A whole pack of 25 watch dog puppies are being resourced  by our Minister for Aid, Trade and Investment. The purpose is getting to a cross-breed that is best able to watch over peoples interests (including Dutch business interests). 

Puppies always are very attractive. However, how they will mature determines to a large extend whether you are still going to like them. Visiting the website of Dog Breeds List you realise that there is a large variety of watch dogs.

Over the past couple of years Dutch NGOs have behaved like Australian Cattle Dogs. A medium-sized dog, alert, witty, brave, honest, absolutely loyal to duty, characteristic that make it an ideal working dog. Will they qualify for adoption by the minister to protect the Dutch business interests?

Another fine description may get close to what the Minister is looking for. It is the Manchester Terrier, a small terrier dog breed. Her temperament? Gay, Devoted, Active, Alert, Keen, Discerning. Neither aggressive nor shy. Not being a sparring breed, the Manchester is generally friendly with other dogs. Excessive shyness or aggressiveness should be considered a serious fault. 

What kind of puppies Ploumen wants will be the question. Is it one nest of puppies of the same breed? Or is it a carefully selected combination of breeds that will help to not only protect the cattle but also the people?

For Ploumens policy paper (in Dutch) on civil society engagement click here.
Find here my comments underneath an article at the Dutch website ViceVersa covering this subject.

When trying to bring some order to the messy surge of holiday pictures, I came across the above decoration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. After a firm walk from Bois de Bologne where we desperately searched for some shade, we finally ended up underneath the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris, providing what we had been looking for. Looking upward I gazed at these decorations reminding me of the shared history of France and Egypt.

Browsing the internet to find the story that connects the Arc de Triomphe to Egypt, I read a story by Samir Rafaat in the Cairo Times of September 4, 1997 about another arc that was built for a French general, called Soliman al-Fransawi, who had forsaken Napoleon's army and joined the Egyptian forces of Viceroy Mohamed Ali to become one of the countries most respected generals at a time of expansion into Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

The same story provides us an account of the remuneration system of the army at the time. "It was customary for Viceroys to reward their generals with two large tracts of land, one in Cairo, the other in a rural area. While the first usually became the recipient's official residence, the second was a source of considerable income. This munificent remunerative system was not without its benefits for the
country at large, for it invariably led to the embellishment and expansion of Cairo as generals built new palaces."

We are living in a time of little consideration of history and absence of clear visions of the future, probably in fear of new ideologies where old ones have not delivered. "People are crushed by the presence" as the Pope said in a recent interview with Italian based magazine La Republica. Religion can easily become yet another exclusionary system as witnessed by the recent attempt of the Moslim Brotherhood to bring religious oversight to the public office. For the time being, the majority of the Egyptian people seem to prefer the military above religious institutions to safeguard the economy, though some would claim the opposite. Hopefully a third way can be figured out that would bring back stability and peace to the Egyptian streets, welfare to Egyptian homes and well-being to the Egyptian people.