Plots bombarderen niet alleen de Amerikanen met hun bondgenoten IS maar gaan de Russen en de Chinezen zich ineens ook actief met de strijd tegen IS bezig houden. Naar mijn weten zijn voor het eerst sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog Rusland en de US weer samen aan het optrekken tegen een gemeenschappelijke vijand. En als de Chinezen ook mee gaan doen is dat helemaal een unieke gebeurtenis, Momenteel vaart een Chinees schip met adviseurs door het Suez kanaal om zich voor de kust van Israel te voegen bij de Amerikaanse, Russische en andere coalitie genoten. Als dat allemaal maar goed gaat! Zoveel partijen allemaal vlak bij elkaar en met een gemeenschappelijk target maar zonder een gemeenschappelijke strategie en commando structuur, voor je het weten maakt iemand een fout en wordt niet op IS geschoten maar op elkaar.
Dat bleek meteen al vandaag: de Russen hebben hun eerste bombardement uitgevoerd op Homs, een stad waar IS niet aanwezig is, alles al compleet in puin ligt en de meeste inwoners de stad verlaten en naar Europa zijn gevlucht. Overigens kan je er donder op zeggen dat de Russen waarschijnlijk niet zo voorzichtig zullen zijn bij het bombarderen van burgerdoelen als wij zijn: IS verstopt zich graag tussen de burgerbevolking dus die zullen waarschijnlijk wel het kind van de rekening zijn.
De Russen hadden de VS van te voren ingelicht over hun actie en gevraagd het luchtruim ter plekke niet te betreden waarbij ze zich beroepen op hun legitieme recht Assad te verdedigen tegen de vijandige troepen van IS. Voor IS waarschijnlijk alle reden om de vlag uit te hangen want dit is precies wat ze willen: partijen tegen elkaar uitspelen en verwarring zaaien. De Russische propaganda machine zal het nieuws in Rusland zelf wel als een groot succes hebben gebracht maar je kunt er donder op zeggen dat de propaganda machine van beide kanten nu flink gaat draaien. Niet voor niks heeft Edward Snowden vanaf vandaag plots een Twitter account…
Ik denk dat het vanaf nu eigenlijk niet meer om IS gaat maar het strijdtoneel een nieuwe fase in de propaganda oorlog tussen de US en Rusland en dat het erg moeilijk zal worden te weten te komen wat daar nu eigenlijk precies aan de hand is. Waarschijnlijk zullen er wel afspraken in New York tijdens de vergadering van de VN zijn gemaakt en Israel zal eveneens wel garanties hebben gevraagd niet bij de strijd te worden betrokken. Al met al wel een ontzettend ingewikkelde situatie die voor je het weet kan escaleren.Je zou toch zeggen dat de inzet van zoveel middelen genoeg zou moeten zijn om IS uit te schakelen maar de strijd in Irak en Afghanistan heeft geleerd dat de inzet van veel middelen niet altijd de juist oplossing is. We zijn dus vanaf vandaag betrokken bij een oorlog vlak bij de Zuid grens van Europa waar alle grote spelers wereldwijd bij betrokken zijn, noem je dat eigenlijk niet een Wereldoorlog?
Gisteren samen met mijn eega naar de mondhygiëniste geweest, doen we een keer per kwartaal op de vrijdagochtend en dan zijn we om kwart over acht steevast de eerste klanten. Mijn vrouw is dan meestal vlot klaar en bespreekt daarna nog even de laatste roddels over Amersfoort, het gaat er dan vrolijk aan toe. Daarna ben ik dan aan de beurt en dan krijg ik gewoonlijk flink op mijn donder omdat ik mijn tanden niet goed heb onderhouden en legt ze me voor de zoveelste keer uit hoe ik mijn tanden eigenlijk zou moet poetsen. Zoals gewoonlijk schik ik me dan in mijn lot en verlaat het pand met weer een nieuw wondermiddel waarmee alles beter wordt als ik het dagelijks zou gebruiken: ik heb inmiddels een plank vol tubes en flesjes. Voor de goede orde: ik ben inmiddels 59 en heb al mijn tanden nog, op zich al een hele prestatie lijkt me!Bijzondere bedrijfstak de tandartsenij waar behoorlijk wat veranderd is in de loop der jaren. In mijn jeugd zat ik meestal al om half zeven in de wachtkamer van tandarts Groenier, aan de Scheveningseweg in Den Haag in de kelder van het Bronovo, die vanaf acht uur spreekuur hield. Kwam je een kwartier later dan liep je het risico tot circa 12:00 in de wachtkamer te zitten tot je aan de beurt was. Tandarts Groenier hield van aanpakken en controle en uitvoeren waren bij haar één handeling. Had je de pech dat iemand voor je vier gaatjes had dan duurde het even voor je aan de beurt was. Afijn, je had maar eens in de zoveel tijd een afspraak en van tandpoetsadvies was toen gelukkig nog geen sprake.
