Bas van de Haterd

Trots op 2 cijfers

2009-08-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

Vandaag ben ik een trots man. Trots op mezelf en ik vind dat dat wel een keer mag. Ik ben trots op het feit dat mijn weegschaal vandaag voor het eerst in meer dan 10 jaar nog maar 2 cijfers nodig had om mijn gewicht uit te drukken.

Ik weet niet meer precies wanneer ik de 100 kilo grens passeerde, ik denk toen ik de eerste of de tweede keer op kamers ging, dus 18 of 19 zal ik geweest zijn. Daarna ben ik er nooit meer onder geweest, wat ik ook probeerde zei ik altijd.

Maar ergens knaagde dat heel erg aan me. Want ik geloof heilig in het feit dat iemand alles kan, als hij of zij het maar hard genoeg wil (met enkele grenzen die vooral betrekking hebben op zaken waar anderen invloed op hebben). Ik was dus al jaren in conflict met mezelf, want ik wilde dat gewicht wel kwijt, maar het lukte niet, dus wilde ik het eigenlijk niet hard genoeg. Was ik niet bereid om er genoeg voor te doen.

Ongeveer twee jaar geleden heb ik daar definitief stappen in gemaakt om er echt iets aan te doen. Veel gaan sporten is altijd geweest wat voor mij werkte. Een dieet heeft bij mij geen nut omdat mijn lichaam heel slecht reageert op verandering en ik dus bijna altijd aankom van een grote verandering van eetpatroon. Dus sporten, veel sporten, 3 keer in de week minimaal. En een kleine aanpassing van het eetpatroon. Iets meer eten, maar in kleinere porties. Elke dag proberen twee stuks fruit tussendoor (11 uur en 15/16 uur), werden er vaak 3. Nog maar 4 sneetjes brood tussen de middag en iets gezonder beleg (geen kaas meer, maar zalm, kipfilet, etc).

Het ging bij mij dan in vlagen, vreemd genoeg kon ik in een maand, soms twee maanden zo 5 kilo afvallen. Daarna stond ik 6 maanden stil, of ik nu 2 of 4 keer in de week ging sporten en me wel of niet aan het gezonde eetpatroon hield. Behalve natuurlijk als ik echt ongezond at, dan kwamen er wel weer een paar kilo's bij. Deze zomer was het doel: onder de 100 kilo (het aanvangsgewicht was tussen de 120 en 125, zo'n twee jaar geleden) en vandaag zei mijn weegschaal voor het eerst: 99,9 kilo. Een tweede weegpoging: 99,7 kilo. Het is maar nipt, maar het is een moment dat ik nog wel even zal koesteren.

Missie 1 bereikt, nu door naar de 90 zodat de premie-opslag op mijn ondernemers WAO verzekering (ja, je betaald als ondernemer met overgwicht flink meer geld) er ook van af kan. Bonussen motiveren ook mij.

Elf Fantasy Fair

2009-04-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

Sommige dingen zijn gewoon mooi, zoals de Elf Fantasy Fair. Muziek, gezellige mensen, veel verkleedpartijen, een fantastische fantasy wereld een dag lang in het prachtige kasteel de haar, dat op een kwartiertje fietsen van mijn huis ligt.

Wat kom je daar nu tegen? Nou, mooi verklede mensen (gewoon bezoekers)

Dan ineens een Epica forum vriendinnetje, die een prachtige buizerd vast mocht houden

Standjes met vele soorten bier bijvoorbeeld (en er werd ook bavaria verkocht :)

En live muziek, o.a. het heerlijke Rapalje

Rapalje 'wij houden van Oranje' from Bas van de Haterd on Vimeo.

Officieel auteur geworden

2009-03-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Het is officieel, Bas van de Haterd is auteur. Vrijdag 13 maart is het boek personal brand.nl gelanceerd, een boek dat ik samen met Huub van Zwieten en Tom Scholte heb geschreven.

Het boek is bedoeld om mensen bewust te maken van het feit dat ze een digitale schaduw hebben. Zelfs als je niet digitaal aanwezig bent, roept dit namelijk een reactie op. Iedereen is een personal brand, want een merk is niets anders dan het oproepen van emotie en laten we eerlijk zijn, dat doen we allemaal.

Met dit boek hopen we handvatten te geven hoe je jezelf kan onderscheiden, hoe je voor jezelf kan ontdekken waar je gelukkig van wordt en hoe je dit kan uitdragen. Door de nieuwe media is er een mogelijkheid gekomen jezelf neer te zetten in een hele kleine markt, op een hele goede manier. Wij hopen door dit boek een aantal mensen te overtuigen daar over na te denken. Het is niet bedoeld om mensen te helpen zich anders voor te doen dan ze zijn, juist niet. Het is niet je persoonlijkheid pimpen, het is erachter komen waar je nu eigenlijk voor staat en hoe je dit kan uitdragen.

Vandaag natuurlijk even gekeken of het boek in de schappen ligt en ja hoor, mijn naam staat er echt op, het ligt echt in de boekhandel.

Unieke vakantie-ervaring

2009-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

Ik beschouw mezelf als een redelijk ervaren vakantieganger. Niet dat ik de laatste jaren zoveel weg ben geweest, maar ik heb wel redelijk wat meegemaakt. Denk ik zelf dan. Auto, trein, fiets en vliegvakanties, been there. Hotels, huisjes, tent, caravan, vouwwagen en private rooms, done it all (soms niet vaak, maar toch).

Ik houd wel van een beetje spanning in mijn vakantie. Niet alles hoeft geregeld te zijn, je weg terugvinden naar je hotel lukt altijd wel zeg maar. Of een hotel vinden als je niets geboekt hebt is eigenlijk meer standaard dan niet bij mij.

En het meeste is me ook wel overkomen, hoewel ik gelukkig nog altijd verstoken ben geweest van groot leed zoals overvallen of leeggeroofde hotelkamers *knock on wood*

Maar afgelopen weekend ging ik naar Kraków. En ik moet zeggen, het was toch wel voor het eerst dat het vliegtuig landen in een hele andere stad dan ik dacht geboekt te hebben. Op Eindhoven kwam ik er ineens achter dat de vlucht naar Katowice ging en niet naar Kraków, terwijl ik toch echt dacht naar Kraków geboekt te hebben. Blijkt dat Wizz Air, waar ik mee vloog, de luchthaven ´Katowice / Krakow´ noemt. Het ligt maar 100km uit elkaar, so who cares.

Op zich is voor toekomstige vluchten het eigenlijk verdomd handig, want ik ga meestal naar Gliwice (daar woont Iza, een goede vriendin), maar dit keer was het verdomd lastig. Want dan moet je naar Kraków. Gelukkig ging er een busje van de luchtvaartmaatschappij en dus waren we anderhalf uur later toch in Kraków (anderhalf uur omdat hij niet de snel(tol)weg nam en dus twee keer zolang er over deed als noodzakelijk.

Eind goed, al goed natuurlijk. Leuke vakantie gehad en weer een nieuwe vakantie-ervaring. Een vliegtuig dat op een ander vliegveld land dan je dacht geboekt te hebben.

Zinloos geweld

2008-09-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Zinloos geweld... tja, alle geweldig is zinloos. Maar als je het zoals vrijdag in de trein van dichtbij meemaakt zie je pas hoe zinloos het allemaal is. En hoe triest eigenlijk een, gelukkig heel klein, deel van onze landgenoten zijn.

We kwamen terug van een bijzonder geslaagd feestje. Het marketingfacts jaarfeest, op de boot in Amsterdam. We gingen terug met drie man, of beter, twee man en een vrouw. De dame in kwestie had die middag medicijnen genomen tegen zeeziekte en dat was niet goed gevallen met een glas wijn. Het leek dus of ze helemaal straal bezopen was, maar dat was dus een foute reactie van medicijnen met een slok. Vervelend, maar niets aan te doen.

Met heel veel moeite de trein gehaald. Zelfs nog de deuren moeten open houden met mijn handen (die dus dicht gingen, gelukkig hebben ze sensoren die voelen dat er iets tussen zit). Achteraf spijt, maar ja, dat kan je niet weten op dat moment.

In de eerste coupé zitten enkele jonge (ongeveer 16 jarige) eikeltjes te schelden op een paar meisjes die een perron verder staan. Omdat onze dame dus redelijk van de kaart was ging ze vrolijk terug schelden en beledigen. Dat ging ongeveer in de trend van 'hoer' waarop gereageerd werd met 'je moeder' (om het niveau aan te geven). Dom, ja, zeker. Er waren mensen die het leuk vonden, zelf had ik het liever niet zien gebeuren, maar er was geen stoppen aan helaas. De reactie van de medicijnen met een glas alcohol maakte haar totaal ontoerekeningsvatbaar en oncontroleerbaar.

Vreemd genoeg zijn nog 3 conducteurs langs gekomen, maar deden niets. Bijzonder laf van deze mensen vond ik zelf en ook vreemd. Van de NS hoef je het niet te hebben.

Wat helaas in zo'n geval tegenwoordig bij te verwachten is met dergelijke domme eikels is dat ze het niet met woorden aankunnen, dus maar geweld gaan gebruiken. In eerste instantie tegen de vrouw die dus reageerde. Proberen een vrouw te slaan is in mijn optiek één van de lafste dingen die je kan doen en de enige keer dat ik dat ooit eerder heb zien gebeuren (tijdens mijn studententijd) werd het me zwart voor ogen en hebben 3 man me tegen moeten houden om die gozer niet half dood te slaan. Dit keer had ik blijkbaar meer zelfbeheersing en is het zonder geweld opgehouden. Dit mede dankzij de 3 jongens in onze coupé die ons meteen te hulp schoten.

De angel leek even uit het conflict, maar uiteraard moesten de eikeltjes verder ruzie zoeken. Eerst met haar, maar omdat ze niet meer reageerde toen maar met de 3 jongens die ons hielpen. Die waren zo verstandig ook niet te reageren en hoewel er veel gescheld onze kant op kwam, ging er niets terug.

Tot de eikeltjes bijna uit gingen stappen. Ik zag het aankomen, ze gingen nog iets proberen net voordat ze uit gingen stappen. Ik dacht nog na, zal ik in het gangpad gaan staan zodat ze niet kunnen langslopen en iets kunnen proberen. Maar dacht toen: dat kan ook weer juist provocerend zijn, dus laat ik dat maar niet doen. Helaas... net voordat ze uitstapte hebben ze de jongen die haar rustig hield een flinke mep op zijn gezicht geven. Een grote snee (ik denk dat hij iets van glas in zijn had heeft gehad, hoewel ik het niet weet) was het gevold. Uiteraard vol scheldend en triomf schreeuwend stapte ze uit. Want je moest ze niet beledigen. Immers, beledigen is alleen voor de toekomstloze eikels zonder intelligentie.

Het gevold: een flinke wond die ik midden in de nacht gepoogd heb een beetje te verbinden en het slachtoffer naar de eerste hulp voor hechtingen. Gelukkig geen hersenschudding, alleen een flink jaap in zijn hoofd, veel bloedverlies, hechtingen en een klote einde van wat zo'n leuke avond was.

Bij het bellen van 112 bleek dat er in heel midden Nederland in totaal 2 politiemensen van de spoorweg politiek actief zijn op een vrijdag avond. Die waren natuurlijk niet in de buurt, dus niemand die zou komen. Het is geen wonder dat de conducteur ook zei: ja, dit gebeurt nu eenmaal, ze hoeven ook geen aanleiding te hebben, je kan er niets aan doen.

Wat mij dan nog positief stemt is het feit dat er veel steun kwam vanuit de trein zelf. Dat niet iedereen zomaar bleef zitten. De drie jongens die ons te hulp schoten hebben zeker erger voorkomen en daar ben ik ze oneindig dankbaar voor! Maar ook vanuit de andere coupé kwam wat hulp en mensen die niet bang waren om zelf schade op te lopen om dit tuig aan te pakken. Blijkbaar gaat het vooruit met ons land en wordt er opgetreden tegen deze eikels, tegen het tuig. Als nu de overheid, de politie en de wetgever ook nog eens ooit iets zouden doen, wie weet durven mensen dan weer veilig over straat en 's nachts met de trein.

EPD

2008-09-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

Niet een posting die gebruikelijk is voor mij, over gezondheidszorg. Maar dit bericht op nu.nl doet mij toch geloven dat er vooruitgang in zit. In het verbeteren van de gezondheidszorg in Nederland bedoel ik. Want informatie is macht, dat weten we al lang. En een betere verspreiding van informatie zorgt er voor dat er minder macht bij één arts komt en dat alle artsen hun werk beter kunnen doen.

Het Elektronisch Patiënten Dossier (EPD) is al jaren een hoofdpijn dossier, zogezegd. Het wil maar niet vanwege allerlei medici die hun eigen belang (geld verdienen, macht vasthouden, niet met computers willen werken) boven dat van hun patiënten zetten. Die ban lijkt nu eindelijk gebroken te worden en... tot mijn grote verbazing op een goede manier.

Want ergens is het natuurlijk ook eng dat al mijn medische gegevens voor iedereen toegankelijk zouden zijn. Dus is men eindelijk in Den Haag, na jaren en jaren debatteren tot de briljante conclusie gekomen dat ik eigenaar ben van mijn eigen gegevens. En dat ik dus gewoon toestemming moet geven voordat een arts mijn dossier kan inzien. Je zou zeggen: logisch. Maar ik kan je uit persoonlijk ervaring vertellen dat als je nu wilt dat arts A mijn medische gegevens doorstuurt naar arts B voor een second opinion, dat gewoon geweigerd kan worden door arts A omdat die vind dat hij eigenaar is van die gegevens. Het lijkt de auteurswet wel, ik heb ze opgeschreven dus de woorden zijn van mij, ondanks dat het over MIJN gezondheid gaat.

Verder mogen patiënten hun eigen dossier inzien (hoe is mij nog onduidelijk) en zien we wat wanneer heeft toegevoegd. Het enige wat ik nog mis is dat ze ook mogen inzien wie wat wanneer heeft geraadpleegd. Want dat is dus waar ik ook benieuwd naar ben. Welke aan een verzekeraar verbonden 'arts' heeft stiekem toch een kijkje genomen in mijn dossier? Maar dat is blijkbaar teveel macht aan de burger geven.

Hoe dan ook, een goede stap in de richting. Beter dan de meeste andere voorstellen uit Den Haag.

Just do the right thing

2008-08-31T07:19:00.001-07:00

Today when cycling, just before I was home, I saw another cycler. He was walking next to his bike, so I pulled up next to him and asked if everything was o.k.

He said he had two flat tires and so he had to walk home. So I gave him my spare tire. He wanted my address to give it back, I told him I didn't want one back, I just wanted him to do the same whenever he met someone in the same situation he was in now.

He told me he would and I went home.

Because this was the second time this month I did this, I now have to go to the store to buy new tires for my race bike, before I can go on another trip. But it's just the right thing to do. Maybe we can change the world, one person at a time.

