Monday, July 23, 2007

Paris







From above, place de la Bastille, place de la republique, view from a terrace near the Eifel tower and gare du nord

Yes, I've reached Paris and stayed there for an ultra short time of 3.5 hours.

On my way to Paris I've seen a lot, met interesting, nice people and ate good meals and drank lot's of water And I liked it. But Paris, no it's not my city.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Public service: don't go to far

Our social securities are really good here in the Netherlands. Disabled people get their wheelchairs if they need one from the local Public Service (PS) and if applied for. When the chair is stolen they get a new one immediately. It's a need for living for some disabled people. Some disabled people don't depend on a wheelchair, but that's often forgotten.
PS also pays for housing adjustments, such as stairs-, toilet- and kitchen-adjustments. The ownership belongs to the owner/user of the house. When there is damage to the adjustment due to burglary it's an insurance problem. It can't be that the invoice for reparation is for the municipality.

Such an invoice was offered to me with the subject burglary damage. I immediately informed my co-worker of the reason. I think it belongs to the owner/user of the house who should have an insurance. Let him (it's a he) pay for it. It doesn't matter weather he is handicapped, he just an ordinary citizen who should insure himself the way or citizens do. The reaction of the colleague who wanted me to pay the bill was that the client would cause a lot of trouble. Communication seems to be very difficult. It would take him 3 hours to solve the matter. Probably he would go to the local Ombudsman. The simpliest thing to do is paying the bill.

I think it's showing weakness of the PS to walk away for these possible difficulties. Also PS doesn't take it's client serious and you can ask yourself if in similar cases the same procedure will be followed.

Well, this was the last thing at work which made me a little bit angry. 3 Weeks no work.
When I leave for Paris is the question, the weather you see and maybe not only that.