Later kwamen de tandartsen op het slimme idee controle en uitvoering te scheiden waardoor je vaker naar de tandarts moest, tenzij er niets aan de hand was natuurlijk. Het idee achter deze werkwijze was dat een geplande afspraak klantvriendelijker is, niet dat dat betekende dat je niet meer hoefde te wachten want eerdere afspraken konden natuurlijk wel eens uitlopen…
Toen kwam de mondhygieniste in beeld waardoor het business model nog verder werd uitgebreid naar controle, uitvoering en onderhoud. Mijn eerste mondhygiëniste kwam met het voorstel mijn gebit eens goed aan te pakken. Ze stelde als start 6 afspraken door: intake, links boven, links onder, rechts boven, rechts onder en daarna de uittake voor 600€, koopje! Het zijn uiteindelijk drie afspraken geworden want ze was wel erg snel klaar de eerst keer en, toen ik haar vroeg of ze wellicht ook de andere kant kon doen omdat we nog tijd zat hadden en ik anders scheef ging lopen, ging ze gelukkig overstag. Van de evaluatie sessie zag ze na de derde sessie bij nader inzien maar af. Gelukkig heb ik nu een nieuwe mondhygiëniste en blijft het bij één keer per kwartaal en na afloop gezellig met mijn eega ergens een kopje koffie drinken met appelgebak.
Februari 2018.
En het kan nog erger, deze week was er commotie onder de tandartsen, minister Bruno Bruins (Medische Zorg) is van plan om de mondhygiënisten de zelfstandige bevoegdheid te geven om gaatjes te vullen, iets wat tot nu toe tot het exclusieve domein was van de tandartsen. Tot nu toe mochten ze dat alleen doen onder toezicht van een tandarts, zodat die kan ingrijpen als het mis ging. Als dit plan doorgaat, heb je in de toekomst eigenlijk twee soorten mondhygiënisten, namelijk diegenen met en diegenen zonder boorbevoegdheid waardoor een nog verdere specialisatie ontstaat.
Logisch dat de tandartsen daar niet blij mee zijn want gaatjes vullen was tot nu toe een belangrijke inkomstenbron.Deze week deed de Associatie Nederlandse Tandartsen (ANT) dan ook een oproep aan de tandartsen mondhygiënisten niet langer te leren hoe ze gaatjes moeten boren en vullen. Ik ben het daar natuurlijk mee eens, het liefst heb ik één iemand voor al mijn tandzorg en dit is weer een nieuwe stap in de differentiatie van taken.
One month ago I started a daily blog because I wanted to experience what the impact is of communicating my opinion on important issues on a daily basis to my audience while using more than 140 characters. The reason I stopped yesterday is that 1) it took me to much time to do this daily and 2) it was not always possible to find a topic and deliver good quality. From now on again only a weekly blog unless someone wants to pay for it….
Sep 14th 2015: No inspriration today, decided to stop this daily blog.
Sep 13th 2015: This week we had a discussion in the media in the Netherlands about the fact that rich Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan are not helping refugees from other Islamic countries like Syria directly by inviting them to their own country but only give money for local support. This while a lot of none Islamic European countries help these refugees regardless of their religion.
Sep 12th 2015: Watched the Last night of the Proms on BBC, always great watching the enthousiastic English audience singing and swinging. And of course Elgar as always my favourite! Would be great to be in the audience once!
