Who am I?

Who am I?An entrepreneurial, enthusiastic, hardworking (single) mother with over 45 years of work experience. “Oh Canada, my home and native country”. As the eldest daughter of a mother and father who wanted to leave the war years behind, I was born in London, Ontario. My parents booked the Holland America Line and sailed by sea from Rotterdam, via New York, to Canada. Living a new life as young people in their twenties. Six richer children, we crossed back to the Netherlands together. A sight, those six printers on the plane. What would await us in the Netherlands? Clogs, windmills and a hole in the dike? Through crossword puzzles and by listening to the Journal, I built up a vocabulary. In 1978, having received a VWO diploma, I got to work. I tackled everything. Worked for a few years as an intermediary, as a secretary at the Self-Protection Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as a typist at the Ministry of Education and at the Red Cross. I wanted to gain as much work experience as possible. All these different employers found it intriguing. I knew something for sure: being a public servant wasn't for me. Too boring, slow, inefficient; my contribution didn't count. In the evenings, I'm 27^e started studying economics (Hogeschool Den Haag and Utrecht) and completed it with a '10'. I also carried out my thesis again: I started an educational bookstore and a children's bookstore. Two private retail buildings, three beautiful children, a designer home by Piet Blom: fortune seemed to be laughing at me. Until in 1993, just after the birth of my youngest daughter, I suddenly turned my life into a life-or-death struggle. Fortunately, the doctors found out that I had sepsis (life-threatening blood poisoning). A long hospital stay followed. At my bedside, the doctor appeared with a bad news message. There is nothing more we can do for you. Little chance of success, we throw in a substantial dose of prednisone. Just say goodbye. Heavy drugs, a near-death experience, at the mercy of machines; for weeks, my life looked like this in intensive care. It didn't look like I would ever be able to function again. I learned how to breathe, walk, ride a bike on my own again. Wonderfully, I was allowed to go home after weeks. That's when I realized that life is precious and not self-evident. That I really had to rely on myself to make something else out of it. A four-year separation followed, where I lost everything I had. My view of life changed. Family ties have become more important since then, I like to connect with and between people, like to shape and content my own life; I like to think about what makes my life meaningful. Following my intuition appears to be a good advisor for me. Strangely enough, I also developed a sense of things and people who don't have my best interests at heart. I have a better sense of what's going to happen. I think they call this highly sensitive these days. Very handy in any case! A fourth child! I found it an incredible miracle that I had a very healthy son, Lucas, with a new partner. On my 42^e notabene. This makes me one of the oldest allowance mothers.What does my life look like? After ten years of working all kinds of jobs, I worked as a bookseller for ten years.. After that, ten years in changing positions in the financial services industry, I learned a lot of new things. After another ten years, I started a hospitality business with my daughters. I took the next step after 15 years. In 2022, I sold my company to my brewer, Eembier. From the start, I wanted to do something new. People said I was crazy: working with regional products. Eembier was there from day one. When Ruud heard that I wanted to quit, to focus on the benefits affair (and on my children and grandchildren Alice and Jonah), he was the first to say: 'I would like to have my own beer room. There's no better place than downtown Amersfoort.” I have files full of (painful) memories of the local government. My dream was to make as many products as possible myself, with natural products. To ensure connection between people. Music, good food and drinks made that possible. I enjoyed meeting so many nice people from home and abroad. By a strange twist of fate, I ended up in a 9-year Kafkaian soap and nightmare. I opened my doors with a public urinal on my patio. The neighbors got the remote control and decided when the Urilift came up. Even with a full terrace. Unfortunately, I had to fight for 15 years not to drown. “Living along the edge of the abyss for years,” the AD wrote about it. You can find a nice video about this on Youtube, where I joke that I can make 'The Lift 2'. In addition to the Urigate affair, I also appear to have been affected by the allowance refunds in 2021. Just not completely knockout yet, I'm slowly starting to feel like a 'normal' person again in 2024. The admission that I had been wrongly seen as a fraud all these years followed in the same year. Harshly dealt with. Unnecessarily mangled. For years. Even as a single mother. AND FOR NOTHING. What is the Foundation for the Recovery of Unprecedented Injustice? After studying investigative journalism at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences in 2014 and 2022, I decided to take lessons at Open Eyes, Institute for Investigative Journalism in Amsterdam, for a whole year in July 2022. A great course, great to do something completely different! I have now completed three years of research. Many contacts built up. I'm helping me think about how recovery surgery can be improved and many of my ideas have already been implemented. I regularly write letters with issues that have not been resolved to the House of Representatives and the Senate. These letters are answered by the Ministry of Finance. I also make WOO requests. I have two running: one about immaterial damage that is now before the Court and one about the tender from the Lotgenotencontact Foundation. In my opinion, the recovery operation is needlessly lengthy and far too expensive. As parents, we hardly see any of this. More money is being spent on civil servants, freelancers, lawyers, consultants, national lawyers, mediation projects, the Equal Recovery Foundation, and municipal support. Organizations such as a Perspective Fund, Movisie, Diversion are all allowed to issue reports that both slow down and that are not done with! How did I end up with More Direct Democracy? Since 2022, I have organized four demonstrations. In The Hague near the Palace of Justice. Twice on the doorstep in Utrecht at the Implementation Organization for Recovery Operation Surcharges. On March 8, 2023, on International Women's Day, I let parents speak myself and also held an interview with the management of UHT and Recovery Surgery. On May 31, 2023, I went to Brussels with a group of parents, after sending a cry for help to the members of the European Parliament. That's how I met Dorien Rookmaker. She came to me first. We kept in touch! She talked about her ideas to set up a political platform. Was I interested in participating? YES! Why vote for me? When I see that there is an injustice, that things are not right, I can't close my eyes to it. I get stuck in it. Until it's solved. This also applies to the benefits and recovery scandal. My research has given me many insights. On International Women's Day, I contacted Harriet Duurvoort from de Volkskrant. As a result, she has incorporated many facts into a very nice column. For example, 70% of the parents are single, and the majority are women. 83% of the parents have roots in another country. Suriname, Curacao, Morocco, Turkey, Indonesia: these are the largest countries in which a selection has taken place. The parents come from more than 100 countries, and many have fled back to their country of birth or to their parents. Mass discrimination is it! Notably by the government! As a (single) woman, I've run into a lot of things. Fathers who did not want to pay alimony, childcare that was suddenly no longer possible, school hours that were difficult for a working mother, a single income in the family, health problems, financial worries, having to work too hard, partners who did not cooperate. Because of the poverty I've experienced for years (while I had my life on track before that), I've seen how difficult it is to get help. If you have your own home, or so-called wealth, there is no one to help you. Remissions do not apply to an entrepreneur. As a small SME, I also noticed that the government is actually your biggest enemy. Rules, bureaucracy, harassment, opposition are a dime a dozen. As a hospitality entrepreneur (hospitality affer), you even received extra 'points' from the government. Not like douze points at the Eurovision Song Contest, but a potential fraudster in advance! I want to draw attention to this in Europe. Europe's goals and core goals appeal to me as a European citizen and a journalist! A digital disaster like the one that happened in the Netherlands should not happen in Europe. The contact that Dorien made in Europe, including with the European Ombudsman, will lead to a request for an infringement procedure. I want to build trust. Building people-first improvements. Start a positive 'movement'! Show what we can do together as citizens of Europe! Vote for me if you're also upset about the wrongly convicted parents. If you want to see the role of racism and discrimination in the Dutch government on the European agenda. Vote if you think that human rights violations in Europe should be examined.