When the weather is sullen, heavily overcast and cilly, like it is this gloomy sunday over Amstelveen, gloomier than in Billie Holliday's interpretation, I take an occasional and short

Left: Goran Mihajlov former treasurer of the City Administration and next to him gallerist Alexandar Krtov

break attending the crops on my farm in Facebook with a quick look at the profile, checking the newest entries posted in sunny Macedonia. Some young friends posted an album from a colorful event, a dozen or so artists painting under the shades of the trees around a small park right in the center of the capital of Macedonia. Among them, more friends and series of photos of their finished and the work in progress.

Gabriela Mihajlova took the pics for this post

A picture of one of them set in motion a train of thoughts.  The father of that young man was, decades ago, the chief of security services of Skopje. After the fall out of Yugoslavia the man tried to adjust and decided to urge his son to get involved in trade or artistic materiel. It was a shock when one day he picked up a phone from Skopje and asked me if I would like to help him and his son start a business with artistic materials which, he then hoped, may one day turn into gallery and so on and so forth. He asked me to send him (for about hfl 10,000) Royal Talens brushes, paints and other stuff.

Thus, I went to Appeldorn and somehow, with huge difficulties,  persuaded the chief export officer to begin with small orders and be patient as the business develops. Unfortunately, it never did. The balance of the invoice remained unpaid and, eventually, my friends turned customers had to return the unsold goods to Royal Talens.

It was rather primitive, but very

enthusiastically supported

The event that took place yesterday is just a small illustration not so much of the attitudes among the entrepreneurs out there but also about the general perception of the public related to quality of everything. Cheap paints, cheap brushes, cheap canvases  result with a cheap painting irrelevant of the talent or the geniality of the author. And that is sad.

Painters have never cared about money but they rather starved than allow their work to pale, crack and distort itself within months or years. They did everyting to leave their work to posterity if not eternity.  Maybe I should have continued with export of Royal Talen product to Macedonia. By now I might have built a gallery of lasting work of those rather talented painters, some with European if not world wide repute.

And here is the LINK to the huge album of this event in Skopje

This event triggers painful thoughts. Her excellency Filippini, the Dutch ambassador in Macedonia goes to sidewalk caffees near the embassy and mingles with the crowds watching the Oranje footballers in SAR, inspecting the toe nails of the caffee managers then presenting bikes to dignitaries and promoting those aspects of Dutch life she finds befitting the Macedonian public. The painters of Macedonia? No. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Halls, Van Gogh and Van Dyck are symbols for painting. It hurts me that H.E. Filippini did not move her little finger to bring to the Dutch a collective exhibition of Macedonian artists. But bikes and huup Holland huup - well, yes.

Quite unexpectedly the time has arrived when I need to either give away some very old and rather nice, delicate Dutch tiles (tegels)  or make the cellar a bigger mess than it already is. The first three I bought in a specialized (very expensive) porcelain shop on Jan Luykenstraat in Amsterdam during the last days of "everything must go" sale. Untill that day I though that the shiny porcelain shop (was it Metz and Co.?) will be a landmark of the "duurste straat van Nederland" for ever, until the end of all time.

But, the practical Dutch were become less educated and more neglectful of style, it was obvious that the new generations of affluent could not afford the real quality of porcelain, English fine bone china and Makkum majolica but swallowed pride and  begun buying cheap and ugly stuff, mainly IKEA  earthenware.

The first tile here is 13,3x13,3 cm  WESTRAVEN (Anno 1661) nr. 377, Sepia, the theme is Fruit, catalogued as "Craquele" andwith a number 21403772.

For a tile it is not impressively old, only about 350 years and is produced in Holland. I think it may be a pearl on a tiled wall in a modern bathroom or kitchen. The best thing with it is that you may have it absolutely for free unless you want me to send it to you in which case you will have to cover the postage.

The other a 12,8x12,8 cm Makkum, double the thikness of the previous one and just as well in perfect condition.

The third tile, the reproduction of a detail of a portrait by Rembrandt is 15,3x15,3 unfortunately chipped in the left low corner for about 5 mm and also  in the upper right corner for a stretch of  3x20 mm.

The last one is made by Royal Mosa in Maastricht sharp 15x15 cm and probably it will be a rarity as Mosa is out of that business.

Day-after-Tomorrow is St. Ilija, albeit ILINDEN, the National Day of Macedonia and (as I cannot fly out there for the weekend  on Mechkin Kamen in Krushevo) I though I could celebrate it by giving away something to my Dutch friends.

At one point of time I had bought from Royal Mosa some 35,000 pieces of fine porcelain, their last collection of high quality tableware but made a terrible mistake of storing it at  somebody C.J. Hendriks,  who robbed me of my property by force and through the total negligence of ARAG, the Algemeine Rechtsbank Verzekering or something, a completely innert organization dumped on me by ABN-Amro. Awful memories spring up whenever I remember dealing with Dutch firms. 