Summer of redesign

2008-08-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

Het lijkt wel de summer of redesign. Eerst is Del.icio.us op de schop gegaan en vandaag zie ik dat Blogger.com (waar dit blog ook loopt) en de Linkedin groepen een nieuw jasje hebben. En ook hattrick heeft een nieuw design aangekondigd voor bepaalde stukken van de site.

Digitaal-Werven heeft enkel een nieuwe header gekregen, omdat wij altijd roepen dat het authentiek moet zijn een foto van het event van vorig jaar.

Voor deze site houd ik het voorlopig nog even zo. Hoewel ik misschien wel een ander blog erin ga hangen. En als je dan eenmaal bezig gaat weet je maar nooit hoe gek ik ga doen.

Maar voorlopig teveel projecten die nog even gelanceerd moeten worden. Zoals de site outdoorrecruitment bij de flickr group en de Linkedin group.

Generaties, families, ik weet het niet

2008-08-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my brother had his birthday. Nothing to blog about normally, but something funny happened.

His father-in-law (yeah, he got married last month) gave him a birthday present. Size of a credit card. And made the comment: with this you don't need to invest anymore in new shelves for books.

My mother commented after my brother opened it: I thought it was a bit small for an ebook reader. To what I replied: yeah, I figured it was a memory chip for an ebook reader.

It was... a library card.

Yeah, those things still exist too. Guess that's what you call a difference in generations (and families, my mother never thought of that either)...

SPAM?

2008-08-05T05:28:00.001-07:00

What is the world comming to? Als ik word beschuldigd van SPAM en criminele activiteiten.

Natuurlijk was deze man een beetje boos. Mijn blog collega en zakenpartner Marc had ze 'aan de schandpaal' genageld wegens SPAM. En dat vonden ze natuurlijk niet leuk. Dus de reactie is te verklaren, wie vind zichzelf nu een crimineel? Volgens mij zelfs Willem Holleeder niet.

Maar ik kom dus zoveel weken later een interessant profiel tegen op Linkedin van iemand die expliciet in zijn profiel heeft staan: op zoek naar een nieuwe baan. Dat klinkt goed, heeft ervaring in beide sectoren die ik van belang vind. Dus even een persoonlijke e-mail aan wijden, inderdaad op zijn zakelijke adres. Dat was namelijk makkelijk te vinden (via wie-o-wie) en een e-mail adres is altijd persoonlijk, toch?

Helaas blijkt de goede man zijn nieuwe baan gevonden te hebben. En leest zijn oude baas nu zijn e-mail. Voelt al vreemd aan bij mij, en al helemaal als je dus enkele van die e-mails ook nog publiceert op het internet om iemand anders af te branden.

Maar laat ik mijn punt maken, want waarom is wat ik gedaan heb per definitie geen spam en wat Bigfellow doet dus wel? Dat is simpel. Eén e-mail, persoonlijk en gericht, kan nooit SPAM zijn. Eén van de essentiële onderdelen van SPAM is namelijk... bulk. En nu kan je discussies hebben over bulk (volgens mij begint dat boven de 10, anderen vinden boven de 10.000), maar één individuele, persoonlijke mail is nooit SPAM.

Vacature SPAM is per definitie onpersoonlijk (en dan bedoel ik dus niet dat als je de naam automatisch invoegt dat het persoonlijk is). Een individuele e-mail kan dus nooit spam zijn en als je daadwerkelijk matched met iemand zal die ook bijna altijd op prijs worden gesteld.

Daarbij verwijs ik ook meteen naar mijn stuk over het benaderen van bloggers (en mijzelf), waar ik stelde dat zomaar een persbericht inderdaad niet op prijs wordt gesteld. Een mailtje dat duidelijk in gaat op wat ik doe en mij aangeeft waarom we er beide gelukkig van worden kan natuurlijk altijd.

Personal branding via Sociale netwerken

2008-08-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

Ik schrijf een boek, zoals al eerder vermeld. Samen met Huub en Tom schrijf ik Personal Brand.nl deze zomer. En we schrijven dat deels online, liefst samen men anderen. Daarom publiceren we al hele stukken online op onze site. Gisteren heb ik, naast de interviews, ook mijn eerste stukken online gezet waar ik tevreden genoeg over ben. Het zijn nog draft versies, dus er is nog (hopelijk niet al te veel) aan te schaven. Maar de introductie personal branding via sociale netwerksites en personal branding via linkedin staan nu live. Net als Personal branding via Xing.

Hoe waardeer je corporate bloggers?

2008-08-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

Een interessante vraag: hoe waardeer je iemand die blogt? Hoe kan je als bedrijf waarde toekennen aan iemand die, namens het bedrijf of privé, tijd stopt in bloggen. Als bedrijf kan je daar de vruchten van plukken. Zo'n persoon is vaak snel een personal brand, wordt gevraagd voor interviews, op lezingen, etc. Maar één foutje, één kritische noot naar het bedrijf en we zagen hem vaak bij de enkels af. Hoe maak je voor senior management inzichtelijk wat de waarde is van een corporate blogger? Ik heb in het artikel één idee gegeven, maar er moeten volgens mij veel meer mogelijkheden zijn!

Rugby team

2008-08-02T01:25:00.000-07:00

Gisteren een tweetup, gezellig met wat tweeps in een Ierse pub (nadat ik die eindelijk gevonden had, kaartlezen blijft niet mijn sterkste kant).

Zit je gezellig met o.a. @markies en @frankmeeuwsen van je Kilkenny te genieten. Of we een rugby team waren? Nee, het Utrechtse klaverjasteam, aldus @frankmeeuwsen. Alleen @mrije is rugby speelster. Blijkbaar vond hij dat we omvang genoeg hadden om rugby spelers te zijn.

Kwam natuurlijk ook door @markies en zijn vage shirtjes waar rugby achter op staat. Doe dan ook gewoon net als mij een Epica shirt aan.

Oh, en tot slot hebben ze me gisteren met een bek vol tanden gezet. Komt niet vaak voor. Maar op de vraag wat ik deed zei ik, zoals wel vaker na een biertje of twee, ik verkoop gebakken lucht. Oh, dus je bent kok?

Het duurde even en toen zei de goede jongen... ja, om gebakken lucht te verkopen moet je het eerst bakken, dus je bent kok...

@Markies verwoorde het eng goed.

Giving

2008-04-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Poor give relativly more to charity then the rich. Research (in Dutch) shows the poor (less then 8k income) give 2,45% of their income to charity and 1,71 to religious institutions. The rich (above 48k income) only 0,87% to charity and 0,77% to religious organizations.

In Holland, when you give over 1% of your income, it's tax deductable. So this would mean almost everybody could decuduct it, and I very much doubt that. So I have my doubt at the research to be honest. But it wouldn't suprise me if the outcome is correct, just the percentages are bad.

Personally, I try to give 1% of my income to charity every year. This is a couple of hundred euro's every year and that seems to be a lot according to many. But guess what? I just do it because I want to, not because of what other people think. I also only give to stuff I find important, so nature gets some money, poverty a lot but many Dutch institions I can't really care about.

Not so difficult

2008-04-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

Last time I wrote about the question why service is so difficult. Just trying to make an appointment in a garage for my car and simply getting another car so I can go about my business seems to be very difficult for some.

However, not for all. I decided I had such a bad feeling, bad experiance, at Ford Utrecht that I'd try my mothers old garage. A non brand garage in Oss that's run by two very friendly middle aged women that care about their customers.

I called. She even remembered me (or actually, my mother and she knew I was one of the two sons). She remembered my sister-in-law's name even. And of course I can come on the date and time I want, get a spare car and bring it back at the end of the day and switch again.

Oh, and do you have the number plate?
Eeeh, no, I can look
Oh, don't bother, we'll do that when you get here.

See, that's service.

Why is it so difficult?

2008-03-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to make an appointment at the garage. My car needs to be checked and balanced. So I call...

First I need to be switched to the front desk (why don't they just answer the phone?). This goes bad so I call again. Again I need to be put trough, but this time it works.

So I say: I need a tune up, can I make an appointment?
Sure, can I have you licence plate.
Well, eeeh, I don't know. I just want to make an appointment.
Sorry sir, not possible without your licence plate.
But I'm not even in your system, I've never been there before.
But I still need your licence plate.
Well, it's snowing outside, I'm not wearing any shoes, so I'm not going out to look. I just want to make an appointment.
I can't do that without a licence plate.
Well, then you just don't want me as a client obviously, since it's insane to want a licence plate to make an appointment.
OK, well, I can fit you in... then.
Eeehm, allright, but I do have appointments that day, can I get a replacement car.
Well, that'll cost 24 euro's and gas.
Huh? It will cost me money? So can I wait, how long does a tune up take, an hour?
No, you need to drop it off in the morning and you can pick it up in the evening.
Eeeehm, but you charge me money for a replacement car
Yes
I'm not going to pay you for a simple service like that
Well, we have a free replacement bike
ok, a different date then, one I don't have appointments.
Sure, ok, we'll see you then, but you do need to call me back later today with the licence plate.
Yeah yeah yeah (like I'm going to do that...)

Guess I will be looking for a different garage soon. It's funny, since every garage is making money on repairs, not on selling cars, you would expect them to have some service. You would expect them to be happy with every client they can get. But no, that's not true. I wonder, will we even get a decent garage system? Will there be an entrepeneur that sees this market as interesting?

Regels zijn regels

2008-03-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Ik verwacht niet dat mensen dat snel van mij verwachten, dat ik vind dat je je aan regels moet houden. Maar regels zijn regels. Ik ben geen groot voorstander van te veel regels, regels beperken creativiteit, regels zijn er om je achter te verschuilen. Maar als je regels hebt, moet je je daar aan houden. Zo denk ik er wel over.

Zo bijvoorbeeld als je kijkt naar het verkeer. Het is weer eens slecht weer en ineens gaan hele volksstammen 80 of langzamer rijden op de snelweg. Maar wij kennen in Nederland geen regel dat de snelheid naar beneden gaat bij slecht weer, zoals bijvoorbeeld Polen die regel wel kent. Snelwegen zijn 130, bij slecht weer 100 maximaal. Kijk, dat is helder.

In Nederland kennen we die regel niet, met als gevolg: ongevallen. En dan roept men: ja, mensen moeten de snelheid aanpassen. Want dit is gevaarlijk. Maar... het kan (of beter is) natuurlijk net zo gevaarlijk de snelheid wel aan te passen. Immers, als een snelweg 100 per uur is ga je er van uit dat mensen 100 per uur rijden. Dan moet je niet roepen: mensen zouden maar langzamer moeten gaan rijden. En je moet je gezond verstand gebruiken. Want mijn gezonde verstand verteld me dat ik gewoon me aan de snelheid moet houden omdat ik anders een groter gevaar oplever. En als ik dat niet durf of denk dat ik dat niet red zegt mijn gezonde verstand me dat ik mijn auto langs de kant moet zetten of de weg niet op moet gaan. Want dat zegt de wet.

Regels zijn regels en waar ik dus niet tegen kan zijn al die mensen die vinden dat je regels maar moet interpreteren op basis van 'gezond verstand'. Onzin, als je het niet eens bent met de regels moet je de regels veranderen of jezelf er buiten zetten. Niet de regels negeren of ombuigen naar je eigen voordeel. Daarom ben ik ook voor mezelf begonnen, ik kon zelden de regels veranderen zoals ik vond dat dat moest, ik ga ze niet overtreden, dus vertrek ik.

Differences?

2008-03-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today (it's Easter, so I had time) I did some reading. I had over two months of magazines in my bag that I finally had time to read. One article in Intermediair caught my eye. It's an interview with William Easterly, who says we shouldn't put so much money into helping the poor anymore.

He states that we've thrown away 2.300.000.000.000 dollar the past 50 years. That's a lot of money. However, like he admits in the interview, it's less then 6 cents a day per poor person over these 50 years. No wonder it didn't do anything. If you are struggling to survive, you put every cent you get (and you get 6 in this case on average) into food for living. However, you need more to actually escape the extreme poverty trap.

The funny thing is that this is exactly what Jerry Sachs says. But Sachs and Easterly are each others opposites and mr. Easterly says in his interview he thinks people like mr Sachs are in part the reason for the problem. However if you read the book from Jeffery Sachs, end of poverty, you see they have almost everything in common.

Easterly says Sachs thinks up his ideas in Washington, however Sachs biggest complaint is that the world bank and IMF think up everything in Washington and don't get down to the local places. Sachs' diagnosis is specific to every country and location, he wants to involve the locals and build it up together with them. The same as Easterly says they should do.

For me this is one clear case of hearing what you want to hear, not what is being said. The journalist (a good one for a change) says this in the end. Easterly gives the exact answer Sachs does in his book. It's amazing that they obviously hate each other so much they are not willing to listen. Not to read each others books and complain the other one doesn't know what he's talking about.

There are of course differences. Easterly says all the money has been thrown out the window, Sachs says it's simply not enough. Sachs says: give more, and spend it differently, Easterly says we need to stop giving and put it into training, medicine, etc. However, this has failed every time in the past.

But still, if two great minds would be willing to listen to each other, I think their differences are so insignificant compared to their shared views. And even though some differences will remain, working together would be much wiser.

Uitspraak van de week (en dat al op maandag)

2008-03-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

Uitspraak van de week op Twitter

Daarom is Twitter dus leuk

2008-02-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

gijsbregt geeft nu commentaar op World Cup X country ski. Check Eurosport

marketingfacts @gijsbregt: heb hier even eurosport aangezet; leuk ;-)

marketingfacts @gijsbregt: hehe, hoorde ik nu een welkom aan kijkers uit Arnhem? ;-)

gijsbregt @marketingfacts: altijd leuk interactie met de kijkers. TV 2.0 ;-)

marketingfacts @gijsbregt: lachen! beide dochters snappen het nog steeds niet ;-)

marketingfacts @gijsbregt: maar je kunt dit soort interactie wel voorstellen; twitter, presentator, tv!

In andere woorden: Gijsbrecht (part time TV commentator) geeft op Twitter (een micro blog omgeving) aan dat hij commentaar geeft. Marco (marketingfacts) zet zijn TV aan om te luisteren en 'zegt' dat terug. Gijsbrecht maakt in zijn commentaar een opmerking over kijkers uit Arnhem (waar Marco en familie wonen). Interactieve televisie kan je dat noemen :)

ZuiderZeeLijn

2007-11-27T15:38:00.001-08:00

Hij is weer afgeschoten, maar het noorden is het er niet mee eens. En terecht. De Zuiderzee lijn, de hogesnelheidslijn naar Groningen. Eigenlijk moet het zelfs gewoon een monorail worden, zo snel mogelijk, drie stops (Groningen - Lelystad - Amsterdam) wat mij betreft. Je kan er een prachtige mogelijkheid mee geven om in A'dam te wonen en in het mooie Noorden te werken.

Maar nee, het is een risico. Het is de enige kans voor het Noorden maar we geven graag 2 miljard aan 'regionaal beleid' uit, iets dat nog nooit gewerkt heeft, maar waar je ook niet op afgerekend kan worden. Het is triest dat we in de Nederlandse politiek meer bezig zijn om ons in te dekken dan om een risico te nemen en daadwerkelijk iets te proberen.

