Did Dutch police arrest a bird for robbery?

A viral tweet is claiming that Dutch police arrested a bird for robbery.

However, if you follow the link to the article the Twitter user shares as proof, the embedded police release on Instagram, however, shows the actual story.

The police in the Netherlands arrested a suspected shoplifter. The suspect had a bird on their shoulder. Police did not have a cage to house the bird in, and thus, consulting with the suspect, allowed them to keep the bird in the cell with them while making sure it was well cared for.

'We will just hop on a plane'? No, you won't. You need a detailed plan.

'We will just hop on a plane'? No, you won't.

Emigration is not easy. Even if you have an EU passport or right to be in another country, just hopping on a plane isn't a good plan.

You need to find work, housing, adjust to a whole new society with different laws and conventions. If you are allowed to live and work somewhere, great, but often you won't be able to afford anything if not earning in the local currency. If you plan to move based on some skill or qualification, what do you need to do to get such and to have it recognised in the place you want to move to? Do you have a plan sorted out, and the details accounted for? Will you be allowed to job hunt in the country? Or will you have to do so from South Africa and then apply to go through? When will your family be able to join you, and will they at all?

How will you find work, do you have a curriculum vitae in the format preferred in the place you are going to? Do you mention things which would by law force them not to hire you due to anti-discrimination legislation there?

Do you understand the local language, or the local variation spoken there? Will the way you personally speak be clear and understood, there? Do you have clothing suitable to the local environment? Are your pets ready, and certified ready, to emigrate? What are your plans for getting any medication you may need? Have you got your medical records from your doctors? What are the rules on bringing your children and spouse? Have you budgeted and prepared for your child's schooling and care? What furniture and other effects will you be able to take with you? Which would be foolish to take with, based on local laws and customs? What are your plans for internet and cellular phone usage, and for getting your money out of the country legally? Do you need to open a bank account before leaving? Are you ready for the process of converting your driver's licence? What are your plans for getting out and making new friends (bear in mind, you take your current social support system for granted, you might need a friend quite urgently to do a favour at some point).

Do you have letters of recommendation attesting to your trustworthiness for potential employers, and in some cases, letters from former landlords to new landlords attesting you are a good tenant? Do you have police clearance, if necessary?

Will you be able to afford a car, and possible statutory insurance? Do you have the right plans in place to register to pay tax and financially emigrate? Have you started looking at a budget, and at converting your qualifications to work there? Have you spoken to someone in your field who made the move?

Will you be able to fill your own car with petroleum and keep your own place clean? Have you budgeted for things like rubbish removal fees?

If you think you might land up leaving South Africa, you can't just plan to jump on a plane. That is how you land up homeless with no support system, stranded in a foreign land.

You at least need to be on emigration footing, from having what you need to leave, to having a curriculum vitae prepared, qualifications valuable there, and a real plan.

Do you at least have unabridged computerised originals and apostilles (if needed for that country, or may be needed there in future) of each of your major certificates, e.g. birth, marriage, divorce order, death, adoption, etc? Have you checked that unabridged is enough and vault is not possibly required by the specific country? Have you applied to Home Affairs for retention of South African citizenship in case you land up naturalising in the country you want to move to? Bear in mind, if South Africa goes bankrupt, the state may not be able to print new certificates for you. Zimbabwe ran out of funds to print new passports for their citizens. Do you have your antenuptial contract ready to bring with? Do you have baptismal and other certificates which could affect whether some churches allow marriage in them, or children to attend their schools?

If you are an attorney or advocate, do you have originals and apostilles of each of your court orders admitting you to the profession you are in? Is your firm ready to shut down on short notice?

Whatever profession you are in, have you started the process to convert your qualifications to be accepted there? Whether industry tests or via organisations which validate academic achievements? Have you got your syllabus description for your degree from the university you attended?

For dual nationals, do you have your South African passport, which you need to enter or leave South Africa on? Is your foreign passport current (bear in mind it can take months to arrive)?

Do you have enough money offshore in foreign currency to afford an airline ticket and a stay in the place you are looking at going to, until you have an income? Is your LinkedIn up to date? Do you know how salaries are quoted, and how in demand your profession is?

For those staying, are you on emigration footing? For those leaving, have you thought the process through?

Essay by Marc Evan Aupiais

Let us not delude ourselves, as ordinary, non-violent, law abiding South Africans, we live in a society permeated by devils

South Africa is one of the most violent societies on Earth. Men don't hurt women because of some sort of universal patriarchy, but because those men who do are violent men anyway, and we live in one of the most God forsaken, violent societies on planet Earth, with that violence permeating our politics and staying within every level of society.

The vast majority of violence is against men by men. The small percentage of that violence against women is an overflow which has become a flood because of the general violence.

The same men who loot foreign owned stores, murder others, steal with impunity, and pay and receive bribes, will more likely take a woman against her will for his own sexual gratification or assault her.

