peanuts

It's Wednesday and I went to the other building. There I met E. I had something to say about the furious discussion. It's to work-related and when I say what I wanna say it's Works Council related. I skip it.
When I sat down there at a free table right next to E. (I just do it, because I got my own work) I saw a pot peanut-butter on the desk. I asked her if she was going to feed the birds, they like peanut-butter a lot. She denied that. It's her lunch. Now I know she is a Nightingale.

presenta

More books.... Today I received 4 books. 2 novels and 2 travel books...
1 Book is a contrast with the censorship, it's written by a Dutch diplomate in Berlin. He was on duty during the fall of the Berlin Wall. Afterwards he wrote a book about this.

At work I didn't feel well. I went to bed late and was awake at 5 am. 5 hours is 3 to short for me. The day ended with a headache.
Of course this has to do with Maslow. I just slipped and almost fell. Don't look down.
Tonight won't be better I think. Think positive, tomorrow I feel great :)

Another thing that made me sad was that E. phoned the idolized colleague that she would come to his place. She had a Newyear present from a supplier whose bills I just was paying. I wasn't involved in the whole thing. And the man whose head is tumbling and spinning (like a free fall from the edge) doesn't even know who the supplier is. How pathetic.

censorship

On issues concerned work I have to censor myself. No work related blog from me. I'm afraid of Uleaks. McCarthy couldn't have done it better.

It's a bad thing but big brother is watching us. Wikileaks. Children of 15 and 19 years were arrested. Why? because they downloaded a program to make certain sites unreachable. The real hackers laugh about that.

I am writing a book about Marie and her family. On 1-1-1795 her father became Mayor of the city I actually life in. How peculiar because when I started this story I made a story board. That was in 2000. 2 years later I moved to where I live now. It's funny but I could have found my luck on an island. How different from life in a city.

If I learned something of this is that the opportunity leads you to the place where you belong. My brother found his love in The Hague, my sister in Groningen and Tunisia. I'm still looking for that opportunity. And yes, I'm from a family that dies young but finds the right opportunity in the end.

Freedom

It's the title of Jonathan Franzen his book about family matters, the hope and despair in families and about impossible ambitions.
I heard Obama read the book too. Is it maybe because of the similarities between the book and his administration?
Freedom is a page turner. Can't wait to see where it leads to.

Today I was thinking how to finish a book I'm writing.
It's about the negligence of the north east of my country by The Hague, that's the nations political heartland.
Two things happened.
-Firstly the PVV (Party of Freedom) wants votes to get into the Senate. They want Limburg for the people who live there. Of course that will increase the power of the cabinet. There could be some problems... the province of Limburg has no own means. The population is decreasing. The mines are closed a long time ago. The automotive Industry moved. The province should concentrate on tourism in my opinion. The PVV focuses their campaign on the rather negative slogan Not for Mosques but for carnival in Limburg.
This is one of the aspects in the book, the derealization of life there once was. It might be about urgency to be flexible with the change of the environment.
- Secondly, I saw a promotion video. It was a political video on national television for a political party in the north east part of the country Some people from that region want their freedom because the State earns money from the natural resources and doesn't give back means to conserve the region and to make it more prosperous. That party focuses on
separation from The Netherlands. It is from their point of view understandable, but it is so immature. How can you fight for something you don´t really believe in? It has no authenticity if it's only about money. The people living in the periphery of The Hague are not only people represented by these parties.
Authenticity has to do with the values you believe in, your patriotism. If you don't want to defend your country you could also life elsewhere. That makes a separation unlikely.

For citizen in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and in villages and towns which form the heartland of The Netherlands, these views are examples of the dumbness of the people in the region. They look down on the provincials and they know it. People in the province feel that arrogance.

I thought of a despotic leader like Milosevic who led his people into a war. There only has to be one leader who knows how to persuade people to get their freedom. This could be one line in the book.

I should thank E. for her authenticity. She introduced it with me after talking about the whole Maslow thing and her self realization. Concerned E. I'm on a distance now and I see her vulnerability and her being idolized by a colleague.

I hate that idolizing. It's almost sick how he talks about her. How positive and uplifting he is about E. Concerned work he should do anything for her. Miss this and miss that.
I can make myself mad about that. Actually I did last week. But I'm not as direct as most Dutch are in this part of the country. I was angry about another thing, which made him a little bit furious. He tried to stay calm however. But I rejected what he said.

I better read Freedom

Assange

Julian Assange is the name of the founder of wiki-leaks. After leaking information about Afghanistan, politics are under attack and soon the banks will face public condemnation. About banks, if they aren't already condemned, the huge bonuses are back. This week bonuses will be published. Assange's publication of hidden information about wicked banks, what they do, how they finance, can't be to early because Assange might be caught by justice for a Swedish allegation of sexual harassment.
In the Netherlands we can sign a petition on www.petities.nl
I heard about it in the Works Council and several people signed it.

