If you can't beat them ...

.... have some fun with them.


So there I was. Duly blocking and ignoring all those who didn't know me from Adam but were keen on ridiculing me, lecturing me on what I should and should not do, how much I should donate, and being generally annoying little pests. Like an electronic fly-swatter, every time another one reared its ugly head, I'd smile, screenshoot, block and ignore. Mind you it was a challenge sometimes. I am used to having the last say so this was also a great exercise in letting go. I must say it was a big relief to smile and click 'block'. Now one of the most offending pages is like and oasis of quiet and bliss, with only the admin of that page talking to herself. 

Now did those nasties take it off the internet and into my real world? I honestly don't know. But I like to think if my previous employer got a freaky email making bold claims of what I supposedly said or did, there would have been a phone call or email already. IF they actually pulled it off like one of them claimed (as can be seen in the screen grab above), I have a fleeting suspicion any recipient would hit the delete button straightaway. I have seen the email she sent to Loose Women, which was the raving of a lunatic. Not everyone has been so lucky, though. On of my online friends got that crank call, good thing is we recorded it. And noticed straightaway that it got taken down, then uploaded again, this time a different version! 

As I blocked and blocked and blocked some more. I felt more secure not being reported for simply voicing my opinion, no threats, no lewd language, just an opinion that was different from theirs. But I felt also strangely dissatisfied. Don't get mad, get even, was one of the slogans I used to have in my agenda. Would be nice to have some fun at their expense and rattle their cage a little. And lo and behold, there they were, the team from http://lestrollops.wordpress.com/ . Look for the white witch from the south parking her broom there every now and then to pass a comment :D

Social media and the freedom of speech continued

After experiencing being cut off my from my online social group because someone apparently saw fit to mass report me, some questions came up.

What is mass reporting? How does it work?
How many people does it take to mass report someone? Who investigates those claims that people are indeed violating facebook rules?
What happens if it is found out that people have unjustly used the reporting feature in order to suit their cyberbullying agenda? Are those people banned? Are their accounts shut down? 

A lot of questions, and where is that facebook security you can turn to if you feel someone is engaged unjustifiable mass reporting activities on your account? 

Mass reporting is enough people reporting whatever comments, pictures of post you upload by using the report feature on the community standards page. 
You are given options like this person is impersonating me/someone i know/a celebrity etcetera, and among the options are also 'this person is annoying me' and 'this person is harrassing or bullying me'. Interestingly, if the person is only 'annoying' that's that, but if the person is harrassing or bullying you are given an option to mail a copy to someone you trust on facebook - so I did in one instance, I forwarded my blocking of one person to a facebook friend and fellow volunteer who lives in Britain and hasn't been on that community page where I got reported (200 % by someone from the counterpart of that page which happens to use almost the same name but with a twist), I also sent her an e-mail explaining what happened and asking if she was okay with me turning to her for help. This feature was only recently installed by facebook.

But how many people does it take to mass report since that other page had only 177 'likes' at the time, and only between 8 and 20 people who were active on that page?

One of the first sites that seemed to provide some answers was this one:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381750,00.asp 
but after going over it, I didn't find much that was helpful in my situation, though knowing that it is taken seriously by authorities is reassuring.

Back to the safety centre it is. 
https://www.facebook.com/help/safety

And there it is, the Facebook security page. 
I am reading a host of comments by other posters, yet as I am blocked I am unable to ask for help. So I guess I will have to wait until the block is lifted... 


 

what happens when people think they're omnipotent

The internet is a fickle thing. It brings people together, makes miracles happen. But it also brings out the worst in people. Deep down in the crevisses of the internet, especially on social websites, trolls are lurking. Beings who apparate like a badmouthed ghost, insulting, generally annoying, sometimes harrassing and in rare occasions bringing their targets to tears. In extreme cases, targets who were already vulnerable succumbed to this virtual onslaught and took extreme measures, leading to some taking their own lives.

It is very tempting to respond to their verbal onslaught. Sometimes their targets even feel a compelling urge to respond and put a wrong right. However understandable, this is the one thing you should never ever do. As who ever ventures to address a troll for being rude, hurting someone's feelings, or being generally vile in their language, will find the critter doing a 180 and turning into a 'victim', telling you off for being a bully, yes, a bully! How dare you! After all, the perogative of calling names and throwing insults is the troll's and his or hers alone, the mere concept of people standing up for themselves is alien to them. 

