Freedom of the press: 2 journalists emprisoned

Two journalists wrote an article in a newspaper revealing someone in the national secret service leaked information on big criminal cases. It suggested the service was not doing their job properly and some of the cases they are handling were suffering. Since the journalists would not give up their sources, they were emprisoned.

Well, this could be happening in any undemocratic or uncivilized country of the world. But it happened in mine.

The association for journalists has filed complaints and lawsuits against the secret service.
The newspaper in question has started a window action: the front page states : " Free them!!"
Our government leaders are outraged (well if you read my earlier post you can understand why I do not value this too much).
The debate has started again: freedom of press or giving up sources for the greater good?

I cannot see how this helps anything. These journalists are emprisoned, even if they give up the source, the consequences for future revelations are huge. They will not do that for sure. Here, I want to show mu support for these journalists:

FREE THEM!!!

Elections: my country divided

Last wednesday we had elections: the results are a disaster. I do not even know where to begin to described the political mess this country is in.

Some years back, the country was fed up with politicians, filthy games, bad policies and statements no normal person could understand. Then Pim Fortuyn came challenging the status quo pushing a political reform. He got shot and died.

Now the politicians have not taken any lessons from this period. We have a so called multi-party system in The Netherlands, which basically means every idiot can start a political party and run for elections. The biggest parties are the parties in the middle of the spectrum: christian democrats, liberals and social democrats. However as I already explained before they are not doing their job on a level satisfactory for the general public.

So what happened these elections?
We have now gotten ourselves into a situation where Dutch citizens have chosen for the extremes. Due to campaigns that highlighted rightwinged vs leftwinged differences, weak leadership, emphasis on the personalities instead of the ideas, the public chose to show their protest against current politics. The parties in the middle were punished, the extremes won. The party in favour of animals got 2 seats, an extreme rightwinged party got 9, a party that orginally stems from Maoist principles 24.

What does this result mean?
Basically to rule the country the parties need to get allies and get the majority of seats. Then this group can make a policy for the next 4 years and the rest is forced to take part in opposition. Since the results are so extreme, so stable coalition is really possible, which will leave us with 3 options:
- a very unstable coalition who will most likely get into a fight within a considerable amount of time followed by new elections
- no coalition at all which will leave all of them fighting over everything
- no coalition at all which will mean new elections.

What were the main themes in the elections?
1) We need to reform this country since we have so many poor people that need more help from the government. In practice the suggestion included: less privatization, less managers, downsize bureaucratic systems etc. ( To contrast these ideas: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4785813.stm Title: Netherlands does most for poor- On the contrary of research these parties have tried to convinve the public that we are all very poor and need more and that more should be paid by the government. One example: a women on tv was complaining that her allowance was not sufficient to pay for her flatscreen tv and mobile phone, poor her.....)
2) Immigration: close the gates or not, we are after all full....
3) Can we find a wife for the liberal frontman since he is single still? Who of the leaders had the most sex appeal and last but not least: when did our prime minister get his first kiss?

What was not discussed (or at least briefly)?
Trivial topics like the army, Iraq, Europe, sudan, Dutch competitive position, enterpreneurships, foreign policies, environmental issues etc.

What are the pictures about?
Picuture 1: campaign leaflet party in favour of animal rights
Picture 2: two "leaders" mingling with the ordinary people

What's next?
In my opinion, new elections, for the 4th or 5th time in 6 years.

Networking event

Today I attended my first networking event for Atma Mumbai, the NGO that I do volunteer work for. Some observations on this event:


Living diversity?
Normally the people who attend these events are the average medium-sized company enterpreneur type: white, grey hair, stripe suit, middle-aged, glasses optional and a bit on the more corpulent side. This event was different, the public was diverse in all demographical areas. Does this mean my country is embracing diversity? My personal belief is that former minorities have become more enterpreneurial. I see more business men and women from different ethnical backgrounds in job interviews, career days and thus also networking events.

NGO strategies
Although the topic of the event, India, could be promising for multiple NGO's, we were the ONLY one attending the event. Our strategy is perceived as bold and commercially oriented. If this brings us any advantages, I do not know yet.

Ignorant students vs Enterpreneurial spirit
While talking to these enterpreneurs with their energy and ideas, it really brought me inspiration. I realized that these people know their stuff. They have an idea and are not afriad to put words into actions. Lately while visiting all these career events I found myself a bit lost and demotivated. The young working people I met were uninspiring and in some cases a bit ignorant. The students ill-prepared and ignorant. It left me wundering whether I am ready to be in these kind of job markets and if I can deal with these people. Talking to these enterpreneurs left me with good hopes.

Dutch headlines

Last week I was reading the Economist in the plane and after the Financial Times. As most people do, I too feel my world is the centre of the universe. This tiny country that I live in is one of the most important countries in the world with a well known economy, highly intelligent people etc.......NOT.

Both publications reported on the Dutch economy as secondary, inferior and not very important. This got me thinking, if I was on exchange I would report on local realities. Why not do the same now?? So what is happening in this tiny country?