Eventually all that will be compensated when I publish, hopefully soon, in English, a novelized account of those bitter days.

 Well it is a Saturday and sunny elsewhere.   

THE NETHERLANDS HAS TO OPPOSE SEPP BLATTER

This nutcase Joseph Sepp Blatter behaves as a part of the dirtiest big money gang. With his threat to throw the French football federation out of FIFA if president Sarkozy wants to know the situation in that organisation - Blatter has signed  a request for his immediate removal from the position he holds. The man is nuts.

...We the people elect our parliaments and governments. We do. Not FIFA not the coaches and definitely not Adidas, Puma, Nike and so forth.
We want and authiorize our parliaments to write laws and we want them to make sure everybody follows the rules of law. Domestic and internetional.

After a football game debacle in Amstelveen: my daughter condolences her son: Neither FIFA nor Sepp Blatter have absolutely anything to do with this facility and the care for the game. It is our money, time, emotions and reasoning behind itr. Neither FIFA nor Sepp Blatter may even dream to tell us how we regulate through our parliaments and the UN the football or anything else.

They are too dangerous and must be stopped right now.

FIFA is out of that system.

FIFA is similar to an Al Qaeda, a gang, a small cirkle of big sharks surounded by small fry for voting what the big money wants. FIFA is all about dirty rich people who have moneys to buy footballers to perform for the public. Professional footbal is a slave trade. Performance, often pre-arranged played for the masses in huge arenas around the world.

WE KEEP POLICE to make order at those stadiums and around them,

we build those stadiums, those clubs, those facilities.

They can exist and behave only as we want them behave.

It is not FIFA but the sovereign governments who have the right to rule the game.

Sepp Blatter is just an arrogant bully who has to be taught a bitter lesson.

Sepp Blatter must be thrown out because he is becoming yet another terrorist, threatening a sovereign government for actions in its social network.

The Netherlands and tiny Macedonia must speak up formally against Sepp Blatter now.

He ordered our girls in South Africa arrested and brought to court facing criminal charges because they wore orange dresses. This man is dangerous. I am fully aware what stood behind that mockery of justice but I refuse to let it go. Blatter may have anybody arrested for money.

 For his view how the world must be run.

NICHOLAS SARKOZY WAS RIGHT THIS TIME.

I expect this will not finish with the French jumping to explain they are not meddling id football affairs. They are and they have all the right to.

In her capacity of a senior officer for consumer information of the the Dutch Authority of Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiele Markten, AFM) Mrs Brigitte Kleverlaan  sent me an e-mail recently. Then she made a telephone call. I was impressed and thought you should know about all this.

Actually, it was the AFM acknowledging that the semi-governmental agency received my bitter complaint about ABN-Amro Bank. You already know that ABN-Amro Bank lied to me in writing about a transfer of my liquid funds. Since this AFM is an official arm of the  the Ministry of Finance it is paid by the Parliament. It is obvious that it is established to build consumer confidence in the Dutch financial institutions by making sure they do not lie, do not steal, swindle and handle dirty moneys and so forth. Therefore I expected that Mrs Mrs Brigitte Kleverlaan will inform me what steps she had taken to make ABN-Amro Bank realize that it may not lie to anybody and least of all to its customers. 

I also thought that Mrs Mrs Brigitte Kleverlaan had understood that ABN-Amro Bank not only lied but also misappropriated the funds allocated to me by the law and released for a specific purpose by the Inland revenue (the Dutch Belastingdienst) of paying my rent. I thought that Mrs Mrs Brigitte Kleverlaan would tell me all that and more.

I was naive.

Mrs Mrs Brigitte Kleverlaan was fully aware what ABN-Amro Bank has done, she had read my blog in the Volkskrant, she knew that I hold Mr Gerrit Zalm, the former Minister of Finance, responsible for this dismal state of affairs with ABN-Amro Bank. But when she phoned me latter she said that she cannot tell me what the AFM is doing and what is the outcome of the intervention (if there is any) nor will she help me get my moneys from ABN-Amro Bank. 

This is the core of the matter. 

Тhis is the news.

Here you face a new method of confidence building in financial institutions which lie repeatedly to their customers.You do NOT do anything. That is the method.

There is this veil of secret society, something that only the anointed few may know, an arrogant attitude of "you the stupid ordinary people" and us "the enlightened officials, the ambtenaren" which I sense all around me. The normal folks must have the head down while the elite, the criminal ring of the well connected shames this society by every possible legal and illegal gadget from its armory. 

The blatant error of judgment by some very arrogant, very highly placed and heavily protected legal smart ass within ABN-Amro Bank, as you can see, slowly builds up into a situation out of all proportions. 

