Buurtzorg: the Dutch model of neighbourhood care that is going global

Innovative nursing model cuts bureaucracy and gives nurses more freedom and time with clients

The Guardian, David Brindle, 9 May 2017

New Dutch homecare model insists nurses spend more than half of their time
in direct contact with the people they support. Photograph: Fred Froese/Getty

The Dutch may be renowned for tulips and Edam cheese, but these days it’s their innovative district nursing and homecare model that is exciting global interest. Buurtzorg, which translates as “neighbourhood care”, is seen by its many enthusiasts as a key part of the solution to challenges facing healthcare systems across the world.

From Aberdeen to Shanghai, the Buurtzorg approach is being seized on by policy-makers as a means of enabling people with care needs to live independently with much less formal support. Potential cost savings of up to 40% have been calculated.

At the same time, the model is said to be hugely popular with the nursing teams who run it because it frees them from management control and unleashes their entrepreneurial creativity. And it is very simple.

Buurtzorg was founded 10 years ago by a 56-year-old nurse, Jos de Blok, and started with an initial team of four. The system that evolved deploys teams of up to 12 nurses, who are responsible for between 40 and 60 people within a particular area. There are now around 900 teams in the Netherlands, supported by no more than 50 administrators and 20 trainers.

The principle underpinning the model is that the nurse acts as a “health coach” for the individual and their family, emphasising preventive health measures but also delivering necessary care themselves or calling on others to do so. The golden rule is that nurses must spend 61% of their time in direct contact with the people they support.

An evaluation by consultancy KPMG in 2012 found that although the care might be costlier per hour than under a traditional approach, it was of higher quality and better appreciated by those in receipt. Crucially, only half as much care was typically required.

“What I see in a lot of countries is that systems are increasingly complicated and frustrations are becoming worse and worse,” says de Blok. “I want to show that it’s easy to change.”

De Blok will be talking change at the 25th annual European Social Services Conference in Malta at the end of June, organised by the European Social Network. In some cases, he will be preaching to the converted: Buurtzorg is being trialled in the UK and Sweden, with Germany and Austria soon to follow, as well as in the US, Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

But others at the conference will need convincing that the model can be transplanted into other health systems and nursing cultures as easily as he suggests.

One issue is funding: the Dutch model is tailored to payments by health insurance companies, not a state healthcare system like the NHS or means-tested social care. Another is the scrapping of hierarchies and specialisms within the nursing teams: a Buurtzorg nurse might administer wound care, but may also help someone to wash or get dressed.

A third challenge is that the model requires management to back off and allow their teams considerable latitude, with much less performance monitoring than has become the norm in, for instance, the UK. Bureaucracy is reduced to a minimum.

 “We have tried to prevent it becoming a meetings structure,” says de Blok, describing how his teams are encouraged to think freely in finding answers to people’s care needs, drawing on other professionals and volunteers. “The autonomy is better when [the teams] build their own networks to solve problems.”

The Buurtzorg approach has even been extended to what in the UK would be recognised as home help, after the organisation stepped in to rescue a failing Dutch provider two years ago. By cutting its overheads dramatically, the provider has not only been saved but has expanded by more than 60% to 4,000 employees.

It is significant, therefore, that one of the most advanced UK Buurtzorg pilots is being run by Cornerstone, a Scottish homecare charity, while others closer to the original nursing concept are developing at sites including Aberdeen, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway, and Borders.

In England, the model has been taken up by the Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS foundation trust in south London as well as integrated health and care services in Tower Hamlets, east London, and in west Suffolk. Active interest has come from Kent and Cheshire West, among others, and 300 people recently attended the first presentation in Wales by Public World, a consultancy working with Buurtzorg.

De Blok insists he is relaxed about the model being adapted to suit local circumstances. Buurtzorg is a non-profit organisation – though it makes a surplus for reinvestment – and it does not seek to franchise the model under licence.

“I’m not interested in money,” de Blok says. “I see so many people searching for a new way of doing things in all the places I visit. It’s all about creating something different from the bottom up.”

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"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, ..... etc.) (> 28 Min)

Could e-residency offer a way around Brexit?

Could Estonia's e-residency program offer a way out of Britain's Brexit bind? Kaspar Korjus, director of the country's program thinks that digital nomadism could be the way forward for Britons and British companies.