Bernard Wientjes heeft wat dit aangaat het perfecte voorbeeld: kijk naar Lille, een ooit ingeslapen stad die door de TGV ineens weer bloeit.

Mijn gezicht in verhouding tot bekende mensen

2007-11-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Dankzij Marjolijn kwam ik op deze site, toch grappig.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Excuses, excuses

2007-10-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

I'm getting so sick of all kinds of excuses we seem to come up with latley. In online gaming a lot of people don't want to go to a higher level because they don't like the way the game needs to be played there. Yeah right, why don't those people just admit that they simply are not good enough?

It's the same with just about everything. I don't want to do that, so my way takes me longer to work. But I don't feel I should get paid less, just because I want to do it another way. No, because I try it my way. And even though it doesn't work as well my way as it does your way, I still want to do it my way and I don't believe you should pay me less.

Why can't the world just work like professional sports. You are either the best and get paid the best, or you're not. There is no middle ground. You have the top, you have their helpers and you have the amateurs that don't get paid.

We just need to take more responsibility for our lives. We need to say: hey, he's better, he earns it. Maybe I should follow his lead or at least learn from him.

Politiek....

2007-10-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

Soms vraag je je af waar men allemaal mee bezig is en of enige blik naar andere kanten niet handig zou zijn.

Het verbod op gloeilampen is van de baan. Hoewel men snel riep: och, het is maar 1% van het energie verbruik zijn er maar weinige zaken die meer verbruiken. Het is namelijk een optelsom van heel veel dingen die al onze energie verbruikt. Wat er in ieder geval weer gebeurt is dat we minder gaan doen aan het terugdringen van CO2.

De basisbeurs gaat mogelijk op de schop, en iedereen is in rep en roer. De verhoogde lerarensalarissen (die niet eens zo laag zijn, maar iedereen vind ze zo laag, wat komt door het napraat effect) moeten ergens door betaald worden. Tja, onderzoek van b.v. het SEO (gelieerd aan de UvA) lezen is er niet bij. Puur op salaris valt het zelfs nog meer, secundair is het geweldig bij scholen. Maar goed, als je zelfs als bewindsman niet leest en niet goed geïnformeerd wordt, ga je maar salarissen verhogen. En dat moet ergens van betaald worden. De basisbeurs is een optie. Op zich ben ik voor het afschaffen van een beurs voor iedereen, want zoals altijd is het dus eigenlijk een beurs voor niemand. Immers is hij zo laag dat niemand er iets aan heeft. Je zou hem beter kunnen verdelen over de mensen die hem echt nodig hebben en ook echt goed zijn.

Een andere optie waar ik nog steeds voor ben is een belasting voor afgestudeerde. 1% van je salaris wordt afgedragen aan de school waar je een dimploma hebt gehaald. Haal je er meerdere, betaald je dus meer belasting. Op die manier profiteren de scholen en de staat (want die hoeft de scholen minder te geven) mee van wat ze in je geïnvesteerd hebben.

En dan komt het advies: schaf de hypotheekrente aftrek af. Het kost de staat te veel en het stagneert de woningmarkt. Tja, het zullen wel wijze mensen zijn, maar ik heb er nog steeds moeite mee. Limiteer de aftrek: ja. Afschaffen? Nou, als het moet, doe het dan in één ruk. Immers, het buitenland heeft laten zien dat een snelle afschaffing (Zweden meen ik) er ook snel bovenop komt. Een langzame afschaffing (Engeland) had een heeeeeel lang negatief effect op de huizenprijzen. Het advies is uiteraard: gefaseerd!

Wanneer stopt het?

2007-10-16T05:49:00.001-07:00

Nadat eerst Wouter Bos de bejaardenbelasting wilde invoeren voor iedereen die gezorgd had voor een goede oude dag voorziening, is het nu het CDA in de eerste kamer dat pleit voor het feit dat rijkere ouderen makkelijk zelf hun zorgkosten kunnen betalen.

Maar... dat is nu al deels zo. En je hoeft niet eens rijk te zijn. Als je nu gespaard hebt en je moet naar een verzorgingstehuis of een aanleunwoning, ben je de pineut. Want dat spaargeld moet op, ook al heb je (zoals een bekende van mij) je hele leven nauwelijks boven het minimumloon verdient. Toch kunnen sparen voor een oude dag, dat moet dus eerst op.

En nu worden dus de mensen gestraft die een goed pensioen hebben opgebouwd. En de mensen die alles hebben opgemaakt in hun leven, die krijgen het van de staat. Want uiteraard zegt men: het gaat om wat je hebt, niet om wat je verdiend hebt. Er wordt niet gekeken naar je inkomsten in je leven, nee, naar je spaargeld en je pensioenrechten. Dus iedereen die geleeft heeft zoals de staat wilde, die geld apart gezet heeft voor de oude dag op legale wijzen (en niet in Zwitserland bijvoorbeeld), die pensioen heeft opgebouwd, die moeten nu dokken. Niet de mensen die wel veel verdiend hebben, maar niets apart hebben gezet omdat ze maximaal geleefd hebben.

En dat is dus waarom ik nu elk belastingvoordeel pak dat ik kan en bijvoorbeeld een lijfrente afsluit, en geen lump sum betaling als ik 65 ben. Misschien economisch niet slim, want je betaald nu straks ook belasting over de winst die je maakt op je inleg, maar ik weet zeker dat als ik 60 of 65 ben, ze het toch belasten, ook al hebben ze dat al eerder belast. Doe mij maar het belastingvoordeel op dit moment, dat pakken ze me niet meer af.

Burgemeestersreferendum

2007-10-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

Het Utrechtse referendum over de burgermeester is falikant gefaald.

Slechts 9,4% van de kiesgerechtigden is komen opdagen. Een triest aantal natuurlijk, maar ook niet onlogisch. Mijn stemkaart heb ik doorgescheurd toen ik hem tegen kwam. Waarom? Omdat ik wil kiezen, niet mee wil doen aan een facade.

Op de kaart stonds zelfs: als u blanco stemt geeft u aan dat u de keuze aan de raad overlaat. WAT? Volgens mij is een blanco stem toch echt een teken dat er niets bij zit waar je je mee kan verenigen. Ik denk dat als men had gezegd: met een blanco stemt geeft u aan dat deze hele procedure van de zotte is en iedereen die dit bedacht heeft ontslagen wordt, dat de opkomst een stuk hoger was geweest.

Want de keuze was reuze, tussen twee PvdA mensen. Een echt referendum, waar je gewoon een open inschrijving hebt, eventueel met een tweede ronde tussen de twee of drie beste, dat is een keuze. Maar ja, dan wint Henk Westbroek met twee vingers in zijn neus en dat wil de raad natuurlijk niet.

Nu zal de overheid dit wel weer als signaal lezen dat men helemaal geen gekozen burgermeester wil. Het signaal lijkt me echter duidelijk: men is de betuttling zat. Ik ben er voor om de komende twee jaar GEEN burgermeester aan te stellen, want dat is eigenlijk wat de burgers hier mee gezegd hebben.

Another one gone

2007-09-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

I've wrote about heroes before, and about one of them (Majoor Bosshardt) leaving this world. Now another one is gone.

Anita Roddick, who founded the body shop, has died today, age 64. Why was she a hero? Well, a long, long time ago I applied for a job at the Body shop and I read about the company. One of their benefits is several hours per month (one day if I remember correctly) you are allowed to do volunteer work or protest for something you believe in.

Anita Roddick, after leaving the body shop as CEO, was a full time protestor. She spend her money, her name and her effort into making the world a better place. And you don't always have to agree with the believes she had, with the causes she supported or the way she did it. But she did do it for the greater good, in her eyes. And someone that can do that, is a hero.

Do I Twitter?

2007-08-09T02:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got a mail that made me wonder...

From a man I honestly don't know, who asked on Twitter if I was on twitter as well. His question was: "Zit bas van de haterd ook op twitter?"

Well, the answer is no, since I can't imagine people having such an interest in my life that they would want to know where I am every moment of the day.

This is the second time I'm talked about on Twitter. First there was a discussion about a movie-party with a 'big lebowski' theme where I was suggested as one of the main characters :)

Now people I don't know want to know if I twitter. I must be getting populair...

So true, so funny

2007-07-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

Contradictio in terminis

2007-07-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

Is het geen Contradictio in terminis, een conservatieve denktank? Immers, conservatisme staat voor het behouden van wat er is, uitgaan van traditie. Een denktank is er om nieuwe ideeën te ontwikkelen en daarmee bij voorbaat (lijkt mij) dus progressief, niet conservatief. Toch is 'laat ik mijn vriendin haar zakken eens goed vullen' Wolfowitz nu hoogleraar geworden aan een conservatieve denktank. Tja, het is net zoiets als Ad Melkert die voorzitter is van een ethische commissie, lachwekkende zakkenvullerij.

One less hero

2007-06-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Talking about hero's yesterday, we lost one today. The Dutch Mother Theresa, Majoor Bosshardt, died today.

We need more exceptional people like her in the world. She officially retired in the year I was born and yet I can't imagine not seeing her on TV.

Hero's

2007-06-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I wrote about Peter Pieters. A man who, single handedly, brought the Dutch track cycling to the top of the world. He and he alone deserves the credit for that. Of course, you need brilliant riders, but he did it.

Now we have a new hero: Foppe de Haan. He made the Dutch Under 21 selection European Champion for the second time in a row. And the unique part about it: the final was played with 11 different players then a year ago. And the Dutch team didn't have the best players, they had the best team. Foppe is one man who young men listen to. He's a man who can make 11 individuals into a team and who sees the real value of players.

Like Peter Pieters, who sees the potential and knows how to get the best out of a person, Foppe de Haan is a true hero too.

The biggest question is now: why is it so hard to accept that the world is not about idea's or stuff, but about unique people. In politics it's always about 'the idea', you cannot talk about the people. But it's the people (the ministers) that make the difference. In science as well, never do we say: well, we have 10 brilliant people in bio sciences at Wageningen University, here's funding for the next 5 years, do whatever you want, you've proven yourself.

Every time we see it happen, in sports, in science, but we won't accept it, or at least we don't act on it. We need more hero's, in all area's, and we need to support them.

Slimme overheid

2007-06-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Op het weblog van Frans Nauta een mooi verhaal over de zachte heelmeesters van het kabinet die stinkende wonden gaan maken.

De quote die mij het meest aanspreekt (en oh zo waar is):

Dat is jammer, omdat het ons op het moment economisch zeer voor de wind gaat. Er kan nu volop gesneden, gesaneerd, gereorganiseerd, geherstructureerd, geoptimaliseerd en gedecentraliseerd worden zonder al te dramatische gevolgen voor de betrokkenen. Maar net als Paars 2 lijken de politieke partijen daar weinig voor te voelen. Ze genieten van het mooie weer en spelen Sinterklaas op de golven van de economische groei.

Sp toont zich anti democratisch

2007-06-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

De Socialistische partij toont zich weer van haar bijzonder communistische kant. Men heeft al geen inspraak in het opstellen van de kieslijsten, want dat doen enkele elite in de partij (lees: Jan Marijnissen) persoonlijk. Maar als dan het democratisch bestel zijn werk doet en via voorkeursstemmen iemand gekozen wordt, dan is dat tegen de SP regels. Want het kan toch niet zo zijn dat iemand gekozen wordt zonder dat de top het daar mee eens is? Daarom moet dhr. Yildirim nu zijn zetel in de eerste kamer opgeven, aldus de SP.

Het is ronduit schandalig dat de SP dit durft te vragen. Als iemand gekozen wordt wegens voorkeursstemmen is dat een eenvoudig democratisch principe. En helaas voor de SP leven we in een democratische, niet een communistische staat. Ik hoop dat deze man voet bij stuk houd en als onafhankelijk senaatslid doorgaat.

Wel opvallend trouwens dat in de vorige tweede kamer dhr. Lazarak, ook een "allochtoon", met de SP botste en onafhankelijk kamerlid werd. De SP is er voor allochtonen, maar liever niet in de eigen partij.

Who says politicians don't listen

2007-06-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Politicians need to come closer to the people? No, they just need to read their e-mail like Jan-Kees de Jager (Finance) does. Today he announced that cars that are polluting will pay a lot more taxes. But that the benefits of driving an enviormentally friendly car that are already in place for 'normal' drivers would now apply as well for company car drivers. And that's one idea I send him by mail (yeah, my ego had got a boost today). Of course it helps that I knew the man before his political carreer, but when he mailed me back they would look into it, I never expected it to be done within a few months.

So politicians, stop moving around the nation, don't spend so much time travelling, in stead, tell people to E-mail you and read them (and don't let them be read by your helpers).

New car

2007-05-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Or actually, a new used car. A Ford Mondeo, green of color, diesel. I think I got a pretty good deal on it. So this is what we're driving to the Czech Republic with this summer.

De SP... heeft een goed idee?

2007-05-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

SP pleit voor vrije dag op Bevrijdingsdag. Ik kan het er helemaal mee eens zijn. Bevrijdingsdag is een dag van bezinning, een dag waarop we zouden moeten vieren dat we één zijn, vrij zijn, etc.

Hoewel het natuurlijk (het is de SP) weer de meest krankzinnige onzin is dat het niet eens in de 5 jaar gevierd wordt en dat werkgevers dat bepalen, want elke 5 jaar is het gewoon een vrije dag en ik ken geen werkgever die zich daar niet aan houd. Maar goed, als je heel goed zoekt vind je er altijd wel één.

Maar dat het gewoon weer een jaarlijkse vrije dag moet worden: ja.

Wat me nog steeds opvalt is dat 1 mei in Nederland geen vrije dag is (behalve voor de financiële wereld, want dat bepaald Euronext in Parijs gewoon). 1 mei is (voor hen die het vergeten zijn) namelijk, naast de dag van de arbeid, ook de dag dat Oost Europa zich heeft aangesloten bij de EU (veel landen tenminste). Dat alleen al zou een reden zijn voor een Europese vrije dag (om te integratie te bevorderen).

Andere overheid

2007-04-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jaren geleden, toen ik nog jong en onbezonnen was, niet gehinderd door enige kennis van zaken zou mijn vader zeggen, zag ik een probleem bij de overheid. De verkokering, zoals die vroeger ook bij de publieke omroep zat, bestond nog steeds bij de overheid. Bij de overheid heet dit ministeries en elk heeft zijn individuele taak.

Toen ik wat meer begon te lezen over de verdeling van departementen viel mijn mond van verbazing open. Hoe kan het dat ruimtelijke ordening, landbouw en verkeer gescheiden zijn? Hebben onze woonwijken dan niets met onze wegen te maken? Gezien de file problematiek zou je kunnen zeggen dat ze hier in Den Haag een steekje hebben laten vallen.