Actually, this situation shapes itself as a quickly spreading monstrous conspiracy. Partially the overallattitude of the bank and the AFM indicates that there are forces willing to ascertain an excuse for an all out war against those Dutch citizens who are not in sync with Wim Wilders ideas about the shape of the Dutch society. If a Bank illegally intercepts moneys allocated to a "vremdeling Nederlander" (that is formally a Dutch lawful citizen of different cultural background) and if the governmental Authority, an Agency established and paid by the taxpayers to bring the financial institutions to the book refuses to act - that is a stronger signal "to clear out from Holland" than  any pre-election mumbo-jumbo. This in turn indicates that there can be no confidence in the Dutch financial institutions since they are sheltered by the legal might.  

Well, an appeal to the National Ombundsman may be the last hope for a poor third-rate Dutch citizen in an atmosphere of vulgar bullying. Although I believe that by the time somebody begins doing something to sort this mess out, the landlord will have efficiently thrown the tenant out on the street and eventually out of the Netherlands. That is the subtlety of this (a pound of flesh contract in the Merchant of Venice)  monstrously conceived idea. There are bunches of arguments that I have to dare publicly suggest this to be the motive of ABN-Amro Bank totally illegal and obviously criminal case of lies and misappropriation of state moneys.

In any case I will not give up.

I am Dutch of a different social and political culture.

La Lutta Continua!  

Earlier today one of the most popular joints in Skopje, Macedonia was decorated in orange, the KNWB lions, Heineken and Оранју Уп слоганс. Flocks of Oranje supporters  gathered to watch the match with Japan. They exploded with joy with the Dutch first and only goal.of the contest.  

The joint "At Mum and Dad" is located few meters north from the Dutch Embassy, but no diplomats showed, only Remko, the Dutch music maker of the pub was running the show.

There is a Facebook story about the event.

Netherlands has a steady flow of supporters ever since the Dutch stood up to Greek pressures even at the cost of being boycotted by the adamant Hellenic Republic.  No other country enjoys such a wide popularity in Macedonia as the Netherlands.

(The local name of the pub on Leninova Street  is "Kaj majka ti  i tatko ti)

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE DUTCH SHOW IN SKOPJE WITH REMKO

When a respectable bank, say a bank like De Bank, that is ABN-Amro, sends a Statement to a client, one is bound to take it at its face value. The trust in the bank's integrity is probably the most important, the basic understanding of a relationship between the financial institution and its client.

People may suspect that their bankers are greedy, people may believe that the bank managers take huge risks, almost gamble with the assets of their clients, people may be ill at ease with the lavish remuneration of the top executives and may doubt, like the Holly Father in Rome, the bankers' moral judgment when demanding usurer's interest rates.

But people never ever doubt that the bank will lie, that the bank will write "your order was executed" the payment was completed, your moneys were transfered to the beneficiary you have pointed. But people will NEVER think that the bank will lie that it did somethink which it did NOT do. To some smart lawyers this may seem a passable mistake. But it is not.

Mr. Gerrit Zalm, the CEO of ABN-Amro Bank and former minister of finance of The Netherlands needs to go to the bottom of this post. This post is documenting that somewhere down the line in the bank he guides there are people who lie, there are people who over-ride the software and after the client had received a written confirmation, a statement that his transaction was executed - annul it, make it null and void.

The other day I went to the branch office of ABN-Amro Bank in Amstelveen and the officer on duty volunteered, after he heard a part of my complaint, to prove me wrong, that such a thing  is simply impossible, that I must have guffed it somewhere. He worked for couple of minutes on my account and when he got the statement Your order was executed, told me, satisfied: "You see. It is done. You probably made a mistake".

The very patient gentleman, his name is Alex de Waart, was willing to check whether the amount was ACTUALLY debited from my account. His mouth dropped when he had seen it was not. His bank cheated him too and he was embarrassed. He said he had never ever seen such a thing nor he could believe it is possible.

The legal and the practical aspects of such a complex meddling with the software and the reputation of the bank, such an outright lie thrown at the face of any client - are huge. Not only individual people but institutions, like the Belastingdienst (Inland revenue) or the notorious BKR  are not expected to go and check the truth of a bank statement.  This means that a cheating bank can ruin the lives of people and ABN-Amro certainly did severely damage my well-being and overall life of the last ten years or so.

The last time I had differences with some rather strange people in the branch office of ABN-Amro Bank in Amstelveen, Mr. Rijkman Groenink found it necessary to personally and in writing extend his excuses for the mistakes of his staff. This means that those people remain in the branch office while Mr. Groenink is gone. Long time ago I have met Mr. Zalm who stood for the indisposed Wim Kok, the then minister, during talks with a Macedonian financiers delegation. This time I expect that he may wish to go right down to the bottom of this sickness in one of his branches because this situation is alarmingly indicative. 

In any case, I would be very, very thankful to any suggestions for legal help here. Is there a watchdog over the practices of the financial institutions, over misuse of the depositors moneys, are there legal ways to bring ABN-Amro Bank to the book for if this can happen to a small one-man-firm (einmanzaak) what would stop the same people ruining a large firm or misappropriate millions or billions of euros.  I do not nourish much hope that a gallant Dutch lawyer will ride in on a white horse to help me and save the face of ABN-Amro Bank.

