Nep-dagvaarding?

Heeft iemand ervaring met incassobureau GGN en een nep-dagvaarding als een bedreiging? Ik vind deze praktijk een abus van het rechtbanksysteem maar de rechtbank en "Justitie" doen niks natuurlijk! Wittebord criminaliteit wordt bijna nooit gestraft hier in Nederland!

Fake Summons
Anybody experience bailiffs sending out fake court summonses as a threat? It seems to me that this es an abuse (even contempt) of the courts and legal system here in the Netherlands! Of course the judicial systems doesn't do anything as it doesn't appear to be fashionable here to do anything about "white collar" criminals!

Disenfranchised?

Are you disenfranchised? Don't have the right to vote nationally in the country you reside because you don't have the nationality?
The question is then, why should one pay (full) tax?
In this day and age, especially in the European Community with "free" movement of labour, especially with these countries claiming to be "democratic", surely something ought to be done about voting rights.
In my case, originally from the UK, I could vote in the British General Election, but only for 10 years. Living in Amsterdam, I can vote in the municipal elections, but not nationally while still having to pay full Dutch income tax. Strangely, I can vote in British European elections.
Doesn't seem quite right does it?
Shouldn't it be "no taxation without representation"?

JAGeDTL Language Learning Software

An Introduction.
I started this project more than ten years ago, initially to extend my Dutch vocabulary and also to test myself.
To enable this, I wrote 3 programs:-
    Master - Allows entry and linking of words
    List     - A vocabulary list
    Test    - To test the user's vocabulary
Since the project began, additional languages were added. The current languages are English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, Hindi and Russian.
The list and test programs can be set up to contain any 2 combinations of the above languages.
The List and Test programs are a Shareware package costing €10 - free to use for a 30 day trial period.
The following packages are now available for all windows platforms:-
    English        <=>    Dutch
    English        <=>    German
    English        <=>    French
    English        <=>    Spanish
    English        <=>    Italian
    English        <=>    Portuguese
    English        <=>    Chinese
    English        <=>    Russian
    English        <=>    Hindi
    Dutch         <=>    German
    Dutch         <=>    French
    Dutch         <=>    Spanish
    Dutch         <=>    Italian
    Dutch         <=>    Portuguese
    Dutch         <=>    Chinese
    Dutch         <=>    Russian
    Dutch         <=>    Hindi
    German      <=>    French
    German      <=>    Spanish
    German      <=>    Italian
    German      <=>    Portuguese
    German      <=>    Chinese
    German      <=>    Russian
    German      <=>    Hindi
    French       <=>    Spanish
    French       <=>    Italian
    French       <=>    Portuguese
    French       <=>    Chinese
    French       <=>    Russian
    French       <=>    Hindi
    Portuguese <=>    Spanish
    Portuguese <=>    Italian
    Portuguese <=>    Chinese
    Portuguese <=>    Russian
    Portuguese <=>    Hindi
    Spanish      <=>    Italian
    Spanish      <=>    Chinese
    Spanish      <=>    Russian
    Spanish      <=>    Hindi
    Italian        <=>    Chinese
    Italian        <=>    Russian
    Italian        <=>    Hindi
    Thai          <=>    English
    Thai          <=>    Dutch
    Thai          <=>    German
    Thai          <=>    French
    Thai          <=>    Portuguese
    Thai          <=>    Spanish
    Thai          <=>    Italian
    Thai          <=>    Chinese
Transliteration (to latin characters) is being worked on for the oriental languages, Thai and Chinese, and also Russian.
All packages are reversible - eg English<=>Russian can be configured to be Russian<=>English!
Within the Test program, there is the ability to test on sentences with missing words, but this is not yet publicly available as I only have a Dutch version.
These packages are available for download at JAGeZe - Language Learning Software
Most of the English language packages are also available to download on CNET and Brothersoft.

Capitalism?:

With all the finiancial problems and greed in the world at the moment, people seem to be saying that it's the fault of the capitalist system! Surely though, capitalists don't destroy their consumers?

Cowboy Builder?

Anybody any experience/knowledge of a “builder” Joe “JoJo” McKeen (dob 23/03/57)? He was also known as “Snow White/Snieuw witje” - for obvious reasons. He appears to operate the companies Headingley Restorations, Complete Restoration, EnergySave NL, and maybe more.

He was active in Amsterdam for a couple of years, finally "doing a runner" in November 2010 after vandalising the interior of the top half of our house by throwing paint over most of the floors. It seems he was being sought by other people and authorities.

He moved into the top half of our house (a listed building, built in the 17^th century) in Amsterdam August/September 2008 – he was about to become homeless so we offered him a place to stay in return for his working to get the place in a liveable condition. The first thing he did was to throw out the current occupant, a homeless man who we had allowed to stay, paying a token rent to cover expenses. He then went on to demolish a floor in the top half of the rear outbuilding disregarding any building regulations and necessary permits/permissions, even mine! During his stay, he carried out several "renovations" without even asking our permission! Almost all of the "work" he carried out was rejected as unfit by the local authorities!