Deutsche Welle, 25 Sep 2016

Since the referendum result in the UK and the impending Brexit, there’s been a rush of Britons trying to obtain residency within other EU countries so as to remain part of the EU. But the strict criteria often prevents many of them qualifying for an easy route. Now though, the Republic of Estonia might offer a way out of that bind. It has been offering e-residency permits for a couple of years as part of a wider program of e-government. This summer the country saw a jump in the number of Britons applying so they, or their companies, could continue trading as EU entities. DW talked to Kaspar Korjus, Estonia's e-residency program director.

Deutsche Welle: What exactly is e-residency?

Kaspar Korjus: E-residency in the larger context is the new nation state; we are building a whole new digital nation for global citizens. That means that every person on this planet can become an e-resident of this nation. By becoming an e-resident each person gets a digital identity, contained in a smart ID card. Once you get a smart ID card you can log in to the nation state services, you can digitally sign everything and you can be part of this new community.

Estonia has 13,000 e-residents currently
and hopes for 10 million by 2025

Why did Estonia decide to adopt this method? It's not just e-residency, but the whole thing is part of a wider program E-government.

Yes, so E-government has been in Estonia for the last 15 or so years. All Estonians have been voting on line, declaring taxes, getting e-prescriptions, signing all contracts, establishing companies; everything is done using that digital identity. Now we've just opened the borders to everyone else, so that everyone can be part of this.

The reasons are twofold: firstly, it's purely economic, so that Estonia can be bigger. Estonia has a population of just 1.3 million and the internal market compared to Germany for example is so small that we just need more customers outside of Estonia. Secondly, it doesn't add too much cost for us to open these things.

There are billions of people today all around the world who lack access to financial services or lack access to proper business services. For us to open these gates to them, it just doesn't cost us much extra. We already have the legal system, we already have the infrastructure and we already have the services, so we can just offer the same services to them also.

How many e-residents do you have at the moment?

KK: We have over 13,000 e-residents today, and we are still in a beta phase. To become an e-resident each person needs to pay 100 euros and apply online at e-resident.gov.ee and then have one face-to-face meeting at the Estonian embassy. This takes approximately two months and then a person could become an e-resident and access all the services.

Did you see the numbers shoot up after the referendum in Britain because of the threat of Brexit?

That's true, a few days after the Brexit referendum we had a ten times increase in applications from the UK. They were mainly from the start-up and entrepreneurship world. Many start-uppers were afraid of what Brexit could bring, whether they'd still be able to work with EU companies, whether they'd still be able to have employees from the EU. E-residency in that sense allows them and helps them to still run EU-based companies whilst living in the UK.

Britons can live in the UK and work
with companies in the EU via Estonian
e-residency and services

Because essentially it gives them EU membership?

It gives them an EU company, an EU bank account and EU regulations. So you don't need to apply to each separate EU country for a set of regulations as you would have the Estonian EU entity. Through that entity, you can sell all your services and regulations apply there. That means that none of the Brexit people need to move from the UK to Europe to deal with EU businesses, because they can stay living in the UK and deal with the EU through their e-residency and business in Estonia.

What do you expect from E-residents? Will there be any kind of tax burden?

E-residents usually pay taxes in the countries where they are living and creating value. E-residency does not mean tax residency. It means that e-residents can just use the platform and the business environment to facilitate their businesses.

So is that how you make sure that this doesn't become a kind of tax haven type scheme or a "letter box" company?

Yes, it is exactly the opposite. This is the opposite of something like Panama where people might have gone to try and hide their taxes and hide their companies; because e-residency is a transparent business. Each shareholder and manager is available as information to the public. We are also sharing the tax revenues with local countries and other governments. As everything is digital and so all the transactions leave digital footprints there is no way to hide, or protect any wealth you might have. That's why e-residents who join are those kinds of people who want to share transparency and show they can be trusted.

What do e-residents receive in return?

If a person is outside of the EU, from an emerging market, the main benefit is access to financial services, access to bank accounts, to online payment providers and access to crowd-funding sites etc. Most of the people today can't offer this kind of online business. The second thing is that through Estonia, people and companies have access to the EU business environment. Estonia makes all that very easy and convenient because it is all done digitally. So establishing a company takes just 10 minutes; you can open bank accounts online, everything can be signed digitally, all the contracts and taxes so it is pretty much cost free. The third reason why people apply is the freedom which an e-residency provides. Even if your country offers all the services and is pretty cost effective, people in today's world travel a lot. Sometimes those people's own countries might still require them to be physically present to sign something or declare something, but now people travel all around the world, digital nomadism is everywhere and e-residency helps run your business without having one fixed place of abode.