The Liberal Democrat and the Labour parties of UK can easily argue that they form a majority in Westminster as opposed to the Tories. Thus, they - as a coalition - have a mandate. The BBC commentator thinks that this would be a hard sell. He quotes, as a conlusion, a comment by a taxi driver who told him this morning: 

"So the Tories got most votes and most seats. So why haven't they won?"

That is a daft question.

They did not win because they, the Conservative party candidates mastered only 10,706,647 votes while the Labour and the Lib Dems got 15,432,296 or 50% more votes. They are who won, the Labour and Lib Dems together. That is what the verdict of the election may prove to be.

Nick Clegg had promised to educate the electorate that the PR is the solution for parliamentary democracy to operate as the real representation of the various strives and ideas in a modern society. He has no business with the "first past the pole wins" electoral logic of the Conservative party.

Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, had made a huge gaffe this morning.

He chose to open talks with David Cameron who together with the chorus of conservative seniors, insists that this electoral system has given him the moral right to demand (from the public opinion) support for a priority to form a minority or (nearly) a coalition government. One of the cornerstones of the Lib Dems is the overhawl of this electoral system which is partly responsible for the few Lib Dem seats in Westminster.

The Conservative party of the UK is furtherest away from the proportional electoraL system. It absurd for Nick Clegg, despite the extended possible rewards, to help them form a government. Whatever Nick Clegg clinches during the negotiations - he is leading the party onto a disastrous road along which it will lose all credibility.     

This seams to me like going to general Radko Mladic, the butcher of Srebrenica, to negotiate  revision of the Geneva convention. 

YESTERDAY IN THE MIDDLE OF ATHENS

MARCHING DURING AN OFFICIAL NATION AL DAY PARADE

MARCHING GREEK SPECIAL FORCES

THREATEN SPILLING THE BLOOD

OF "ALBANIAN PIGS"

(ALBANIA IS A NATO ALLY OF GREECE)

Mrs. Svetlana Jovanovska is s fine friend and a colleague who is a permanent correspondent from Brussels for a number of newspapers of the German WAZ~ MEDIA GROUP published this "status" on her Facebook page courtesy of her friend Zaneta Trajkovska  located Athens. 

The incident is unbelievable.

Here is a YouTube video clip.

Do please go through the text.

Svetlana Jovanovska via Zaneta Trajkoska:

Military parade.

(my Nota Bene: 25 of March is The national holiday of Greece and a religious feast, the Annunciation and is traditionally celebrated with a huge parade attended by the whole Government, military top brass, the ecclesiastic and diplomatic corps with throngs of people gathered on the Comnstitution square.)  

Men of the Greek Army special forces shout

"You are born Greek, 

you never become one, 

we're gonna spill your blood, 

you Albanian pig" 

and 

"They are Skopjans, 

they are Albanians,
I'm gonna make my new clothes out of their skin".

No, the Minister of Defence has not resigned yet nor he e...ver will. God Bless the "Hellenic Republic" and its hospitable, 

foreigners-friendly citizens.

There are so far only few reactions to the video clip and the message.

Filios Stangos Politisation of armed forces ammounts to high treason. Especially when it comes in the form of the racist, xenophobic slogans who belong to the agenda of the far right. I am ashamed

Svetlana Jovanovska édifiant, je le serais aussi à ta place

Michel Verreckt Heureusement qu'on les aide ces gens-là?!

Filios Stangos I am somewhat relieved to inform you that the coastguard officer who was in charge of the parade group that shouted those racist slogans was discharged this morning.

THE BLOODY WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA was TRIGGERED

UNDER EXCUSE FOR PALTRY  $3 BILLION SIPHONED BY

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC FROM THE FEDERAl  TREASURY

NOW GREECE TRIES TO GET AWAY WITH $600 BILLION

Is it possible that Wouter Boss resigned the vice-premiership of the Nederlands and the leadership of his Partij van de ARBIJD because of the Greek  brazen hold up of the European treasury during his watch?

While he was pressing frugality and strict norms for fiscal prudence - the Greeks were devouring European funds and spilling freshly printed European money like drunken gamblers.

Does Wouter Boss feel remorse now?

Was he at odds with the plump Nout Wellink, President of De Nederlandsche Bank?

How much more this land Netherlands could have been spending on the economy and welfare if these two had printed not four times as the Greeks did but only modest two times above our limit with the CEB? Why neither alerted the parliament, the public, the IMF the World Bank?

Why did the allow the Greeks to get deeper and deeper in the vaults of the treasury of thew Union?

Do you know that 20 years ago intransigent pedants had initiated the cruel, bloody split-up of former Yugoslavia because Slobodan Milosevic printed paltry $3 billion at the expense of the federal treasury? Evvery secondf crook has twice as much cash nowadays.

