Friday, December 31, 2004

New Year's Eve

Today I have to work and after that I got to travel 1,5 hours north to my mother to celebrate new year's eve. Known that last night was short I can't stand another short night without being humorous on New Year's Day. This will be a weekend of fighting against sleep.
Have fun you all.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

What a day

What a day, I tres tres tres tired. Again, I can say. Tomorrow a long, long day. But everyone has I think.
How will Times Sqare NYC be? Los Angeles, Ocean?
Anyhow, stay safe (hm, after the Tsunami I know savety is a hollow word)
Enjoy your life to the max.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Dutch winter

Worked, watched LOTR -the fellowship of the ring, did my laundry. Just a "normal" day.
Oh yeah, the snow which fell yesterday has melted away completely.

Have a nice day, evening or whatsoever.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

first snow

The day after the day after. At the office we spoke a bit more about the disaster. But I think that my co-worker is most worried. His parents are from that region and he has some relatives there.
Well, you all could see the destructive power of incoming seawater. Nature can do terrible things.
Today we had the first snow of this winter. In my town it wasn't much. Further inland people enjoyed the snow. By lunchtime it was mostly melted and left a wet mess behind.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Last week of 2004

Went to work, did what I'm supposed to do, went home, watched the 5 o'clock news, made some coffee and updated my blog.

What happened on the Sunday in the Indian Ocean was beyond every imagination.
Get out of the sea, leave everything behind and run for your life.
A warning system would have helped for a large part of the region. Such a system is in use for the pacific ocean since 1948. It's cheap and easy. Better communication between the countries on the Indian Ocean would help too. Transistor radios can be used everywhere. When the countries buried their death I hope they'll lay the foundation for an early warningsystem.
Okay, financial fundraising has not started yet. When they do, I'll contribute.

Strangly at work nobody spoke about the disaster.
I was working on checking the maintenance cost of a European well known company in the field of rehabilitation: manual and electric wheelchair's.
It appeared to me that the company adds costs to our account which they should not add. Tomorrow I'll look at it again.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Superior weekend

Today I had a weird weekend. After 2 beer and a concert of the Stones from 1968 I went to bed and slept until 10 am. At 11 my mother called that within an hour she would pass by on her way home. The weather was perfect after the coffee, chocolates and cakes we decided to go out for a walk. As some snowshowers were predicted my mother and her friend went home at 4 pm. And damn they were right. My mom called me that en route they saw a lot of collided cars. Because of the fog and the freezing temperatures the landscape turned white and the road became as slippery as a scatetrack.
Allright I got my house for myself now . Tonight I want to watch O brother, Where Art Thou. But now I got to prepare a special dinner.

Saturday I cycled a little in the cooler; 4 degrees C, Sw 4 m/s, one rainshower made my feet cold to the bone.
71.56 k
24.53 k/hr
2:55:00 hr
43 k/hr (max)
26,706 k (total on Giant)

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Found


Found in a drawer in the Arkansas penitentiary ....

the dude was here too

Years end

I had a busy day. Maybe because I'm at the end off the pipeline. No most likely because I'm at the end of most processes. A lot of money which has to be paid.
Remember the integrity discussions we had, I wrote about.
It doesn't help very much. Last Tuesday an announcement was made that one employee has embezzled 200,000 Euro (in US Dollar about 260,000) from the local Government.
This must be a slap in the face of our management who tries to explain the necessity of being integer.

Today I really had -an end of the year is in the air- feeling. A lot of people are off, have a short holiday, or don't come back before next year. They drop by at the end of the day to say they're off and wish all happy day's.

This weekend I've had a mail of a fellow traveler I met in Sweden on a camping site.
He was going from the Northcape Norway, to Sicily, Italy by foot.
He must have arrived and on January 3 I'm invited to come to Germany for a kind of price he'll receive.
It can be done by train, so may be I'll be there in Duisburg.

