Vergoeding topbestuurders

Het blijft steeds meer de pan uit rijzen...

Topbestuurders van AEX-genoteerde bedrijven verdienden in 2007 gemiddeld 4 miljoen euro, een stijging van 23 procent ten opzichte van het jaar ervoor.
bron, bron

Zonder goede wet- en regelgeving komt hier ook geen eind aan.



Wedden dat er weer geen geld is voor een salarisverhoging voor mij, dit jaar.

Thank you Kellygirl

For the years of fun and boundless energy and happiness and love and even the bad stuff.

She died tonight around seven, about an hour ago.

She had a huge tumour in her belly, possibly attached to her liver or pancreas. It must have caused her much her pain - she was a tough old dog though, and never flinched... up to today.
She was a miserable dog today and clearly in pain. We had a deal, me and her - she'd make my life great as long as I took care of her. Tonight, I took care of her best I could for the very last time.

We went at the end of the evening open hour. The vet checked her out and left no doubt - there was nothing to be done, she was in pain and things were not going to get better. We were alone at the vets, with four assistants and a student vet. Together, we petted her and cuddled her and fed her an entire bag full of doggie sweets. Happy as a clam, she walked about till the injection made her go down and sleep. After about fifteen minutes she got the second shot and then it was over. She was happy till the very last and died with dignity.

Fifteen and a half years, a good age. It's always too soon, though.
I will miss her terribly. Thank you for everything, my sweet girl.

Nuclear energy = Placebo

And yet, we seem to be going for it hammer and tongs.

The Dutch government too...

There are enough very solid reasons to be against, here are but a few:

- There's not enough available fuel on earth for a switch on a grand scale. Uranium is not a renewable resource and the amount of fuel available is not all that much - certainly not enough to sustain this drive worldwide.

- It is wildly expensive. I know it's been touted as cheap energy but when you look at the maths, it is shocking. Google it.

- Security is a problem - we don't do too good a job of security at present when it comes to waste products or the physical plants themselves, good grief what will it be like when there are hundreds, thousands more?!

- Plant safety is a problem. Yes it is. There is no such thing as a failsafe plant. And the consequences of a little "oops" are really too unacceptable. We lucked out with Chernobyl. Next time we might not be so lucky, next time the death toll could run up much higher. Next time the wind might be unfortunate. Next time. There will be a next time, everyone understands this. We all hope it will not be anywhere near where we live, don't we.

- Waste products are a huge problem. Right now we don't have secure ways of disposing of it, what makes us think things will magically improve??! And then we don't even look at the journey to the disposal site, eh. How do we get all that toxic radioactive junk there safely...

- Health is a problem for plant workers, surrounds. Just look at the area of contamination in the UK. Right now, there is no child without radioactive junk in their teeth! And now imagine what it will look like multiplied by goodness knows which factor...

- Plus, the energy sums simply don't add up. It's not so cheap and abundant as has been sold.

- Plus, it's not exactly carbon neutral when you look at the full picture. Look at France, carefully.

Plus, we simply don't have the time to do this conversion. And then find out that "oops, it is not exactly what we need, let's convert to some other form of energy...." - by that time we will have run out of time.

I could go on for a while.

It seems to make no damn difference.
We seem to want an easy solution to this problem and so we go for the propaganda.
Problem fixed, no need to do anything more.
(well, maybe a Prius and change the light bulbs)

Lemmings, awayyyyy!

It makes me quite mad.

Corry died this past wednesday

Breast cancer. At age 50, my age.

Far too young, it's absolutely obscene.
Mother of two young boys.

I first met Corry in 1975. I was 17, in the Netherlands for the first time to meet up with my family. My aunt was involved in some youth activity group and took me along for movie night. They were showing Easy Rider and that's where I met Corry for the first time. The movie blew my mind, little dumb girl from the sticks in South Africa. Corry blew my mind too, beautiful, blonde, so much wiser to the world than I was, she knew exactly what she wanted: to become a hairdresser.

And she did, too! And married a firefighter, and had two gorgeous kids. We were not close friends but we kept in touch all these years. She often did my hair and was possibly the best sales person I have ever met, selling me skin care products I did not really need. And she was right too, once I tried it, I loved it and am still using it! Over these 30-some years I've known her, I always admired her spunk and really liked the person she was.

She will be so very missed by all who knew her.

Prisoner 345

= Sami al-Haj.
In Guantanamo for 2096 days now, that's more than five years.

Rumoured to be released end of this month of March, 2008. Hopefully. But you never know, do you. He has no rights, he could just as well still be there a year from now...


He's a journalist, and it's never been clear why he was held in the first place, and why he had to remain in Guantanamo for so long.
You hardly ever hear about him any more. You see, after a while, this kind of thing becomes normal.