That small change of today WAS THE CASUS BELLI THEN.

Now the intransigent Greeks want to get away with $600 billion swindle. Eh, do you think that Wim Duisenberg would have kept his mouth shut and allowed the Greeks to ravage the european finances? 

Do you understand what am I TELLING YOU?

I have asked some of the charming young TV-journalists in Skopje to interview the governor of the Macedonian central bank, Mr. Petar Gosev, what would have he done after the first reports about the Greek entry in the treasury... Will be interesting (in the light of the Greek whimsical misbehavior against MACEDONIA) to hear that baker and former minister of finance.

Those of you who are subscribers to T-Mobile Nederland services simply need to know these odds and bits of which the network of top T-Mobile executives is woven. I will try outline the connecting fluid, for yours, albeit public benefit, binding the (a)moral profiles of the people who run a create the corporate attitude of T-Mobile.

Take for example Rubin(cho) Zarevski, former CEO of T-Mobile Macedonia (here spectacularly taken in handcuffs by a squad of Macedonian police) and certain Peter Meffout, former director of customer finance with T-Mobile Nederland. The authorities in Skopje arrested Rubin Zarevski for alleged financial irregularities committed elsewhere. In my books - it is a shame for any reputable firm, especially a multinational like T-Mobile, to have any of its directors arrested for any financial allegation. Roughly about the same time here, in the Netherlandfs, I got a letter from certain Peter Meefout who signed it in his capacity as a big fish with T-Mobile Nederland. This guy sent me a ballooned "somatie" for some payment I refused to accept. At that time I did not know that he was director at Lindorff Netherlands B.V. before he came to this position in T-Mobile. 

So how do these typically Dutch family names collect moneys from unsuspecting Dutch subscribers of T-Mobile? 

While employed by T-Mobile (till October 2009) this guy somehow managed to make Lindorff Nederlands B.V. from Zwolle (where he was a director at the same time while employed by T-Mobile Nedrland) the incasso  arm of the T-Mobile. This Lindorff Netherlands B.v. is owned by somebody called  Faizel Abdoelrazak. Very (but believe you me: very, and i mean very) interesting arrangement.  In my book of moral codes that is an outright conflict of interests.  This, actually, means that Meefout COULD drive business and fat profits from T-Mobile to Lindorff Nederland, actually, he was in position to arrange for himself large bonuses in Lindorff for such an activity.  I bet hundreds of firms like Lindorff would have loved to have T-Mobile as their customer. But nobody could ... because of Meefout.

Now, Meefout is out of T-Mobile and is Sales Director Credit Services at Experian Netherlands, somewhere in "the Hague Area",

I have written here earlier about this colorful person.   He never responed because, I think, he wanted the affair to settle down with no comment.  This bunch of people in Lindorff B.V. are only the second link in the chain that practically enslaves the citizens of this country.  They send you a short computerized letter saying that (according T-Mobile) you owe their client money and demand a fee for reminding you to pay, interest rate and their administrative costs fee (much bigger, often 500% than the alleged debt) and threaten you with court (costs and time) if you do not pay within couple of days.

I believe that thousands upon thousand of innocent people prefer to pay, no matter what, just to have a bit of peace of mind. Thus, mis-using T-Mobile this Peter Meefout pumped moneys into Lindorff and, I suspect, the coffers of his bonuses.

I have documents that T-Mobile decided by its own free will to send me a mobile phone (once Nokia then iPhone) on my declaration that I authorize T-Mobile to claim from my account with ABN-Amro the money for the services invoiced by T-Mobile. I have proofs that there were always ample funds on that account and I do not know why ABN-Amro did not honor the "machtiging" I gave to T-Mobile. I have a theory but do not know for sure why neither T-Mobile nor Lindroff brought ABN-Amro before the judges.

But all that is besides the point.

The most important is that Lindorff found out that I did not use the services T-Mobile wanted me to pay, that there was a thief who sucked moneys from subscribers of T-Mobile.

But all this is just a partial aspect of my claim that the practices, the morals of various directors of T-Mobile are shoddy.

The next conclusion is that a company entertaining shoddy practices must provide shoddy service as well.

When all thius is done at the expense of the customer, the free citizen, then the legal system of this country and that one of the Europen Union needs to be set in motion,

T-Mobile Nederland made my life a misery. 

Of what I have experienced, I would say that these people acted and behaved with planned, brazen insincerity to trick people into a scheme.

These people have advertised that anyone may have an i-Phone 3G for a basic tariff of €29, 95 and my family decided to surprise me with one for my 69-th birthday. They gave me the cash for  24 months subscription and I was besides myself with joy.

Not that I was unaware of the shenanigans (widely reported by the international press) performed in T-Mobile various offices and by high-ranking individuals, but I simply thought that improper or outright irresponsible,  harmful or damaging attitude and practice by T-Mobile Nederland is impossible in this social and legal climate.