The more people and countries connected, the higher the value of the network

Have other countries enquired about whether or not they could offer a similar kind of program?

Yes we are actually helping many other governments to adopt this. We don't see this as a competition but rather a partnership because the more governments which offer this kind of services, the more players will be on the network and then the more value it brings to the network. We know that Lithuania is about to adopt it, we are helping Singapore, Japan and the Netherlands. Once a country starts serving its own citizens digitally as Estonia has been doing for the last 15-17 years then there is really no reason why you can't start serving other citizens too who want to take part in your business environment.

Kaspar Korjus is director of Estonia's e-residency program. If you are interested in applying for e-residency, you can go online to e-resident.gov.ee

Taxman struggles to account for internet earnings

DutchNews, September 6, 2016

King’s Day in Amsterdam: before the
 internet, a rare tax-free moment. Photo:
DutchNews.nl 

The Dutch taxman is struggling to account for people’s earnings in the internet age, reports NOS. 

Traditionally, certain activities have been seen as hobbies and not subject to significant tax. But a freedom of information (WOB) request from NOS reveals that tax experts are looking at whether they are being tough enough about chasing down revenue from bloggers, vloggers and Airbnb renters, for instance. 

A memo from enforcement and intelligence body the EHI reportedly says: ‘At what level of income is an enthusiast who restores and sells bicycles through Martkplaats pursuing a hobby and at what figure is he an entrepreneur? Should the home cook who opens a pop-up restaurant at home four times a year be seen as a restauranteur? What if this isn’t four times but 24 times?’ 

There is a grey area, says NOS, where people making money on a small scale from Airbnb or renting a car via Snappcar can be seen as amateurs and pay little or no tax on this income – but if you are seen to be running a business, this ‘hobby’ notion disappears and you must pay income tax. 

But the increase in popularity of the sharing economy and online platforms like Airbnb mean the tax authorities do not know if people are declaring all of their business income, as they have an obligation to do. It is relatively costly to investigate as small-time business owners pay little tax anyway. 

The fact that transactions happen online mean the authorities have a better chance of monitoring them, says NOS. Amsterdam city council, for example, is already using digital techniques to ‘scrape’ information from Airbnb to check if people are sticking to renting rules of a maximum of four guests at a time and 60 days a year.

Back to Basics: The HK start-up taking on fashion giants

Yahoo – AFP, Liz Thomas, July 17, 2016

Australian entrepreneur Luke Grana, 32, seen at his company's, 'Grana', office
space in Hong Kong (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

Hong Kong (AFP) - Luke Grana arrived in Hong Kong with no contacts, cold-calling 'angel investors' he'd found on LinkedIn armed with only his CV, a business plan, and some big ideas to overhaul fashion.

In little more than two years, his eponymous clothing store amassed $6 million in seed funding and has become the go-to shop for under-35s seeking quality staples for their wardrobe.

And yet Grana is not a designer, has little fashion experience, and his inspiration came from a business brainstorming session rather than a passion for couture.

What he does have are plans to shake things up.

"The way we shop for clothes is going to change," the 32-year-old says.

Global fashion sales currently total around $1.8 trillion a year, with online accounting for five percent, he says, citing a Euromonitor report.

"That is forecast to grow to 30 percent by 2030," he adds suggesting Grana, which has no physical stores -- only a fitting room space where customers can try the clothes before buying online -- is well placed to take advantage of this shift.

The current system, with its reliance on expensive shop space, middle men, and vast inventory, he insists is "hopelessly inefficient" -- and results in opaque pricing.

"Gen Y is more focused on transparency," the Australian entrepreneur -- part of Generation Y himself -- says.

"I made things simple. So if a t-shirt costs $7.50 to produce, we'll sell for $15 -- a straight forward mark-up."

Grana brand uses world renowned material such as Chinese silk from Huzhou 

or Peruvian Pima cotton, sourced from the same mills that work with luxury brands

such as Ralph Lauren and Lacoste (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

Ahead of the curve

Quality is his other pillar. The brand uses world renowned material such as Chinese silk from Huzhou or Peruvian Pima cotton, sourced from the same mills that work with luxury brands such as Ralph Lauren and Lacoste.

"We deal direct with the mills and factories, items are then shipped to our warehouse and then shipped to the customer," he explains.

Hong Kong, the world's biggest cargo hub, is well suited for his global audience -- the US, Australia and Singapore are also key markets.

Of the hundreds of cold-calls he made in late 2013, just one replied: banker Pieter Paul Wittgen.

