. The quest to remain relevant in the Information Technology industry continues apace.

Gosh! He has taken religion

Regaining the power of spirituality which shapes my outlook and put me on a Turbo-charge for ever-increasing attainment and development is a unique purpose and ensuring that my health is buttressed against its enemies is paramount.

Each year I have been given to celebrate is a gift of grace and favour, as it leads to 40, one can lift ones eyes to the hills from  whence cometh my help [4], because of my own, I am nothing without the life that God gives me.

By God's great mercy and grace, I am a lot more than where I started and still a lot short of where I am going, but this journey would be as exciting as it can ever be and you can join me anytime, anywhere even here and now.

My belief systems are formed from my religious meditation and values, nothing I have said a foretime has been devoid of that foundational thought. You might yet read more on that matter.

Thank you for another memorable day!

[1] The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)

http://www.filmsite.org/thirt.html

[2] Alfred Hitchcock

http://www.mysterynet.com/hitchcock/

[3] Birthdays - A lot more people were involved

http://akin.blog-city.com/read/403429.htm

[4] HOLY BIBLE, KJV. Text of PSALMS, Chapter 121

http://godsview.com/kjvtx05/kt019121.html

http://www.athomewithme.com/From%20whence%20cometh%20my%20help.htm

Rewarding Malevolence

The Top 40

I had just about had it this afternoon when channel hopping I inadvertently switched to "The Music Factory" a music channel subsidiary of MTV to find out that De Tokkies [1] were at number 11 of the Top 40 charts with their tuneless and toneless contribution to the Christmas chart melee.

You may ask who the Tokkies are. [2] But before we get to that, it appears there is a degenerative development in society that I might have missed and when I found out, I was already a beaten up victim experiencing the norms of our times.

Wherefore Society?

My concern is the tolerance of everything to the exclusion of nothing, the inertia of law enforcement and the indifference leading on to the numbness of society to act where hardly decades ago this would not have been the case.

The Dutch as a people are globally viewed as tolerant friendly people; that, one cannot dispute, but the acceptance of the freedoms that allow for the tolerance of every expression even where it encroaches or obliterates another person's freedom is becoming a cause for serious concern.

I have already highlighted a number of those situations in earlier blogs about queues and queue-jumping, customer service, the electorate's enlightenment, the victim status of proponents of intolerance and the choosing of national figures.

The Tokkies

The Tokkies, yes, back to these chart-toppers, this is a family of at least 3 generations who had by the beginning of 2004 become the most anti-social family in the Netherlands. Their infamy was publicised on our screens a number of times, having been evicted from so many neighbourhoods for every unspeakable asocial activity imaginable. At one time they were hopeless, homeless and hapless and some motivational speaker of allegedly dubious means did at one time attempt to purchase a home for them.

However, a number of bright sparks have tapped on the enterprising and entrepreneurial flair of the Dutch {Remember they first started slavery, made their money and moved on before others caught on}[3] to promote this unwanted societal black spot as celebrity and before we knew it they were raking in money for all sorts of contracts, deals and now the Christmas song. They also have an Internet search page. [4]

Really, wherefore society?

Anyway, the issue here is how society is more accepting of asocial and anti-social behaviour to the extent that the more extreme this behaviour is, it begins to confer notoriety and celebrity, by the time we know what is going on, the self-same people who have refused to be positive contributory members of our civil existence are then rewarded handsomely because notoriety and popularity have become so synonymous they have both lost the measurable parameter of values and morals.

For now, I would reserve invective towards the people who have engineered the transformation of these misfits into rich but unrepentant people; it is both shameful and shameless taken in context.

However, the bigger picture is that society accepts its members; which it should, but it is failing in defining the norms of civility and the taking of liberties. It is promulgating flimsy laws that attempt to address lawlessness but failing to enforce those laws. The presence of laws, rules and regulations not enforced allow for the fabric of stable and normal society to be shredded with impunity. Even now, not many believe the police would rise to the job of crime fighting until it becomes public property seized on by vested interests with nefarious agendas.

Where is the lid?

I will still maintain that the Dutch are a friendly, interesting, tolerant people, however, what is happening as the evolution of society here and elsewhere needs to be arrested well before it gets out of hand. Unfortunately, the lid to this Pandora's Box is lost.

[1] The family no one wanted - Expatica.com
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=10384&name=The+family+no+one+wanted

For translations, you might find The Altavista Babel Fish Translator useful
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

[2] De Tokkies - Wikipedia NL - In Dutch
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Tokkies

[3] Chronology on the History of Slavery 1619 to 1789
http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html

[4] Tokkies Pagina - In Dutch
http://tokkies.pagina.nl/

Bottling Anger

Cents and pennies calling on thousands

Two weeks have past since I was the victim of utterly senseless and unprovoked violence at the hands of drug-fed demented animals masquerading as humans on the streets of Amsterdam.

Whilst, one can say most of what happened has been put behind and one looks forth, the memories of the unfortunate incident transcended the effects of the physical pain and humiliation when I mentally tallied up the cost of this event in basic monetary terms.

My bicycle was damaged whch means I have to replace the bell, the gear assembly and have it serviced, that could be 50 Euros or there abouts.