I ran into this a series of pictures of imprisoned man and women between 1915 and 1937.
No names, no backgrounds, just a number.
Number 217, photo at 8-27-36, how old was she? She could have lived through the seventies. I could have known her. The resemblance, it's funny and saddening too.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Tired

I'm tired. How fatigue? It's a mixture of bad sleep, working on high speed (actually that's not bad at all) and wondering around in town. Also keeping a log, different logs isn't as easy as I thought in the begin (June/July). It's almost having a second job like I already told.
And always trying to find a subject to write about. I try not to talk about my job. But sometimes I have to.
When I have to express about sharing my opinion with a staff employee about the synergy effects of the program a lot of municipalities and their employees work with.
All those employees could share their experiences about the system. For example on the internet. To make one isn't difficult.
Sometimes one has to face the wind.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

A brand new day

Yesterday I had a day off, on this blog I didn't post anything which may be nothing or something.
Yesterday, I spend my time sleeping (yes I was fatigue), I did some shopping (on a Monday the city is not crowded, shops open at 1 pm), and had my monitor examined at the computerstore.
In the centre of the city I had a quick look at my favorite disk-jockey, stand up comedian and entertainer Claudia de Breij.

She and her colleagues are presenting a 5 day 24 hours long radio-program in which people can buy their favorite songs to be broadcasted. The price depends on the taste of the jockey, the length of the song and how much one wants to offer.
You guess why the Dutch do that? It's for the good cause, for the people in Sudan, in the Darfur region.
The money will be spend on a Red Cross hospital.
To stress the suffering of the people there the jockeys won't eat for 5 days. They only drink fruit juices and Coca Cola.

They drink Coca Cola, the brand that stresses the American, European imperialistic society.In fact we are the protectionists who bring poverty in such regions.
I don't mean that's true for the Darfur region, but in large parts of Africa the local economy is partly ruined because we dump our subsidized products there.

And we protect our borders for their products with skyhigh taxes. To open our borders might be a solution to African problems.
I don't know if there are any Afro-American readers, but I tell you we suck Africa and you too if you like it or not. America and Europe being less protectionistic will help a lot.

And I got my christmas-box, filled with delicateses and 4 plates. It was so heavy. My employer surprized me a little.

This morning I woke up with a brand new day on the 5 days 24 hours no food marathon radioshow. To start the day with a first laugh. :)

Sunday, December 19, 2004

flying high

Just ask myself right now how many fly miles did I get in lifetime.
Not much actually. 1 time I flew Amsterdam-Monastir (south of Tunis), 1 time Amsterdam- Tel Aviv (Ben Goerion) and this year Rotterdam-Stockholm (Skavsta). My estimation is 10,000 fly miles (15,000 kilometers) in my life.
That's a difference with Sarah Ackerman who just flew from New York to San Fransisco for the Christmas holidays.

Tomorrow I'm off work. I got to buy some presents for 2nd Cristmasday when I mother and her friend come over. I still wanna buy a digi (Germans call a cellphone ein Handy probably they call a digital camera ein Digi too. I learned that cheaper camera's are more expensive in memorycards/sticks and that the battery loading-device is seperate.

Today I also cycled a little on my old bike. I didn't put the wheel back in right. The wheel "slips" against the brakes.

stats:
30.80 k
27.22 k/hr
1:07:55 hr
36 k/hr (max)
26,635 k (total on the Giant)


Saturday, December 18, 2004

Louis Bleriot


The boeing 747 "Louis Bleriot" through Amsterdam cannels. Not just a daily picture. But it's the link with Fridays blog.
The plane arrived after 4 days at the Aviodrome in Lelystad were it will be part of the permanent exhibition.


the dude was here too

Friday, December 17, 2004

Turkey, Turkey and Louis Bleriot

What has Turkey to do with Louis Bleriot?
Nothing I assume. It's only the day of the news which links the photo above and Turkey below.

Yes, Turkey goes Europe. Today Turkey and Europe under Dutch chairmanship agreed that on the October 3 2005 talk will begin that must lead to full Turkish European membership.
Much has to be done to get a country ready to meet our standards.
But also much has to be done to get Turkish membership accepted in Europe of today.
It is said that this adjustment will take 10 years or more.