I don't know what to think about Assange's wiki-leaks. Some things are really good, for example the helicopter shootout on civilians and Reuters photographers in Afghanistan. Other leaks of cables are less clear if it should be leaked. Does Julian Assange know where his legitimacy ends and his responsibility starts?

Transparency is okay, until personal privacy comes in. So the diplomatic cables are not right if you know the sender. Try to anonymize him, success.

In the end when he will be arrested and justice plays a game with him, I will support him. Right now it's to early to sign the petition.
If Assange will be arrested and convicted for wikileaks he might be a marthyr for freedom of speech, freedom of information and transparancy
Countries and Governments can't prevent leaks anymore. The internet is too widespread. It's controlled by itself.

The next video of CSNY "teach your children well" might be about the information era we're in. This confidential information must get to the people. Next video is not watchale for anyone.

family

The test I talked about in Aura I was tested as an entrepreneur. There might be something in it. Lately I heard a behavioral theory about people who come from the area I come from. I'm from the moor. Originally my family before the 19th century came from the north west of Germany, on border with The Netherlands. They moved west because there the work was.

Later in the 20th century some unmarried men moved to the mines and the moors in the south of The Netherlands. Even some people moved to the moors in south west England. My family in the early days had no homes. They moved from place to place because once you live in the moor you got no certainty. Within a few years or less the turf development moved and therefor the families had to move quickly and had to rebuilt the house elsewhere. It was a cheap shelter for animals and humans.
some kind of turf shed

Those days my family had the drive to find new places to excel, no matter how marginal their existence was. They tried to make all the best of it. The best they could do was to move. People moved 200 kilometers, others 700 kilometers. They were the opportunists of their times. Some had the entrepreneurship and worked for DSM or Philips, but above all they did their own thing.

This is the opportunistic family I'm from. Surviving the worst, dealing with the best things there are. Wonder if anybody went to America.

Originally we come from a farm between Oldenburg and Meppen in Germany. Catholicism and the birth rate did the family grow and spread their wings over North West Europe.

Anthem

As the theme of the blog has something to do with personal growth I would like to show the next video of the Dutch Anthem. The subscribtion is in English and Dutch. I value it more nowadays, maybe because I am getting older. I think this Anthem is heroic. In fact it isn't. We almost lost a war against Catholic Spain and in the song we ask ourselves what we did do wrong. We kept our heads up and honoured the king of Spain. In the peace of Münster the Netherlands made peace with Spain. War was over. Thank God.

aura

In week 47 my employer organised the-week-of-mobility.
It was organised because of the changes in the organisation in the next months, years. The employees have to make up their mind whether they feel comfortable to work for the municipality or to work in another setting. The employee should listen to the authenticity of himself. For the organisation it's the right person on the right spot.
In that way it's ironic that a manager who quit his job temporarily to rethink his position is back in his job apparently.

This week I had my aura read. I must laugh about that. Everything she said could have been true for anybody else. After the reading I told her some things of my life and said that anything which would be read would apply on me. Even if it was specific. She didn't give me a colour which is what they do. I don't have an aura colour. What does that mean?

I did a workshop about Neuro Linguistic programming, which was very interesting. Makes me think why we don't have team building.

It reminds me of the course I had about feeling and attitude.
I also had a test what profession fits me best... Guess I'm a business entrepreneur, that dress-code suits me. I'm kidding if I believe that. Some aspects are okay. I do try to be independent. I really feel myself independent. If I am now is another question.

Finally I spoke a member of management (they had a role as speed-coach)
She advised me to listen to myself and think out of the box. Maybe I am an independent thinker who should not be in the public sector.
They wanna get rid of me. It's a conspiracy against me.

home

My soul belongs to the world. I've got India in my head right now.
I stand with my feet in the heartland of Europe and reach out with my arms to Russia and the United States.
My bed is in South America. Africa posesses my sofa and Australia has my chair. The Far East is my kitchen, with the north pole as a fridge and the south pole as my deep-freezer.

The world is my home.

Some kind of globalization?

Daily mail

Teacher, leave them kids alone.

They don't need no thought control.

Triumph

Trump might run for president. It wasn't mentioned on the news-channel in my country. Actually it was mentioned as a comic sideline in lay back news show. Nobody knows what it was about cause we don't know much about America. Do we fellow Dutch? Donald Trump might run as a republican candidate for the presidential office. A billionaire focused on money, on the unequal trade balance with China. His only goal is to have the Chinese Yen it's real value. With or without him in the office, there's gonna be a currency war in the end.

Will Trump Triumph?

Municipality

Alright, I have a short break. Three weeks ago I claimed this week as a free week. Hear what I say -claim-! At my work we don't ask if we can take a week off. No, we write it down on a white board and inform direct colleagues. We didn't discuss it. That's how it can be too. More responsibility for the employees!

