Cempaka Belanda: From drugs to dachas: VVD tops poll of Dutch political integrity scandals

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

From drugs to dachas: VVD tops poll of Dutch political integrity scandals

DutchNews, January 28, 2019

Alexander Pechtold (right) was criticised for not declaring a gift of an apartment.
Photo: Sebastiaan ter Burg via Wikimedia Commons

Coalition leader the VVD has topped an annual ranking of the most scandal-hit political parties for the sixth year in a row.

The right-wing liberal faction featured 12 times in the Political Integrity Index, which lists all the major incidents of the last 12 months. The next most frequently cited party, the anti-immigration PVV, was cited in six scandals, followed by Labour (PvdA) and the progressive-liberal D66 group, each on five.

The index, published this year in the Volkskrant newspaper and previously in weekly news magazine Vrij Nederland, catalogues all breaches of internal rules or codes of conduct by party members that feature in the media. To qualify, the episode must involve a political office bearer at national or local level and either lead to sanctions against the person concerned or trigger their resignation.

The VVD’s scandals in 2018 included foreign affairs minister Halbe Zijlstra’s resignation after it emerged he had lied repeatedly about meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in his dacha in 2006.

Zijlstra claimed Putin had boasted to him about his ambitions to forge a ‘greater Russia’ from former Soviet satellite states, but later admitted he had overheard the remarks, which were made in a different context, from another room.

Two VVD senators, Loek Hermans and Anne-Wil Duthler, were implicated in conflict of interest cases. Hermans resigned from the upper house over his role at healthcare organisation Meavita, which went bankrupt in 2009, while Duthler was criticised for using her own advisory agency to analyse a bill that she voted on.

Homes and holidays

Another conflict of interest case involved the PvdA’s Senate group leader, Marleen Barth, who stepped down after it emerged she had tried to secure a rent reduction for her husband, former Wassenaar mayor Jan Hoekema, when he stayed on in the mayor’s residence after leaving office. Barth was also criticised for going on holiday during a crucial Senate vote.

The PvdA was involved in the most unlikely political scandal of the year when Almere alderman Tjeerd Herrema was accused of making sexually suggestive phone calls to a journalist. The controversy began when local reporter Marcel Beijer answered a call from Herrema to hear heavy breathing. Herrema claimed he had accidentally ‘butt-dialled’ Beijer from his toilet, but when Beijer claimed he had received an explicit text message from the alderman Herrema’s colleagues forced his resignation.

The PVV’s woes were attributed to the party’s lack of internal structure and failure to screen potential candidates. This led to the enforced departure of its lead candidate for Rotterdam’s local elections, Géza Hegedüs, just a day after he was appointed, after it emerged that he had made racist statements and expressed his admiration for disgraced Holocaust denier David Irving.

PVV tweeters

PVV members were also prone to ill-considered comments on Twitter, which put paid to the careers of Emmen councillor Tom Kuilder and his colleague in Delfzijl, Emil Smeding. The latter responded to news of a fire at a refugee detention centre with a Facebook post suggesting it should be put out with petrol.

The most common source of political scandal was indiscretions in officers’ private lives. Although D66 leader Alexander Pechtold’s affair with a councillor in Drenthe didn’t qualify for inclusion because it was not a factor in his resignation, the party lost local councillor Erwin Duursma, from Tietjerksteradeel, when he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking. After being cleared he told the Leeuwarder Courant that although he had friends in the local Hells Angels branch, nothing untoward had taken place.

Christian Democrat councillor Rob Huijben left the party after it emerged that he had fabricated threatening messages directed at himself, while his party colleague Jan van Cranendonck, acting mayor of Baarle-Nassau, quit after an inquiry found he had declared four visits to a family member on expenses. The total sum claimed was €300.

Although the Netherlands ranks among the least corrupt nations in the world, taking eighth place on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, there are concerns about the lack of formalised integrity rules in Parliament.

The European council’s anti-corruption unit Greco published a report last year criticising the lack of oversight, citing the row over Alexander Pechtold’s inheritance of an apartment in Scheveningen from a foreign diplomat. Pechtold was not obliged to declare the €135,000 property in the MPs’ register of gifts.