Many Turks are here in western Europe already. Turks in Kreuzberg in Berlin. Turks in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht in the Netherlands. They all came one by one. When dad came over to work here his wife or fiancee was left home. When he earned more money and the respectable Governments payed for familyreunion for humanitarian reasons, many followed. Now they life in the cities in sort of getto's.
I think that Turkeys uniting with the EU and a stabilizing of Turkey will be prosperous for Europe aswell, but mainly for Turkey and their nationals who live already in the EU.
I remember saying I was not sure about the double nationality Turks might have (in comparison with the Morocans), well they mainly have 2 nationalities.
I think this should put to an end.
The Government has a point telling that they want April 30 as a national nationality day on with foreigners who choose the Dutch nationality celebrate that important moment. April 30 is our Queensmother birthday too, so it's a perfect day for a celebration.
However maybe this is not the right moment to speak about this matter. It's making a policy on the symptoms of these days of misunderstanding and even hatred. Take some more time to think out a new policy which has to do with more than one subject.
A policy should be woven into various activities in society.

However April 30 remains a perfect day for a party.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

thursday, almost weekend....... All a happy X-mas


Christmas at my work....
the dude was here too

working day

This Thursday at work I didn't do much actually. Didn't have much to pay. There were some little things that I had to put straight. So I had an email contact with a contractor of us to get some money back.
Next Monday I don't work. Maybe I got some time then to buy presents (f.i. a digi for myself)and send some christmas cards. There are plenty of them I my mailbox yet(downstairs at the frontdoor).

Maybe last night I was a little too pessimistic but what I said is true.
What if I say and heard that the atmosphere is better than 2, 3 years ago.

After weeks of grey dull weather we now have wind and rain, actually I liked the period of dry, grey but cold weather.

Last wednesday i've been to the neurologist. After exactly 1 hour waiting he told me that there were no extra brainactivities as far he could see. We needed 5 minutes to discuss the result.
This means that my dosis pills remain the same and that I only have to make an appointment with him next year, unless something happens. I don't see why.
This means too I remark that cardriving won't be a problem. (I didn't drive a car for 10 years now). I only need a comment/notification on my driverslicence.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Eat, drink, pay

The evening with the colleagues was okay. We laughed a lot about certain things.
Also we talked about other colleagues, something I find very unpleasant. You don't do that. But on a moment I said about a colleague of mine (who wasn't with us) that I feel a certain negativity. Actually that's not the right word but I used it. I mean that she ignores me and a lot of other persons. Why I don't know, but also my boss ignores a lot of the employee's. Both pass us and don't say a word like they/we don't exist, not in the morning, nor midday or afternoon.
I think that a boss ought to pay attention too his employees, as if it were only to motivate them. I got the feeling that my motivation have to come from myself. Maybe it has, but a certain attention from others helps a lot.

This is what I don't like about these evenings, the gossip and talks about colleagues and boss. Tonight might be the last time.
But when in the spring or so we have another evening, I might join again.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Flat tyre

Cycling is my hobby, then my bike should have no secrets for me...
Well that's wrong. I never repaired or changed a flat tyre. And thats what I'm going to do this evening.
Also I found the bill for the computer so I can use the guarantee on the monitor.
(They told me the period is 2 years and that will do)

Well, I bought my food for tonight, it'll be potatoes, with grean butter-beans and a giant meatball with onions in it.
After dinner I'll have to do the laundry and repair the tyre.

I'm hungry right now. Think it's time to make dinner.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Digested the weekend

Worked, laughed, and have a Wednesday to come.
At work we had some office-humor....it's really about nothing but we could laugh.
And remember 40 laughs per day!
Today I could get that number, nobody could, maybe it's because of the weekend. I heard some people had a hard time, not me.
I took my bike for some short rides but I felt okay then, despite the cold.

Wednesday, at 11.30 I'll have an appoinment with my neurologist and after work my colleagues and I will drink in a pub close to my home. Lucky me, lets get drunk.