DUTCH-NEWS-DUTCH-NEWS-DUTCH-NEWS-DUTCH-NEWS-DUTCH-NEWS-DUTCH-
- Minister Denies Dutch Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners
- Elections coming up next wednesday: polls favour party of current prime-minister
- Cabinet decides to ban burqua
- Soccer match cancelled after angry supporters enter the field
- Air France- KLM to launch Transavia concept in France

Not really world-rocking news, is it?? As so many countries in Europe we are concerned with elections, Iraq, soccer and trying to expand our national heritage.

Anyways for future reference:
http://www.nisnews.nl/
(link for dutch news- expand your worldview-get to know us :-)

old memories

I have been out of AIESEC for a couple of months now. After being selected for WeGrow, I found myself wundering how it would be to be back.

Now while I am surfing at the internet, reading all these blogs, seeing all these pictures and even stumbling across some old memories, I know the answer.

I will never fully be out of AIESEC. This is a recording I stumbled upon on YouTube of my last weekend in AIESEC: the Rotterdam sailing weekend. I just wanted to share the atmosphere with all of you, enjoy.

The difference CSR CAN/SHOULD make??

http://www.discovernursing.com/

There are 2 industries most heavily targeted for their bad policies and behaviors: the oil (they themselves insist they are in the energy industry but the outside world still refers to the old term) and pharmaceutical industry.

One of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies decided they wanted to solve a societal problem. Can this be done?? Apperently it can and they did.

In the US there was a shortage in nurses. Trough clever advertising and megabudgets they designed a campaign. The results are amazing, withing 1,5 years the nurses shortage is almost solved.

Question is whether this program was actually planned in this manner and with what intentions. Is it a clever marketing tool or a good deed for society?? You let me know if you find the answer. I will think about it and I find some answers let you know!

Juliana, Lonneke & Me

Juliana, Lonneke & Me
Originally uploaded by floorschmeitz.

Yesterday we had Global Village. Some observations:
- people were not as drunk as we expected them to be. Everyone was afraid to collapse (Xpros stories apparently made an impression) and was drinking water in between shots.
- WENA parties are getting tougher. Only CEE used to bring home-brewed drinks but now everyone is trying to bring the hardest liquors to the parties.
- As you can see, we had a lot of fun!!!

Faci girls at WeGrow

IMG_0172
Originally uploaded by floorschmeitz.

I am back in AIESEC, at least for a little bit. The experience of working in a team working towards this common goal is again very exhilarating. I am getting inspired by my fellow facis and it is good to be in an AIESEC environment again.

The Wena-girls, Majken, who is still totally crazy but so much fun. Zuzka, who is the mom, always happy and cheerful and full or energy.

Yat Wan, utterly cool, fast talking girl with two different backgrounds, observing the habits of WENA people.

Lonneke, one of my VPs last year, who is every day making me proud. Annika, the cool Norwegian girl who is always smiling and so much enjoying Portugal.

Sarah, with her cheerfulness, so pleasant to be around.

Lana, who is defining her future and has her surprising moments. She seems shy but when she is in front of a group, all of a sudden she shines.

My other roommate, Juliana, the one that I like to spend the most time with. I think we became friends almost instantly. Her passion for AIESEC is enormous as is her passion for cigarettes and parties.

We are very much enjoying ourselves here. I guess I should say it is good to be back!!

CSR session at WeGrow

Yesterday we ran a session on CSR. It was moderately succesfull. I really wanted people to be involved in the session but not many people really added their opinions and knowledge. Only now I realized how much CSR is still developing. Many delegates from countries like Suisse, Spain and Greece described how CSR is only now gaining attention but there are not that many examples yet. I felt bad that I could not get the people to at least share the examples they did know and it was only me talking. The content was interesting though, so I hope that at least was useful for them.

Some interesting points from the session:
- The delegates were having trouble really discussing the dillemma we gave them:

Should a bank provide money to companies who invest in Burma, a notorious regime? What are the boundaries?

The delegate gave feedback that they found the question difficult and they felt they lacked the background knowledge. For me the boundary question is the actual issue. From managerial point of view it is impossible to state you will not give this company any money anymore. What do you do then with companies who deforestate the rain forest? Or who work on nuclear energy? Or the companies who are main pollutors? And then what about the companies who are still not living diversity?

A VP from Suisse gave me an interesting perspective, he said that they somehow should instate a department that is only concerned with checking these things. Let's take this idea and regard it as an out-of the box idea. Could this be a future direction of CSR? Let's say I am a manager in a company and I hire 10 people who define an ethical vision for the company. From that vision concrete guidelines can be derived. Let's say these 10 people then run checks on all companies to see whether the companies fit the ethical guidelines. For me this is an interesting idea.

- One thing the delegates from the different countries had in common were the environmental problems. A Suisse delegate was interested in clean water, since he expect a shortage in it. A Spanish delegate was concerned with a polluted river, Norway is looking for new means of energy, The Netherlands is ofcourse very concerned with water as well since half the country could flood. For me this was interesting and I hope all the delegates will share their country realities on blogs or other means of communcation.