Renovation work underway in and around our home explains why this site has been quiet recently. That and the July trip Gwen and I took across the ocean, which allowed us to spend a short time in Amsterdam. The Netherlands manages the environment to gain benefits for the public.
The historic city of Amsterdam offers wonderful places to visit, including museums and galleries that feature important collections by Rembrandt, Vermeer, van Gogh, Verspronck, and other masters.
Amsterdam’s canal system offers unique views of the city. A pilot like the one we had provides the history of the city and its waterways.
The city’s canals have been vital for trade, transportation, and flood control. Dating back about 400 years, the system is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Many residents of the Netherlands speak English, and do it very well. That means unilingual North Americans have zero difficulty when visiting the Netherlands. One thing that was immediately apparent in Amsterdam was the importance of two-wheeled people movers. The city has more bicycles than people.
I was particularly struck by the city’s cleanliness and the apparent absence of poor and homeless people. A short while before, I had been in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, and the street scenes saddened me. Recent American visitors asked me why a prosperous city has such troubling exhibitions of poverty and humans in need.
I suspect we could learn from the people in the Netherlands. Homelessness is a subject I intend to write about soon.
Categories: Blog Business
in-sights.ca 
You touch on homelessness, Norm, in your above article. As a Canadian, I am embarrassed that anybody finds themselves sleeping on the streets. Canada is an extremely wealthy country and this is unacceptable. I do some homelessness outreach work so I see this reality unfold.
There are solutions but our politicians have chosen to ignore them. Finland has virtually eliminated homelessness since they introduced the ‘Housing First’ program back in 2007. In the process, they have saved a lot of money. I invite your readers to learn more about the Housing First program by watching the video below. We need to bring this program to Canada.
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Mr McCutcheon’s video on Finland’s Housing first is a perfect primer.
But what it lacks is detail, depth. You never understand why this Housing First works.
For clarity try this link..
But prepare yourself to be inundated with surprisingly new ideas.
If possible send the link to your favourite politician.
Seek comment…
Enjoy.
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Thanks for sharing. I am puzzled why our politicians continuously ignore success stories from around the world. In many cases, the solutions to many of our pressing problems are out there. We just need to open our eyes and implement them here at home.
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Politicians ignore success stories , you say? Wait.
Isn’t their primary function to deny new ideas?
“We’re deeply unfathomably sorry. But we can’t possibly do what a gazillion other states already do. Not here. Next question?”
Got a spare ten minutes?
Whoever “El” is her range of interests, her ability to tap into diverse subjects and drill down to core issues is um, staggering. This is what a Scholar sounds like, thinks like..
In today’s example this Danish Ph.D explores news about Canada that somehow flew below our public radar.
Canadian media either never heard about this exceptional deal with Sweden or many editors thought, “Who cares? Our target demographic wouldn’t be interested, Let’s run more posts about menu choices and how age 80 is the new 29!” .
Hers is systems analytic thinking. Strategic. All encompassing. Imagine any politician capable of packing so much coherent thought into the time it requires for a slow breakfast.
Did you appreciate/survive that video?
Enjoy.
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