I have a picture of the pub, beautiful situated on a cannel which connects Utrecht with Rotterdam, but damned I didn't digitalize it.
It's time to buy a digital camera. My old analoge one doesn't work well anymore. For 160 Euro a Sony cybershot can be bought and with a memorycard of 64 kb 100 pictures can be made.
Yeah, it's time for a digi.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Comment on 3 worldreligions and an update

A stunning tragedy Happened on March 31 2004,a crowd burned and mutilated the dead, then dragged two corpses through the streets and hung them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.
Many people will associate this with Iraqis, the fact is that those people who did this were Saddam Hussein right hand, this is why Iraqis were living in fear under this regime.
We condemn those horrific acts by those mobs, we hope that they will be brought to justice each and everyone of them. Those people lost their foothold in ruling Iraq and they are trying to scare other Iraqis who have been saying that they are better now than before in the latest opinion pool. Now such act by those mobs is targeted on scaring all those who are helping the coalition provisional authority.

From Baghdad to New York

I like to comment on the Islam as well Christianity, Judaism as false prophesies, but I cannot find the words for so much violence in name of a god who most likely doesn't exist. People, it's only a Fata Morgana in your mind, a selfulfilling prophesy. You all are fooling yourself. This can't be life!

update:
I heard an interesting idea on radio this morning which fits very well in the comment I wrote above. It also put Christianity (catholic version) on one line with
Islam as I know it (North African version).
What was said is that in 1854 pope Pius IX cut the Gordian knot by a dogma of the Immac'ulate Concep'tion

On the internet I found the following definition:
Rom. Cath. Ch.
the dogma of the unique privilege by which the Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother's womb without the stain of original sin through the anticipated merits of Jesus Christ. Cf. virgin birth (def. 1).

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease


It's a dogma and dogma's are created because nobody knows how to put an end to an eternal discussion. It's the outcome of centuries of thinking of people from the middleages till 1854.
This thinking is now the link with the Islam which in it's pure form is middleageous too.
Fundamentalists of all believes think they ought to live by the book (Tora, Bible, Koran)

Nowadays the Islam is the black sheep because of their middleageous thinking and their threat to worldpeace but what to think of Christianity and Judaism.
My world of capitalism (a mix of all believes) endangers worldpeace as much. It always tries to make a profit on the weakest link which connects worldsociety and will tear the world apart.

All the religions have to update to the time we live in to cope with present problems. 2 religions reinvent themselves from time to time, but Islam isn't. It didn't have to because people were living for centuries under the same conditions (countryside).
Now life has radically changed and now Islam has to throw all the old fashioned ideas overboard or take it of their camel's back.

2 Religions are renewing I said. Still they have dogma's. That's strange. It's something not to talk about? Will it undermine their believe?
In my opinion all are under fire.
And yes, I'm proud to be Kafir.

Saturday



The Fly past
the dude was here too

Saturday, December 11, 2004

A basking shark



Found at the shore
the dude was here too

Funeral of Bernhard

The Royal Prince of the Netherlands, his highness Bernhard has been buried in the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft. Not really buried but locked up with his recently passed away wife, the queen of the Netherlands and ancestors of 400 year history.

The ceremony was beautiful. Though I have to say that I didn't watch the church-thing. Though I must say that a Baroc church with such an enormous volume, and the glamour inside appeals to have at least quick view on the news.

At the moment when the Prince's coffin was taken from the coach and Huzars bear away the coffin to the doorstep of the Nieuwe Kerk and further, I saw 3 F16's and the last remaining Dutch spitfire doing a fly past in missing man formation. That was an emotional thing to see. In a formation of 4 planes they came flying by and when the planes were right above the church, the spitfire went vertical up into the sky and dissapeared in low hanging clouds.
It happened in a few seconds when it was over. Compare it to life. In a few seconds it can be passee (over and out, lost in the darkness of hell or light of heaven).
Bernhard lived his life to the max. He knew he had to because he did survive so much pain. In this way he was a real Dutch calvinist Prince.
Farewell

His funeral underlines the end of an era, two World Wars, a lot of pain and laughter and brings us well into the twentyfirst century.

