On the image the ambassadors Gordan Bakota (Croatia), Elena Shekerletova(Bulgaria), Franc But (Slovenia), Luigi Mattiolo (Italy) Theodoros Daskarolis (Greece),Baron Maciej Heydel (Order of Malta), Baron Willem van de Voorde (Belgium).Picture by the Slovenian Embassy in Berlin.
Monday, 13 January 2020, Bellevue Castle, Berlin, Germany: At Langhangsaal, the traditional New Year’s Reception hosted by the German Federal President, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier in conjunction with the German Foreign Ministry was held for ambassadors and representatives of international organisations based in Germany.
Incredible India at Vakantiebeurs- H. E. Mr. Venu Rajamony Ambassador of India, with his spouse, Dr. Saroj Thapa, the Mayor of Utrecht the Honorable Jan van Zanen and guests.
By Catherine Dailey.
The 50th annual Vakantiebeurs was officially opened to the travel trade yesterday. The largest travel expo in the Benelux is held at the Utrecht Jaarbeurs Exposition Center and is now open to the public from 16-19 January.
The show is held in six halls organized around geographic regions and even features a “Cruise Hall.” In addition to major travel organizations such as TUI, Corendon, Da Jong Intra Vakanties and ANWB Travel exhibiting; dozens of smaller “custom” travel specialists are also present. Bolsjoj Reizen, Iran Silk Road Travel, Smaragd Reizen, Tiara Tours and the Jambo Safari Club are but a few of the many travel organizations offering unique travel programs in faraway destinations.
The show features six theaters, six themed food courts, daily dance, film and educational programs and other activities, such as photography and cooking demonstrations, which are of interest to everyone in the family.
Many embassies and national tourist boards are exhibiting. India, Indonesia and the USA are among the many.
The Minister of Tourisme of Tunisia, H.E. Mr. René Trabelsi at Vakantiebeurs 2020.
Africa, a popular destination, has more visibility at the show than ever. The embassy of the Republic of Uganda, the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda, the Botswana Embassy, the Ethiopia Embassy and the Tanzania Embassy in the Netherlands are but a few of the embassies exhibiting at the show.
Vakantiebeurs 2020.
Tanzania is even represented by the Senior Conservation Officer from the Tanzania National Parks (nearly 25% of the country is a designated conservation area of one kind or another). The principal marketing officer for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area known worldwide for the UNESCO designated Ngrongoro Crater, the world’s largest “inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera” and a paradise for lovers of Africa’s wildlife is also on hand to discuss the nation’s exemplary wildlife conservation initiatives.
This year, The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah is the official “Guest Location.” The “Ras” is presenting unique desert resort and beach destinations to the public. Tokyo is also exhibiting at the Vakantiebeurs for the first time.
The Dominican Republic at Vakantiebeurs 2020.
Portugal, an ever-popular destination with the Dutch market, is exhibiting with tourist boards from multiple tourist regions, including Alentejo-known for wine and cork production, the Azores, the Algarve and the region known as “Centro.” Centro is the region which extends from Porto south nearly to Lisbon and includes the UNESCO world heritage site of Coimbra (the oldest university in Portugal and one of the oldest in Europe), the famous pilgrimage site of Fatima, and the famous big wave surfing coast of Nazare.
Indonesia Vakantiebeurs 2020.
The country of Georgia has also become a very popular tourist destination amongst travellers. Strategically situated on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, the country offers enormous cultural and gastronomic diversity.
Wintersports are popular in the region and the main ski areas are Bakuriani, Gudauri, Mestia and Goderdzi. It is astonishing to note that visitors to Georgia’s mountain ski resorts have sen more than 550% growth since 2011! Summer tourism to the mountain regions has grown at a similar rate. Tbilisi, the nation’s capital, is approximately 3.5 hours flight time form the Netherlands, making it an attractive destination for shorter trips.
Rwanda each year more popular at Vakantiebeurs.
Trade Day closed with an award ceremony for the best “ZRAs” in the industry. The services and benefits that a, “zelf standige adviseur” (ZRA) or independent travel professional are well known and, as are the interface between travel suppliers (airlines, hotels, and tour operators) , they serve to meet the public’s demand for highly personalized travel to unique destinations in our mobile world.
Following the award ceremony, the halls emptied and both exhibitors and trade professionals gathers in the festival tent to celebrate the shows fiftieth jubilee.
The show is open through the weekend.
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About the author: Catherine Dailey is a Travel Counsellor IATA certificate for travel information or reservations please contact Catherine.dailey@travelcounsellors.nl or +31 6 533 14 372
Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco Peña presents “Requiem for the Earth”
18 to 22 January 2020, in several cities in the Netherlands.
In collaboration with the Embassy of Spain to The Hague, the renowned flamenco guitar player Paco Peña will give a performance of his piece Requiem por la Tierra, or Requiem for the Earth, in different Dutch cities. Paco Peña wrote this extraordinary piece in 2004. In it, he appeals to humanity to handle our earth carefully.