Ook vond ik het verbazingwekkend dat onderwijs, economie en sociale zaken verdeeld waren over drie verschillende departementen. Immers, is het niet het onderwijs dat mensen klaarstoomt voor de arbeidsmarkt, die de economie bepaald? En wat daar van af valt moet je in een sociaal vangnet opvangen.

Een kleinere, efficiëntere overheid, dat is waar men al jaren naar streeft. En toch groeit de overheid jaar na jaar, zowel in directe ambtenaren als ingehuurde adviseurs als indirecte ambtenaren die naar een agentschap gaan maar uiteindelijk nog op de loonlijst staan. Een rigoureuze verandering lijkt nodig om het Haagse te veranderen, efficiënter te maken en ook goedkoper.

Het idee van Wouter Bos in de verkiezingscampagne voor een klein kern kabinet kan ik daarom enkel onderschrijven. Helaas was dit één van zijn ideeën die hij snel liet varen, immers, slechts zes ministers maak je geen vrienden mee in je partij, dan heb je niet genoeg posten te verdelen. Je zou kunnen zeggen dat de overheid dan echt naar het bedrijfsleven kijkt. Immers, raden van bestuur zijn ook zelden groter dan 6 mensen.

Tevens kan je in een nieuwe structuur wel een heleboel onderministers benoemen die elk een eigen focus gebied hebben. In plaats van staatssecretarissen die toch weer met hun tijd moeten schipperen tussen een aantal gebieden, waardoor er altijd weer iets buiten boord valt, kan je gewoon (net als in het bedrijfsleven) elke unit een eigen onderminister geven. Dat betekent meer focus op de individuele gebieden, maar ook meer coördinatie doordat de minister zijn handen daar geheel voor vrij heeft. Hierbij is het van belang zo min mogelijk, of eigenlijk geen, overlap te creëren tussen werkgebieden, zoals nu vaak wel het geval is. Een minister van integratie bijvoorbeeld heeft te maken met sport, cultuur, volkshuisvesting en justitie. Een eenduidige lijn werkt in veel gevallen beter dan een vage matrix organisatie.

Een voorzet van hoe een efficiënte overheid er uit zou kunnen zien.

Een minister-president met het ministerie van algemene zaken.
Hij zou een tweetal onderministers kunnen hebben. Eén voor intern beleid, waaronder bijvoorbeeld het rijksbrede ICT beleid en één onderminister voor vermindering van de regeldruk, naar Belgisch voorbeeld.

Een ministerie van financiën is ook onontbeerlijk. Iemand moet het geld verdelen. Op dit ministerie zou een onderminister van fiscale zaken niet misstaan.

Daarnaast zou ik een ministerie van binnenlandse zaken willen zien, waar echter veel meer onder valt dan nu het geval is. Dit zou gaan over de veiligheid (politie en justitie), de volksgezondheid, de binnenlandse defensie zaken (zoals de marechaussee op Schiphol), sport, cultuur en openbare orde.
Dit ministerie zou onderministers hebben van openbare orde, justitie, volksgezondheid, sport, cultuur en openbaar bestuur. Men kan zich afvragen wat gezondheidszorg en veiligheid met elkaar te maken hebben, maar de verbindende factor in deze zijn sport en cultuur. Deze twee elementen hebben namelijk zowel invloed op volksgezondheid (sport op fysieke en cultuur op mentale gezondheid) als op veiligheid in verband met integratie. Door deze samenvoeging lijkt een onderminister van integratie overbodig, want integratie is bijvoorbeeld te bewerkstelligen door sport en cultuur. Dat is een taak voor de coördinerend minister dus. Door aparte onderministers te benoemen voor zowel sport als cultuur krijgen deze twee ondergeschoven kindjes weer de aandacht die ze verdienen en de mogelijkheid zich te ontplooien als een bindende factor in de maatschappij.

Een ministerie van buitenlandse zaken is natuurlijk ook noodzakelijk. Het overgrote deel van defensie zou hier in opgaan. Onderministers van defensie, ontwikkelingssamenwerking, europese zaken, buitenlandse zaken en koninkrijksrelaties lijken hier voor de hand te liggen.

Een ministerie van onderwijs, werk en sociale zaken is de volgende. Hier zouden het onderwijs, economische zaken, wetenschap en sociale zaken onder vallen. Alles wat te maken heeft met ons werkende en lerende leven zou hier onder vallen. Onderministers van voorbereidend onderwijs, beroepsonderwijs, economische zaken, wetenschap, arbeidsmarkt en sociale zaken zorgen voor voldoende focus op elk van de deelgebieden.

Tot slot het ministerie van ruimtelijke ordening. Hieronder zou alles vallen dat te maken heeft met ons landschap. Dus ruimtelijke ordening, volskhuisvesting, natuur en milieu, agrarische zaken, verkeer en watermanagement. Onderministers zouden focusgebieden hebben als volkshuisvesting, verkeer, watermanagement, natuur en milieu en agrarische zaken.

Schematisch zou dit er als volgt uitzien:

Ministerie van algemene zaken
Minister-President
Onderminister vermindering regeldruk
Onderminister intern beleid (o.a. ICT)

Ministerie van Financiën
Minister van Financiën
Onderminister van Fiscale zaken

Ministerie van Ruimtelijke ordening
Minister van Ruimtelijke ordering
Onderminister van Volkshuisvesting
Onderminister van Verkeer
Onderminister van Watermanagement
Onderminister van Natuur & Millieu
Onderminister van Agrarische zaken

Ministerie van Onderwijs, arbeid en sociale zaken
Minister van Onderwijs, arbeid en sociale zaken
Onderminister van Beroepsonderwijs
Onderminister van Voorbereidend onderwijs
Onderminister van Arbeidsmarkt
Onderminister van Sociale zaken
Onderminister van Economische zaken
Onderminister van Wetenschap

Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken
Minister van Buitelandse zaken
Onderminister van Buitenlandse relaties
Onderminister van Ontwikkelingssamenwerking
Onderminister van Europese zaken
Onderminister van Koninkrijksrelaties
Onderminister van Defensie

Ministerie van Binnenlandse zaken
Minister van Binnenlandse zaken
Onderminister van Justitie
Onderminister van Openbare orde
Onderminister van Openbaar bestuur
Onderminister van Volksgezondheid
Onderminister van Sport
Onderminister van Cultuur

Natuurlijk is het grootscheeps samenvoegen van departementen geen garantie voor samenwerking tussen de verschillende onderdelen. Het biedt echter wel een mogelijkheid om verandering aan te brengen in een nu vastgeroeste wereld waarin efficiëntie wordt geofferd aan regels. Met 6 ministers krijgt de 'Raad van bestuur' van ons land ook een managebare omvang. Door een veelvoud aan onderministers krijgt elke business unit, elk focus gebied, ook daadwerkelijk de focus die het verdiend. Tevens kan, door het snijden in de overlap van de functies, een groot aantal ambtenaren daadwerkelijk verdwijnen. Dat kan grootendeels door natuurlijk verloop, immers is er geen sector zo vergrijsd als de overheid. Het is ook noodzakelijk voor de arbeidsmarkt dat de overheid sterk inkrimpt aangezien er nu al grote tekorten zijn en de toegevoegde waarde van een werknemer bij het bedrijfsleven groter is. Een deel van de vergrijzingsproblematiek is hiermee op te vangen.

Sponsor Mark

2007-04-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

It's not a question. It's a call for action.
If you read my blog, you should sponsor Mark Jansen from Gothic metal band Epica in his ride for the amazon forrest.

He's going to ride one of the very toughest cycling tours in the world: La Marmotte, with 3 'hors categorie' mountains: Le Croix de Fer, Le Galibier and L'alpe Duez. So download this file, fill it in and mail it to Mark (e-mail in the form). He's paying for the trip and all expenses himself, all the money goes to the WWF.

So you're the one...

2007-04-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

Does it ever get boring? No, not really.
Yesterday Guido asked me how my new computer, that I'm currently using to type this post, is handling. Since I hadn't seen him in months I wonderd how he knew. Well, he reads my blog.

So you're the one...

Nope, it doesn't get boring yet.

Just a thought... (my own this time)

2007-04-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

What if you do not agree with someones vision on something.
What if you cannot follow his or hers logic or reasoning.
Is this person per definition wrong?
Or can it be that he or she just comes from a different set of values.
Maybe you are the one too narrow minded to see where this person is coming from.
Never discard an idea or a vision, just because you don't understand it or disagree.
It's alright to disagree, it's not alright to put you're set of values on top of the ones someone else has and draw conclusions from that. He or she might not think along your lines and therefor you draw the wrong conclusions.

Just a thought...

2007-04-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

The two reasons people say no to your idea
"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Seth Godin

Environmental car tax

2007-04-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

So now the new under minister of financial affairs want to put less tax on profit and wages and more on environmental unfriendly producing. I do believe that is a good way to go.

However, it's a shame that certain efforts seldom reach large groups. For example the business lease drivers don't care how environmentally friendly their car is, they have one system only, the company pays the tax bill. So they should feel it too. Make the amount of money you pay in taxes (bijtelling in Dutch) depend on the energy label of the car. Currently it's 22% you need to add to your income. We have five different energy labels. So make the best environmentally friendly energy label for example 10%, the next 15%, the middle (average) 20%, the second worst 25% and the worst cars 30%.

I mailed this to our under minister (long live the Internet). I hope he'll listen, it's an easy solution to get 600.000 drivers (about 10% of our driving population I guess) to think about the environment a little more.

Edit: got a return mail from our under minister today, thanking me for the suggestion. Who knows, it might just be taken into consideration.

Epica rules

2007-04-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

Friday in Veenendaal, Epica try out. Couple of new songs, I'm looking forward to the new album. Also met my fellow Czech republic holiday friends, really looking forward to that. Too bad my own mobile isn't synchronising with my computer anymore, so no photo's I made myself, so I just stole one...

The power of youtube

2007-03-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Two great video edits from Epica numbers

Done by fans, but very worthy of being broadcast

The traffic problem

2007-03-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Solving the traffic problem is impossible, at least, according to many experts. And I'm here to say they are all wrong. Camiel Eurlings, the new minister of traffic, is stating he want 40% less traffic jams by 2020. And I'm saying, that's taking credit for something you are NOT going to have anything to do with.

Because the solution is basic and it's self full filling. The problem will solve itself because of the aging Dutch workforce. With more and more people going into retirement, there is no problem 10 years from now. When 20% of the Netherlands is on holiday, we hardly have any traffic jams. So now that 20% of the Dutch working population is going to retire, the traffic problems will solve themselves over the next 5 to 10 years.

We do not need 'rekeningrijden' and all the other shit. What we need to do is wait, and meanwhile create an enviorment for flexible working hours, work from your house and best of all, live close to your work. So why is the tax on buying a house still there? The problem will solve itself, but we do need to make sure it's never going to be this bad again by solving the roots of the problem.

New tech

2007-03-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

Got my new tech stuff in this week as well. First my laptop, last Friday, finally getting around to installing it. And then my USB hard drive. Finally, some room on my desktop hard drive!

Flowers

2007-03-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got flowers from Bas Westland @ ePeople. Congratulating me on starting Van de Haterd Consultancy and becoming an entrepreneur. An unexpected sup rise, but those are usually the best.

Bang

2007-02-23T00:51:00.000-08:00

Bang... and I had a flat tire. In the middle of the freeway, going 120 km/h. Fortunatally it was a rear tire, so stearing wasn't too bad. Just parked it on the side, tried to change the tire, I'm lousy at that. Called the auto club, they advise to to try it yourself on the freeway since it's too dangerous, and they changed it for me.

That's one experiance I never had before, and one I don't mind never having again. Although it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

Now it's time for the next bang. New laptop (dell) should be here soon, my website should be live soon too (and this blog will eventually move to http://www.basvandehaterd.nl) and just wait for the first customers to arrive for my in company training sessions.

Gone gone gone

2007-02-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

It's gone. I've left Media Plaza for good. With pain in my heart, but it was the only option left. Too many mistakes were made on all sides, but we depart on good terms.

Gone is the great atmosphere that Media Plaza has. Gone is the social network I had with great co workers, although I hope to keep in touch with several of them.

Gone is the getting up in the morning and going to work. Gone are the fun talks at the coffee machine, the meetings at the bar and the bal throwing when others are working and concentrating hard.

But where there is an end, there's a beginning. And so I've started on my own. In a few months I need to get my own company together, although I might just combine it with a part time job elsewhere. We just have to see how it all turns out.

I guess with everything happening, it was a suprise I slept well for the first time in months this friday, after my departure. Guess it's for the best, and I'm planning to make the best of it. Got my first jobs lined up, bought a laptop today, so it should all turn out very well.

More more more

2007-02-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

Not less, but more. More ministers in the new government. Not a small core government like promised, but now we have yet again a minister of integration and even more so, one for youth and family.

This on top of the many we usually have.

Let us see, this way we can't make due with less politicians, we can give more a job. Also we need more government workers, because we need to make more policy. So the many, many promised and budgeted lay offs in the government will not become reality and we will still end these 4 years with again more government employees. So we will make more policy, more rules, and it will all become less efficient.

Frans Nauta had a great interview in the FD last weekend. The best working governments are the ones with the least people working for them. Draw the big lines, let the professionals fill them up. But in the Netherlands, we need more rules, more regulations, more people doing useless work.

Let's see, what do we actually need.
We need a prime minister
A finance minister
Education, employment, social affairs and economic affairs are all linked, so we need one for that
Justice department and state affairs is one (security you might call it)
Foreign affairs, defense and 'ontwikkelingssamenwerking' is another one.
Agriculture, traffic and water and environment is one more
Health and sports is the last one.

So we need 6 ministers and one prime minister.
We have 14...
Talk about a waste.

Interviewed

2007-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

On monday an interview with the newspaper Metro was published, on online social networking and jobs. Became a nice piece on 'the other side' of the networking: from a candidate point of view. Funny how such an article can have so much response.

Extreme right wing

2007-01-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

A new European extreem right wing fraction is about to be presented. With parties from Belgium, France, Bulgaria, Rumania and Austria. The Italians and Polish right wing parties aren't joining.

The logical respons of the left wing (Dutch Green left party) is that the programm will be 'smelly'. A logcial response. But why is there never such a respons for every extreem left wing fraction, like the one she belongs to. Because everything extreem is bad, specially in these situation.

I must admit that I agree with the most important issues those right wing parties stand for, the halt of immigration and a veto against Turkey joining EU. Although usually they want it for the wrong reasons and they want to enforce it with the wrong means. Turkey should never be allowed to join EU. They do not even recocnise all the EU states and besides: 75% of the country isn't in Europe. What's next? Marocco joining EU? Russia? Why not let Japan in while we are at it? Turkey isn't a part of Europe, it doesn't have the same history and it does not have the same future. Just end this debate and move on.

2007

2007-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

To all my blog readers (the few that actually care), happy new year.

Let's hope 2007 will bring us an inspiring, happy, healthy and entrepeneurial year.

Let's see, what do I think it will bring us?

Well, a new government for one, that will probably last about a year. With a strong religious hand in it, and since I am fundamentally against mixing religion and government, I don't like it at all.

