Slideshow Jan Schouten

59 a correction and ....MY NEWYEARRESOLUTION

Sorry, I made a mistake, the hooligan certainly did not adress Marco van Basten this way:
"with all due respect you are a pannenkoek(pancake)." ( SEE 58/57)

The man just said: "Hey, Marco, Thanks!!!Pancake!!!!!!"

And My NewyearResolution At last ( 2009) SIMPLIFY LIFE.

58 new site onland.nu

There is no news only this: my new site about Onland, my novel. look at

WWW.ONLAND.NU

57 Van Basten has been "pancaked" just like Balkenende.

Pancake is the english translation of the dutch word "pannenkoek".


The most famous dutch soccer player Marco van Basten recently had the surprise of his life after another bad match of his side. An eloquent hooligan addressed him, only saying this "with all due respect you are a pannenkoek(pancake)." (rightly so, because Marco is a bad trainer)
This is a nice statement you can use safely everywhere:

"with all due respect you are a pannenkoek(pancake)."

Reading about this in my KLM plane back from a trip to Bangkok and Beijing I laughed my head off.
What effect can you expect when adressing someone this way?
Big effect. Someone said it to mr Balkenende, prime minister, and this man was so impressed that hij decided to undo his blockade of the parlementary research into the way he led our country into the treacherous war with Iraq.
Yes our Primeminister has been succesfully pancaked. Van Balkenende justifiably can be called pannenkoek now, the same way like van Basten, that other pannenkoek.

Schouten China Won 2008 “Top 10 Training Organizations”Award

11th, January 2009, Beijing. Schouten China received an award as one of the top 10 training organizations in 2008 at the “2009 Annual Meeting on China Management Training and Human Resource Planning” event, organized by China Human Resource Union and China Training, leading HR organization and training media in China.

VIPs from top HR organizations and business schools attended the meeting. Among them are director of EMBA center of Business School of Renmin University (one of China’s top universities and business schools), Chairman of Union of China Learning Organisations, CEO of China Training and chairman of China MBA Union etc.

Mr. Chris Qishi Jiang, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Trainer of Schouten China, was awarded as one of the “Top 10 Traners” in 2008 at the event and was invited to give a speech at the meeting on “Change to be more effective”. In his speech Mr. Jiang talked about the importance of soft skills and he described it in his “Formula Toward Success” model on how to achieve success:


Chris’ structured explanation on the importance of soft skills was very well received by the audience. From this model he started to explain the unique soft skills training service of Schouten China. At the end of his speech he invited the audience to do a simple exercise on behavior change and it was received with passionate applause.



The awards were accredited by the executive committee of the event ograniser and the online voting campaign of China Training.

55 the first hours of the last day of 2008. "I got a bad marriage she said"

On this last day of 2008 I got out of my bed 0900 o'clock. The lake was nearly completely frozen and the surface smooth except on some places where long ridges betrayed the fruitful last attempts of the wind to keep the water flowing. In the middle hundreds of birds motionless in an ice-hole. Where will they go to when King Frost strikes the final blow?
I shave: a 30 second achievement. Wash. Brush teeth. I remember: funeral today of a far far away relative of relatives. But I will also visit my neighbour.
It is 09.20 and I ring the doorbell of this 86 year old lady. I want to wish her a good new year, but not only coffee and sigarettes are the additional reasons for my visit.
She stumbles to her tiny kitchen in the corner. Returns with my first coffee of the day. Offers me a sigarette.
"I drop in to wish you a very good 2009."
"Thank you,' she answers," do you want an other one?'
"I would like, but sorry, I have to go. There is a funeral waiting for me.'
She offers me a second sigarette.
"Near you, close by?"
"No."
I tell her the story of the 60 plus mother who committed suicide by jumping before the wheels of a car. The day after Christmas. The day after the familymeeting where in the memory of all present she played- played? yes played I guess- the caring, sharing, humorous and gentle mother and grandmother.
I won't reveal my neighbours name, I call her M.
"Yesterday it is 17 year ago my husband died,' M says.
Another time she had told me already she had never cried and while observing her I could not
detect any sign of gleaming of her eyes.
"Where you happy with him?' I asked
"I have made many mistakes in my life, she said.
"Lovers?"
"No,"she said, not in the least disturbed by my question."You know I have been calvinistically educated. Submissive. The other always has the priority. My husband was an adopted child and he could never find his biological parents. He suffered. i was the nurse, so to speak. I discovered it after his death: I had a bad marriage."
Silence. No movements. Outside the sky is grey, seemingly frozen.
"But you must also have had happy moments."
M looked up. A smile breaks through. I am not sure if it is happy one or one of those smiles
that reconcile us with a hopeful memory that ended up false.
"I tell you Jan,' M said," after 10 years of marriage my father in law died. I was suffering from a nasty rash, irritating, painful, hardly bearable in the back of that car that drove us to the graveyard.'
She took a sigaret but did not light it.
"And then, Jan, he put his arms around my shoulders and kind of hugged me.'
I waited, there was more to come.
"For the first time,' she said.

After a while I stood up and did what I had to do.

Standing on the threshold of her door- in the freezing cold- she waited untill I had removed the ice from the windows of the car and she stood there waving me goodbye until I had made the far corner to the mainroad.