Sep 11th 2015: Microsoft in the news today in The Netherlands: they are afraid a new Duch Law, which gives the Dutch Intelligence Services to much insight in internet data, will violate the privacy of citizens. This is the first time a big player in the IT world is concerned on this isue and is trying to influence the political decison proces, good news!
Sep 10th 2015: Spend the day on developing a business case for starting a new IT company with a partner. I have done this a couple of times last two years but whithout a positive outcome, this one is really interesting! Still a lot to discuss and decide on but there is a lot of potential!
Sep 9th 2015: Today I read an article in a newspaper that a school introduced something new: teaching (according to Liesbeth) students how to make a proper phone call! Using the phone to call someone is outdated in this online world where everybody uses Facebook, WhatsApp or other online tools to comminicate. While writing this I’m on a train traveling back home: all people around me are busy with their smartphones, nobody is using his phone to make a call. Maybe next step will be to learn students how to have a direct conversation with someone els?
Sep 8th 2015: Tried out the new Twitter livestream app Periscope this werkend. With this app you can easily broadcast your own online video and watch livestream video’s from others. I did not see much live streams which were interesting: most of them were boring without much action. Only a livestream of Roger Waters from PInk Floyd, who became 72 last weekend, playing a concert and Ellen de Generes walking around in New York, being exited of being recognised on 5th avenue, were interesting. What I don’t like is the comments of other viewers which are shown big on the screen and made not much sense and made watching impossible. Don’t understand why Twitter does not incorporated this streaming service in Twitter itself just like WhatsApp does with their phone service. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s not possible to run Periscope on all devices, it does not work on my Samsung phone…
Sep 7th 2015: Strange you don’t hear much about the Greece legislative elections at this moment which will be there in two weeks on September 20th, the fourth elections in four years. WIth this elections Alexis Tsipras wants a vote of confidence of parlement after 40 Syriza MP voted against the EMS deal this summer,some of these left the party and started a new political party. Don’t know why I don’t read much about it, maybe because of the focus now on the refugee crisis which also impacts Greece?
Sep 6th 2015: The Dutch Trendwatcher Adjiedj Bakas published a proposal to solve the Eurpoean refugee crisis, part of his 10 point solution is to limit the number of children to one and make sterilization mandatory after the first child is born referring to China’s 1 child policy. Proposals like this will not help solving this problem: basic human right are there for all and not only for those who live in rich countries. Maybe he should first focus on what caused this refugee crisis, these refugees from Syria go to Europe because they are on the run for people who are fighting each other for religious and political reason and think they are superior to others, don’t let us make the same mistake!
Sep 5th 2015: Tried to twitter again and again I received some replies which are a little bit annoying. Good to have your own blog where you can filter the feedback you receive yourselves. Twitter has of course a function to block followers so they can’t follow you anymore but then you need to spend negative time on keeping your environment clean. Time for a new strategy for Twitter and to implement some radical changes in the setup.
Sep 4th 2015: Yesterday evening I published a tweet on Twitter about the European refugee crisis which was retweeted 66 times an favourited 16 times. The tweet was about the fact that in the Netherlands, during World war One, we had 1 million refugees from Belgium and I added a foto to the tweet of refugees in Amsterdam being having dinner in the ‘Diamantbeurs’. What surprised me afterwards were the comments, some tried to be funny on this serious subject and others were not very happy with the tweet. I seems my fellow tweeters are very devided on this toppic and emotion plays a big role for all who replied. I’m afraid this topic will be long on the agenda seen all current developments and I hope our leaders make the right decisions…image
Sep 3rd 2015: The same day a Dutch soldier decided to fight for IS in Syria a three year old child, trying to escape from Syria, drowned in the Mediterrean Sea. The picture of this child made a lot of impact on the world community and was widely shared in social media and probably will have a lot of impact on public opinion. How can it happen that a trained soldier makes the decision to fight a war where women and children are the biggest victims? How can you justify this?
Sep 2nd 2015: Dutch universities are implementing a selection process for students with a bachelor befor the can start a master. At the same time the system of studentloans is changed and students now need to pay their study themselves in the master phase in the Netherlands. The impact will be that 1) you will have a gap between universities who focus on quality and the ones who go for the money 2) bright students with parents with no money will not go for a master…
Sep 1st 2015: Horrible news from IS burning pilots from Iraq, I will never get used to this and don’t want to know about the details. Hopefully there will be an international tribunal in the future against all IS leaders responsible for these crimes. All IS staff must know they are responsible when supporting the current IS government.
