Rest in peace Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela July 18, 1918  December 5, 2013

Nelson Mandela is no more..

I am not going to write an obituary here, there are people far better qualified to do that, however I can write about how I saw Mandela..
I am not going to write about these incidental hate posts and blogs I have read and depict Mandela as a bloodthirsty terrorist and even a tyrant, posts that are illustrated with graphical pictures of horribly murdered people and this is all blamed on Nelson Mandela..
I am not  going to write about his personal life, just because personal things should be left personal

But I can write about the way I slowly became aware of his existence .
It was when the news started to give attention to the apartheid problem and the sabotage campaign by the ANC to force the south African white minority government end Apartheid..
Then  for the first time in my life I heard the name of Nelson Mandela was mentioned as the leader of this movement who was already 25 years of a life sentence in prison for opposing the apartheid. that was it.
Details came later about the sometimes very violent protests and attacks by the ANC to Free Mandela..
I disagree with the violence, but it did get the attention of the world..
Governments, human rights organizations, musicians all over the world started to pressure the South African government to release Mandela from prison..

Free after 27 years in prison

The first time I saw him him live was in 1990 on television..
His release from prison was broad-casted live all over the world and this huge crowd was waiting for him to walk out the door to freedom and when it finally happened, there he was, a gray man who looked very tired, (I would look the same after 27 years of prison) making the first steps of his regained freedom and the "fist in the air" victory sign. This was the man he black majority saw as the one who could and would end apartheid and oppression of the white minority, and it was like I could feel the almost unbearable weight up the shoulders of this gray 72 year old man

What happened in the years after that were noting short of a human miracle..
Nelson Mandela had the power to start a revolution which would have made the French revolution look like a children's slumber party.
He did not abuse this power but used it to let the black majority and the white minority come together in this way preventing a bloody revolution from happening.
He did what the world thought to be impossible, he made peace between the black and white people and ended the apartheid without violence, without a civil war..

And I can write about how about I see Nelson Mandela:
December 5 2013 age 95 the last man who possibly could negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians died after a life where he made a difference as one person.
There is no man like him, and I don't know how long we will have to wait for another Nelson Mandela will enter history

Personal observations in my younger years (part2)

Sorry I am a bit late but here is the second part of how I experienced my younger years. if you want to read the 1st part before this one , you can find it here

First some fun fact history:

*Did you know that the American declaration of independence is inspired by the Dutch Act of Abjuration (dutch: Plakkaat van Verlatinghe)which absolved the Utrecht Union (the union that would become the country The Netherlands) of their oath of allegiance to the King of Spain in 1581 ?
*Did you know that the Netherlands were the first country with freedom of religion in their constitution ?
*Did you know that there almost had been no USA without Dutch financial and naval help after the American Revolutionary war?


Ok back to the story..

I told you how  Social democratic system was a well balanced system with the best parts of Capitalism and Socialism combined, regulated free enterprise and a social security system that had no equal in the whole world..
It gave the best possible education in the world, the birth of industrial giants in ship building, the largest import export harbor in the world (Rotterdam) there was hardly any unemployment.
As an electrician I could work anywhere I wanted and I earned quite well for a young starter I bought my house when I was 27 and I still live there ..

Our system worked more than perfect and it gave the north western countries a period of extreme economic prosperity that was until 80s when Predator American corporate investors bought their way in to European politics
Laws were changed to make it possible for American corporations to buy European companies..
Laws were changed to privatize governmental services and under the smoke screen that competition would make everything cheaper government companies like the railways, public transport, energy company, water company and mail service were privatized

And let me tell you  this statement that "competition would make everything cheaper" was the biggest governmental lie ever told , the energy prices sky rocketed the postal service was slimmed down so 25% of the postal workers were added to the unemployment number

But we were too blinded by the positive perspective we constantly got from the government that it needed time to settle that we did not notice that after the law was changed there was one hostile take over after the other
And when the first cutbacks governmental cutbacks started we discovered that we were preyed up on..
A news paper brought the news that unnamed secret investors with unlimited money were buying up our industry, dividing it in to smaller chunks and soled them with profit. Leter we discovered the name of this system: private equity investment (like Bain investment of Mitt Romney )
I think this 160 second Youtube Video explains in a few minutes what we in Europe had to find out in several years of cutting through the lies of the government.

But what we discovered this was only scratching the surface.
First it looked like the money was growing on trees but a few years later we began to feel the consequences of the deregulation and learned what private equity investors had done to our industry and technical companies..
It came to the point that even I as an experienced electro technician  lost my job.