Wittgen, now the company's COO, was impressed enough by both Grana and his ideas that he introduced him to a wider network of 'angels'.

The firm is now has backing by big name investors including BlueBell Group, distributors for the likes of Christian Dior in Asia, and Golden Gate Ventures, a leading backer of start-ups in the region.

Grana's head of design, Anthony Hill, worked for Paul Smith.

On average Grana's customers now spend $120 per order, while sales are above expectations -- rising 25-40 percent each month -- he says.

Earnings are currently being reinvested in expansion to Japan, Korea and eventually China but Grana expects to be in profit by late 2017.

It may seem an overnight success but for Sydney-born Grana this has been a long time coming.

Clothing designer Natasha Pelling takes measurements at Grana's offices

in Hong Kong (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

In his teens, he read company annual reports and business books. Aged 21 and still at university he set up his first business -- a coffee shop -- using $15,000 of life savings.

After nine months he sold for $145,000 and went on to launch and sell -- at profit -- two similar ventures.

At 24, he set up Charge Point, an electric car charging infrastructure but sold up in 2012 when he realised the concept was "ten years ahead of the industry".

He took time off to "surf and brainstorm" with his profits.

"I wasn't demotivated, I was really hungry," he insists. "During brainstorming I realised there was a disruption coming in fashion."

But his next start-up Coachy was a webcam teaching service -- an "Airbnb for tutoring" in his words.

Again he found his ideas were ahead of the curve: internet speeds then could not support his idea, so he closed up.

"I learned the importance of being in the right market at the right time."

'Do things differently'

Grana's eureka moment came during a holiday in Peru, where he came across Pima Cotton. Within the week he had visited mills and bought samples for friends and family.

"Based on their reaction I knew I had found my product. But I didn't know about styles, pricing or how to merchandise," he adds.

On average Grana's customers now spend $120 per order, while sales are above

expectations, rising 25-40% each month (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

So he went and got some shop floor experience working at Zara and French Connection.

Grana seems assured this is his moment.

Certainly the focus on "timeless wardrobe essentials" is prescient: British design house Burberry announced a move to 'seasonless collections' as the trend for decluttering sees fast fashion falling out of favour.

At Grana they focus on timeless colours and and run a limited number of seasonal ones.

"There are no sales, just one standard price year round."

Social media presence has helped spread the word quickly.

Grana's adverts pop up regularly on Facebook, 17,000 follow the Instagram account, and it uses Snapchat to give a glimpse into the mills and factories it uses.

Grana concedes "fashion has a bad reputation" for exploitation but is confident his firm does not use child labour, adding independent safety audits of production will begin this year.

"I don't want to copy anything from the traditional model," he says. "We are doing things differently."

UK retailer BHS to shut with loss of up to 11,000 jobs

Yahoo – AFP, June 2, 2016

British department store owner BHS is to close administrators said after
failing to find a buyer (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'N)

London (AFP) - British department store chain BHS is to close with the loss of up to 11,000 jobs, administrators said Thursday after failing to find a buyer.

BHS, which sells clothing, food and homeware, has failed to keep pace with traditional rivals such as Marks & Spencer and online giants like Amazon, resulting in a major loss of market share.

"Philip Duffy and Benjamin Wiles, managing directors of Duff & Phelps (the administrators) have today announced the orderly wind down of the BHS business," a statement said.

The 88-year-old company's 163 stores will enter "close-down sale mode" over the coming weeks following failed last-ditch rescue attempts by former Mothercare boss Greg Tufnell and Mike Ashley's Sports Direct.

BHS, which sells clothing, food and homeware,

 has failed to keep pace with traditional rivals such

 as Marks & Spencer and online giants like 

Amazon, resulting in a major loss of market 

share (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'N)

A total of 11,000 jobs are in peril, comprising 8,000 BHS employees who are "likely to go", with another 3,000 non-BHS staff also at risk.

"Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management it has not been possible to agree a sale of the business," the statement added.

"Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due the working capital required to secure the future of the company.

"Our thoughts today are with the employees. We thank them for their professionalism and hard work. We would also like to thank the great British public for helping us in our efforts to save BHS resulting in several weeks of significant sales."

BHS had called in outside help last month in order to help rescue the struggling firm from potential closure.

Pension fears

However, Duff & Phelps was unable to turn around the fortunes of the faltering retail giant.

"The British high street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing," said Philip Duffy, managing director of Duff & Phelps.

"The tireless work and goodwill of the existing management team and employees of BHS with the support of my team were not enough to change the fortunes of the company."