More SPAM probably, and hopefully even better working SPAM filters. More traffic jams probably, since nothing the new government will only make it worse (then again, has anyone ever done anything to make it better?)

Two new nations (Rumania and Bulgary) joining the EU and Slovenia getting the Euro.

The French being even more insane than they usually are, they now even protested against 2007 because there was nothing wrong with 2006. And getting agressive at clocks when midnight did actually occur.

A Dutch club (PSV) to the final of the Champions league (here's for hoping) and two old timers (Kanu and Davids) returning to Ajax and making it a very serious competitor next year.

And probably much much more.

On a more personal note, I expect huge changes in my own life. But more on that later when I know what kind of changes they will be.

Changes

2006-12-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems the world is changing really fast and in ways I never would have suspected a few months ago. Both in my personal life as well as in the world. Poland wants Jesus as their king, if you can imagine that. Would be hard to consult with I fear. Blogging is usefull, thanks to marketingfacts I got a consultancy job on internet recruitment for my own company. So yes, Blogging does pay. I haven't gotton many christmas cards, so I'm glad this blog gets read by many that know I don't like them. That is, unless you send them online because then no money is spend on it, that could / should have been spend elsewehere. I still enjoy to sport and I think it's having a positive effect on my fysical state. Too bad my mental state is bad because of other issues, but it helps to relax. Christmas is almost here, then the new year, with many more changes to come.

Make it work yourselves

2006-12-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to talk again on the insanity of the General Pardon (or however to translate it). I've made my point several times, it's too big a risk. Now however I hope that Balkenende will keep his back straight. If the left wing wants to rule by majority, let them. Don't form an alliance, let them do it theirselves. Either an 8 party alliance of all the small fractions or a minority government with support wherever they can find it. I hope the CDA will not accept this behavior by PvdA and SP and simply say: forget it, you are not trustworthy anymore.

(I know, fat chance, Balkenende and keeping his back straight, the man is a snake, but a man like me can hope, can't he?)

the wait for the first dead

2006-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

We have a motion for a general pardon. Let's our ministers will refuse to execute, since when it is executed, the countdown will begin. The countdown to the first murder by Wouter Bos and co.

Smugglars of humans will see their chance and we can wait untill the first dead will be found in trucks or cargo spaces of ships. It's only a matter of time untill we have a new Spain. But to learn from the mistakes of others, no, that would be to wise. I hope someone has the guts to call Bos a murderer and get him on trial for this.

No christmas cards

2006-11-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, I will not send a single christmas card. All the money has been spend in the third world. OxfamNovib has a great way to do this: http://www.oxfamnovibpaktuit.nl. This year I gave them 10 little chicken, a goat, 50 trees and 6 schoolbooks. This is about the money normal people with my number of family and friends would spend on Christmas cards.

So like last year, I hope NOT to receive any as well. Spend that money on a good cause, please, or at least the 60 cents you would pay to send me a card. I don't want it, there are many others that need it a lot more.

Where is the Jack Welch of Dutch politics

2006-11-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

It's about the program, not the people, you hear many Dutch politicians say these days. Why? Well, that's obvious. Because they do not have the people, so they need to push something else.

But it's never about program's, is it? It's always about people. Not only in elections, but always. For good and for bad, it's about the people. I wrote about this a few times before, but I fear I will never be heard. It's the people that make the difference.

Isn't it a fact that Verdonk gets blamed for the inhumane asylum policy, while she didn't make a single law? She just did what she was told, however, then all of a sudden it's her view on the law.

Isn't it a fact that it was Hitler that murdered the Jews, not the Nazi party? That Saddam was a dictator in Iraq? Or in greatness, people like Jack Welch that made General Electric and Bill Gates who founded Microsoft. Or Jan Timmer who saved Philips, just like Dudley Eustace saved Ahold.

Yes, it's about the people. It's always about having great people achieving great things. That why you should choose for people, and not just one, but the entire list. Who will run our country if they come to power? What ministers will we get? Because they make their own policy, their own interpretation of the law and the truth. Never trust a politician who says it's not about the people.

Generaal pardon

2006-11-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

A short rant, in Dutch.

Wat is het toch jammer dat sommige mensen niet willen leren van fouten van anderen. Wat is het toch spijtig dat op zich slimme mensen zo verblind worden door hun eigen gelijk dat als een ander hun ongelijk bewijst, ze dat niet willen zien. Zo lees ik in een column van Vincent Bijlo, op zich zeker geen domme man, zo'n belachelijk domme opmerking over een generaal pardon: "Ik denk niet dat er sprake zal zijn van een aanzuigende werking. We hebben tegenwoordig een zeer streng asielbeleid, en onze geografische situatie is absoluut niet te vergelijken met de Spaanse. We hebben geen oceaan."

Tja, Spanje heeft bewezen wat een generaal pardon doet voor je land. We hebben het gezien met de bestormingen van de enclaves en de duizenden mensen die per boot overgestoken zijn... en verdronken. Het feit dat meneer Bijlo deze gebeurtenissen kent en (terecht) toewijst aan het generaal pardon dat men daar heeft gehad, maar vervolgens stelt dat er geen aanzuigende werking is, geeft zijn extreme kortzichtigheid weer. Als het daar gebeurt, zal dat hier ook zijn. In Spanje heeft het generaal pardon vele, vele doden tot gevolg gehad.

Ik zeg dan ook dit: Hoe humaan het generaal pardon ook lijkt, en hoeveel blunders we ook hebben gemaakt in het verleden, iedereen die vóór een generaal pardon is, is mede verantwoordelijk voor alle inhumane zaken die daarop volgen. Spanje heeft ons genoeg geleerd. Wouter Bos, Femke Halsema, Jan Marijnissen, als je het invoert, ben je verantwoordelijk voor elke dood die dit tot gevolg heeft en hoop ik dat iemand het lef heeft je aan te klagen voor moord, de eerste de beste keer dat er weer mensen doodgevonden worden in schepen of vrachtwagens die door mensensmokkelaars hierheen gehaald worden. Stemmen voor een generaal pardon is medeplichtigheid aan moord, of minimaal poging tot moord!

Some people I'll never understand

2006-11-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

As many know I think the current government is the best of all the bad governments we can have in this country. I do believe that there is at the moment no party that's actually good for the majority anymore. There isn't a party that's prepared to do the right thing, socially and environmentally for example, and not totally destroy the economic situation we have right now. One with the lowest unemployment in Europe, for example.

And yes, you can blame our neo-liberal government for a lot. You can blame them for not caring enough about the environment, you can blame them for letting the social boundaries between rich and poor grow, you can blame them for the hate between Dutchman and Muslims, you can blame them for letting our care-system go down the drain and you can probably blame them for a lot of others things. But the one thing you have to give them credit for is that we have the lowest unemployment in Europe. And we do get 1,2 billion extra in taxes every year because of our intelligent tax laws that attract multinationals, and we do earn a lot, at least, most of us.

And then I read remarks that this neo-liberal government is taking us to the edge of economic disaster. And then I think: get a job, get a life. You can blame a lot on them, but economically this government has taken care of us!

Onderwijs

2006-11-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

For once a post in Dutch, because too much would get lost in translation.

Het onderwijs, deze zaterdag een uitgebreide bijdrage in de Volkskrant, met veel wollige praat en enkele goede statements. Mensen die mij kennen weten dat ik het onderwijs één van de belangrijkste zaken in de maatschappij vind. Ik geloof dat investeren in onderwijs de armoede in de wereld kan oplossen. Als je namelijk mensen in Afrika leert een put aan te leggen, komen er vanzelf genoeg waterputten om iedereen van drinkwater te voorzien. Dan is het minder een kwestie van geld als van tijd, en dan komt het langzaam, maar zeker, vanzelf. Des te beter geschoold men is, des te meer men kan betekenen voor een land, de economie en de maatschappij.

Ik geloof dus ook dat wij in Nederland het onderwijs op een zeer hoog niveau moeten brengen. Want hoewel internationale testen zeggen dat we het goed doen, hoor je vanuit de arbeidsmarkt enkel geklaag. Je hebt niets aan schoolverlaters, zowel de lager geschoolde kunnen niets, maar ook de hoger opgeleiden zijn niet rijp voor de arbeidsmarkt.

Minister van der Hoeven schreef dat haar beleid van 'het met rust laten' goed werkt. Alleen is dat zo? Want we zijn nog steeds zo tevreden met onszelf. We scoren in allerlei internationale testen, maar zegt dat nu meer over ons of over de hele wereld? In Amerika zijn er een aantal top universiteiten, net als in Engeland. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, stuk voor stuk namen waar iedereen bij weet: als je daar hebt gezeten, ben je top. Helaas, in Nederland kennen we die eigenlijk niet. Leiden en Tilburg scoren hoog, maar er zit ook nog veel 'soep' tussen.

We mogen dan gemiddeld wel aardig scoren, maar gemiddeld zegt niet zoveel. Teveel mensen komen met een HBO dimploma op de markt, die eigenlijk nog niets kunnen. Scholen lopen soms hopeloos achter (zoals bij ICT onderwijs) of zijn gebrand op grote aantallen, niet kwaliteit.

Alexander Pechthold heeft het over drie sluipmoordenaars, met name kosten die gestegen zijn en niet gecompenseerd (b.v. energie en onderhoud). Geen idee of het klopt, maar het klinkt logisch en als het zo is moet je daar iets aan doen. Ook het tekort aan leerkrachten is fnuikend. Dat is waar, terwijl leraar zijn zo'n mooie baan is, met veel vrije dagen, en een helemaal niet zo slecht salaris. De beeldvorming is alleen klote, want als je blijft roepen dat je slecht verdiend, gaat men dat vanzelf geloven.

Goed, terug naar het onderwijs in Nederland. Hoe moet het dan wel? Ik heb geen panklaar idee. Ik weet alleen dat het niveau omhoog zal moeten. We zullen universiteiten weer tot top instituten moeten maken, met selectie aan de poort. Alleen de beste mogen erin, en alleen als je helemaal voldoet mag je eruit. En het beste, dat selecteer je deels op cijfers, deels op toelatingstoetsen. Een maximaal aantal per studie? Waarom? Waarom niet gewoon een minimaal niveau per studie?

Het HBO zou breder toegankelijk moeten zijn. Maar nog steeds met een hoog niveau. Niet meer het onderscheid praktijk - theorie, maar gewoon grofweg dezelfde kost, maar net iets lager niveau. Op die manier breng je het duidelijker in kaart wat wat is, want nu heerst nog veelal de illusie dat universiteit altijd hoger is dan HBO, terwijl in veel gevallen universitair geschoolde veel minder bruikbaar zijn op de arbeidsmarkt omdat ze geen pragmatisme geleerd hebben.

Het niveau van het HBO moet wel omhoog. Dat zal meer uitval betekenen, maar dat is niet erg. Een streven van 50% moet hoger opgeleid zijn is onzin, als je daarmee het gemiddelde dus omlaag haalt. En dat is wat er gebeurt, we hebben meer hoger opgeleiden, omdat we de titel makkelijker weggeven.

De weg van MBO naar HBO moet eenvoudiger worden. Er zijn nu eenmaal genoeg mensen die het nieuwe HBO niveau niet aan zouden moeten kunnen (het moet immers hoger liggen dan nu het geval, je moet voor jezelf kunnen denken in plaats van het met enkel theorie ophoesten erdoorheen komen). Maar voor hen die MBO doen moet de weg naar een HBO kopstudie open liggen. Hetzelfde geld voor HBO naar universiteit.

Wat betreft het basisonderwijs moet er vrijheid zijn, tot een bepaald niveau. Elk kind moet de CITO toets maken, geen uitzonderingen. Dat zijn de grenzen. Het extreem vrije onderwijs moet verdwijnen, de invulling is aan de scholen, maar binnen de kaders van de overheid. Op het eind van de rit moeten scholieren op een bepaald niveau zitten, en dat test je centraal via de CITO toets.

Bijzonder onderwijs moet worden afgeschaft. Alleen als je van kinds af aan objectief leert over religies zal de haat verdwijnen. Geen katholieke of moslim scholen, gewoon school is school. Godsdienstles is objectief van aard en zal een beeld scheppen van de verschillende religies.

Geschiedenis is ook zo iets dat veel nadrukkelijker aan bod moet komen. Het kan niet zo zijn dat Nederlanders, ongeacht hun afkomst, niet weten wat er in de tweede wereldoorlog is gebeurt. En geschiedenis kan heel leuk zijn, als je niet praat over jaartallen. Want zoiets als Balkenende in één vandaag, met zijn canon, en jaartallen. Dat maakt het dus juist saai en niet relevant. Praat over gebeurtenissen, maar het aansprekend, ga op tripjes naar bijzondere locaties, leer kinderen op een leuke manier. En geschiedenis, maatschappijleer en staatsrecht zou ook in elke vervolgopleiding een prominentere plek moeten krijgen. Waarom? Omdat we eindelijk eens moeten leren van de fouten uit het verleden en ook daarmee meer begrip voor elkaar en de wereld scheppen.

Het VMBO? Ik heb er weinig oordeel over. Ik ken het niet, heb er niet op gezeten, weet er te weinig van. Ik hoor alleen dat een VMBO student nog niet bruikbaar is voor de arbeidsmarkt, omdat hij geen ambacht heeft gehad. Misschien is dat zo, dan moeten we daar iets aan doen. Want ik heb liever iemand die wel iets kan, dan iemand die breder is opgeleid maar niets kan. Je kan het altijd combineren natuurlijk, wel een vak, maar ook iets meer achtergrond.

Harder werken is namelijk iets dat op alle scholen zou moeten. Je bent primair scholier of student, secundair heb je een bijbaan. Niet andersom.

Wat geld betreft: tja, gratis schoolboeken. Het is nogal een issue. Het voordeel is dat de kosten niet meer zwaar op ouders drukken. Het nadeel is dat scholen als ze het zelf betalen met ouderwetse methoden gaan werken om geld te bespraken. En als de overheid alles betaald de kosten uit de klauwen lopen, want het boeit niemand meer welk boek je koopt en hoeveel het kost, de staat betaald toch. Het is nogal een lastig parket waar je in zit als je hierover moet besluiten.

En het geld: ach, studenten schijnen tegenwoordig veelal alles te kunnen doen. Vakanties te over, geld nooit een gebrek, dus waarom hebben ze nog beurs? Waarom geven we niet die mensen een beurs die het op basis van prestaties verdienen, en alle anderen geven we leenmogelijkheden?

Verder een ander financieringsmodel. 1% van je salaris wordt als belasting geheven en naar de school of scholen waar je bent afgestudeerd gebracht. Dat vanaf MBO niveau. Op die manier kan een universiteit of HBO dus kiezen. Ga ik voor de massa, veel leerlingen, die waarschijnlijk gemiddeld minder verdienen. Of ga ik voor minder mensen, maar wel top kwaliteit studenten die later ook bijzonder veel geld zullen verdienen?