Aug 31st 2015: Started with giving lessons today at my University: half of them first year and half of them in their last year. Interesting to see what a difference a few years of education can make on their knowlegde and personality!
Aug 30th 2015: Two years ago I bought a new smartphone: a Samsung Galaxy S3 for 600 euro. At this moment I need to recharge the batteries everyday around 16:00. Yesterday I went to a Samsung store and asked what to do about it. All suggestions I was given by the staff I already knew about from the internet and they did not have much impact. Then the lady told that this always happens with their devices after some time, this was a very old device! She recommended the Samsung S6, costs only 700 euro! I asked her what garantee she could give that I could work three days with this device without having to charge it up, also after having worked with it more than a year. That was not possible, according to her you should always buy a new one every 1,5 year to be optimal connected. Does someone know which smartphone works the whole day also after having used it for two years?
Aug 29th 2015: Yesterday the Dutch atlete Dafne Schippers won the 200 mtr worldchampionship in Beijing after becoming number two on the 100 mtr.. Dafne only recently changed focus form being an allround athlete to being a short track specialist with this great result. This raises the question if it’s better to first develop generic skills and then specialize on what your good at or the other way around. Most educational systems deliver specialist and employers use a long list of specific skills required for a job, time for a change?
Aug 28th 2015: Today whole day meetings on the University with new Lecturers explaning them the why, what and how of transfering knowlegde to students. Nice meeting them and hearing about their background and what made them decide to become a teacher, good choice and I wish them a lot of succes!
Aug 27th 2015: Russia wants to have the remains back of Sergei Rachmaninov, one of russia’s greatest composers. Rachmaninov, born in 1873, left Russia during the revolution of 1917 and died in the US and was burried as he wished in Kensico New York next to his wife and daughter. Strange this request from Russia: when states can claim the remains from former opponents after they have died they are rewriting history for their own political reasons.
Aug 26th 2015: Today a former colleague killed a journalist and a cameraman while filming this on his mobile and publishing it on social media afterwards. it’s a fact that filming what you are doing is possible for everybody today and is done on a broad scale. But you could ask the question if he would have done this killing when he did not have the option of filming this which gave him maximum exposure. This is probably the same reason why IS is publishing their terrible crimes on the internet.
Aug 25th 2015: Yesterday the value of the world stock market decreased with 5.000 billion dollar. The reason for this market adjustment is, as always, trust. This time trust in the Chinese economy which is, according to analystst, not transparant enough. China’s problem is of course that it is still managed centrally by the Communist Party and at the same time is introducing an economic system based on a free market (within the bouderies of the system). Biggest loosers are probably the small Chinese investors who invested all their money in stocks.
Aug 24th 2015: Today my thoughts are with a friend of one of my daughters, she has been friends with him from her childhood on: he is very sick and in the final stage. Sometimes live is not fair to us especially when it concerns young people with a whole future ahead. I wish him, his family and friends strength in this difficult times.
Aug 23th 2015: I agree with Angela Merkel that the flow of refugees from Africa and the ME willl have far more impact on the short and long term on Europe than the current Greece debt crisis. This migration of millions should not only be seen as a costing problem but also as an opportunity to grow for both us and them using the potential of those who want to be part of our society and bring in their knowledge and skills.
Aug 22nd 2015: Thanks Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Chris Norman for saving many lives by making a citizens arrest in the Thalys yesterday risking your lives. Good to know that we can strike back against terrorist even without having a weapon: they will never be able to beat us!
Aug 21st 2015: Again new elections planned in Greece which will delay the execution of the reform programme already agreed by the Greek parlement and European partners. After winning the elections in January and the referendum two months ago Tsipras has found a new way of delaying the reform programme which could also become the worst case scenario having to negotiate again with a new government without Syriza. I think this elections have nothing to do with democracy but with not wanting to take responsibility by Tsipras. Sometimes a leader just needs to lead!