South Africa is a violent society that worships Marx and his religion of envy, lust and force rather than Jesus Christ and his religion of self control, self denial, and consideration of the needs, rights and wants of others.

The answer to violence against women in South Africa lies not in feminist doctrine, nor with lumping together good men with the bad, but with God.

South Africans are a nation corrupted by a widespread entitlement attitude and with it the unnatural desire to acquire unjust wealth and unearned respect. Victims to be are demonized and dehumanized. Women are treated in the same way by rapists, who are not deterred by communities taking things into their own hands and burning the alleged rapists alive, in informal settlements.

The mistreatment of women in our nation, which some call the rape capital of the world, is to be condemned utterly, but cannot be viewed in isolation of the society of entitlement by force and through force of unjust institutions and corrupted laws which exist to perpetuate such a society of violence and indifference to to suffering of our fellow man, which is South Africa. South Africa is also a human trafficking capital of the world, and a place where organised crime and gang violence flourish. Political power is gained through assassination, and deals with the corrupt, so much so that the New York Times has noticed it, doing a long special on how local council positions are fought for through bullets aimed upon rivals and witnesses.

A government was just elected on promises to steal the pensions from old people, and to change the Constitution to let the government steal possessions from the people without it frowning on them for it. You are not entitled to someone else's pension or land, but according to South Africa's parliament you are.

When a woman who accused our former President Jacob Zuma of rape had to flee for her life to the West, and this was applauded, an example was set. When elderly women are put to death as witches, an example is set. When fathers and mothers go off to loot shops, an example is set. When cars and trucks are stoned and set on fire, an example is set. When jobs are gained or kept because the government threatens companies with jail, ultimately, if they don't give you them, an example is set.

Let us not delude ourselves, as ordinary, non-violent, law abiding South Africans, we live in a society permeated by devils, one where violence is a way of life and how many of our nation's leaders have got ahead. Our ultimate national secular saint is a man who was jailed for 27 years for a massive bombing and sabotage campaign, a man who was offered freedom if he would only denounce violence, whose wife of many years was famous for her support of setting people on fire. Yet, we as a nation treat his being jailed for violence as a great injustice, and teach that in our schools, justifying violence. Violence begets violence. Our society has chosen a religion of force over a religion of peace, one where no matter how violent people are, they cannot be questioned, because their means are justified in their ends, and so any means become justified and then become normal.

The problem with South Africa is that it does not know God. And if it knows him, it does not believe in Him, and if it believes in Him, it does not obey Him. Instead, it obeys, praises, and worships the use of force, and the strong men who use it against others. Our foundations are what have cracked, as a nation. And into the cracks, the edifice has begun to collapse.

Essay by Marc Evan Aupiais.

The lack of a gay gene does not mean sexual orientation is a choice; environmental factors include neurodevelopment

A study recently found there was no gay gene, and determined that environmental factors are responsible for homosexuality. Unlike the 1990s left, the new intersectional left is very pleased to report this. However, environmental factors include neurodevelopment, which genes provide the building blocks for but not an exact map to guide. The likelihood of genes creating any one outcome in neurodevelopment is calculated by means of twin studies.

If one identical twin is gay, there is about a 50% chance of the other twin also being gay. i.e. placing people with the same genetic makeup, 1 in 4 with certain combinations of genes will be gay. Among those without that heritage, none will be gay, according to the current literature.

Bisexuality is incredibly rare, and homosexuality, seems to only occur in very specific circumstances. It being largely down to environmental factors and a number of genes interacting in specific ways, actually puts it on par with most neurodevelopmental conditions. Most of the conditions you hear of, bar the very extreme ones - which prevent breeding almost 100% of the time, and thus are almost always new variations occuring at conception itself by random mutation - are inherited, and carried in families.

The ways in which brain wiring doesn't occur in the ordinary path are many but the results tend to be quite finite.

There is definitely choice involved for gays: act in their orientation to the same sex or don't. However, the body of science indicates sexuality is not a spectrum. Bisexuality is rare, and homosexuality only tends to occur with people with specific genetic heritage.

Just because something occurs at the stage of neurodevelopment and not the stage of conception, does not mean it is a choice or the result of childhood and not innate.

In some cases it is a choice, cultural influences (much like in the case of rapid onset gender dysphoria), brain damage, or childhood trauma, but the statistical analysis of twins and modern knowledge of neurodevelopment suggest that sexual orientation is not a spectrum (bisexuality is incredibly rare); although studies have found that it can be, and often is, temporary, changing to the norm upon maturation of the brain.

Understanding the latest study on what is a fascinating thing to neuroscience, a difference which almost always causes individuals to not breed and to not pass on their genes, by choice, requires a better understanding of the genetic influences on neuroscience themselves.

Essay by Marc Evan Aupiais.