Europe was unprepared for the wave of predatory  investors  out on making quick profit by by buying sound companies, reducing its workforce, dividing it in separate companies , take out giant loans on these companies (this money  ended up in the investor's pockets) and sold the separate companies again presenting the numbers from before the company was bought by these investors

Most of these companies collapsed within a year because under the weight of the loans taken out by the investor in the company's names..

This was the start of the downward spiral of he shrinkage of the European economy.

In my years of unemployment that was covered by the unemployment law in the Netherlands (and where I had paid for through my social insurance premiums) I started to study social political history and this has become a hobby of mine because this never ends, everyday new history is written..
By study I also got my diploma and several certificates  to call myself Electro technical engineer and in the15 year recovery between 1994 and 2009 I worked for a Technical Interim Bureau on several huge industrial projects, and saw from up close how our industry was sliced and diced up by these anonymous investors and finally seeing the small parts, where I have all worked for going bankrupt or being sold to yet other investment companies or -if they were lucky- another large technical company..

In 2009  I collapsed at work because of a what later turned out to be a mild stroke and later I experienced 2 heart attacks as my body's revenge for working 15 years like a crazy man to earn more and more money..
Now I am enjoying a modest disability pension and picked up my social political history hobby again and now focusing oh the other side of the coin, the USA..

And what I see is that it is still going on, the American system of uncontrolled market damages Europe as much as it damages the US itself, if you still cannot see that Corporate business bled the USA economy dry,  just look at the national debt, the poverty, the unemployment..
 When Europe is bled out the same way these corporate predators will focus on other economies to make it happen all over again..

Ban feeding homless people in public places? how sick can a country be

This struck me in the news:

Councilmen Tom LaBonge and Mitch O'Farrell are leading the ordinance, which would restrict people from giving food to those in need, only allowing it in areas such as homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
If this anti-food-sharing ordinance is passed, Los Angeles will be joining other cities with similar laws, like Raleigh, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida.

When I saw on a poll that 85% of the people disagree I thought of it as a good sign..

But this means that 15% agree with it , I wonder what kind of people would agree with such a disgusting ban..

To my opinion even thinking of it is SICK, and I think the same of this 15% which are really egotistical bastards or were to stupid to even let it go through their minds 

This idiocy of banning feeding them is the most antisocial criminally insane idea I have seen in my life..

They are an embarrassment for the "greatest country in the world" so now the idea is to starve them to death because you don't want them in public places ?
Did it ever occur that there is nothing to find in an area without people ?
That is the reason that the homeless come to public places in the first place and now the shop owners complain that they probably lose money because a homeless person (meaning a human being who has nothing) is occupying 4 square feet in front of his shop..

I know the heartless bullshit, let them find a job, let them work for a living but many of them used to be people like you an me but lost everything and no one cares, did you think these people were born homeless ?  That they choose this because they like it this way?

 Lt.Governor Andre Bauer of north Carolina  USA  gives a "nice" conservative explanation for the philosophy behind this  ban proposition:

 Lt.Governor Andre Bauer of north Carolina

 (quote)
"My Grandmother was not highly educated woman but she told me as a small child to quit  feeding stray animals.
You know why?
Because they breed"

A vast percentage of the homeless for whom there is no place in the selfish greedy conservative society in the USA have limited mental capabilities or suffer from psychological illnesses that make them incapable to even take care of them selves.
Now banning feeding these poor bastards in public places is the solution for a city with a majority of people who ignore the problem..

There are also Heroes in this story and that are the 85% that answered this poll and  are against this ban..
You don't need to risk your life to save one other to be a hero, caring for the less fortunate by sharing a tiny little bit of your good fortune also saves lives..
That is not communism or socialism, it is being a good human..


Maybe just maybe a day will come that politicians will come wit a real solution, like "City opens kitchens to feed the homeless near to public places" 
An that will probably be the day I die from breaking my neck falling of my chair of pure astonishment ...

Sad News

Last Saturday, Paul Walker , the one I always saw as "the sympathetic guy" in the fast and the furious movie series, died in a horrible car accident ..

He played Brian O'Connor in the "the fast and the furious" movie series.

Hell what can I say I liked the guy as a person and the character he played..of course I did not know him personally, but that is what I felt with him..

After all these absolutely impossible car stunts in these movies, a car accident in real life was fatal to him and the driver of the car he was in.

As I heard (here in my country not all the details are in yet) he was the passenger in a Porsche that would be on display on a  festival to raise money for the disaster relief of the Philippines, so far no clue what exactly caused this the driver was very experienced people were quickly there with fire extinguishers but they could not put out the fire..
Paul I have seen the pictures of the car, I hope it was instantly and that you didn't suffer ..

Peace