Wonderfully Wallowing in Winter
(and bear in mind that it is technically not even winter yet).
Sunday morning indulgence. To see snow on the ground outside my office - not much, but enough to encourage me to stay inside and finish my bookkeeping - end of the month bills and preparation for "end of year".
(I'm not sure that I am entirely in agreement with the underlying argument - but we have to produce our Financial Report almost straight away from now on - at the directive of Youth Services - they want to judge if we are fit to be dealing with Youth as we do - the financial health being just one of the hoops we have to go through).
The Accountant and Taxation Department are normally quite happy to wait for a full year or even longer.
In a similar vein, but not necessarily applying to us, there is a proposal applying to Child Care facilities (after school or other "normal" child-minding) that all workers and "even the next door neighbour who drops in regularly for a cup of coffee" have to be registered as being of "good character and behaviour". This could also apply to anyone who regularly visits the premises for any purpose for more than 30 minutes at a time. eg a regular gardener or maintenance man.
If it did apply to us then maybe we would have to register Janny's 80 plus parents...? As it is, all our workers (and us) are registered with the local council.
A couple of follow-ups
Last week I wrote about euthanasia and later thought that the subject may well have been at odds with some peoples' own ideas and beliefs. That made me think about the "tolerance" that the Netherlands is at least credited with - drugs, prostitution, abortion, euthanasia - all of it up to a point, I guess. Then the catch-cry "doe normaal" - be normal.
But, what is a Normal, Ordinary Dutchman (NOD)? More on that later - it was part of the recent election campaign.
As I was thinking about things that some people might not like, my own thoughts wandered to the time when we had refugees here - 1999 to 2002. We had a family from Afghanistan, including a young daughter who was "promised to be married" to a young man who was already here, somewhere.
Somehow, between Janny, the regular nurse, and the daughter, the story came out that she was pregnant, but the parents were not allowed to know. I conjured up a story in my own mind that she had been raped or been forced to give sexual favours in order to get away... but no, it was just a very ordinary (but probably heart-breaking) story. The nurse arranged a visit to a clinic for some mysterious illness - and Janny went with the girl "down south" somewhere. On the way back, she was dropped off in Zwolle and finally returned to Wijnjewoude the next day in a taxi. As far as I know, nobody was any the wiser - but what has happened in the intervening 17 years? I remember that she was a very beautiful young woman and when they were leaving I offered my hand to say goodbye and wish her well - she jumped back as though I had pointed a cattle prod at her. Something to do with being "proper", I think. (Funny how I can still picture that, as though it was yesterday).
Trouw newspaper then went out into the street and asked a random selection of people if they consider themselves NODs.
‘Political bullshit,’ said pensioner Leontine Groothorst (62), ‘the normal ordinary Dutchman doesn’t exist.’ Cora van Ark (49) and unemployed ‘is Dutch because that’s what it says in my passport. But the politicians are not standing up for pensioners or people who haven’t got a pot to piss in.’
According to builder Stefano Losada (28) ‘you can be green, yellow or purple. If you act normally, you’re a normal Dutch person. That includes me. Of course! But criminals and scum, no.’ ‘The term conjures up people who only eat cheese, take their kids to school and eat at six. It would have been better if Rutte had talked about all citizens.
Read more at DutchNews.nl: The new coalition loves him, so just who is the ‘normal, ordinary Dutchman’? http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/10/the-new-coalition-loves-him-so-just-who-is-the-normal-ordinary-dutchman/
Also following on from last week was that we said goodbye to Sanny. Her parents thanked us and said that "if Sanny can't cope with assisted living then we will take her back home" - and also resume with us. Nice to be appreciated!
Christmas nears...
The Saturday kids set up a couple of trees.
From the Newspaper
Seems to be quite a few police articles...
December, the month for break-ins
The daily newspaper the Leeuwarder Courant did some research and concluded that December is the month when most break-ins occur. Averaging 550 in North Nederland (3 northern provinces).Evenings, especially Fridays are the most common. The total number of break-ins for Groningen and Friesland has been reducing, but not Drenthe, for some reason.
One reason for the lower totals is thought to be the reduction in unemployment. There is, however, an increase in cybercrime.
Another noticeable influence is the increased use of WhatsApp as a Neighbourhood Watch tool in many villages.
Nationally, only 10% of break-ins are solved, but in Noord Nederland, it is a little better at 13.5 to 14%.
WhatsApp groups in Friesland
New police "big data plan" in place and has already rolled up 4 criminal networks in Friesland Groningen and Drenthe. (aka the Three Northern Provinces). Basically, an electronic Data Base chart that has highlighted people, incidents and events and the links between them. The closest to us was a drugs laboratory in Haulerwijk where I pick Lucas up - 11 kilometres away.
The police have stopped a couple of interesting initiatives.
National Alerts
For the last 25 years (that I know of) there's been an air raid siren every first Monday of the month at 12 o'clock midday. I've only heard it once in anger when I was out walking. My first thought was "it's not Monday". This system has now evolved to become a mobile app on our telephones and this was first tested Nationwide last Monday.
BIG DATA initiative
It is expected that the process will be introduced nationwide and eventually be picked up by neighbouring countries.
Bikes without lights
In Leeuwarden on Thursday night, a routine check resulted in 15 fines for cyclists without lights (as if it isn't difficult enough for the poor old car driver!). One of the stoppages resulted in the arrest of someone the police had on their wanted list.
1. Birds of prey were being trained to intercept illegal drones.
2. Rats were being trained to detect illegal fireworks, fake cigarettes, and human remains.
The development of Drones has far outpaced the desired results of the "bird of prey" initiative and the rats were not successful enough in the trial. The training was more difficult than expected and was also more expensive.
(This story reminded me of the World War II training of bats - the idea being that they would be armed with explosives and released over Japanese housing - they would then seek refuge in the light wooden houses. The first trial, however, resulted in burning down the aircraft hangar where the tests were carried out.The idea was abandoned).
Infrastructure
The responsible Minister has put forward the plans for the next term of government, including replacing three bridges on the Prinses Margriet Canal from Lemmer to Delfzijl. This will allow larger container ships - in anticipation of an overall increase in container shipping.
Looking for a Second Hand Bridge?
A new bridge is planned for Oudwoude. Drawings made, process in hand.... but someone asked: "what about a 2nd-hand bridge"?. It took some thought and after a while, the idea was taken seriously. Some bridges are replaced for reasons other than deterioration, after all. The bridge needs to be 5 metres wide and 7 metres long. They already have two "offers".
Another bridge - at Aldeboarn, on the Turfroute
It's snowing in earnest as I finish up. I have collected the firewood and Janny has gone to the shop "in case we get snowed in" - haha - good excuse to do a Netflix binge - after I've done my bookwork!
Sneak preview of the new website - still have to figure out a few things...
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