I wrote a note about efficiency and effectiveness.
It translated from Dutch to English with wordlingo and adjusted it.

Future development

My opinion is that the municipality should behave internally organisationally more like a company. There where critical company processes come in, heavier control mechanisms should be used.

Responsibilities must be placed lower in the organisation. Decisions which are for a service important, must be taken by the responsible Executive Board.

For non-service critical decisions authorisation can be given at a lower organisational level. There must be a function separation were always the authorisation of 2 officials is needed to authorise a decision.

The problem of independent consultants and customer managers is that not all decisions are reviewed. Control takes place afterwards. The question is if there a one on one control. If there is a random control, possibly decisions are (dis)approved wrongfully.

This is an assessment of to what extent something can go wrong in order to carry out the activities more rapidly. The task of the municipality can be that we must work more efficiently and more effectively. This must be preceded by a number of questions:

- how do we define effectiveness and efficiency?

- where in the municipality lies the emphasis on efficiency?

- where in the municipality lies the emphasis on effectiveness?

- how is the proportion of these terms?

Also I wrote a reaction on a memorandum of Management. We got some questions.
In March we got elections for the Council. I'm not candidate for election. My latest reaction could be the last.

For now I'll aim at my career. There is more I can achieve. Thanks to the Council.

Al Jazeera

In Al Jazeera Riz Kahn Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic, tries to give an answer on the question whether we live in the end times.
It's about the collapse of society and the failure of capitalism.
An interesting view.

reading

The book Freedom of Johnathan Franzen got my attention because I saw an interview with the writer on Dutch  television. So last week I bought it. Maybe I learn some more things about the philosophy of life.

Some weeks ago I was at a party of someone who I gave Savater's In praise of profanity
Bruna.nl describes this book on it's site:
"In a playful but insistent way Savater in this book provides an anatomy of religion as a delusion: it is the fear of death that man makes one yearn for eternal life. Doubt God means recognizing that our existence is finite. Savater Thus, the key questions of human existence: what is truth and what are we afraid of? Why is a good life on earth preferable to an infinite afterlife? In his reflections about this Savater used as inspiration the work of great thinkers on the relationship between man and God, as Spinoza, Hegel, Bertrand Russell and Hannah Arendt, but just as easily Mark Twain and Richard Feynman. Savater also sheds light on the role of religion in today's world of postmodern 'something-ism' to political Islam and Christianity to neo-conservative fundamentalist credulity.

The conclusion is clear: what man needs is not faith in God but believe in the ever perfect, rarely heavenly, but always infinite possibilities of man himself."


The bold text refers to the famous Dutch writer Harry Mulisch who once said that though everybody will die, it's not 100 % certain he will die. So that moment, Mulisch said, he is immortal because it isn't certain he will die too. Mulisch died last week on October 30 2010. He wasn't immortal.
I saw the emotional farewell ceremony on live television and it was like a Shakespeare play.

This weekend I have much to do.
It's work related; Works council.

I have some critics about the Management on every level.
I spoke E. about her work and she told me a sad story how her work as a ******* has been used. Openness is a great thing to pursue. More communication should make people happier. Now they have the feeling to be excluded. I don't know what the usual practice is, but shouldn't external ****** with ****** parties be the exclusive work for the *******?

E. also told that incentives are blocked by different levels of management. She doesn't feel comfortable to work for the municipality. Everybody works for his own benefit and keeps information for himself. This makes the organisation vulnerable.

Another interesting thing is the reorganisation of the department and the Service as a whole.
The department I talk about has 3 quality-workers who criticise the work of counselors, while another department which doesn't work efficient and effective makes a reorganisation necessary.
It is a political decision to have the reorganisation. I ask myself if the public servants have nothing to say on how it will be done. Probably an expensive consultation office will judge the progress and adjust when it's necessary.
Of course I know that the first report triggered the reform but after that a political decision was made to change the organisation to a front and back-office organisation.
E's department has it already and it works (with a lot of changes for all the people). Integration with other departments makes it hard again for many people. (Some almost had a breakdown because of the previous change.)

In a last month's meeting with the director I brought the communication up for discussion. I only said that there is no openness in the organisation. I immediately felt that red alert from star-trek "shields up." The face of the director came in the defense mode.

I can understand in some way her reaction because the director tries to be open, but it's not her it's the organisation as a whole. The way we work, it's a kind of hierarchic.
I talked about it with another colleague and he argued that the government needs more hierarchy than businesses because it's the public cause with public money. That's true but the civil service has to have more
entrepreneurship. This the secretary of the former Major said to some people in a discussion I attended.

At least we should take that concept into consideration.
It means more responsibility with the employees. Therefore the educational level of the employees should be increased. I told about it before.
In fact the educational level increased in the last 5 years. Problem is that the responibility in the jobs doesn't. So people get annoyed and stressed.

cycle city

Amazing how few cars are in the old city of Groningen in Holland.

This is the town my kids could grow up.