According to retail consultancy Conlumino, BHS attracted some 13.4 percent of all British clothing shoppers through its doors fifteen years ago, and had about 2.3-percent of the clothing market.

Last year however, BHS pulled in just 8.2 percent of clothing shoppers, handing it a 1.4-percent share of the sector.

BHS has debts totalling more than £1.3 billion ($1.9 billion, 1.7 billion euros), including a £571-million deficit to its pension fund, which looks after the nest eggs of over 20,000 savers.

The collapse has shone the spotlight on previous owner Philip Green, the Top Shop tycoon.

MPs are set to question him about a £400 million dividend paid to his family from the business, which he sold last year to Retail Acquisitions for a token £1.

He also faces questions about the pension scheme, which boasted a surplus when he took over 16 years ago.

Starting in 1928 with a chain in London, BHS has since grown to stand at 163 stores and 74 franchise operations across 18 countries.

Related Articles:

V&D rescue talks fail, ending 130 years of retail history

Banks, property owners play hard ball over V&D restart

Twitter an awkward child as it turns 10

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn Chapman, 18 March 2016

Twitter's woes include a slump in its stock price to all-time lows this year -- down 

nearly half from its 2013 stock market debut -- and ongoing losses, even as 

its revenue grows (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

San Francisco (AFP) - As Twitter marks its 10th birthday Monday, it is somewhat of an awkward child -- having become a powerful communication tool but still struggling to win users and reach profitability.

Since making a star-quality entrance a decade ago, Twitter has become a must-have tool for journalists, activists and celebrities but has struggled to show it can expand beyond its devoted "twitterati" to become a mainstream hit.

March 2006: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey

 (@jack) sent the first tweet, an automated 

message saying "just setting up my twttr" 

and later the same day, he sent the first

live tweet, "inviting coworkers" (AFP

Photo/Justin Tallis)

While Internet lovers might have trouble envisioning life without Twitter, the San Francisco-based company has seen its stock tank, a chief executive leave, and its staff cut.

Twitter's woes include a slump in its stock price to all-time lows this year -- down nearly half from its 2013 stock market debut -- and ongoing losses, even as its revenue grows.

Twitter's base of monthly active users remained stuck at 320 million at the end of 2015. While that is a big accomplishment, Twitter has failed to keep pace with fast-growing rivals and to expand beyond its base.

The troubles have forced Twitter to bring back co-founder Jack Dorsey as chief executive, but that has not stemmed rumors about a possible buyout or merger.

"It's not dead yet," independent analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said of Twitter.

"Watching all the metrics, you see they are not getting a lot worse but they don't seem to be getting better either."

Some analysts believe Twitter's true value is being demonstrated in the US presidential race, especially by the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump.

"Eight weeks ago I would have said the days of Twitter are over; I don't say that anymore," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry told AFP.

Twitter has 'legs'

Republican presidential candidate Donald 

Trump has boosted the number of his

 followers to nearly seven million, and has

 managed to beat rivals with a campaign 

largely based around Twitter (AFP

Photo/Rhona Wise)

The analyst said Trump has shown how potent Twitter can be for those who embrace it.

"I think that probably the worst for Twitter is over," Chowdhry said. "This platform has legs."

Chowdhry said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also used Twitter effectively to win his campaign and Tesla founder Elon Musk has been shaking up the auto sector with the help of the messaging platform.

Twitter and other social media have been important tools in movements such as the Arab Spring, and in protests in Turkey, where the government has sought to ban it.

An advantage of Twitter is that it lets users "amplify" messages with tweets that echo on the Internet, and assess public sentiment in real-time by getting quick feedback.

Trump has boosted the number of his followers to nearly seven million, and has managed to beat rivals with a campaign largely based around Twitter.

"I am pretty sure most of his followers are not on Twitter, but they know what he is saying on Twitter," analyst Omar Akhtar of the technology research firm Altimeter Group, said of Trump.

"The Twitter effect cannot be ignored. Twitter has a life beyond its platform, the trouble is it doesn't know how to monetize that part."

The research firm eMarketer lowered its revenue estimates for Twitter this month, saying its "monetization" efforts -- the selling of advertising or "promoted tweets" for those who use the platform without logging in -- are falling short.

A man looks at a tweet from US Republican

 presidential candidate Jeb Bush showing a

 handgun and the caption "America" in

 Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Nicholas

Kamm)

"Events like the US election and Summer Olympics this year may prove pivotal to the success of this strategy," said eMarketer's Martin Utreras.