Aug 20th 2015: 15.000 people arrested in China because of ‘Cybercrime’ as part of an Internet cleanup campaign wich is just started. The scope is not only illegal activities as hacking or i.d. fraude but also criticizing the Communist Party to protect, according to president Xi Jinping, national security. He personally is leading the committee which sets out the strategy for this. Xi Jinping is right: if Chinese leadership has something to fear than it’s independent thinkers who express their opinion online like Ai Weiwei, repression will make this threath only bigger. Conclusion: A good analysis on the impact of Internet by China but the wrong strategy chosen…
Aug 19th 2015: Yesterday I visited the Tall Ship ‘Maybe’ in the harbour of IJmuiden on which one of my daughters was sailing and which is part of the fleet of 44 Tall Ships which will join the parade today to Amsterdam where Sail Amsterdam will start and thousends of small ships will join them. I myself once sailed on the Tall Ship ‘Stad Amsterdam’ which will also participate this year. The coming days 2 million people are expected in Amsterdam: the largest sail Event so far in Amsterdam. I will visit Amsterdam again this evening when all ships are in and join a concert of the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra watching the ships sail by together with my other daughter!
Aug 18th 2015: Although the Americans have the right to choose their own president, as an European citizen I don’t think it’s a good idea to have Donald Trump as US president having to deal with Vladimir Poetin managing Russia. Both billionaires are mainly influenced by wealthy people around them and want to run their country as a company using business marketing and communication strategies to realize the goals of the elite who support them. Still a long way to go this election and, from an entertainment point of view, already interesting to follow!
Aug 17th 2015: Upgraded my laptop yesterday to from Windows 8 to Windows 10, it took me about 10 hours… First I made a backup of all my files, needed 5 hours… then I installed Windows 10 which took around 3 hours after which I installed the already available Windows updates which take out the first problems reported by clients, this took 2 hours… After the update I checked Microsofts top 10 improvements for this new version and only three of them are improvements of the MS operating system, the rest have to do with new updated Apps, nothing about improved security and performance which wouLd be number one on my agenda…
Aug 16th 2015: Following the news around the Tianjin explosion disaster I conclude: 1) we were informed very quickly through social media by China’s citizens 2) journalists from outside China were very quickly at the site of the explosion (but later removed) 3) attempts from officials to communicate news on the impact were not very consistent and transparent. China cannot stop implementing democracy and freedom of speech while having the ambition to become an industrial power: you need to communicate open with your people who all have modern devices and are not only informed by social media but also producing content!
Aug 15th 2015: Reports come out that the former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raped the American aidworker Kayla Mueller several times while being a hostage under his responsibility. Can someone from IS explain how this can be justified according to their laws? Must someone who wants to help people in need from a humanitary point of view be threated this way? If that is the case probably no citizens of this Islamic State are save and must watch out for their leaders because they can do whatever they want with you without any legal basis.
Aug 14th 2015: The Dutch Minister of Economical Affairs Henk Kamp told us this week we have enough natural gas offshore under the Northsea for only seven years domestic consumption, this means in seven years we will completely depend on foreign delivery for this important energy source! The impact of this is that our children have to do without this resource unless we just save this gas for the future and start speeding up developing alternative energy resources now!
Aug 13th 2015: A Dutch newspaper writes about the increased security risks around using the Internet which have more than doubled last year. Probably these risks were there already but did companies not want pubilicity around this issue to protect their reputation. This problem should be solved at the source: by the IT operating systems providers like Microsoft, Google and Apple who make a lot of profit without feeling responsible for the impact of the problems they cause.
Aug 12th 2015: Reading the newspaper I realized myself that the internet is not the place to be anymore: all my direct friends are already in my network and they are using social media less than before, I’m now spending more time on removing ‘friends’ than adding new ones.
Aug 11th 2015: Today I made a long walk and found 20 eurocents, not a big deal but I suddenly realized I never made money out of all the time I spend on social media! Maybe I can better start spending more time on walking…
In May this year a Dutch parliamentary committee investigated the Fyra High Speed train programme which costed the Dutch state 10,8b€ so far. The NS, 100% owned by the Dutch state, won the contract in 2003 after a public tender. The Fyra High Speed train, delivered by the Italian company AnsaldoBreda, supposed to travel from Amsterdam to Brussel connecting the Netherlands with the European High Speed network, never got used due to a lot of technical issues. The NS was not capable to deliver according to the contract.