Well, I was totally wrong.

T-Mobile Nedrland bullied me.

T-Mobile inflicted me serious financial and health damage.

T-Mobile used the services of a legal firm from Zwolle who must have bullied other innocent people in The Netherlands as well. 

I believe that this matter must be criminally investigated and I will try to put this post right into the hands of the "officer of justice" or the public attorney who should in his or hers official capacity have to act and investigate the allegation that T-Mobile KNOWINGLY, being fully aware of a criminal situation at its own turf, maltreated, intimidated, scared and inflicted serious psychological harm to innocent customers motivated by indolence, greed, careless attitude or all of these combined.

I know that this is a serious allegation against T-Mobile.

But their practices must not go on unexposed.

Despite I would have never dreamt of extending the 24-month contract with T-Mobile (at the end which the Nokia I used should have been unlocked and I could keep it even if I changed the provider) when it was announced that they had an exclusive contract with Apple for  the iPhone I had to chose: either t-Mobile  or forget about iPhone.  T-Mobile sent me the iPhone for free on understanding that I will continue the subscriber status for yet another two years.

The problems arose instantly. I have signed and written that all I want is the basic monthly subscription of €29,95. Few month latter the invoices rocketed to €89 despite I would have neither calls nor 10 SMS messages per month.  When I have written that something is wrong and requested investigation - the boss of customer services of T-Mobile chose not to respond. 

Then LINDORF PURCHASE B.V. from Zwolle, the legal representative of T-Mobile, approached me (in writing) with a demand for a ludicrous payment. They wrote I responded, they wrote some more and threatened me with the courts and I responded, then they fired more threats and my nerves had begun shaking, the whole family was upset and, and this important, the iPhone went dead. Completely dead. Then it would give a sign it is alive but the SIMM would be locked.  The expensive machine was (and still is) totally useless.

A friend, lawyer and ex-diplomat who I helped come and settle in this country, told me it was all my fault and I better pay. Since his wife is a big shot with a multinational telephone services provider I was guided to begin believing that T-Mobile was  acting like all those other providers, that I have overlooked something.

But, eventually, an engineer in  agronomy took the case and in September 2009 pressed the Lindorff B.V. to prove their claim that I was wrong and that I have actually  called from the iPhone incurring costs that they claimed they were a step away from collecting through a court order. Suddenly Lindorff B.V. said (over a telephone) that there was an investigation and that T-Mobile had found out that somebody (a criminal gang I assume) was incurring costs to unsuspecting, innocent T-Mobile subscribers and therefore, all the so far demands for payment became nill and void, I owed nothing to T-Mobile and should forget the matter.

The Lindorff B.V. obviously thought that such a stance closed the whole troubled affair. They thought that all their threats and the cut services, all that relentless pressure that lasted for full six months would be, could be so easily forgotten.  The Lindorff B.V. guided me to a T-Mobile store in Amsterdamse Port where upon presentation of passport  and those people unlocked the blocked SIM. I wanted the same old status of a fixed number subscriber but they were not authorized for such a move. 

The T-Mobile CONTINUED, despite its own and formally admitted fault to treat me *with the old, fixed subscription number, as a punished, "prepaid" customer, which is completely illogical. Namely, this iPhone does not come for free with a prepaid status.  That is exactly the mess which T-Mobile created.

Thus, I made an ING bank transfer for €20 just to have the possibility to send SMS urgent messages, invitation to be called on that number and keep the machine alive. After only two SMS messages the €20 expired, were eaten up, no trace but the number of the bank transfer. I believe that the thieves who operate within the network of T-Mobile and who have stolen all that money before - are active again. I have the iPhone next to me and notice that somebody is contacting the number and trying to suck money out of it, occasionally a dozen times within couple of minutes.

At the T-Mobile shop in Amsterdamse Port I also bought another prepaid card at €20  for the old Nokia.  That money was gone within a day without me calling anybody. I was robbed again. Imagine if there are one million T-Mobile subscriber and if thieves, or T-Mobile self, syphons from every singe one €20 a month? This would amount to a €120 million robbery, a criminal ring and the police should be involved.

This is a case for a very able lawyer who would like to make a big name and big money by bringing the mighty T-Mobile and Lindorff B.V. as their accomplices in what I think is a clear act of tried extortion. Unfortunately, even capable lawyers  are unwilling to bring the mighty ones to the courts because of the attitude of the Dutch judges to keep the population in hopeless  submissive stupor under the yoke of the financial and administrative might.

Nevertheless I am positive that one nice day, hopefully sooner than latter, that attitude of the Dutch populace will change.

Those interested in Macedonia probably know already  (through an interesting YouTube video-presentation which you could best watch on a whole screen) that the latest development on its usually turbulent social and cultural scene is the  revelation of the project for architectural reshape of the the center of Skopje, the capital. Even if you are not interested or do not feel competent to discuss architecture - it will be advantageous if you saw that video-clip before continuing with this post.