Today I picked up cycling again. You can find more on this on IPOT.
Testing the bike, the gear and computer.
It all works and also it felt good to be out for a while. (to leave the emotions behind)
stats:
16.22 k
28.83 k/hr
33.48 min
43 k/hr (max)
515 k (total on new bike)

Thank you Bob

Today nothing works, especially my monitor.
Today I met a most beautiful, spontanious, sympathetic girl. When we talked and we had a look on eachother my screen faded away and at last turned to black. Just when I learned that she lived in my hometown. After I fixed the screen provisionally (no, how ironically I got a dumped 17" monitor from some lawyers at my office) I said some stupid words I learned from Bob Dylan, "What does a girl like you doing in a dump like this?"

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Thursday

"Ask yourself what you can do for the Government instead what the Government can do for you." That's a well spoken sentence.

Worked, wrote, ate and slept.

Ajax Amsterdam made a draw against Bayern München yesterday and will play next year again in Europe.

A teacher askes her Dutch student how to pronounce -qualified- in English.
The student pronouced the word -qualified-.
"Wrong" said the teacher and she pronouced the correct word.
"Well" said the student, "there will always be a Brit who pronouces it like me."

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Citizen

Woke up, worked, went to the hairdresser, to the groceries and gonna watch Bayern München against Ajax Amsterdam tonight. Just like yesterday when PSV Eindhoven lost from Pananthinaikos, Greece (4-1).

I'm gonna cut and paste something about the Political Islam on the other page I got.
The reason is that many Islamic Dutch citizen want to start an Islamic political party.
I don't see the reason why. It's marginalization of their power. They can better vote on people who think the same in existing parties.

The writers name I got an eye on is Afshin Ellian a professor at the Amsterdam University. He was Iranian, so he knows what he talks/writes about.
Also a Dutch minister wants the dual Morroc/Dutch citizenship put to an end. She wants to talk with the Morroc King about the automatic lifetime Moroc citizenship when born in Moroc.
In her view citizen who move to the Netherlands hold on their roots and don't integrate in Dutch society because they got dual citizenship. They cannot say I'm 100% Dutch.

But not long ago when South Africa wasn't doing well, the Dutch who were there and obtained South African citizenship went back to their country of birth or CoB of their parents. They are South African too and were not really welcome here, especially the second generation. What did they do here when their country was in despair?

I agree with our Minister on the dual citizenship. You got to choose. And that's what the Morrocs can't. The Turks can however. I don't know what they do.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Tuesday

Why is the Tuesday mostly a day on which one is able to concentrate on the work?
Today was such a day of doing things with a focus, not only on the work but also on the result.
Looking around, everyone was doing one's task.
On these days time flies and you got no notion.
Tomorrow will be a day like every wednesday, like groundhogday. Yeah, it's almost weekend.

A colleague was in Chinese restaurant to compose his meal of differerent kinds of food.
He was thinking what to order and looked at the lady at the other side of the desk, when the Chinese saw him thinking, she asked "you want me now?"
On which he answered "no, no, not yet, first I like to order some food."

Monday, December 06, 2004

Smelling the odeur of bacteria

I worked and am tired. When I came home I was overwhelmed with a bad smell. It came from the bathroom, or should I say showercloset, the drain of the shower was stopped with hair balls of me, what a penetrating discusting smell. Bacteria like it very much.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

IPOT

I made a simple running-blog (ipot.blogspot.com). Also I linked -jansblog- and -ipot- to blogexplosion.
I listened to the radio this afternoon and heard that my football club (FC Groningen) and the City club (FC Utrecht) both lost their game.

Spoken about loosing. My 17 inch flatscreen monitor lost very sudden contact. The image on the screen turn into horizontal lines and turn grey/green. Maybe it's the cable, maybe the screen itself. Another 17 inch screen worked perfectly on my computer. So I got a back in case I have to repair the screen.

update: too small blogs with less than 2 postings won't be accepted with blogexplosion.com

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Turkey an EU member?

Turkey is one of the big issues in international politics concerning the European Union. Turkey wants to be EU member. But not the complete EU want Turkey to take part in the political and economical structure.
Some pro's and contra's arise talking about Turkey being a full EU memeber.

The following is a contribution from a report of a COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES:

The clear position of the European Union with regard to Turkey’s status as candidate country and the conditions for the possible opening of negotiations were reconfirmed by the Brussels European Council meeting in June 2004, which concluded that:

“The Union reaffirms its commitment that if the European Council decides in December
2004, on the basis of a report and recommendation from the Commission, that Turkey fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria, the EU will open accession negotiations with Turkey without delay.”


