Ombudsman

Here in The Netherlands we've got a person who deals with complaints about actions of the government and the governmental organisations that can't be solved by those organisations. He's called the ombudsman.
Ofcourse he's assisted by a large group of people.

A special person within this organisation is the man who deals with all facets to do with children.
He's called the Kinderombudsman.
He controls if the governmental organisations, education, childcare, healthcare and such organisations keep the rights of children central in their work.
He also advises children and young people how to use their rights.
he also created awareness.
He's kind of independent.
The present one is doing great.

People feel free to bring issues to his attention and he's doing his research very thorough.
Whenever research is finished he draws sharp conclusions and doesn't refrain from telling the truth, even when organisations don't like to hear the truth.
He's the one who said that children's rights are not well kept in our country.
He has pointed out that refugee-children have the same rights as all other children, whether they have arrived in our country with their parents or without.

In the beginning I thought that this man was more of a businessman than someone who would stand up for the rights of children. But he has done so much so very well and with so much spirit.. I admire him for being not only a father, but also a father for many children.

Then the new ombudsman was appointed.
He is a man who studied law and worked in the legal field at high positions. A no-nonsense guy. He looks like he gets what he wants.
And he decided not to appoint the kinderombudsman again.

But the people want the kinderombudsman to stay and work a second stretch of time.
A petition was signed more than 32.000 times and still people are asking for the link. Here it is.

I think that trust from the people is not something to throw away.

I wonder why this new ombudsman wants to create his own team.
Doesn't he want to use the experience and expertise of the people who work there now?
Or does he rather want a dictatorship, the self-created opportunity to manipulate people and to make them do what he wants and to make them speak the language he wants?
Does he have problems socializing, working with people on a day to day basis?

He's not even there a year and he's going against the wishes of a lot of children and parents by pushing away the person who is trusted most.

I think he'd better leave.
Oh yes, he has earned the right to do what he wants and throw out the kinderombudsman. He's his boss.
But the way he dealt with the media and with people has coloured his image.
He was impolite, unfriendly and didn't even realize he didn't want to talk with the reporter of the children's TV news. He just didn't bother to turn around and say: "there is no reason to worry about children's rights, because we keep them close to our hearts."
No, he jumped in a car and drove off.

He took with him all the faith I had in the care that man is supposed to have for the rights of other people.


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Fires and the elderly

The day in the media opened with a report published by firefighters to make people more aware of the dangers of house-fires in houses of the elderly.
They predict a 62% increase of dying from a house fire in the elderly by...eh..2020 or 2030. (Sorry I can't remember).

More old people live alone than decades before.
This is due to cutbacks in the subsidies for old peoples homes.

Last year many of them were closed and the people had to move into their own home again. Those who didn't have a home anymore were forced to rent or live with family.
Only those with huge medical problems were allowed to stay in a home.

In the sixties we had a huge discussion here in The Netherlands about old people living at their own home.
It was not right, was the conclusion.
People needed all sorts of care and where better could they receive that than at a home for the elderly.
The availability of nurses at all hours, centrally cooked dinners, no need to fetch groceries, control of medication and all sorts of other care could be given as cost-effective as possible.
All this was combined with a geriatric doctor in the house, a hairdresser, religious services and a lot more.

Quite some old family members lived that way.
Some having their own room, kitchen, shower and toilet behind a closed door with a doorbell at an outside corridor, some in a room with a kitchinette, toilet and shower, with a door that could be opened by the nurses, at an indoor corridor, and some at a multiple occupied room when they needed daily hospital care.
I[ve seen it all.

In case of a fire people were warned by the fire-signalling service, told what to do, and when they needed help to get outside there were well trained people available and even a warm place to hide. The firefighters had a direct automatic warning signal from the home so often they were already there before the fire was inspected.

Now people have to take the responsibility for everything themselves.

Last year there was a fire in an electric circuit of a restaurant at the ground floor of an apartment building.
The fire spread rapidly and when the firefighters arrived part of them tried to extinguish the fire and others tried to evacuate the building.
That was a huge problem.
Even though the fire was retained in a compartment of the building, the smoke was everywhere.
The old people were simply not quick enough the be away before the smoke penetrated everything.
4 people died, some where hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
It will take longer than a year before it's possible that people return to their home. So most decided to live elsewhere.

If the building had the same facilities as an old people's home those people wouldn't have died.

It's so sad to see that the government refuses to take responsibility. It's all about money and where to save it.

When I'm old the care for old people will be so low that maybe we have just a small room to live in and we'll be very poor. When we haven't died from our diseases, because even in the health care the cutbacks are enormous.

How is it possible that after WW2 people were able to built a successful economy and a well functioning society and now all is disappearing?




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New Year's Eve, Germany, mob attacks

Right now 121 women have filed a report to the German police about harassment and theft during New Year's Eve in front of the railway station of Cologne.
About 25% is about sexual harassment some media state; the BBC and other media report that about three-quarters of the filed reports are about sexual assault.
According to newsreports between 11 and 19 of the men are known to the police.

Some people said today that the police has done great work by finding the attackers so soon, but most have a far more realistic view on the situation.
All women involved report that they were attacked and groped at intimate parts of their body by more than one person.
So the amount of attackers identified is minimal.

Now more information is made public we get a view on a more than terrible situation.
Not only were women raped and sexually attacked, some got burns, because fireworks were deliberately put in their clothes. Men who were trying to protect their wifes and daughters were restricted in their movements.

Not only were these mob attacks in Cologne, there are also reports about attacks in Stuttgart, Hamburg(30) and as was said this evening: München. These attacks were on a smaller scale. About Düsseldorf it's reported that women were robbed after they were forced into bodily contact.

When it's true what some people say, that the police knew about the danger of mob attacks on the integrity of women, there will be even more turmoil about this terrible evening than at the moment.

People don't realize yet that this situation could have been prevented by warning women not to go to the area of the railway station that evening. The new media, like Twitter and Facebook, would have reached many of them. Others could have been reached by TV, radio and police cordons around the area.
Women could have been advised about creating evidence other than using their cellphones, which often were stolen or demolished when people tried to use them or before the women were attacked.

The whole problem is just what right wing politicians needed to stir the hatred against fugitives.
Far too many people are quite willing to leave their positive attitude about people who fled their country, not realizing that this way of attacking women is a fundamentalist issue.

Many years ago I read a book about this way of intimidating and forcing women into the sharia in muslim cities.

I never thought this violation of human rights would come so near.

In the meantime a few arabic women has taken a stand against what has happened.
I think that the fugitives that want to be asylum-seekers should realize that the law in European countries stands above religion.

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