I thought, in response to Bush's veto of the waterboarding legislation, I'd take the time today to remember at least one of the people in Guantanamo.
(I really hope the veto is overturned, but I would not count on it. The USA is no longer the country it was - imperfect but striving towards being a force for good in the world)

Is the man guilty of anything? I don't know and I don't care. He's been held without any form of legal representation for over five years, and during that time he has been subjected to the most inhuman treatment. This has deeply affected his life and psyche, and surely his wife and child suffered greatly as well.

There is no justification at all for this.
That the USA does this, is unacceptable. Unacceptable.


More information

Jeff Healy is dead

on March 2, at age 41, of the same cancer that blinded him as a kid.
I only just found out.

What a life he led, full of music and joy.
He led from the heart, and brought so many people happiness and inspiration by doing so.

What a great loss to us all.

Return to whaling?

no no NO, hell no!

Controversial plans to lift the worldwide ban on whaling were presented to a secret meeting of more than 70 governments in London last week.

The plans, which have alarmed environmentalists, have been welcomed by both pro- and anti-whaling governments and seek to lift a long stalemate over hunting, enabling Japan officially to resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 20 years.

The plans would permit the world's main whaling nation to carry out a limited hunt in waters close to its shores. In return, Japan would have to stop exploiting a loophole in international law, through which it kills hundreds of whales around Antarctica each year under the guise of "scientific research".

The plans – drawn up at another unpublicised meeting in Tokyo last month – were presented by the governments of Argentina and the Netherlands to a closed three-day session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at the Renaissance Hotel near Heathrow airport, which ended yesterday.
source

I am becoming so very angry over this.
This kind of compromise is unacceptable.
If world governments keep moving into this kind of direction, more and more people will become supporters of Sea Shepherd instead of Greenpeace. Open confrontation, war. That's the way we seem to be heading in more ways than one.

With the American president openly condoning waterboarding (after WW2 people were sentenced to death over this!), world governments greenwashing instead of acting on climate change, hunger increasing, global conflict increasing... what kind of world are we creating for ourselves??!!

Tipping Points

A tipping point is where, once you go past it, there is no possibility of recovery or repair. There is no going back, at least not in the short term. Of course, natural cycles being what they are and because things are forever changing on this dynamic planet, over (geologic) time things might change yet again. But this is looking at the short term, at our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Very short-term of course, when looking at the lifetime of a planet. But for us humans, entirely natural and of extreme importance. After all, this is our habitat that's changing. We are adaptable but question is if we can adapt en masse fast enough and effectively enough, to survive as a species. It is from that point of view that I'm looking at these issues. Selfishly, I want survival of the human species and more specifically, my family.

Science has identified a number of tipping points in our world's climate. Over the next months I'll be looking at each of these in detail, examining what the current situation is, what it used to be, where it's heading to, and what the expected effects will be of crossing that point of no return.

So far, on my list, are:
1. Loss of Arctic summer sea ice
2. Melting of Greenland ice sheet
3. (Partial) collapse of the Gulf Stream
4. Collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet
5. Severity and frequency of El Niño
6. Amazon rain forest - permanent change into Savannah-type landscape
7. Monsoons - West African, Indian
8. Loss of Boreal forests


Other urgent issues that will severely affect human society and resources (local and global):
• Worldwide loss of coral reefs, destroying much of world fisheries
• Global sea level rise
• Increasing severity of weather
• Permafrost disappearance and the resultant release of huge quantities of Methane into the atmosphere
• Desertification
• The ozone hole (no, that problem is not "fixed")
• Changes in ocean salinity and pH



Like a thread running through it all is the Carbon Dioxide level, whether it will exceed 450 ppm.

Wil je heel snel mijn stem kwijt?

Doe dan zoiets:

De lokale SP in Tilburg wil DNA van alle honden in de stad afnemen om problemen met hondenpoep tegen te gaan.

'Losliggende hondendrollen' kunnen zo aan de hond en aan de eigenaar worden gekoppeld. De fractie dient dinsdag een initiatiefvoorstel in voor de hondendatabank.
Bron

Belachelijk!!!
En dan de volgende stap, een database van mensen. Het liefst met een chip ook, net zoals bij Fikkie...

I turned 50 today

and we did it in style!

Yesterday I celebrated it at home with family and friends, with lots of cake and good food.

Today, two of my sisters took me to the sauna and wellness centre Elysium at Bleiswijk.
Starting this morning at ten, and ending around 7.30 in the evening, it was an orgy of self-indulgence. My nose is still filled with the scent of herbs, I'm smooth as a baby's butt from the oils and lotions and I've had so many steam baths and saunas and bubble baths etc. etc., that I'm now utterly boneless and blissfull.

Yes, we included some sin in the package as well, beginning the day with a lovely slice of chocolate caramel cake and ending it with a double thick hot chocolate milk with a fat dollop of whipped cream.


This probably is the best birthday I've ever had :-)