Summary assessment
Accession of Turkey to the Union would be challenging both for the EU and Turkey. If well managed, it would offer important opportunities for both. The necessary preparations for accession would last well into the next decade. The EU will evolve over this period, and Turkey should change even more radically. The acquis will develop further and respond to the needs of an EU of 27 or more. Its development may also anticipate the challenges and opportunities of Turkey’s accession.

Based on current EU policies and knowledge, the Commission has identified the following main issues for the coming years:

• Turkey’s accession would be different from previous enlargements because of the
combined impact of Turkey’s population, size, geographical location, economic,
security and military potential, as well as cultural and religious characteristics. These factors give Turkey the capacity to contribute to regional and international stability.
Expectations regarding EU policies towards these regions will grow as well, taking
into account Turkey’s existing political and economic links to its neighbours. Much
will depend on how the EU itself will take on the challenge to become a fully fledged
foreign policy player in the medium term in regions traditionally characterised by
instability and tensions, including the Middle East and the Caucasus.

• Turkey is at present going through a process of radical change, including a rapid
evolution of mentalities. It is in the interest of all that the current transformation
process continues. Turkey would be an important model of a country with a majority
Muslim population adhering to such fundamental principles as liberty, democracy,
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

• The economic impact of Turkey’s accession on the EU would be positive but
relatively small, both due to the modest size of the Turkish economy and to the degree of economic integration already existing before accession. Much will depend on future economic developments in Turkey. The launch of accession negotiations should help the continued efforts of Turkey to ensure macroeconomic stability and promote investment, growth and social development. Under these conditions, Turkey’s GDP is expected to grow more rapidly than the EU average.

• Accession of Turkey, a lower middle income country, would increase regional
economic disparities in the enlarged EU in a way similar to the most recent
enlargement, and would represent a major challenge for cohesion policy. Turkey
would qualify for significant support from the structural and cohesion funds over a
long period of time. A number of regions in present Member States benefiting from
structural funds support could lose their eligibility on the basis of present rules.

• The integration of Turkey into the internal market would be beneficial. This depends, however, not only on the fulfilment of present obligations under the customs union but also on more horizontal reforms, such as strengthening corporate governance and regulatory frameworks, intensifying the fight against corruption, and significantly improving the functioning of the judiciary.

• With over three million, Turks constitute by far the largest group of third-country
nationals legally residing in today’s EU. Available studies give varying estimates of
expected additional migration following Turkey’s accession. Appropriate transitional
provisions and a permanent safeguard clause could be considered to avoid serious
disturbances on the EU labour market. However, the population dynamics of Turkey
could make a contribution to offsetting the ageing of EU societies. In this context, the EU also has a strong interest in that reforms and investments should be made in
education and training in Turkey over the next decade.

• Agriculture is one of the most important economic and social sectors in Turkey and
would need special attention. Continuous rural development efforts and an upgrading
of administrative capacity would be required from Turkey to create as favourable
conditions as possible to participate successfully in the common agricultural policy.
Turkey would need time to make a number of agricultural sectors more competitive.
Turkey would need considerable time in order to avoid substantial income losses for
Turkish farmers. Under present policies Turkey would be eligible for substantial
support. In the veterinary area, major efforts would have to be made to improve the
animal health situation and controls at the eastern borders in order to avoid serious
problems upon accession.

• Turkey’s accession would help to secure better energy supply routes for the EU. It
would probably necessitate a development of EU policies for the management of
water resources and the related infrastructure. Because of their sometimes
considerable trans-boundary effects, good implementation by Turkey of other EU
policies in the fields of environment, transport, energy and consumer protection would also have considerable positive effects for EU citizens elsewhere.

• The management of the EU’s long new external borders would constitute an important
policy challenge and require significant investment. Managing migration and asylum
as well as fighting organised crime, terrorism, trafficking of human beings, drugs and arms smuggling would all be facilitated through closer cooperation both before and after accession.