En als student heb je proftijt op de arbeidsmarkt van twee studies, of vervolg studies, maar je betaald dan ook iets meer. Immers, 1% per instelling. Dus je kan niet op kosten van de staat 3 of 4 studies doen (wat nu wel kan, je raakt je beurs op een gegeven moment kwijt, maar de staat betaald nog steeds heel veel) en daar zelf alleen het profijt van trekken. Voor elke studie, betaal je iets terug.

Er is nog veel mogelijk in het onderwijs, maar één ding is zeker. De kwaliteit moet omhoog. We moeten we van het Europees gemiddelde, want als we ons willen blijven onderscheiden op de economische kaart, moeten we excellente toppers hebben. En die hebben we maar heel weinig in dit land.

The golden age

2006-11-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

For some reason, we all seem to be looking back to our Golden Age lately. The time of the VOC (as our prime minister put it), the 17th century. The time when Holland became a world nation. We invented trade, we formed the first stockmarket, and of course we invested slavery and we pillaged countries like Indonesia and raped their inhabitants (like Michiel Frackers says in an interview for AT5).

But what I don't understand is why we never learn. Why can't we learn from the past? Our golden age was a golden age, and we did terrible things. Now we are living in a new golden age. Things have never been better. Yes, there still is poverty and we should fight it, but life here is good. Too good. Because what happened after the golden age? We sank very, very low. We hit rock bottom before we started to climb out again.

Why? Because we thought we ruled the world. Because we didn't want to work anymore, we already had everything. What could ever go wrong? We learned our lesson, or so we should have. And now, we have what will be known in the future as our second golden age. Or maybe our digital golden age. And we are so full of it again. We don't want to work anymore, we don't want to do things we don't like. Let someone else do them. We hire Polish to do our building because it's too heavy for us. We hire Portuguese to do our cleaning, because we don't want to get dirty. And in 10 or 20 or maybe 30 years, we'll be in a recession so deep that we will go to Poland and learn to work again. We will have to move away, because we've lost it all... AGAIN. Can't we learn from our past? Can't we learn that although life is good, we still need to keep it going? Can't we learn that entrepreneurship is the thing that keeps us alive? That we shouldn't annoy companies and entrepreneurs but embrace them? That working is the way to go, not handing out money? And that we simply aren't all equal, so we should try to be?

Let's learn from the past people, please. This is a golden age, let's try not to have a big recession again when it ends!

Got killed

2006-10-30T12:08:00.000-08:00

I got killed playing squash today. I don't think I've ever been thrashed this bad. Even Alain Mattieu, who whipped the floor with me, lost some points. With a lot of luck I got two points in I don't know how many sets against Jeroen (From Sogyo) today. Damned, now I know what it's like to play against someone who is really good. Thank god for my ego that Wilco and Edwin where there too (both Sogyo too btw). They are just getting started, so I could do to them what Jeroen did to me.

Well, I guess it's time to go play some more, and maybe one day, I can actually play a set against him that lasts longer then 5 minutes!

Parties vs people

2006-10-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

Like most, or every campaign in Dutch politics, there is one constant: it's about the party and it's views, not about the people.

And you know why? Because almost no party has a good group of people. I recently heard a marketing expert go over the leaders. His final conclusion, and I share it, we don't have a real leader. No Jack Welch, no Jan Timmer, no Harold Goddijn. No real leadership in politics.

There are two kinds of leaders, the chairmen and the visionairs. The chairman is a leader that combines the best of all, that delegates and has no real opinion of his own. We have had plenty of those. Wim Kok was one, Ruud Lubbers another. The leaders with vision we have had few, and in general we send them to Brussels. Frits Bolkenstein was one, Nelie Kroes another. And of course there is Jan Marijnissen, also a man with a vision (not mine, but as least he has one).

But back to the people vs party. It's all about the people. Why? Well, look at our most criticized politician: Rita Verdonk. We did it the way she read the law. It's about interpretation, not about the standings. Eduard Bomhoff was another, he did it his way, as well as Gerrit Zalm. It is, and has always been, people that make the difference. Stalin and Hitler did it in a negative way. Nixon managed to have a good relationship with both Russia as well as China, that collapsed as soon as he was gone. Jack Welch make General Electric big and Jan Timmer saved Philips. The trust banks had in Dudley Eustace made the difference when Ahold was as good as dead.

It is always about the people. The right people in the right place. It always has been, and it always will be. Because we are human, not machine, it's the person that makes the difference. Please, remember that when you vote. Who do you trust? And who do you want to see at what position. And most of all, don't trust politicians that say: it's not about the people, it's about the views. Because people make the views!

Ends and new beginnings

2006-10-29T05:30:00.000-08:00

I always have my side project, the stuff I do next to my day job. The first serious side project I did was Mystery Mailer. I did it with two partners, Annedien and Maarten of A&B Software Solutions. Mystery Mailer is a application to mystery shop per e-mail. One thing almost no company knows is how well the e-mail is handled. How fast does a question from a potential new client get answered? How does your HR department handle a request about an opening?

Well, Mystery Mailer is no more. I still believe in the concept, but the execution wasn't going as planned. It's been an investment in time for all three (although Maarten has invested most in it I guess) and we need to just write it off. The application will keep on running and if one of the partners that we've been talking with is willing to take action in leasing it as an ASP, that's still an option (or just buying the application as a whole I guess too). But no more time investments are made. The plug was pulled by Maarten, since his investment was getting to be too much for the potential result.

I did learn some lessons, that I'm already putting to use. The first is you need one person to really keep a project going. One person with the desire to make it work, the time to invest in it and the drive to go and get clients. We didn’t have that one person this time, we wanted to find him or her after the fact, and that’s not the way to go. We figured if we had a good, working, application, a brand and a product, it would work. But it seems that everybody wants to be on the front row at no cost, so it just doesn’t work.

This lesson I’m already putting to use in my other two projects. One we do not need this kind of person, since it’s not a business to business product but a consumer product. And sending out e-mailings can be done in ‘non business hours’. Also you need to get affiliates in the network, and that’s something I can do as well, when I take a day of from work.

The other project, we do need a person like that. So before this project even starts, I’m looking for him or her. No if, but or when, the project simply will not start before I found this person. And I’m still looking, because it’s damn’d hard to find someone like that. Most that do have these qualities do not like investing in other people’s plans, because they have their own and believe in themselves a lot.

When on the subject of projects that stop, so does Innovatieland.org. One more blog that’s stopping. Why? Well, I’m not really sure, but the founders decided it was time to call the quits. Can’t say that I was that active lately. Mostly because of the not so user friendly login procedure. And let’s be honest, that little spare time you do what you like (like writing this post), and not looking up passwords and stuff. A good thing I got back a blog position and Holland’s most famous and popular business blog: Marketingfacts. I’m proud to be a member of that team.

I’m wondering what other things are going to stop before the year is over… Ah well, as long as the world keeps turning and the sun comes up in the east every morning, we will move on.

Sharing good

2006-10-29T04:12:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been active in downloading some Bit Torrents. All well, technique works pretty user friendly, just the other people around the world are lowlife sons of bitches.

So I download a file. And since for some reason my connection doesn't stay open long when I'm not behind the keys, that takes me days or weeks. (Yeah, I need to fix this someday, just have no idea where the problem is).

Anyway, so I finally come to download some file and guess what? It's password protected. And what do I have to do to get the password? I need to subscribe to some stupid website, bad newsletter or whatever. It's free, we'll just spam you to hell after.

Why is greed the one thing that makes the world go round? Why can't we just share? Sharing good, not sharing bad, as our friends at Skype (one other thing I don't use yet) say.

It's not money that makes the world go round you stupid so called sharing idiots. It's kindness, love and giving. Why do you need immediate return on everything you do? I deal in favors, those who help me, can count on me for help. Those who want money in return for their help, I don't owe anything and I will never help without wanting at least three times what it's worth in return!

Lies, lies and well... more lies

2006-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Don't you get tired of it sometimes? To hear lies, bigger lies and even more lies in the media every time?

If you hear Femke Halsema on TV the hairs in my neck start standing up with all the lies she's telling. Yes, the unemployment is a little higher then 4 years ago. But it's still the lowest in Europe. So stop lying and say it's all bad, because it isn't.

Same goes for poverty. There are many rules, and hundreds of millions are left over. So don't say 'The Hague' doesn't do anything about it, it just doesn't reach them, mainly because of local governments. In Oss for example there are food packages as well, but we have a SP government (Socialist party) running that city. So it seems that even our socialists are not able to do anything, not even locally. Do you think they will solve it nationally if they ever come to power? No way! If you cannot take care of 80.000 people, you cannot take care of 16 million either!

And now Achmea. 1200 jobs get lost, 1/3 of all employees in this business unit. Because of the new care insurance. Excuse me? Because of BAD MANAGEMENT you mean. Selling insurance below cost just isn't a smart move. Do not blame this on the government, blame it on the management. When many others can make a profit and you cannot, it's not a 'general' problem.

Stop blaming others, stop lying, try to admit sometimes that you can actually be wrong...

Public TV

2006-10-14T01:09:00.000-07:00

We have another little public TV riot. The 5 or 6 or whatever letter wordgame Lingo needs to go. It has plenty of viewers (800.000), just not the right ones. Well, I would like to ask another question, or two actually. What is the purpose of public television, paid with tax money, if what they do is make commercial program's? If you have a game, with so many viewers, it's most probably commercially exploitable. Why waste taxes on it?

Second of all: what's the use? It's not really a cultural game, I don't see the educational part in it either (maybe I'm wrong here, could be). So what does it add to the public television network to have a game, like Lingo or Get the Picture anyway? From a public point of view?

Quote of the day

2006-10-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

Bas: Well, it's 17:30 hours, you know what? I'm going home

Esther (Manager): What, you took the afternoon off? I didn't know that :)

Hmmm, you think work is getting a little much latley?

Fundamentally wrong

2006-10-08T02:29:00.000-07:00

What is so fundamentally wrong with the left wing in this country? Well, I'll tell you. If you earn money, you are evil. That's about the statement. And although all will disagree, the facts speak for themselves.

Wouter Bos and his PvdA want to implement the 'senior citizen tax' as it's called. Do you know what's fundamentally wrong with this? I'll explain in in simple terms: you punish those who saved money for their old age and you reward those that spend it all immediately. If a worker didn't build up a pension, he pays nothing. So if he spend it all when he got it, he's fine. But for those that decided to have a good retirement, those that didn't spend it all right away and saved some money, they have to pay extra taxes. It's fundamentally wrong!

It's sort of like the same thing de PvdA did during 'Paars'. A situation close to me now shows how this turns out. If you have money, you're medical costs get covered less. So take this person, she worked her entire life in a social job, meaning minimum wage. And we all know how impossible it is to manage on that. For some reason this person saved money, didn't spend it all but actually managed to build up some capital, something almost nobody with a wage that low will ever do. And for that, she is punished. Because now this person needs to move to a home for semi-disabled people, and the costs for remodeling she has to pay on her own. The lowest income category ever is punished, for saving money. It doesn't matter what she made in her life, it matters how she lived. And for living the way the government wants to, taking care of yourself and saving money when possible, you are later punished. Because if before the application she would have bought a Mercedes and spent is all, her costs would have been paid for by the government.

It's a sad world where our left wing is bringing us. Don't save money, spent it all, and when you get into trouble, the government will pay. If you live your life decent and save money for a rainy day, for your retirement, they will find you, and take it all away.

Eximion

2006-10-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the Eximion Launch Party. Dream... Create... Play

In short, these guys have a dream, and for over two years have worked on this dream in all of their spare time. With a huge number of volunteers and an even extremer number of interns (some actually very cute women) they are building what they call the best 3D web game the world has ever seen.

I met these guys at an IPAN meeting, I think over one and a half year ago. And I saw the art work, and loved it. I loved it so much and I saw so much potential in it, I told Doki (managing director) that if I could ever help, he'd just have to call me. And to my big surprise (I tell more people that) he did. A few months later I got a call asking me if he could 'pitch me an idea'. So we ended up in a bar (where else), De Bommel in Breda. So at the end I asked him: so what do you need? What do you want? And he said: well, money would be nice, so we can work full time on this.

I said to him: well, I only know three (business angels), but I'll try. Seems one was enough, and the good friends at Lunatech decided to take a chance. I knew Doki's endless energy and enthusiasm would do him a lot of good with Michael and Peter, but I had no idea about his business plan. So I think I spend about three e-mails on it, and they did the rest by themselves.

So yesterday we had a party, a good party, a great party. The start of Eximion new style: it has to work now, they have people on the payroll. And when Eximion becomes one of the world's leading game developers, or gets bought by one, I can say: I played a very small part in the beginning, I helped make this happen, even if it was just 1% of all the effort needed. And it does me good to talk to one of the guys at the party and hear him say: I just got hired part time by them. That just rocks.

And if that feeling isn't enough, I got a T-shirt too!

Land of hypocrites

2006-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are. The Dutch are a land of hypocrites. There is no doubt about it, and it's a shame the press doesn't write about it more often.

Let's start with the most obvious and biggest hypocrite of the nation: Marco van Basten, our national soccer coach. Not selecting Van Nistelrooij is a sign of bad taste and questionable coaching skills, but his recent remarks are simply to hypocritical to understand. When he didn't invite people like Davids, Van Bommel and Van Nistelrooij they had to hear that by press. He didn't feel he had to call them, in his opinion. Just like all the others he did not select. But now that Van Nistelrooij talks about Van Basten he thinks this is 'the wrong way' to communicate and 'Van Nistelrooij needs to explain himself first'. Well, Marco, drop dead. You win the award for biggest hypocrite of the year.

And then the politics. Well, why bother, it's all hypocrites. Every opposition party is talking about the fact that the current economic upturn has nothing to do with the old government, while when things were bad it was all their fault. And the fact that for the first time ever all the payments for jobless are going down (disabled, unemployed, etc) and still they do not agree that we have more jobs. And then Witch Halsema says that we do not have the lowest unemployment in Europe, while Eurostat does say that. So let's stop lying and being a hypocrite, and let's just talk the truth for once. Else we'll get Budapest in a few months.

We're a land of hypocrites.

Seeing the future

2006-09-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I see the future.

Of course I knew that all those AIVD and military people were going to loose their memory sticks when I decided on the theme of Mobile Security seminar in January.

And education is the key to a better world. The last post on this blog was about it, and now even the Dutch government agrees. They are putting up more money for primary schools in the third world.

Although, when the Dutch government does something, it usually means it won't work...

A better world

2006-09-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

Although I'm a liberal person, I do believe in helping the world and fighting poverty. There is nothing I would like more then to lower the 'import barriers' in
the world and let Africa's and South America's products in.

Also I believe that investing in education is the only way out. Education is the key to a better world. The world development report by the world bank now seems to agree.

There have never been more youngsters (15-24 years) in the developing world and over 130 million of them cannot read or write. There is a window of opportunity now, that we should grab with both hands and use.

Too bad that once again this isn't on the agenda by any of the political parties. At least not very high on the agenda. Not long ago we had live aid, with all the concerts around the world. Too bad we always need to have such a huge effort for the media to be interested. Too bad we don't seem to keep the world leaders to their promises, and the media as a watchdog fails time after time.