This common denominator for said critter, an utter incapacity to grasp the principle that if you throw mud at someone you are at risk of receiving some sort of retaliation at some point, becomes even more poignant in its presence when the troll has developed a deep routed belief to be in sole possession of The Truth. How that Truth is defined depends on the troll or trollop in question, but one thing's for sure: for this particular type of troll that Truth is chiselled in stone and there is no straying from it. Anyone who dares question that Truth is by default labelled a troll (oh irony) or a sheeple, incapable of doing independent reasoning and thinking and thus by default a lower class human, and thus should take whatever the troll or trollop dishes out at them without questioning or - gods forbid!- giving counter-arguments. For that reason, the creature crowns him- or herself with the unofficial title of Enlightened One.

In the creature's ideal world, anyone encountering the Enlightened One's verbal vitriolic version of The Truth should be awstricken, and subsequently bow over and thank the creature for bringing enlightment into their lowlife mortal world. Fail to respond in this way and the Enlightened One will be enraged and then conclude that therefore your skull must be void. Typically, the creature surrounds itself with a group of Loyal Yaysayers who, not hindered by any knowledge of the target, will nod vehemently to everything and anything the Enlightened One says. Some of them will be in Enlightened One's inner circle,the Most Loyal Core, possible even one of the chosen few who are allowed to enter the Inner Sanctum and have a cuppa and some biscuits anointed by the Enlightened One. Some of the followers will use their own name, so deep routed is their conviction of the Righteousness of the Enlightened One, and as a result they feel like they don't have to deal with any consequences of their doings as some of the higher being's omnipotence has rubbed off on them.

Others may only vaguely know the Enlightened One, though not personal, and a lot of the yaysayers are just that - yaysayers. They may never have laid eye on the Enlightened One, they may not even know whether Enlightened One is a he a she or an it, heck, whether it's a human at all or even an alien! Because true to form, Enlightened One never shows its face. Only very rarely the Enlightened One shows any signs of ordinary everyday human life, but usually it is only in a context alluding to Enlightened One's self-alloted importance in society. Apart from those rare glimpses, the Enlightened One doesn't allow any part of his or her mere mortal (and, presumably, rather dull) everyday existence to come to surface. Even his or her online identity is a mystery, and remains so even though targets might try and find out who or what is lurking behind the blinding light of self-importance emitted by the Enlightened One. The loyal yaysayers help perpetuate this aura of omnipotence and reinforce the Enlightened One's idea of being beyond the grasp of mere mortals. Enlightened One hides behind multiple accounts and/or profiles, never ever unveiling anything of his or her real identity. Which is why the best advise to any targets is to totally ignore anything coming from the creature. Because unlike the traditional schoolyard bully, who might just shut up after a good telling off or the occasional slap in the face, Enlightened One has the solidity of a whisp of smoke, causing any attempt to strike back to feel like an utterly futile endeavour.

Because of this, Enligthened One thinks him/herself to be above everyone else, untouchable, unbeatable, unstoppable, and cranks all verbal assaults up a notch, taking the virtual assaults to ever lower levels. And that's when the Unthinkable happens. The Enligthened One slips up. The first slips may seem insignificant. A posting under the wrong account name, hastily covered up by a half-heartedly muttered excuse. Of course the core loyal yaysayers are quick to come to the rescue and fire at random at some target,deflecting from the Enlightened One's slip up. But more slip ups follow, and even more, and sooner or later the Most Feared Thing happens: one of the targets connects the right dots and lifts the veil clouding the Enlightened One's identity. What follows is the pitter-patter of little feet as the Enlightened One's lesser ranking yaysaysers scuttle away to the holes they crawled from. The Most Loyal Core will try and do some good ole damage repair, throwing all their toys out of the pram or firing at random at any hapless target who happens to cross their path. Eventually they either go into hiding, going over their adventures with a cuppa and a biscuit, or hide beneath their stone lurking for a new victim, brooding on new ways to be a nuisance. Thus, they feel forfilled, and sleep tight (probably after a good swig of cheap liquor) dreaming of the good ole days when they were still in the inner sanctum of an omnipotent one. Their former targets enjoy the silence, much like one enjoys the quiet of a Summer's day after you just swatted that nasty fly trying to sip from your margarita. Shaken, not stirred.