Paco Peña’s flamenco ensemble, two chamber choirs (Oost Nederlands Kamerkoor from Doetinchem and Musica Vocale from Wageningen) and four children’s choirs from the province of Gelderland join forces under the direction of Rob Vermeulen. Also cooperating are the Wageningen University & Research project, the HAN University of Applied Sciences, and other speakers and dancers.
More information (also about ticket sales) can be found at the website: Requiem for the Earth.
Conferral of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon upon Professor Rien T. Segers, professor emeritus University of Groningen
On Thursday 23 January, at 17:00 hours, Professor Rien T. Segers, professor emeritus of the University of Groningen, the founder and Managing Director emeritus of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Groningen, as well as professor emeritus of Asian Business Strategies at the International Business School of Hanze University of Applied Sciences, will receive a Japanese imperial decoration during a special ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Hidehisa Horinouchi.
In the name of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon will be conferred upon Professor Segers. With this decoration, the Japanese government recognises his exceptional contribution to the promotion of academic exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and the Netherlands.
With the support of Eurojust and Europol, after a joint action day last week, 19 key suspects, the alleged heads of an organised crime group (OCG) suspected of large-scale drug trafficking from Ivory Coast and Nigeria to Italy, were arrested in Italy and several other European countries in execution of EAWs.
During the course of the investigation, 150 suspects were arrested. The network of intermediate suppliers used false bottoms in shoes and suitcases, and hidden pockets in clothing, to smuggle heroin (and other drugs) to the south of Italy. In total, 230 kg of heroin, 20 kg of cocaine and 2 kg of MDMA were seized.
The suspects apprehended in Italy raised no suspicions, as they lived a modest life, working as local entrepreneurs. An integral part of the OCG was made up of so-called ‘sewers’, the individuals who sewed hiding places for the drugs. Their labour was so important that they were paid more than US$ 1 000 for each suitcase. The trafficked narcotics were sometimes treated with spices to render them undetectable to drug-sniffing dogs and also undetectable via x-ray. The couriers were also undetectable, as they were never in contact with the drugs.
The couriers departed directly from the places of production of narcotics, such as East Africa, Pakistan, China, Laos and Latin America (cocaine in various forms: paste, liquid and powder). After the first seizures, the drugs, still coming from those countries, were stored in Tanzania, South Africa and Brazil. From these countries, the drugs were transported to northern Europe, reaching Italy using the most diverse transportation means. Subsequently, the OCG began to use European couriers.
National authorities
IT: The investigations were directed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) Anti-Mafia Directorate of the District of Perugia, supported by the Carabinieri of Perugia and assisted by the Service for the International Cooperation of Police – Division SI.RE.NE.
Anne-Marie Descôtes and Premier Tobias Hahn – Picture by Saarland.de.
Friday, 10 January 2020, Saarbrücken, The Saarland, Germany: Premier of The Saarland, Tobias Hans, hosted a traditional New Year reception held in conjunction with a ceremony was held in the Congress Hall to commemorate the state’s one hundred years of history.
Ambassador of Slovenia, Franc But at the Saarland’s reception accompanied by Ambassador Anne-Marie Descôtes – Picture by Slovenian Embassy in Germany.
Amongst the speakers and prominent guests during there ceremony were German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, historian Prof. Dr. Jörn Leonhard, or French Ambassador Anne-Marie Descôtes. A musical programme was provided by the State Orchestra of The Saarland, and the Thomas Blug Band with Scorpions drummer Herman Rarebell.
To the reception Saarlanders who especially volunteer in the field of regional and local history were invited.
Premier Reiner Haseloff and Ambassador Pedro Raúl Villagra – Staatskanzlei Sachsen-Anhalt, B. Rulf.
Thursday, 9 January 2020, Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany: Premier Dr. Reiner Haseloff received the Ambassador of the Argentine Republic, H. E. Mr. Pedro Raúl Villagra Delgado, for his inaugural visit.
Both sides exchanged views on current issues, and expressed the hope that bilateral contacts can be expanded.
In 2018, goods worth almost 22 million euros were exported from Saxony-Anhalt to the South American state, while imports had a volume of almost nine million euros.
Vibrant education cooperation The Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg is cooperating with the Universidad de Buenos Aires on the basis of a corresponding agreement. The Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg is cooperating with the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahia Bianca, the Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto in Córdoba, and the Universidad Nacional de La Matanza in San Justo. The Anhalt University of Applied Sciences has contractual relationships with the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad de Palermo.
The Gymnasium Landschulheim Grovesmühle in Veckenstedt has maintained an active partnership with the school Técnico No. 2 Obisco Colombres in Tucumán since 2017. The student exchange takes place regularly in rotation. In autumn 2019 15 students and two teachers were guests in Tucumán.
Brazilian Ambassador, H.E. Ms. Regina Cordeiro Dunlop and violinist Ms. Suray Soren with the Brazilian Tropical violins. Photography by Tomás Sforza.
Tex and pictures by John Dunkelgrün.
In these days when darkness still comes early and most news is bad, the initiative of the Brazilian Ambassador, H.E. Ms. Regina Cordeiro Dunlop, to invite this young string ensemble, was a most welcome relief. On a rainy evening a select group of people were invited to the concert hall of the “Vreedehuis”, the house of peace, which is an anthropological cultural center in the stately Archipel area in The Hague.