Change brings risk

Twitter bears the weight of being measured against Internet titans such as Facebook, which is only a few years older but has eclipsed the billion-user mark.

Flight VC partner Lou Kerner, whose investor group watches emerging companies, said Twitter has done "an amazing job" creating a new communication medium but appears to have leveled off instead of becoming ubiquitous.

"Like any other company, Twitter is judged on growth," Kerner said. "They have stagnated."

Even more troubling, Kerner noted, is that engagement at Twitter has been ebbing in an indication that "people have tired of it."

While Facebook has evolved with new features, Twitter has changed little since it began, according to Kerner.

"In order to reignite engagement, they would have to make profound changes to what they do," he said.

"The problem is, you can't make a make a massive change without a massive risk."

Some say Twitter has become a victim of

its own success -- it has become so

cluttered with information that it becomes

hard to navigate (AFP Photo/Damien

Meyer)

Some say Twitter has become a victim of its own success -- it has become so cluttered with information that it becomes hard to navigate.

"Twitter is still incredibly relevant when it comes to major cultural events, major news events, the kinds of things people are discussing around the world," said Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer.

"But anyone who follows just a couple of hundred people can easily be overwhelmed by the amount of information. It becomes work rather than fun."

Dorsey currently is managing two firms, Twitter and mobile payments startup Square -- both multibillion dollar companies struggling to achieve profitability.

Dorsey said Twitter priorities for this year include making it more intuitive to use; live-streaming video, and making it safer for people to freely express themselves on the platform.

Twitter recently revamped its timeline, allowing the "best" tweets to rise to the top, despite warnings of a revolt from members loyal to the real-time flow of the messaging platform.

"If you look at the 10 years as a whole, you will see that Twitter really has revolutionized the way we communicate," Akhtar said.

"To me, it is a utility like electricity or the phone -- it is really part of everyday life."

Twitter an awkward child as it turns 10 https://t.co/by1E6cQsrP pic.twitter.com/B5stMnbKrz

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 18, 2016

¿Que bolá Cuba? Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.

— President Obama (@POTUS) March 20, 2016

Related Article:

"You Don’t Know How the Frog Jumps"–  Jan11, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  Last week, I gave you a message about the potentials of 2011. And there were those in this room who attended. I'm going to repeat something I said there, for you need to hear it and it has to do with politics. It would seem intuitive to every single Human Being in the room that in order to accomplish what you do as Americans in Congress, you must have at least two parties. For that is the way it has always been - the red and the blue.

What if I told you that there will come a time when there will be no parties? You might then say, "Well, that's impossible, Kryon, because you're not Human and you don't know how funding works." You might say, "It has to be a party that creates the power to raise money for the ones who cannot, and then the funding is spread around and this is the way we work. If you didn't have parties, you'd have no funding. Nobody could advertise, and no one could get elected."

Oh, really?

Are you aware right now, that you have a president who was elected on the Internet? He figured it out. When everybody can talk to everyone, you have plenty of funding. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. You talk to millions at the same time, they talk to millions at the same time. It's a new paradigm of communication. The young people know all about it, and you can't stop it. Watch for more from this new paradigm.

It is worldwide communication, one person at a time. It doesn't matter how many laws you pass, and it doesn't matter what you decide about who is in charge of it, you can't stop it. It's out of the bag now, and the communities of the young are going to be communicating. This is how the politicians are going to be communicating to you, literally coming into your home in a holographic form perhaps, explaining their position one by one, without a party. Then you will elect them to your Congress without a party and they will sit in the chairs without a division and there will be no such thing as the "other side of the aisle."

And that, Human Being, is called unity and there is a paradigm that you cannot even imagine. And it's in the works. And then you'll have a Congress that works together and gets things done without the current duality.  ….”

Shoppers happier with online retailers, despite later deliveries

DutchNews, January 12, 2016

Webshops delivered some 460,000 parcels too late for Sinterklaas and Christmas this year, a fractional improvement on 2014, according to research by Q&A Research. 

In terms of Sinterklaas, which is primarily a children’s event, one-third of the parcels contained toys, the research group notes. ‘Over 70,000 parents had some explaining to do,’ director Frank Quix told broadcaster Nos.

In total, 5% of Sinterklaas and 6% of Christmas gifts did not arrive on time. 

Nevertheless, people’s satisfaction with online retailers – from the ordering process to delivery – has risen sharply. This year 88% of those questioned were happy with the retailer’s performance, compared with 50% in 2014.