The sheer name of the project, it is called "Skopje 2014", implies speed if not haste of implementation which the majority of people consider execution without due diligence. All people nourish emotions towards their immediate physical environment but on the Balkans that attitude is absurdly strong. The power can get away cutting a mountain on half for whatever reason but the people would fight it tooth and nail if it dares touch the local kafenio, a derelict but frequented pub with long (local) social history. 

The Balkan people tend to be epicentral. The suburbs in this underdeveloped region rarely have their own "centers" capable to attract with its lights and events the suburbanites who consequently gather "downtown" often miles away from their homes. Since there is this less than half a square mile of Skopje considered as the heart of the capital and thus of Macedonia - the project "Skopje 1914" triggered an avalanche of vehemently opposing reactions.

The latest is by my young friend ing. arch. Sanja Radjenovic-Jovanovic,  published few days ago by a local, bitterly anti-government, newspaper. ( If you read Macedonian, this is the link to the article in that newspaper.) Sanja, in short, insists that the project is a huge kitsch, that incompetent architects produced what the heady bureaucrats wanted and then lashed out at the local urban mafia, the swampy atmosphere for talent, the general climate of fear and gloom and cherry-picking her words indicated that this project was loaded with diverse and subtle political messages. But she is loud and clear stating that the present government of Niikola Gruevski wants to put a stamp of their moment of glory for all posterity to be visibly  reminded for the aeons ahead.

Well, I believe that out of all this you wish to have learned one thing. The project "Skopje 2014" may easily prove to be yet another stumbling block for Macedonia on the road of opening the accession talks that may lead to this very poor country's EU integration. The projet has two huge statues of Alexander the Great and Emperor Samuil who the Greeks and Bulgarians, respectively, consider integral part of the historic heritage of these EU member-states. 

I believe that all these things are important but my concern goes elsewhere:  in the past 20 years not a single factory was built nor one short mile of railway laid. That and not the vistas of the center of Skopje is of much bigger importance.

PS

If you like to connect with ing.arch. Sanja Ragjenovic-Jovanovik on FaceBook, this is the link to her profile page.

You will probably be surprised with these pictures from Macedonia.

They demonstrate more love for the place tham exceptional physical or beauty of the nature, but they sure are worth your while.

So, here is the link:

PICTURES FROM MACEDONIA.

Well, i'll try to popose you in the coming days illustrated blog posts, a relatively short clips. And the first one is a try-out, about the birthday today of my first grandchild, Christian Sebastian Gabriel Glaser, who is 11 today.

I will remove this once I have prepared the english sound  track.

It is best to see it on the full screen or monitor through Youtube.

Well, that is it.

To late to join the party, but next year I'll invite you on time.

I promis.

HERE IS THE YOUTUBE CLIP 11 YEARS CHRISTIAN

You need to slowly get in the mood, dear people.

Here is Diana Krall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SABWU6im1do

Ana Kostovska , who had a diminutive name "Aneto" which denotes a "small, petite Ana" when she was in elementary school, a classmate of my son who then vowed to marry her one day, has turned actress. That is what her late father Dragi Kostovski, was in Macedonia: a renown theatre and film actor.

Only this morning somebody dug out that she was a fine singer.

Since I doubt that you will otherwise get a better picture about Macedonian pop, here you are with a link to one of Ana's numbers.

HERE IS A LINK TO ANA KOSTOVSKA'S YOUTUBE

If you do not know where to spend the three days between 30th of December 2009 and the 2nd of January 2010 then you may contemplate Istanbul, the European capital of culture 2010. The flight from Amsterdam (several daily take-offs) is nearly four hours but the service and the comfort Turkish Airlines provide makes the time, well, fly. Then comes the pleasure as a huge reward. If you have not been there - do not even question this suggestion. If your party can afford it - organize it for a bunch of friends.

Istanbul is NOT ONLY exotic. Istanbul is a miraculous, a pearl and place that outshines London and Berlin hands down.

The best part of this fable is that you can mingle with the super-rich and the poor while discovering joys and comforts, pleasures and sight unavailable elsewhere and set ib a most formidable crown of architectural splendor. Do not miss it for anything.

Up there I am on the top of the SwissOtel in Istanbul, a formidable location for discovering this amazing city and relax at the same time, like a sultan. In the background is the Bosphorus, in the far distance (16 min. most comfortable tram ride at € 0,7) is the Topkapi palace (here you have Dick Osseman's photos) with Aya Sophia and the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) complex.

You can be staying in an inexpensive hotel but still enjoy for drinks or food the superb palaces of the contemporary hotel empires. Forget the LeidsePlein midnight event in Amsterdam: they do not stage those great but small and short fireworks any more. The Leidseplein gathering has become a semi-drunk crowd not knowing what to do with itself. Mayor Cohen is not to blame: other before him had begun ruining the spirit Amsterdam exhaled during the evenings preceeding the Koninginedag and New Tear's day. Amsterdam is a big bore now.