Facebook and Freedom of speech...

Freedom of speech... those of you who know me personally will know that I am the first to go on the barricades to defend this particular civil right, an important feature in a democratic society.

However, when one is surfing the internet, freedom of speech appears to be a very strange phenomena, as some sites will feature texts inciting hatred of other people, animals or countries for example, and sometimes it gets downright ridiculous as to what is perceived 'freedom of speech' and what is not, leaving the unsuspecting person accidentally stumbling upon those pages confused - is that kind of thing legal? One of the most ridiculous pages I recently came across was of a company promoting 'tea cup puppies', dogs bred to be so ridiculously small they were bound to have severe health problems, yet the site merrily claimed that all their animals were sound and healthy. As if.

And then there's the social media. Like facebook. It's a wonderful tool, enabling people to stay in touch with old and new friends, share experiences, and find kindred spirits to make some parts of the world a better place. The facebook policy on freedom of speech - and artistic freedom added to that - is quite odd though, to say the least. An American artist posting his painting of a semi-nude androgynus person was censored - it showed nipples. Yes. It is very offensive to show nipples in the country of Nipplegate, even if the nipples are on a non-exsting person on a painting. Following the same logic, a 70's political campaign poster by the Dutch Peace party PSP was banned and censored for showing nudity. We are talking about an historical piece here, part of our national political legacy. Facebook took offense and blocked the lady's parts that they deemed offensive... 

 

However there are pages out there on the world wide web that show a hell of a lot more offense. How about pages dedicated to depicting scantily clad 'models' crushing puppies and kittens to death with their high heels? Or a facebook page of someone who is obviously a member of a dog fighting ring, proudly showing his 'champions', featuring photographs of dogs with visible fighting scars running over their entire bodies? And there is a lot more of that out there, pages that make you sick in the stomach. They only come to the surface when someone has stumbled upon them and starts reporting them and sharing them far and wide, asking everyone to share and report. Still, the facebook 'complaints corner' doesn't have a button for animal cruelty. They seem to get more upset if you show a nipple or use the name of your pet for your profile. Now there's a real threath to society, a doxy babbling about his work as a therapy dog, or a retired greyhound swapping stories of best places for roaching and how to steal a nomnom from the kitchen counter without being caught out. Facebook users are invited by facebook to report those kinds of profiles, even though they do no harm to anyone whatsoever (and one of them actually has sold quite a few books with his writings as a fundraiser for greyhound rescues!) - but there is one important button missing. And that's the 'mass reported by cyber bullies'- button.

Why am I getting into that one? Because, dear friends, I got blocked by facebook after being mass reported by a group of people who are staunch defenders of a certain council involved in a certain case of a seized and destroyed dog, because apparently they didn't like my opinion. So when ridiculing my profession (insinuating I was a lousy teacher) and ridiculing my name and gender (I was a he, a she and an 'it' according to one of their posters and my name was altered in jesper, jester, and so forth), resorting to general childish namecalling and trying to discredit my character, tracking every comment I made on a page where said case was discussed by supporters of the family involved in order to copy and paste it on their own public profile (which happened to be one of two profiles from exactly the same person, which is a violation of facebook policy anyway), and having a ball dragging me and other persons standing up for that family through the mud, calling the family names, claiming the family were fraudsters, making vile remarks about the family's daughter, showing general insensitivity towards them, and so on - and on - and on, didn't work, they mass reported me.

So why was I reported? Well, it appears to be that they have picked a statement, which wasn't hate speech, violating intellectual property or anything in the facebook community standards list, and then another one where I replied to some nasty comments made by one of them using a fake name 'to protect' her/himself because of the work they were in - as he/she proclaimed him/herself... And so I received TWO notifications within 24 hours saying that I was blocked from posting, even liking or sharing anything to the facebook for 24 hours. Which meant I couldn't congratulate a fellow volunteer with her birthday, could no longer bid on a much coveted item in an online charity auction, and people were wondering why I was not responding to them - all of which was indeed very vexatious (to use a term that said council often used in their reply to people requesting information).  

I turned to facebook for help, but there is no 'contact us' feature either. You get a lot of explanations on the Facebook Community Standards page, but there is nowhere a link enabling you to contact them if people are mass reporting you, not because you have shown illegal content or because you are a hatemonger, but because they are cyberbullies who claim you are a nobody to them and openly question you intellectual abilities - yet make sure they shut you up for 24 hours. Why? Good question. 

