Van: "A.D. Dirkzwager" <[email protected]>
Onderwerp: Doorst.: NYTimes: Solar Mini-Grids Give Nigeria a
. Power Boost
Datum: 14 januari 2019 om 12:10:59 CET
Aan: "El Khalil Faysal M."
Dear Faysal and May,
It is customary to wish each other (family, friends and acquaintances) a happy and/or a prosperous new year in the month December. It turns out that, a year later, the benefactors are still hardly curious as to whether their wishes have been fulfilled.
From the content of your email of January 9, 2019, I gather that you have recorded the year 2018 as a happy year in the annals. In 2018, the Seven Up Bottling Company returned to the fold of the family.
I have read through the 2017 annual accounts and concluded that this was the right moment for the bid to take the shares off the stock exchange. Another comment directed at the management is: 'There is room for improvement.' I assume that the outlook for the 2018 annual results, to be presented at the end of March, will likely show a healthy return on equity.
Other topic.
You both lead busy social lives, which makes it necessary to get away for a retreat every now and then. Twenty years ago, a friend warned us: "If you move to Amsterdam, you won’t have any time left for yourselves." Admittedly, that might be a slight exaggeration.
Leisure time is the time that remains after work and social obligations. I can hear you saying: "Adriaan, aren't you retired?" That may be true, but it certainly doesn't exempt me from all sorts of chores! For instance, we have a four-year-old granddaughter who is dropped off at eight in the morning and isn't picked up again until 7:00 p.m.; she takes up quite a bit of our time. In April 2018, our eldest son, Floris (47, father of three wonderful daughters aged 13, 12, and 10), let us know by phone that he and his wife, Else Marie, no longer wish to continue their life together.
It came as a bolt from the blue for us. Floris does not wish to share his reasons for the divorce with us. At 47 years old, one is responsible for one’s own life choices, and evidently, he does not want to burden us with them. It is a relief to us that Floris and Else Marie are handling the divorce in a mature manner, ensuring that their daughters do not have to choose between their mother and their father.
The arrangements were reached in good faith, insofar as one can even speak of "good faith" in the context of divorce proceedings.
Another divorce process concerns the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU. The reasons that led people to vote for Brexit are based on incorrect assumptions. Tomorrow, a crucial vote will take place in the British Parliament regarding the terms under which the United Kingdom will end its EU membership.
In addition, I spent 13 years as manager of the Rotterdam branch of Lloyds Bank plc. All the superiors to whom I reported throughout my career may have thought they were my betters. That was not the case; in fact, they were my inferiors, with one exception: Stuart Cook. As my superior, he commanded my full dedication. Cook, an Englishman through and through, born in Argentina and fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, was my boss in Amsterdam for three years, and subsequently headed Lloyds Bank’s operations in Spain for four years. Moreover, he would spend four to six weeks of his vacation in Spain every year. Yet, he voted for Brexit. I am convinced that England, a medium-sized nation of 66 million people, plays only a subordinate role on the global stage compared to major powers like China, the US, Russia, and the EU. When I asked him what had prompted him to vote for Brexit, he replied: "In general, I am wary of federations, and in particular of a future EU federation."
I was dumbfounded. The United Kingdom is a federation, and the proceeds from the sale of crude oil extracted from Scotland’s territorial waters flowed directly into the English treasury.
I recently read a statement by Henry Miller (1891–1980): "Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. Statements that can be neither confirmed nor refuted by experience create confusion." I wrote to Cook: "It strikes me that there is a great deal of confusion in the world—except in kindergarten."
That’s it for today. I didn’t go into detail about the successes of the 2018 marathon. I didn’t write at length about my weight loss that year—14 kilos—and I didn’t give Vera enough of a shout-out in this email. And what about the impact of Trump’s sanctions against Iran on Lebanon? How are the Lebanon cedars faring? Hopefully, these topics will be covered in my next email perhaps.
Keep up the good spirit in 2019. Love you both, Vera & Adriaan
P.S. Moreover, I am of the opinion that Solar Powered Mini Grids is a necessity for Lebanon. Extensive large Solar Powered grids may be are too vulnerable political in a less stable country. I refer to the appendix of the NYT : Click on READ MORE
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Van: A D Dirkzwager <[email protected]>
Onderwerp: NYTimes: Solar Mini-Grids Give Nigeria a Power Boost Datum: 4 december 2018 om 14:06:31 CЕТ
Aan: "Adriaan D. Dirkzwager" <[email protected]>
Here is an article from The New York Times that you might find interesting:
Six small-scale pilot networks (mini-grids) provide a stable power supply to rural residents in Africa’s most densely populated country; this reduces emissions and strengthens energy security.
