Building a Dutch Libertarian Foundation

Mission

To find financial support for my Washington, DC trip to collect & translate libertarian lessons learned and best practices for the Dutch market.

Introduction

Hello, I’m Pallieter Koopmans. Since 1996 I have been of the firm belief that the way in which we organize and “do” politics as a society can be greatly improved (I saw many fundamental flaws). Since I have learned that we as society have learned significantly and tried many ways to organize our ourselves – there is a growth path! The “recent” significant increase in the speed & reach of communication (via the internet) makes that the next way or wave of methods to organize ourselves is about to be needed. I have found that the libertarian philosophy seems to best match my findings & understandings of current knowledge & trends.

My primary motivator for you or your organization to sponsor my 1 month study trip is that I know you believe in the fact that (on average) you are the best person to spend your own money (note that there are 4 ways to spend money: your money on yourself, your money on someone else, some else’s money on yourself, someone else’s money on someone else). If you combine that with the libertarian “non aggression principle”, a consequence is that government should only exist to defend the rights of every individual it represents. There is no crime if there is no victim.

I strongly believe that a more libertarian society is better for the environment, better for those who can not take care of and/or defend themselves, etc, etc. And better for you … if you strive for both financial & social freedom! If you agree, hire me to help you. Please contribute, as I need 5000 euro for this trip.

Much more money is needed to achieve a significant effect. All donations above what is needed for this trip will be used for 80% to fund an endowment from “Het Libertarisch Centrum Nederland” that will invest in projects to achieve a more libertarian society. The other 20% will be donated towards ending slavery in this world (as that is the exact opposite of where I stand for and there are still 27 million people held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work or to demand compensation).

Goals

• Gather practical & proven information that can be easily & effectively used to promote more modern social systems (specifically all flavors of libertarianism).
• Build a public knowledge base (wiki) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The aim of the wiki is to assist people & organizations in finding the information they need to help explain & promote libertarianism in a positive & effective way.
• Ensure the long-term availability of that website.
• Work out how to best organize progress on these issues:
  • Get international support for our Dutch mission to grow the (inter)national libertarian movement.
  • Organize and motivate existing Dutch libertarians to channel their energy into positive action.
  • To awaken the current Dutch libertarian institutions and architect an active libertarian landscape.

Places to visit & people to meet in Washington, DC:

• Libertarian Party Bureau
• CATO
• Reason Foundation
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Resident Fellow for American Enterprise Institute)
• Democratic Party Bureau
• Republican Party Bureau
• NORML
• More suggestions welcome!

How can you help?

• Send in questions I should ask, things I should research, people I should meet, etc.
• Assist me make my trip: donate to the Dutch bank account 5445400 from “Libertarisch Centrum” using my name (Pallieter Koopmans) as the reference/comment to the transaction. Alternatively I can make several precious metal accounts available (like: eGold, GoldMoney) or generic online payment processors like PayPal.
• Learn about libertarianism. For example: read the novels from Ayn Rand, Rothbard.
• Contact me if you have (access to) specific knowledge; I can connect you to a libertarian liaison.
• Do business with libertarian companies and with my current employer.

Results & Accountability

During my 1 month commitment I will produce a daily online journal and a significant amount of structured text on the wiki on a wide variety of topics. The financial resources will be invested in:

• a cheap flight to Washington (to be booked as soon as the full amount needed is pledged) 600 euro
• a full size laptop to work on (I will personally double the investment) 750 euro
• rental of a car to get around (about 750 euro + 250 for fuel) 1000 euro
• incidental hotel nights during travel (about 4 nights at 75 euro) 300 euro
• food & drinks where not donated by hosts (about 20 meals at 15 each) 300 euro
• additional remuneration for daycare in my absence (20 times 5 hours) 600 euro
• minimal replacement income (my employer will sponsor partially) 750 euro
• access to various subject-relevant places (toll, museums, libraries, etc) 100 euro
• communications (mobile telephone SIM with internet + Skype credit) 150 euro
• insurance (travel & health) 75 euro
• setup website (domain names, hosting) 115 euro
• thank-you gifts (for hosts & people who assisted me) 50 euro
• procurement of books, materials, photocopies, etc (to be donated to the LC and/or LP) 150 euro

Please note that I personally invest a significant amount of my time, energy and income on this trip; the above goes beyond my personal abilities. It takes much preparation and also after my trip the work is not entirely done – it needs to be actively shared for it to be useful!

Current Sponsors

I would like to thank the following people & organizations for assisting me with this mission:

• my girlfriend & kids whom have to miss me during my mission
• the people & organizations that will meet with me and share their knowledge
• the host family for my accommodation
• the many publications that support this mission: Meer Vrijheid, Vrijspreker
• BCG eProjects, Supply Selector, Healthy Design
• the Jong Libertarisch facebook members, especially the donors: K, Imre, etc.
• T. & H. de Bordes (financial contribution)
• Henry Sturman (a lot of excellent feedback)
• Karel Want (brainstorming ideas)

If you would like to be (un)listed or if you would like me to add a link to your website, please contact me via email or call +31-6-3400-3800 (mon-sat 8-23 CET).

Contact Details

Pallieter Koopmans
Ulgerkamp 71
8014 GH  Zwolle
The Netherlands

+31-6-3400-3800
Pallieter@Pallieter.org
Skype: PallieterKoopmans

Curriculum Vitae (summarized)

I have worked with and programmed on many websites and (open source) Content Management Systems (like: Mambo, Joomla, Nucleus, Word Press, osCommerce, XOOPS, etc).

In the last 15 years I have, as an entrepreneur, become familiar with most things Internet; especially PHP, large MySQL databases, large volume email handling, maintaining websites & webservers, XML, (X)HTML, CSS, search engine optimization, etc. With 300+ innovative projects and sometimes a large staff (up to 25 people to manage directly).

I have extensive experience working with many different people/cultures – I have traveled to 30+ countries, worked with employees, contractors & freelancers from 4 continents, coached 150+ student interns (college & university level) and lived in the USA for 2.5 years.

Dutch: native tongue (++/++/++)
English: fluent (++/++/++)
German: sufficient (-/+/+)

Interests: educational & didactical systems, entrepreneurship/management, libertarianism, and organizations like: The Economist, TED.com, etc.