Cyberbullying and social media are new to the police and the legal system. Somewhere around 2000 the first cases started popping up of children and adults being bullied via MSN, e-mail, text message and popular in-school networks where in one case the 'gossip pages' started to affect the entire school (http://www.ehow.com/about_6643612_history-cyberbullying.html) and the popular gossip pages had to be shut down.
In the Netherlands I first encountered cyberbullying early 2000 through MSN, later the popular social network hyves was root to some of the vilest bullying campaigns seen in modern history, entire hate pages sprung up, and with the rise of technologically advanced cell phones it became a sport for some disgruntled students to bully their teachers first to push their patience and calm to the max and hit the record button if said teacher snapped, modify the clip and hurl it on youtube. Nowadays they don't even have to wait to get home first because facebook allows direct uploading of film clips. 

Now this is in itself a fantastic feature if it is used to say, fight crime, like filming some drunk halfwits being violent towards ambulance staff trying to give aid to a traffic accident victim, or someone abusing their family dog, but it can also be easily employed by cyberbullies. And lo and behold, before you know it they have taken a picture of you, unsuspecting passerby walking your dogs, and hurl it onto their facebook wall to have a ball making vile comments, sneering and jeering, feeling utterly smug about themselves, hiding behind fake or multiple profiles and thinking they are above the law. Yet when it dawns upon their juvenile minds that this is indeed an illegal activity, they hasten to take the offending pictures off. And forget that most people nowadays know how to do a screenshot (and if you don't, there is a good description on the Facebook Community Standards page https://www.facebook.com/report/ on how to do it using the microsoft Paint programme). Facebook then advises to block the bullies and of course don't respond to anything they say (ie 'don't feed them') - but it offers no solace on what on earth you should do to protect yourself from being mass reported, and contrary to what facebook claims the 'offending' bits of text are not even read, since the parts that I got blocked over were anything but offending... So I did what I usually do in those matters: I googled. I will share my findings in the next blog.


 

How far will you go?

This question popped up quite often recently. It's a question I have been asked a lot lately by friends, people I know, people on facebook, the vet. How far will you go? When do you stop?

Gaia, my beautiful old Scooby-lady, must be approximately 14 to 15 years old by now. When I adopted her she was already nearly blind and was estimated to be some 8 to 12 years old. To many people, adopting an elderly dog and blind at that would be a bridge too far already. So much fuss, they'd say. Have to keep an eye on her all the time. Well actually it wasn't that bad. Sometimes we joke that Gaia has sonar ears (they are the right size anyway) because even in a forest she'd never ventured before, she didn't run into a tree but trotted along with the others, no problems. At first when I got her she made attempts to duck underneath the table legs (apparently she saw only the top half of them) and sometimes she'd trip on a big rock or a shallow pit in the ground, but we have found ways to get around that as well. On familiar spots I stand over nasty rocks and silly pits so she can safely walk around me. When we spot her heading for a steep slope we whistle and she's navigating back to us. In the house we keep all the furniture on the same spot, because for a blind dog it's simply not doable to navigate around the house when the owner keeps rearranging the furniture every three months... and so she can find her way without problems.

Gaia is housebroken, but every now and then she has a little slip-up. Always in front of the back door or right in front of the living room gate, those kind of 'uh-oh just didn't make it' kind of things. Some very clever soul invented a great tool to deal with that: a bucket and a mop. Some hot water, some detergent and we're done. To some people, that would be a bridge too far.

Some weeks ago things got a little more complicated. The spondylosis in her neck- and shoulders as well as the arthrosis became worse, causing her to gradually lose controll over her legs. Walking was more and more of an effort to her, even the short trip to the field across the road was too much for her. So initially I started doing short rounds just with Gaia,  because Gaia still really really wanted to go on a walk.

Then her legs got even weaker, she started to fall over and her right side was like jello, all wobbly. For a moment it looked as if she'd actually given up herself. Among ourselves us humans talked about 'making a tough decision'.