When we eventually asked him to pay his share of the house expenses he took us to the local rent tribunal – somewhat hypocritical, as he wasn't paying any "rent" at all, even renting out his own house in Leeds, probably charging an exorbitant rent!

During his time in Amsterdam, he undertook several "projects", taking in tens of thousands of Euros seemingly without paying a cent of tax anywhere, or adhering to the local building regulations!

Fraudulent Lottery?

I'm thinking of running a lottery to “sell” my house. The price of a ticket will be €100 and I will need to sell at least 10,000 so that the house can be renovated to a standard suitable for the prize winner, and to pay off the outstanding mortgage. If I was to tell you that the lottery tickets are to be numbered 000000 to 999999 and all possible numbers are entered into the draw even though only around 10,000 tickets had been sold, would you partake in this lottery? No, I don't think so!

Strangely, there is a lottery run by the state in the Netherlands, de Staatsloterij, which holds a monthly draw, issuing tickets with numbers in the format XX999999. A lot costs €15 and a 1/5 lot costs €3. There are several prize denominations, the lowest being less than the price of the ticket, the highest, the jackpot running into several millions. Of course the jackpot prize doesn't fall every month because, as you might already have surmised, all possible ticket combinations are entered into the draw, even the only a small percentage of this number have actually been sold! Of course to keep the punters happy, they force the jackpot to fall every few months.

Government fraud or what?

De EU en migrerende werknemers

Is het niet vreemd dat er bij de huidige economische situatie met het hoge Europese werkloosheidscijfer nog steeds opvallend veel werknemers van buiten de EU erbinnen werkzaam zijn?

Natuurlijk zijn er in sommige vakgebieden niet genoeg EU mensen met voldoende ervaring en kwalificaties.

Het blijkt echter dat sommige, meestal internationale, bedrijven ook voor vakgebieden met voldoende EU reservoir liever de goedkope werknemers van buiten de EU aantrekken. Louter om geld te besparen, dus puur uit winstbejag! Uiteindelijk zal de werkloosheid in de EU door dit gedrag verder stijgen!

Reeds een paar jaar geleden werd ik hiervan het slachtoffer!

Ik had op een IT vacature bij Elsevier in Amsterdam gesolliciteerd. Het sollicitatiegesprek verliep prima. Bij de uitslag zei men echter domweg dat er geen vacature meer was! Dus niet dat er in de vacature was voorzien door een hoger gekwalificeerde sollicitant. Later kwam mij ter ore dat Elsevier een Indiaër in dienst genomen had!

Uit welingelichte bron vernam ik dat er op de hoofdkantoor van Elsevier sindsdien opvallend veel zuid-Aziatische mensen rondlopen!

Is dit de bedoeling van het EU immigratiebeleid?

The EU and migrant workers

Isn't it strange that with the present economic climate and high unemployment in Europe, there are still a considerable number of migrant workers from outside the EU working in Europe. I appreciate that in some situations they are filling vacancies which couldn't otherwise be filled due to a Europe wide skills shortage in some industries/professions, it seems to me however, that some international companies are taking advantage in some countries and using these migrant workers at the cost of European workers, often paying these people substantially less!

I was a victim of this a couple of years ago! I was unemployed and via contacts I became aware of an IT vacancy at Elsevier in Amsterdam. I applied, went for an interview, which went really well, later being told the vacancy had been withdrawn for budgetary reasons. I found out that an Indian migrant had been given the position – strange, because I was well established in Amsterdam, speaking fluent Dutch. I've also since found out from an acquaintance that there are a considerable number of Indians and Bengalis currently being employed there. Whilst not being a racist, it would appear here that Elsevier aren't exactly playing fair!

Run on the bank?

How safe is your bank if Greece defaults? See the link below.

Hoe veilig is uw bank als Griekenland faillet gaat? Zie link beneden.

Bank Exposure / Risico


And then what about Italy...

En dan Italy...

But this caps it all - a ticking bomb

Secret Society?

Ever wondered how a failed politician suddenly appears with a prominent position somewhere else (charity, hospital, regional government etc); or an incompetent company CEO who with his/her incompetence has cost the company millions having resigned, then showing up in a similar posotion with another company?
Could there be some sort of worldwide secret society active here? Certainly it's the "old boys network" and "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"!
It does seem strange that company shareholders don't appear to have a say in the appointment of top, over payed executives!

Euro?

A few questions about the Euro:-

1. Why wasn't a referendum held in every participating country?
2. Why weren't the strict entry conditions applied to countries joining?
3. Why  weren't the participating countries regularly checked for adherence to the conditions?

Maybe more to follow...

Bonus?

Regarding banks, company top men etc., I always thought that in order to be paid a bonus, an individual had to perform better than expected against pre-set targets and goals. OK, maybe these pre-set targets and goals are set artificially low so that the said individual always more than achieves, and thus always gets a bonus!
What do you think?