I ordered a replacement pair of glasses which is taking about 2 weeks to pass through the system, meanwhile I am using last year's spectacles - cost 200 Euros.

Two days off sick recuperating from the event - cost around 1,000 Euros.

The bitterest pill of all was the 4 hours I spent in the Accident & Emergency section of the hospital out of which I was attended to for less than 30 minutes and the treatment just involved gluing up the cut to my eye-brow and ascertaining that my jaw was not broken by having 2 X-rays taken, since the first was considered too light.

Anyway, that bill came to just under 200 Euros.

A mental calculation puts the total cost at 1,450 Euros - for an event that lasted less than 5 minutes, effected by 3 unknown persons who have wreaked havoc and walked away with no consequences for their actions.

To that, add the possible damage that was done to the bicycle thrown at me, the unfortunate owner of that bicycle inadvertently intertwined with my episode by the coincidence of fate and not any wiser of the bigger picture.

This represents basis quantifiable costs of being inflicted with actual bodily harm, however, this is never accounted for in any of the crime statistics that get bandied around by politicians.

Manifesto unmanifest

Ones pique is rather more inflamed with the misguided idea that the introduction of compulsory identity cards would prevent crime, how that logic works out escapes me, though it is becoming the accepted view in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Crime and punishment is such a political football, however, it is time for the electoral to see through the intentions and perceptions created to the realities and facts on the ground.

The police are just not interested in fighting real crime when it is easier to place them on the Metro to catch fare dodgers and on bicycle paths to fine night-riders without light.

Gosh! I am beginning to sound cynical.

It then becomes utterly laughable when the new initiative "Towards a Secure Society" [1] tries to inform of how to protect oneself from crime and violence.

The accompanying English Summary [2] suggests a number of strategies which offer a good grammatical construction full of intent but lacking in activity.

One such is under the title Safety strategy

Priorities in the criminal approach

This means that incidents occurring in public spaces, such as assault, mugging, acts of vandalism, anti-social behaviour on public transport and offences committed by young offenders will be tackled by the police and the judiciary.

Then the use of certain unorthodox methods to achieve the objective of a secure environment which includes

Less administrative work for the police, so that they can spend more time out on the streets and can start more investigations;

And the coup de grace is delivered with these intended results

Intended results

The government has high ambitions. The aim of its policy is to buck the trend. Current trends in criminality and disorder, particularly in the categories of behaviour that have a direct impact on the individual, must be reversed.

It is the firm belief of this government that concentrated targeting of these categories will be more beneficial to society, which will actually be made safer by the end of 2006 as a result, not only from an objective viewpoint in terms of figures, but especially from a subjective viewpoint, i.e. as perceived by individual persons.

For the record, this certainly does not mean that criminality and disorder will be banished for good.

What it does mean is that by the end of 2006, according to current opinion, the conditions will be in place to enable the individual to enjoy a considerably higher degree of safety in (semi-)public spaces.

A reduction in criminality and disorder in public spaces by (for example) around 20% or 25% from 2006 onwards must be the target figure.

Lacking opportunity

I am probably one of the many who have been frustrated by the police in the quest to lodge a report about a crime and have been fobbed off with some unspeakable bureaucratic measure that just beggars belief.

For instance, the fact that having just walked into a police station straight from the hospital opposite the road to report a crime that happened in Amsterdam and being told it had to be reported to the station in the precinct of the crime was just too incredible for words.

I was at that hospital because it was the only Accident & Emergency ward for the whole of central Amsterdam, the insensitive of the police to my situation cannot bear scrutiny.

Basically, I gave up on reporting the crime knowing that I would probably spend another 4 hours sat there waiting to be attended to, and I could not for the life of me remember who attacked me or what they looked like.

Typically, reporting a robbery could take a few days, since one has to book an appointment to see the police and arrange to offer a statement, the police station is hardly what you might call customer-friendly.

Placed in the future to arrive a lot later

2006 is the golden year, a reduction of criminality - I beg to differ; there were over 10 witnesses to the event when 3 people beat me up on a well lit street. At least 5 of them were onlookers rather than just passing by.

It is the intolerable face of tolerance, that society cannot act together to prevent an injustice. The whole concept of individual space and freedom now includes a quiet indifference to societal ills as long as one is not the involved party.

Times have past when the first person to speak up was the leader, now you speak up to your own peril together with being branded a maverick.

Things have changed so much so, it appears the only appearance of society that works as we should know it is in Africa, what we now see in the West is neither civil nor civilisation, it is a weak society propped up on drugs and given to lasciviousness, savagery and attitudes not even becoming of animals.

Hence, it is a mindset of values that needs to come upon this society, not another set of formulas, laws and attention grabbing statutes.

When it comes to crime, the future is just not good enough, people do not want to wait 2 years to be sure they would not be beaten up in public places - they would rather not get beaten up, today, tomorrow, yesterday or ever.

[1] Nederlandveilig - Safety in the Netherlands

http://www.nederlandveilig.nl/default.asp?id=275&template=content.htm

[2] Towards a more secure society

http://www.nederlandveilig.nl/bestand.asp?id=155