• The budgetary impact of Turkish membership to the EU can only be fully assessed
once the parameters for the financial negotiations with Turkey have been defined in
the context of the financial perspectives from 2014 onwards. The nature and amount
of transfers to Turkey would depend on a number of changing factors, such as the
EU’s policies and any special arrangements agreed with Turkey in the negotiations as
well as the budgetary provisions in place at that time, in particular the overall
budgetary ceiling. However, it is clear that the budgetary impact on the basis of
present policies would be substantial.

• As to the institutions, Turkey’s accession, assessed on the basis of the Constitution, would significantly affect the allocation of European Parliament seats of current Member States, in particular the medium sized and large countries. In the Council, Turkey would have an important voice in the decision making process in view of its population share which would be reflected in the Council voting system. The impact in terms of the Commission would be less important given the planned reduction of the members of the Commission from 2014 onwards.


It's surely a challenge to have Turkey within the EU. But it's a complete fiasco if the Turks don't fit in. Maybe it's purily political. For economical purposes we don't have to do it. Both sides don't benefit from it because the economical relationship is "okay" at the moment. The United States of America might benefit from it for political reasons and this isn't good for the status of Turkey in the EU.

My critisism is that Turkey doesn't really understand the ethics of Europe. Why do the Turks need so much critisism to change. Don't they understand torturing prisoners isn't toleratable? This is only one "minor" problem. What do they do with the Kurds and their imprisoned leader Ocelan?
The largest part of Turkey, east of the Bosporus, isn't Europe at all, but Eurasia.
Maybe not an argument but Alexander would have liked it.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Smile, It's Friday, Almost Weekend

Today was a quiet Friday. I slept, worked, ran, ate, watched the tele, played a wargame on the internet, filled the washingmachine and did the laundry.
Finally I'll go to sleep again.

But, I ran immediately after work.
When I put on my trainingshoes my mind was completely set on running.
After a warming up I ran 40 minutes with intervals. Followed with a cooling down. Momentarily I feel more confident than 3 runs before, however its the end of the week, the end of the first training schedule It will take some time to reach the old level of long before, when I ran 2 hours with easy on a reasonable speedlevel. Nowadays I feel a little ashamed when 2 running ladies pass me like wagging the dog. I better stop, I thought. I did some stretching when they passed me.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

The dead of a prince of the Netherlands

Bernhard is dead, like Arafat is dead. I say -is dead- because he is, isn't he. He is as dead as Wendy on November 11 2004 said dead is.
Can you believe that he peacefully died? Yesterday at 18:40 he died in a hospital in the city I live.
Most likely he told the Doctors that he would have a shot of I-don't-know-what to die. He was ready to die I think. When he died his family was in Amsterdam on a party.(!!)
Bernhard, the father of our queen Beatrix died solely amongst doctors in a hospital far away from the world he lived in. The contrast is so extraordinary. Yes, he was a remarkable man. You should almost like the dead man.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Doing the right thing.

Today I went to the hospital for a medical checkup, the EEG scan. There is nothing to tell about actually. December 15 I'll hear some more about the test.
After that I worked, bought a pizza at the groceries in the shoppingmall -Kanaleneiland - instead in the shop near my house. At 6 pm I was home.

Tonight I have to do a training according to scedule. But actually I'm not in the mood for running. My legs ache. But that's no excuse.
Yesterdayevening I input the distances I cycled. I missed a distance of 64 k. The total for this year on the 2 bikes is about 3500 k right now. That should be 4000 k at December 31.

And the right thing? I don't know, for Bush it's going to church and to play a game "war on teror". But ASfM, Hnk and DfB don't think the same and you better believe them.

update:
After dinner I ran again 40 minuts I took more time after 10, 10, 10 and 10 minutes. I felt some aches before I started but when I started they disappeared. My heartbeat was high again 118 bpm decreasing to 94 bpm and now 70 bpm (at 23.00, 2 hours after training)

Very important update:
I know that I would do the right thing. At the end of the day I remember that I filled in an inquiryform on the internet and donated the revenues to the aidsfoundation on behalf of -World Aids Day-.
Normally I support Medicins Sans Frontiers aka Doctors Without Borders in English.

Tot morgen,