Politics III

2006-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Not that I will ever even consider voting for the ChristenUnie, still I'd like to talk about their program. I do believe that politics and religion do not mix and I still don't understand that while we have a constitution that clearly states a separation between church and state, parties like the ChristenUnie, SGF and CDA are allowed to exist. But that's another discussion.

The program at all doesn't say much. Except that family is obviously the highest goal in life and all that are not lucky enough to find a life partner is a bad person. All extra money needs to go to families. IVF is only available for families (in part I can understand this point), but staying single you need to be punished.

Again, the Pension discussion doesn't have my preference, and neither do their mortgage plans. All the rest... it's not that interesting to be honest.

D'66 also presented their program today, officially, in the backyard of Alexander Pechthold. They have balls, you need to give 'm that.

As I said yesterday: even if their program is maybe one of the best, my vote isn't going their way. D'66 is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get.

I can't really comment to much on their plans, they seem pretty solid to be honest. Only point I disagree with is upping the age of pension to 67. Get the people below 65 to work untill 65, much more efficient.

Politics II

2006-09-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

Today: Groen links and D'66.

Let's start with D'66. I'll never vote for them, even if they do have a very good program. Why you ask? Well, simple: they don't have the spine to make it so. They have been in a position of power very often, and none of their main issues have ever been done. They have always been the laughing stock of the Dutch politics and until they prove to stand their ground, I'll never vote for them. D'66 is (to quote Forrest Gump) like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get.

Their program as usual has many good points. Free day care is one of the points I'm all in favor off. And on the mortgage issue they are right too. Let's see what the wise men will advice before we pass judgment.

Then we have Groen links. I thought they were on the right way, with everything they did the past year. But then their new program comes out and two thinks are certain again. History and math were never the strong subjects of the people that wrote this program.

Let's start with history.

They want to invest in public transportation. 20% more trains for 20% less traffic jams. Dream on. How many times have we invested billions in the public transport? Many. How many times has it had any effect? Never.

Why? Because even with all the traffic jams we have, it's still faster by car. It simply is. Even Breda - Utrecht, one of the worst roads in the Netherlands, was faster by car. So forget it, it will never work. And I'm not even talking about the fact that increasing trains by 20% will take over 5 years to have them build. It simply does not work. Learn from the mistakes of the past. History people, history!

Then 100% non realistic. Creating 150.000 jobs is not possible if you are against entrepreneurs and companies, like they are. Increasing the tax on profit is a way to get investors to NOT choose the Netherlands. And increasing the minimum wage is a good way for Dutch companies to LEAVE the Netherlands. So in stead of creating 150.000 jobs, they will probably kill between 500.000 and 1.000.000.

This however might not be a bad thing, considering that about 20% of the Dutch will have their retirement party in the next 5 years. Since only 6% is unemployed, I guess we need to lose about 1.000.000 jobs anyway.

I do agree on the green side of their plans. More taxes for polluting companies. And I agree on a maximum of unemployment pay for one year. However their plans to let the old people pay extra for their own pensions is double taxing, but I already burned this idea down with the PvdA. And their economic growth of 2% is higher than any other party and if GL becomes in power I would expect a 0 growth. They will kill of the economics of this country.

Politics

2006-09-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

Elections are coming. So all the new plans are launched. Up till now, I haven't seen too much good things. And I've seen a lot of lies.

Let start with the PvdA. The regional governments need to be slimmer. I agree with that. And killing of the 'waterschappen' is something I've said 10 years ago would be a good idea. Why? They don't do too much work there. Their tasks should be done by normal companies, in normal contracts. Then every so many years you can have a tender and get a better price. I am 100% sure that this would mean less costs and further more: more chances to build decent companies in the environmental industry.

The mortgage plans I disagree. It's a difficult subject, I don't know what I would do. And until someone shows me 100% that it's unfair or unacceptable, I wouldn't touch it. Maybe top it off, but putting a limit on it. For example: interest on maximum 500.000 euro can be deducted.

I agree with investing in education, although I wonder if the salaries are the most important part. I personally think that the 'teachers are underpaid' is just plain CRAP. I would like to see a decent report on the subject before I agree.

And making public transportation free for 65+ I wonder: why? Maybe it's a good idea, but why only that group?

CDA already said that
Santa Claus comes early with the PvdA, and I think they are right. Even the natural partner of the PvdA, the unions, are against much of it. Although their main concern is the fact that child care for working people becomes free for all. This is one of the best things, however, if you do not try to milk the rich, you cannot be a union, right?

The VVD has some good points too. Several bad ones too, but they also want to make day care for children free. Good point. And trying to make people work or study is a good thing too. And lowering taxes by 3% isn't a bad idea either. However, I do think there are several issues on the 'lower end' of the society that need to be addressed as well.

Lights out

2006-09-03T03:01:00.000-07:00

The light were going out during the match against Belarus in Eindhoven next Wednesday. And then, the lights were never really going out. All of this because of the energy law split.

The actions against the split of the energy companies have cost us a lot of money already. There is a website, of course build with OUR money, posters, and so on, and so on. All made with money from the energy companies, in other words: our money.

And for what? Why are they against it? Because we are the only one living by the rules set in Brussels? Then you should protest against other companies not doing it.

They say prices will rise, and that of course is insane. They say jobs will get lost, so what? Then you're obviously not doing yours well, are you? And they say there will be more failures, without knowing if this is true, since it hasn't been tried yet.

There is a reason nobody cares about the split. That's because it's a useless fight. There is no real reason to be against it, except the general reason that people are afraid of change. People were against privatising KPN, and now we have one of the front runners in Europe. Other companies the size of KPN (Tele Danmark, Belgacom, Telecom Portugal) are not half as successful as KPN is. We are in the big leagues, because we were ahead of the troops. And every time it's the same song. You should think people would learn...

Anyway, even if the lights went out in the stadium, it wouldn't matter. The lights have gone out with our players already. The Dutch national soccer team is a B team now, thanks to our coach. Will all do respect, but he also does not want to learn.

What national teams are successful? Italy was world champion, with an old, experienced team. France was the team of old men, but successful. And so on, and so on. There is no substitute for experience, although I admit you need some young talents there as well. But all young talents? No, that's too much. You also need leadership. But when a player shows leadership in our national team, he is difficult and gets booted. Without Van Nistelrooij, Van Bommel and maybe even Davids, this team will never get where it can be: the top.

New house

2006-08-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah got the keys to my new house yesterday. The photo is me entering it.

Islamic banking

2006-08-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

No interest allowed in the world of Islam. Then why did the Turkish banks for years and years pay the highest interest? Banks like DHB, Finansbank? With many Muslim (Turkish) clients?

Now there is a 'halal' mortgage. Because by Islamic law it's forbidden to ask and pay interest (yeah right, see the above side of this story)
Bilaa-Riba in the Hague is offering an 'interest free mortgage'. The construction: the bank buys the house, sells it a few days later for a lot more money, and that's the total interest. Now they want to make this 'interest' that's not interest deductible.

I know I should respect other cultures, but Islamic law seems to be idiotic again. With all do respect: the Dutch should NOT comply with this. We should let them be. If they do not want to respect our way of doing things, baking with interest for example, they should not be in this country. All of them has a checking account, it's impossible to get paid otherwise. Those have interest, although very little. Get with the program that runs in this country, or just get out. But stop trying to force the Dutch to open more to Islamic law.

Seth Godin

2006-08-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Just want to show some things of a marketing hero: Seth Godin.

Two of his presentations on video:

All marketeers are liars , about the purple cow. Saw this one in Amsterdam, or almost the same.

This is broken

European klepto -tax

2006-08-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

In 2001 Dutch unions (FNV) chairman Lodewijk de Waal said a 'kleptocraten-tax' would be the only way to stop the problem of enormous incomes.

To say it in the world of Corne van Zeijl: I seldom agree with this man, but this wasn't a bad suggestion he offered.

In short, he said everybody earning over 300 times the minimum wage should pay 100% taxes, and that money would go to the poor. Of course the amount is to be discussed, but there are those who just earn to damned much.

Like today I read that Andy van der Meyde, a Dutch soccer player in England, Everton is his club, got fined 75.000 eurosfor breaking the rules. Then I think: 75.000 euros is more then most people make in a year. And he is only a mediocre player. How much money does this guy make?

If you look at the extremely well payed soccer players you see people earning 148.000 euros a WEEK, that's 7.700.000 a year. So they make more per WEEK then a lot of people do in 3 or 4 years. These people, as well as top managers who make that insane amount of money, we need a 'robbers tax'. A European 'Kleptocraten-tax', 100% tax for everything about 300 times the minimum wage in every European country. And that money should be used to fight poverty in the world. No execptions to the rule, perhaps only for income from profits, although they should be taxed as well (more then they are now).

And it should be done Europe wide, so no country will benefit for example in the soccer leagues.

Quality service

2006-08-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

Usually we just name and shame the bad. Companies are afraid of bloggers now, and so they should be.

But every now and again, there are also positive surprises, and we should name them too. Take Alex, a broker, for example. Yesterday evening (up till 10 pm) I had an e-mail discussion with one of their employees, since I needed a statement from them concerning the Ahold claim. She said I didn't need it, but I believed I did. And when I finally managed to use the right words she understood what I needed. So today I get an e-mail from a colleague asking me if I got the statement already. Since I was at work, I didn't see my mail yet, so I said I didn't know. Well, he couldn't find evidence she actually send it, so he decided not to just leave it at that, but better twice then none send it to me again.

And that ladies and gentleman is quality service above and beyond the call of duty. Not taking your college's word for it that when someone says 'I'll do it' just expect it to be done. But actually doing it yourself, perhaps again. But one thing is for sure: the client will not suffer from possible internal communication problems.

ABN AMRO could learn something from that. Because I had to request the same statement from them as I did with Alex. Alex took me 6 e-mails and a phone call in two days. ABN AMRO took me 4 phone calls, 6 e-mails, over 2 months and eventually when I send an official complaint I finally got what I needed.

Quality service this is called. Go Alex!

Public transportation

2006-08-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

And this is why public transportation in the Netherlands will never work. For once we have an initiative that does work, so we have to cancel it because of lack of funds.

In our newest province, and probably the worst when it comes to public transportation, we have a good idea. We give regional cabs a public transport fee. Since this region is not heavily populated, it's a good idea. But now 2.000 people are using it in stead of the 1.500 expected, so it's costing too much.

So now we can all understand why every time someone in politics says: "we shouldn't invest in roads, we should invest in public transportation" you know this person is doing this because of the votes it will bring (because many do not believe it's impossible to do it right), not because he or she is serious about it.

Cool down

2006-08-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

In the warm days of july, my computer didn't cool down enough anymore. So I fixed the problem.

Religion

2006-08-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

It's a sad day for the Netherlands. Today a judge has decided a school is allowed to refuse a student because he has a TV and internet connection.

This highly religious school did not want this highly religious student because his home situation wasn't good enough. They have a TV, Open Internet (is there any other except in China) and his parents use the wrong translation of the bible. And very problematic: his sisters sometimes wears PANTS.

Now this is exactly the reason why special education, all kind of religion based education, should be banned from the Netherlands. There is a separation in this country between church and state, education is part of the state, so why can this go on?

Also: they should ban all parents without TV or Internet from this country. How can you actually learn and get into this century without it?

Once again I state: religion should be banned from schools completely. Only as a subject thought in an objective matter, where all religions are equal (and none are more equal then others).

Moving

2006-07-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

So my move to De Meern is getting close. So I'm doing all kinds of things now to get it all organized. Today I decided it was time for organizations to know I'm moving.

Essent however needs a client number, and since my Eudora has some problems and old e-mails are lost... I don't have that. Of course their web site does not have a phone number, so after some searching I finally got in touch, asked my number and got it fixed. Took a little longer then necessary, but hey, they are a former monopolist, so it was too be expected.

Harmony Service Center however lost me as a client because of their moving policy. I have a small insurance there for my mobile phone. So I called them, and the answer was: you need to write us. I asked why, and she said because they need an autograph for every change. I told her that I had done every other company by the web, and nobody had a problem with this. Even Essent or TPG. But no, that was not possible. So I guess they just don't want me as a client, since I refuse to work with companies not active in this century.

I wonder what else will come my way the next few months.

Tour de dopage

2006-07-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

Once again my favorite sport, cycling, has the premier. The first names released from the list of 200 of doctor Fuentes are the cyclers. One day before the Tour, talk about timing.

Ullrich and Basso are out. Now nobody will ever know if I was right that you can't win a giro and tour in a year.

On the upside, we have a more open tour then ever, with the entire top 5 of last year not starting. There isn't a rider starting that has been able to hold it together for all 3 weeks. Maybe Menchov, but not in the Tour. Leipheimer now has a chance, he's always good in holding on, but his team isn't that strong. Vino decided to not start himself, although his name wasn't on the list. Most of his team mates were...

So we are going to have a very interesting tour, that's for sure.

Although it is of course sad that it has to be like this. Why not release all 200 names? Because without a doubt there will be many soccer players currently active on the world championship on it. I can think of two Brazilians playing for Madrid for example that wouldn't surprise me. And A Spanish formula 1 driver perhaps? And a potential Wimbeldon winner?

No, cycling has a reputation, so that sport needs to be destroyed time and time again. Tennis uses a lot of dope to, but has a stronger organization that just covers it all up. Soccer pays everybody off, we see that in Italy now. The only semi-hypocrite sport is cycling, so we open the books on that.

Release the names, let the world of sports crash down on the other sports as well. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my tour.

Public TV & Radio

2006-06-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

A new plan is launched by the 'alternative public broadcasting' group. And.... I like it.

We go back from three to two television stations and from five to three radio stations. Further more the 'wereldomroep' will merge with the NOS (I didn't even know that those were two different organizations). Oh, and the internet should be another very important part of the public broadcasting system. Of course that's a good thing too.

And no more commercials on public TV and radio. I like that idea too. Although I am all for commercial activities, I believe that what you can do commercially, you should do. So public TV, radio and internet should only do what others don't. Live broadcasting of sporting events on the internet for example, but games and other stuff should be banned from the TV.

So I think this plan has potential. A completely different public broadcasting system, different from all commercial broadcasters.

24 hours

2006-06-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

The 24 hours of Le Mans have finished again. And again Audi has won, this time with a diesel engine. That was a first, a diesel winning the 24 hours, but what astonishes me is that an icon race like Le Mans gets so little attention.

And not only from the media, because in Holland RTL 7 had a nice thing going on (every so many minutes an update, and the finish live). But also from the car makers themselves.

Audi has won 5 out of the last 6 years with their Audi R8. A model not updated for at least the past 4 or 5 years. Only Bentley with their speed 8 in 2003 got a win in this century.

For some reason no big car makers are trying for it. For Audi, when they started the Le Mans project 2000, it was a chance to do two things. First of course winning Le Mans, but their second goal was testing. It was an R&D project that earned it's money back in marketing and now even earns money by selling to privateer teams.