What surprised me most during the public interviews of the key stakeholders by the parliamentary committee is that the initial Business Case for this huge project was not available any more. Both within the Ministry of Transport and the NS tried to find it but it was gone. According to the Dutch Ministers of Transports who were involved during the lead time of the programme the NS asked for more money all the time without giving detailed insight in the costs in relationship to the business case, simply because it was not there. Although 100% owner of the programme the Dutch state did not have a proper business case or took care a new one was made when they could not find it!
From a programme or project management point view unbelievable that you manage a project without knowing what the expected costs and benefits were in the business case approved by the business owner. A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a programme or project answering he basic question “Why should we make this investment?”. The business case gives you insight in the business need, the resources such as money and effort needed, the expected benefits, the risks involved etc.. And, once approved, it’s the foundation for the project plan and basis for reporting on the progress off the project, changes made in the project plan with impact on the business case should of course always be approved by the business owner.
The big question is of course why a big programme’s like Fyra can run for such long time without stakeholders asking themselves how the programme is performing against the expectations described in the initial business case. Probably the size and complexity, lack of technical knowledge In the political domain and focus on short term issues, instead of the whole picture play an important role. What you also see is that the role of the programme manager has changed in time. More and more programme managers have a business background and focus on the keeping the business satisfied while in the past programme managers had a project manager background. This means not much time is spend on the internal project focus so operational project issues and risks are not managed before but after they have already happened.
A strong business case is key for running a successful business and it is worthwhile spending time on the development of this. A business case captures the justification and reasoning for all this stakeholders for initiating a project to support a specific business need. And can be used for convincing of those you want to be involved or you need to make your business case successful: investors, partners, subcontractors, suppliers etc. By developing a business case you can conceptualize your business ambition and enable others to challenge if your case has real potential, which areas contain risks or you need external help etc.. So, don’t try to do this alone and involve as much people as possible. And, of course, don’t forget to involve the customer, the most the most important factor which will make your business case successful. Without involving the customer who needs to buy your product or service you will never be able to start a business, so involve your potential customers also as early as possible!
The same day a 26 year old Dutch soldier decided to fight for IS in Syria the 3 year old Aylan Kurdi drowned in the Mediterranean sea trying to escape the war in Syria. The picture of this child made a lot of impact on the world community and was widely shared on social media and probably will have bug impact on public opinion: I hope this will be a game changer and that Europe will take action more to help these refugees.
These pictures and news about the refugees from Syria make me think about the stream of people who left Eastern Europe after the wall came down. This were also a lot of people and you can say afterwards that the integration of all these people in other countries was very succesfull. And now a lot of people who left Eastern Europe are coming back from this ‘Diaspora’ giving Eastern Europe an conomic impuls because they invest in new companies and bring in their experience and knowledge from other countries.
What I don’t understand is how it can it happen that a trained Dutch soldier makes the decision to fight a war where these refugees are fleeing from. Hopefully there will be an international tribunal in the future against all responsible for this exodus including this Dutch soldier, there is no just cause which can justify this.
De Russen hadden de VS van te voren ingelicht over hun actie en gevraagd het luchtruim ter plekke niet te betreden waarbij ze zich beroepen op hun legitieme recht Assad te verdedigen tegen de vijandige troepen van IS. Voor IS waarschijnlijk alle reden om de vlag uit te hangen want dit is precies wat ze willen: partijen tegen elkaar uitspelen en verwarring zaaien. De Russische propaganda machine zal het nieuws in Rusland zelf wel als een groot succes hebben gebracht maar je kunt er donder op zeggen dat de propaganda machine van beide kanten nu flink gaat draaien. Niet voor niks heeft Edward Snowden vanaf vandaag plots een Twitter account…
Je zou toch zeggen dat de inzet van zoveel middelen genoeg zou moeten zijn om IS uit te schakelen maar de strijd in Irak en Afghanistan heeft geleerd dat de inzet van veel middelen niet altijd de juist oplossing is. We zijn dus vanaf vandaag betrokken bij een oorlog vlak bij de Zuid grens van Europa waar alle grote spelers wereldwijd bij betrokken zijn, noem je dat eigenlijk niet een Wereldoorlog?