My portal on Turkey (it is really huge) has a lot about Istanbul and is full with great info and opinion but pity you probably do not read Macedonian.

Thus: go to Istanbul.

Second choice: New York.

Third/Fourth: Pais or Rome.

Fifth: stay home.

The other day friends gather at my page on Facebook invited me to join a group "Against the law forbidding smoking in public places"  definitely against the ban on smoking in bars, inns, tea-houses, restaurants and the like. Despite being nearly a chain-smoker (that's me here on the right as a much younger journalist) I found the appeal useless: we all know that the ban is rather inconvenient for the nicotine enslaved population but it is obvious that the premises where smoking is forbidden provide incomparably healthier environment for all.

Since my Facebook page is mainly in Macedonian and for the Macedonian circle of friends, it struck me that these people scream against the ban at the top of their voices but do not utter a word about some other facts of life related to the tobacco production in Macedonia. Those facts are devastating and speak volumes about the population, the businesses, the government and the USAID that pours hundreds of millions of dollars there.

Macedonia, by the way, harvested 20,000 tons of tobacco this year, 25% more than the last harvest.

The people there would grab any debate about freedoms and so on and so forth and would attack (rightfully) the EU and the Greek intransigence and everything - but would stay hushed when brought face to face with these facts.

Macedonia does NOT produce:

1.  Tobacco for rolling cigarettes, like the Dutch have Drum, Van Nelle, Javanse Jongens and so forth - there isn't.

2.  Paper for rolled cigarettes like Mascotte, Rizla ... is non-existent 

3.  Gadgets for rolling cigarettes are not made 

4.  Cigarette holders - cigarettepijpje (silver, filigree, wood, amber, ivory) are not handcrafted

5.  Cigarette cases of gold, wood, leather - tabacchiera for cigarettes or tobacco for rolling

6.  Pipes for smoking are not produced

7.  Nargile, water pipe, hookah

8.  Tobacco for pipes is not cut

9.  Tin boxes for pipe tobacco are not made

10. Cigars are not rolled

11. Scissors and other tools for cutting cigar tips are not made

12. Humidifiers for tobacco or cigars are unknown items

13. Cigarette lighters are not produced

14. Matches, lucifers, are imported

But tobacco is grown to the tune of 20,000,000 kg.

Ever since I have begun smoking my slogan was that the country, its population, needs to engage into producing a vast variety of items related to its most popular crop, that the people of Macedonia need (if they want to exist and persist) finalize their commodities and the fruit of their labor has to be upgraded into a final consumable product. But no.

All they know is either sell stupid cigarettes after world brands and smuggle them abroad or sell the raw tobacco to monopolies  around the world. That is not the road to progress. If this country does lean to produce at least half of those 14 items listed above within 2-3 years, there is no point entering the EU.

Years ago, before I went to Urq to shed almost €1,500 for a Nikon D70s (which proved faulty) I collected various, expensive, now defunct photo-magazines like P/F and read everything there was helpful to become handy with the hardware needed to store images of places and faces I love. Since then many years have passed and time came for those glossies from 1993/1995 to go into the container for scrap paper. Before they are sent to China for recycling I decided to have a last look over their content.

So, one of  the P/F magazines featured Jersey Matuschka, a professional photographer, on its cover page. The lady has a different real name. she is baptized as . In Macedonian, Motchka means "urine" or "somebody (of a feminine gender) who wets its bed". In the other hand Matuschka sounds too sweet and motherly and rather profane so I will refer to her with the actual name, Motchka.

Miss Motchka is known to produce art photography of herself and her own body. I do not understand that much but it appears interesting for those who appreciate that kind of photography, nudes and like to display what they have. 

I also think that women who have lost one or both of theirs breasts to cancer would be interested in the art produced by Miss Motchka. I know something about this problem since I ride almost daily to the NKI-AVL where, after she was operated - my wife of 45 years is undergoing radiation treatment. I have also had a bunch of close women friends who have lost their breasts to cancer and have been deeply moved by their emotions of huge loss. 

When this young and most attractive woman had lost her right tit to cancer she had provided and The New York Times Magazine had published (for the first time in its history) a topless woman. The story was so moving that Mis Motchka was nominated for a Pulitzer prize.

It is a rather impressive portfolio.

Miss Motchka is a sort of a autobiographer, a photographer and a director: she engages another professional who she direct / do this, not like that, this here, more light, OK, shoot. And that is how her photos of her nude body are made. Some have really artistic value.

It is not the point of promoting to you the art of Miss Motchka. She sends other messages as well. She is still alive and fight the cancer which I call "the lobster" and the scars it has left on her body.

Here you have a very interesting link. Do not miss it.

 http://www.beautyoutofdamage.com/Flashintro.html

As for me, I'll be off to the NKI-AVL this morning driving my girl to the radiation treatment.