The question remains: why isn't any other big car maker doing this? Why aren't there any new cars? Why is nobody testing in the Le Mans series? Have the 'open prototype' cars, that look little like a real car, killed the interest for Le Mans? Should they go back to cars that at least look like racing cars?

Maybe a true European Le Mans Series, like the American Le Mans Series that Don Panoz set up in the states would be an option. With the 24 hours as a lead race, and a few more over the year. That way the investment is earned back easier for car makers.

But it's a shame such a race has so few new entries. So little real competition, so few new cars. I guess it fell victim to it's own success in the past and arrogance that comes with that.

Women in management

2006-06-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

For years I've been surprised by the fact that women keep complaining that they do not get equal chances in management. I always hate the facts that in for example politics we need to have 'a certain number of female ministers'. I despise that, since the best person for the job should get it. Not based on sex, race, religion or whatever.

I just wrote an article (in Dutch) on HRlog about this subject. In general I agree that old boys networks are still in place. However, many want to bring in a woman, but there simply are not enough that are either qualified or willing. Look at the number of entrepreneurs: it's hard to find successful female entrepreneurs, that actually manage to set up a business with employees. Not that I disrespect one (w0)man businesses, but we're talking about management capabilities here.

In general, there are three problems I see.
1) Too few women are willing to go all the way. You need to give a lot in order to get up the ladder. That sometimes takes away time from your private life. You need to be able to accept that.
2) Women focus in work on their negative sides. If a woman has 80% of the qualifications, she will focus on the missing 20% and say she's not fit. If a man has 60%, he'll focus on those 60% and assume he is fit.
3) Other women. For some reason many women have a problem with other women being their manager. I never saw this before, but I've been noticing it more and more. Also hearing it from others. Women as co-workers are perfect for other women. Women as a manager generally gives problems. Strange... But true.

Buying shoes

2006-05-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you wonder... Why are certain things so difficult. Why, with all the technology we have, are so many things still so standard?

Take for example the shoe. Many, many people, mainly women, complain about never finding a single shoe that fits. I know woman that actually say they have never worn a show that didn't hurt. And not because of the high heal or whatever, but because there are no shoes fit for their feet.

Soccer players have their shows made custom for many years. Since the time of Faas Wilkes they have made their custom soccer shoes. But all are still hand made, and that makes you wonder. When my grandmother needed custom made shoes, they measured her feet, and still, nothing would fit. Hand made, but not perfect.

So here's my idea. It should, with all modern technology, be possible to make a 3D scan of a foot and then with CAD/CAM make a fully automatic shoe that fits. The exterior in many cases (closed shoes) can be the same. It's the interior (the bottom, the wide, the length, etc) that needs to be customized. Why is this still not possible? Why aren't there custom shoe stores? This should be a lucrative business...

How to kill a company

2006-05-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the situation.

First, a big company, let's say AON, takes over a small company, maybe a unit of Laurus called Assural. This is done for all the business clients Assural has, since they insure most of the supermarkets in The Netherlands.

But in this transaction there are a lot of private clients as well. Employees, ex employees and family of employees, to name a few. But a big, Hugh, international corporation like AON has a split in business and private clients. So you move these private clients to a separate business unit that you already have. You take them away from the small office where they know you by name and take them into the big tower where every client is a number.

Well, so far, nothing new. Then however, you also take away the service. Because in stead of having the clients best interest at heat, like Assural always had, you now have your own income as the highest goal. You might ask: how do I know Assural didn't? Well, my father managed that company for over 20 years so I have some insight information into this.

Back to the story. At a certain point you decided that a different insurance policy makes you more money. The client, well, he's just the client, so we do not ask him if he accepts this, we just send him a letter telling him we changed his insurance. Without consulting him, without asking him, we just do. And we tell him that we will refund his money and that he has to pay the new bills.

When this client reacts with a note that he will not accept this, we do of course... Nothing. Not a reply, no note in return, nothing. But also no refund of the old insurance. The client then assumes all is still in place, since there has been no refund. And then... They send the client a new letter. Telling him he needs to pay up his NEW insurance, and if he does not do so within 7 days, this will have consequences. But... There is no new insurance, I didn't accept that new insurance.

So now, I need to contact them, to tell them to stop making mistakes. Of course this organization doesn't deal by e-mail, even when you send an e-mail, they reply by post. Welcome in the 21st century.

End of the line, well, I'm leaving this company as soon as I can, after being a client there for all 28 years of my life, because within a year after a take over, the lost all respect for their clients. I wonder, will I be the only one?

The H word

2006-05-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

In Holland we have an 'H' word. It stands for Hypotheek, mortgage. And there is a huge discussion about it, or actually, about the tax issues surrounding interest paid on mortgages.

After several left wing parties have been talking about it, now the national bank has said it needs to change too. Or actually, we need to make a road map for the next 15 to 30 years in which time the tax deductions on interest should be removed.

Point is, it needs to be done slowly. If we do it now, at once, Holland will dive into a recession we have never seen. The banks will go bankrupt, nobody will be able to pay up, and housing prices will drop. So we need to move slowly, but we do need to move. And further more, Nout Wellink (president of the DNB) has a good point when he says we need to make a road map, and stick to it. All the questions and unrest are not good. This is probably the most important payment everybody makes every month, you cannot be in doubt who or what will happen to it.

My thoughts on the matter: yes, we need to slowly cut the tax deductions to zero. In many years, and yes, Nout Wellink is right, there needs to be a timeline present.

I'd say that you need to start at the top. Interest on mortgages above a certain value (like € 500.000) shouldn't be deductible at all. Next you can slowly lower that amount over the next 10 years.

Next we need to immediately kill the 6% tax when you buy a house. Lower the cost, make the housing market more flexible.

Also we might be able to simply say: you can get to a maximum of 90% of the value in mortgage. Show that you can save money, show that you can handlee owning a house, before you buy one. I know, I probably wouldn't have been able to buy mine (I did this week), but on the other hand, maybe the prices won't be that insane. Because they are, look at Belgium, look at Germany, just across the borders, houses are way cheaper.

And the rest of the road map, well, I just don't know. I guess we need to get some experts like Nout Wellink, Steven van Eijk and people like that together and let them figure it out.

High speed rail

2006-05-07T03:56:00.000-07:00

With the high speed rail links between the major cities, city trips (shopping in Paris for example) has increased. Also the market share of the high speed rail links is increasing, lowering the air traffic between these cities. This all according to an article (in Dutch) on nu.nl.

I've always been a fan of travel by train. Specially for the shorter distances. It's faster, better for the environment and more reliable than air travel. However the investments in this way of travel across Europe have, of course, been delayed ten years to long. The first TGV in France was finished 25 years ago. And in The Netherlands, we are still not ready with our first real high speed rail link.

Investments should be made to connect many major cities by rail. Also within the Netherlands. Why not make the intercity rail from Maastricht - Eindhoven - Utrecht - Amsterdam a high speed rail link? And of course in the process forbid all air flight from Eindhoven en Maastricht to Amsterdam. I wrote on this blog before about the Transrapid, and this is one of the fine example why it should be done. A link Groningen - Lelystad - Almere - Amsterdam would make air travel from Groningen to Amsterdam obsolete. Also you can go on to Hamburg in Germany, a good investment in the economy as well.

All air travel with flights shorter than 600km should be forbidden by European law. Fast and high investments in high speed rail links should be done to compensate. The environment would benefit hugely and the travelers too.

A push and a pull. The pull is already there, as shown by the figures. Now push the rail links forward and than push all the non believers in the train by either taxing the short fights higher or forbidding them all the way.

Go left South America

2006-04-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

Three 'rebel' leaders of three south American nations took the first step in becoming less dependent on their 'big brother' USA.

We all know Castro is against the US, but except for the fact he cost them a lot of money in the past when he converted to communism, he was nothing less then a little insect not worth crushing for the USA. It was a shame that Americans lost a great holiday Island so close to home, but for the rest it didn't really matter. Of course after the missile crisis.

Venezuela however is one of the leading oil producing countries and hence very important for the number one oil using country in the world. Chavez has taken a route against the USA and this does bother them.

Bolivia is a nation we don't hear much about, but with their first native leader, they are making world news headlines more and more. And now that Morales, then man that visited every world leading in the same sweater (question is, did he wash it along the way?), turned against the USA too, it's becoming a block to acknowledge.

Of course Brazil has a left wing leader, their first, now too. However Lula hasn't turned against the west yet and to be honest, hasn't shown much progress either. Will he turn? I doubt it, but there is always the possibility.

As many know, I'm against 'left wing politicians', at least, in the Netherlands and in much of Europe. Why? I simply believe that too much state influence will cause employment to drop, education levels to go more and more to moderate (in stead of excellence), and therefore kill the future economy. I believe that only in very few cases the state can do a better job than the market. Also I believe that by pampering the unemployed, the 'poor' and the less fortunate, you will never get them to go out their circle. The only way by getting them out is by breaking the circle, the hard way.

However, for developing countries this is another story. Because in countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, and so on, there is a huge gap between rich and poor. And even more so, the poor are truly poor, not just whining. And there are much more poor people, in absolute and relative figures, than there are in the west. And last but not least, there is very little chance to break that circle. They don't have a chance, and they should have.

So I do believe in the left wing in South America, Africa and Asia. Cuba has a health system, free of charge, that is praised by the UN. It took them many, many years, but they are working on making it all better. Brazil decided to not order new fighter planes for the air force, but to invest that money in roads. They also decided to put the army's engineering units to work on road, bridge and tunnel building in their own country. All signs that they are at least trying to improve the entire country, not just the city's and the places for the rich.

I also think the USA is way too arrogant. And they should be stopped before they truly believe they are the only world leader. Not that I am against everything they did, because I still support them invading Iraq, Afghanistan, and more nations under rule of a tyrant. However, they should also try and work up a permanent solution for many world problems, and they don't.

So make a block. Put South America in a United Europe kind of construction for free trade and let the USA see how strong united countries can be. We as Europe should totally support this and help these countries in setting this up. And maybe make good trade agreements so they do not loose to much when they start blocking the USA. Make them less arrogant, make them see that the world is bigger then their piece of land. With two of their main trading partners united (Europe and South America) they will have to become more cooperative. It will take many years, maybe a generation, but in the end, this is a world solution.

Blognomics 06

2006-04-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today I was a guest @ Blognomics 06. And let me start by saying Guido and Krijn did a fantastic job. The programs was good, and I'm saying this as an event organizer. I would have been proud to have the speakers they had.

Before the break we had someone from the city of Amsterdam open the event. He talked about a city like Amsterdam and the way they did stuff with weblogs. To be honest: that was a part that could have been left out. Not as much that he read it of a paper, and not even the story, but the 'AMSTERDAM IS GOD' tone was really annoying. It's obvious this man believes there is nothing outside Amsterdam, and personally, I don't like those people.

Paul Molenaar, CEO of Ilse Media, had a good talk. And I'm now even more sorry then I was a few months ago what he was on holiday during my 'new publishing' seminar. I would have loved him for a key note speaker.

Willem Sijthoff, entrepreneur in media, is a man I still have the greatest respect for. This man simply has vision, and a track record I think very few come close to. He's not the best presenter, but what he says, hits the bulls eye every time.

Hans Laroes of NOS talked from paper too, but he showed a different view than one might expect from someone of the 'old media' and Jan Marijnissen was there only on video. Roderick Vonhogen, our podcasting priest, had a great story, just like Bram Elderman of Apple (and we all know I'm NOT an apple fan). I would love to try and get these two into one of my own seminars sometime.

But now to the story of the day. Well, there are several. First of all: we don't know where it's going, just that blogging is here to stay. Blogging might just be the SMS of the internet, the 'extra product' that becomes the killer app. We all know it's still growing, but we all expect that many will quit over time.

Also there are doubt if there is ever going to be a good financial structure behind it, but it's a nice hobby for most. Of course the long tail theory (in short: many small media will still reach a large number of people, just all in very small amounts) is valid for weblogs. And I still firmly believe that niche marketing is the marketing of the future, as soon as the media agency's are willing to actually work for their money.

And if you want to blog: do it frequently. A couple of people said that daily postings are a must. I don't know if I agree, but I do agree that you need to have a regular update. With RSS however you know that if you update, people will notice. RSS is more important by the day.

One of the best stories came from Roderick Vonhogen, a priest, who has the website Catholicinsider.com. One of his very good remarks: well, I have 15.000 people listening to my podcasts. Compare that to the 150 people I have in church on a good sunday, and I guess it's worth every bit of my time. He now has a daily breakfast podcast, not trying to convince you to become catholic, but to share his views on the world.

All and all it was a good day and I've seen the use of podcasting and blogging in ways I hadn't though of yet.

EIT

2006-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Career magazine Carp* wants a European Top University in Amsterdam, according to Computable. The EU has decided not to fund a European Institute of Technology, like MIT in the States, so according to Carp the Dutch should do this on their own. The location Carp suggests: Amsterdam north.

Although I am all for a EIT and I would love for it to be in the Netherlands, the location of Amsterdam is of course one not dictated by logic, but by people from Amsterdam. Carp itself is located in Amsterdam North and although there is plenty of business space in that region, the housing is already extremely expensive in Amsterdam. Why do you think many top universities are NOT in the big cities, like Berkley, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge? Even Stanford is located outside of the big city, although around it Sillicon Valley arose and so this is pretty expansive now too.

So yes, let us focus on top level education. Let us open our own top university, but do it somewhere else then Amsterdam please. I think Groningen has a lot of potential, or somewhere in the North, where our land is relatively cheap, many people want to live because of the nature that's still there and the one place that case really use the extra employment a top university, and all the spin offs, brings. Or else more in the south, like Venlo.

The one thing, if we ever get to a top university, we need to avoid is having people from Amsterdam getting anything to say about it.

My talent is...

2006-04-23T03:11:00.000-07:00

Last night I zapped on my TV and I came across Expeditie Robinson. The series where several people get placed on an island and have to survive with little food and much of each other. I used to watch it a few years ago, so since there was nothing else, I decided to keep watching. And one of the main themes that seems to come back every year, time and time again, is one thing. My talents are somewhere else. Every time someone gets voted out, their talents are underrated. Their talents are somewhere else. People do not see their talents.

And that is much like general life. It always seems that people are saying their talents are somewhere else. We cannot be good at everything. But what we don't want to admit, is that maybe, just maybe, you need the talents you do not have for the job.

It see it around me all the time, and yes, I do see myself doing this too. I hear people say: well, I'm not good at this, but I have other talents. And then I think: but you need this talent for your job. So either you develop it, or you need to find yourself another job. You can have all the talents in the world, but if you cannot swim, you can't be a swimming instructor. It's as simple as that.

If I look at my own job, I have most talents, but the ones I lack (like planning, organizing and some social skills) I work on. I train myself, I push myself, and several times I don't like that, but I do so and I try to improve. I guess that's trying to evolve. Trying to grow as a human being, not just at the points you are already good at, but also the ones you lack.