The vet came to my house, I wanted to know what options we had. Gaia kept trying to come along when I took the other dogs for a walk, stumbling and falling, take me with you, take me with you! Dentastix were snatched from my hand by a nearly toothless old mouth, so were the offered dog biscuits. Big portions of carnibest, chicken with carrots and macaroni, soaked kibble and cheese were slobbered and finished with gusto by a grey snout. What is this, you wanted to end my life??

In the mean time I found an old sixties pram on Marktplaats that was sturdy enough to carry a 20 kilo old shepherd, so she could still come along with the others for a walk. She visibly enjoys this pram, this is really something, such a luxury! An old grey snout rests on the bonnet that is folded down, nose in the wind busy doing sniffings and the sonar ears are tuning in all directions not to miss out on anything.  I can lift her out so she can stroll around and have a sniff at the field. When she's done she sits next to the pram and looks at me. Without a problem she allows herself to be lifted back in the pram. With a satisfied sigh she reclines and puts her chin on the hood. Done.

"How far will you go?" The vet has a serious expression to go with that question. Gaia just let her know she is still in charge of guarding the house by making a lot of yapping noises at the doorbell. I tell her what we had talked over: as long as Gaia still feels like it, we are doing what it takes. The vet administers two shots; one anabolicum to stimulate Gaia's muscles and a corticosone shot to fight the inflammation in her joints. After a couple of days I could put her on norocarp as a painkiler. At the pet shop I got a special harness with neoprene to give extra support at the chest, so I could literally prop her up when her legs are weak.

That same night Gaia runs out in the back yard with such speed I have to let go of her harness. To my relief she is even squatting for a number two. Over the next days she is back eating while standing on her four legs, next to Sid, from the special food standards. In the mornings she's dashing out of the back door with the rest. She is walking to and fro and I hardly have to support her. Even when the corticosones have worn off, she is still walking by herself and she is still very active for her age.

So she'll be around for a while. Even on our holiday. Pram included. Some will scratch their heads now, going on a holiday with a dog that age, and taking that big pram, and those other dogs in the mix... How far will you go?

Leaving Gaia at home is not an option. Without her pack and us, she'd wither within days. Her heart is still strong, the vet says. She's a mix of mixes. A dash of shepherd, a dash of mastin, and who knows what else is in her pedigree because where do those funny tiger stripes on her back legs come from? She still feels like life is good. She's at my feet as I type but when I get up she's trailing after me. Slightly wobbly and not all stable, but yet. What stamina she has.

It's exactly this kind of stamina my dogs show that makes me go for my dogs for 200%. But some people won't go far at all. Some people stop at the first hurdle. They stop when the dog isn't housebroken fast enough. They stop when their adolescent children refuse to do their part of the care. Or worse, they stop when their partner just doesn't feel like caring for the family dog. I find that very, very sad. And weak. It becomes even more painful when it's about a dog with a handicap, like Gaia, or a dog that is very frightened. To be stuck with a partner who isn't willing to do a thing to make life better for that animal and help him or her to get over this fear, that would be non-negotiable to me.

I thank the gods that I have a partner who cares and thinks and accepts me ánd my dogs. Who doesn't mind cleaning up after my dogs every now and then, who comforts them when one of them is feeling sick, who helps supporting Gaia when she has an off day. If he would decline that, he would no longer be my partner. I am an animal person, he met me when I had four dogs and two cats, and together we have adopted two young Big Friendly Giants at Scooby. We felt this as a big commitment in our relationship, as if we had just adopted two children.

Not a single hair on my head would contemplate - not even for a second- to get rid of one of our dogs. The only plausible ground would be if one of the dogs would have serious problems with the other dogs. Never, ever if the dog had problems with my partner and he would refuse to help. In that case I would run an ad myself: 'free to good home: 46 year old male, very social, good with other people and kids, not good with dogs'.

 Luka nods in approval. She knows. Midas must have told her about that day the muvva told a possible boyfriend to hit the road when he didn't want her dog to come along to town. He wised up and the dog came along, but needless to say the relationship didn't last. And right so. My dogs are a part of me, they belong to me. I have chosen for them to be in my life, accepting the limitations that came with that choice. Contrary to the men in my life my dogs have always shown me unconditional love. And they have never left me. (Well, let me rephrase that, almost never, right Guido and Gaia and your adventure at the pig farm behind Scooby... say no more, say. no. more...). They really are as the proverb goes; loyal as a dog.

Parafrasing Victoria Stilwell: it's me AND the dogs. Take it or leave it ;)

Mummy, can I shoot the road hog...?

Sometimes as I'm driving on the motorway, I suffer from disturbing murderous thoughts. Right then the prospect of building a heavy duty crossbow on the top of my caddy - operated by an in-cabin lever - specific cause for those thougths. It's called a road hog.

On some days, the road hog species seems to be on their communal day out.
Like they are everywhere: sticking to my bumper, seemingly attempting to push me off the road and blinking their headlights like they haven't noticed the trail of cars trailing behind a 30 ton truck doing 96 kms/hour, overtaking another 30 ton truck doing 95 kms/hour... Or like they bought a priced-down model that didn't come with a blinker. Being oblivious to the meaning of a solid line or a traffic sign saying maximum speed is 90 because of roadworks. Weaving the road, as if they have trouble deciding whether to take the left or right lane. Overtaking on the right and then pushing their beefed up Kensington High Street Tractors in front of me. And the worst of all: hitting their breaks for no apparent reason. Multiple times.

Today was one of those days. A double bank holiday coming up, so a combination of the usual business type road hogs in their leasecars with the jacket on a hanger behind the front seat, the blokes in the beefed up SUVs, the family men wondering how the hell does this caravan respond when they make a sudden manoevre. And forgetting they are allowed to do only 80 kms/hour. Reaching alarming speeds of 120, some even 130 kms/hour, their tug-along-home sweeping from side to side in an alarming way... when I get my eye on one of those, I have only one goal: get away from that one, and quickly!

A rather rare variety of the road hog is the slow one. They pften drive a very small car, probably fearing the thing will fall apart if they do over 100 kms/hour. Sometimes they obviously only drive country roads. Those specimens are recognizable by their anxious posture, slightly or completely leaning forward, grasping their steering wheel as if afraid it would come off. Even lorry drivers grow impatient and overtake them.

Both the snail or the speed devil make me jittery. And when I spot an additional feature like open laptop, paperwork or opened briefcase on the passenger seat, I go into full 'fight or flight' mode. Most amazing of all, the traffic police seems to be absent on the entire 1,5 hours stretch...
So... juss wondering. How illegal would it be to open the hunt for road hogs?

it's a shame...

A woman dies. Her fans are mourning her, of course. There's also quite a few critical notes being made. Like, how did it come to this? Some say 'she chose that lifestyle'. People who think it's a choice to become addicted do not have the faintest understanding of the nature of addiction. Being an addict is not a chosen lifestyle. Choosing to start doing drugs (and by drugs I mean ALL drugs, including alcohol and prescription meds) IS a choice. I for one find it hard to put two and two together hearing mrs. Houston thank the lord in her Grammy acceptance speech over and over again. If the lord is such a beacon of hope and support in your life, then what the hell are you still snorting cocaine for?? Why did you snort it in the first place? Surely the lord had more to offer than a temporary high and some seriously rotten nose linings. I just fail to understand how someone can say "the lord Jesus is my saviour" and start doing drugs in the first place. Apparently, the good lord failed her on some major points. Then again, even though apparently she was a believer (not to be mixed up with a belieber, please) and apparently somehow was perceived as a spiritual person, that doesn't mix with a preference for going clad in coats stitched together from numerous dead furry mammals, either. I suppose it's like doing a split all the time, trying to find some middle ground between your rather humble, musical, spiritual (gospels!) background and the high life - literally - of the international music jet set. And ultimately that will do you in, unless you step away from the spotlights and give yourself a chance to have some peace and quiet and assess what it is that really makes you tick. 
Something I find hard to understand is why people up there in the upper echelons of pop royalty don't invest in a spiritual counsellor more often. Of course you need the PA and the dresser and the hair stylist or wig artist and the lady who curls your eyelashes like no other in the world flown in before every gig, but in this case I think investing in someone who would serve as a personal counsellor would have been a sound investment. Even an ex-husband with a bad track record can't put you off your balance if you have someone rock solid you can trust to be there and help you deal with whatever life throws at you. Even if this person had to be on the payroll because you didn't feel like trusting anyone of the people in your inner circle anymore, it might just have been enough to save your ass. 
It's a shame there was nobody like that around. She's not the only one struggling, thousands of people die each year because they can't handle their own lives anymore and the regular authorities way of intervening is too little too late.