H.E. Ms. Regina Cordeiro Dunlop, Ambassador of Brazil.
The musicians, ranging in age from 9 to 34, were trained by the violinist Ms. Suray Soren in her own adaptation of the famous Japanese Suzuki method. Ms. Soren is the initiator, the leader, and the accompanying pianist of the Brazilian Tropical violins. Both the instruments they played and the music chosen were an amalgam of indigenous, African and European cultures.
Tropical violins by Brazil
They played mainly works by Brazilian composers, but were equally at home with Vivaldi and Piazolla. Most pieces were especially arranged for this ensemble. The musicians were very versatile, playing not just the violin, but an assortment of indigenous and African instruments. The two nine-year olds, Isabel Castro and João Vicente Majeski even danced.
All together it was a charming and uplifting performance that the audience rewarded with a long standing applause. Chapeau to the Brazilian embassy for this lovely idea.
The transition to the new year has been marked by rising tensions between the United States and Iran. For a few days, the Middle East has been on the brink of a new potential war, with the two countries adopting a strong rhetoric and conducting military operations against each other. Despite these tense days, Washington and Tehran seem now headed towards de-escalation – although the underlying tensions between them largely remain in place.
January 12th, 2020. New year, new decade, old tensions. The beginning of 2020 has been marked by a dangerous escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, whose long-simmering rivalry has exploded in one of the most open confrontations since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Strain between the two countries had been forcefully re-emerging since May 2018, when the US administration headed by President Trump decided to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under this multilateral agreement – signed in 2015 and endorsed by the United Nations Security Council – Iran had agreed to temporarily constrain its nuclear research program in exchange for sanctions relief from the international community.
Arguing that the deal was not being successful in addressing the threats posed by Iran, the United States withdrew from the JCPOA and applied a so-called “maximum pressure campaign” on Tehran, imposing crippling sanctions on the country’s economy. Iran has since replied with what it calls a “maximum resistance campaign”, aimed at maintaining the country’s economy alive and upholding its foreign policy objectives. As the imposition of US sanctions eroded the JCPOA, Iran gradually started to withdraw from its own commitments under the deal. Moreover, a series of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and on Saudi oil installations – which the US squarely blamed on Iran – further inflamed the tension.
In this tense environment, the spark was finally lit when on December 27th a US contractor got killed in a rocket attack against an Iraqi base in Kirkuk. The US blamed the attack on Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia aligned with Iran, and it stroke back with an airstrike that reportedly killed 25 of the militia’s fighters. Two days later, militiamen and Iraqi protesters stormed the US embassy compound in Baghdad and burned a reception building – eventually withdrawing after two days under their leaders’ orders.
The new cycle of violence, however, was already triggered. In the morning of January 3rd, 2020, a US military drone stroke a car at Baghdad International Airport, killing Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a key figure in Iran’s regional foreign policy, and the Kataib Hezbollah’s commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The strike generated uproar in Iraq, where people complained about the violation of their country’s sovereignty, as well as in Iran, where Maj. Gen. Soleimani enjoyed vast popularity. Having vowed to avenge the death of the military commander, Iran stroke back four days later, with a barrage of missiles hitting two military installations in Iraq hosting US troops. The strike reportedly caused no casualties – although the price of the escalation was paid by the 176 people who died when a Ukrainian civilian airline got accidentally shot down by Iranian missiles in Tehran on January 7th.
At that moment, tensions were at the highest point – with the whole world fearing that a broader conflict could suddenly erupt.
However, that was exactly the moment at which the de-escalation started. Iran’s missile attack reportedly produced no casualty among US and Iraqi servicemembers – intentionally so, according to some analysts – and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif made clear that no further attacks would follow in absence of new US military action. On the other side, US President Trump sought to downplay the damage caused by Iran’s attack, and ordered a retaliation based on sanctions – leaving aside any military option.
As of now, the confrontation between the US and Iran seems back on the “maximum pressure vs. maximum resistance” play. On January 10th, the US State and Treasury Departments announced a new round of sanctions targeting eight Iranian leaders and the country’s metal industry. The aim of this latest round of sanctions is “to hold Iranian regime officials responsible of the attacks against US personnel and interests”, as well as “depriving the regime of the revenue that it needs to conduct its violent and expansionist foreign policy” – said Mr. Brian Hook, US Special Representative for Iran.
The shift away from military confrontation is a positive step. However, the simmering tensions between the US and Iran – not only over Tehran’s nuclear program, but also over the two countries’ rivalry in the region – largely remain in place. While this latest escalation has seemingly been dampened, policymakers on all sides should be very careful if they want to avoid new, dangerous escalations in the future.
About the author:
Guido Lanfranchi is a student and young professional in the field of international affairs. He has pursued his studies both at Leiden University and Sciences Po Paris, where he is currently enrolled. In parallel, he has been gaining professional experience through internships (first at the Council of the European Union, and currently at Clingendael Institute), as well as by working as reporter and associate editor for Diplomat Magazine The Netherlands. His research and work focus on the Middle East and Africa, and especially on conflict situations in these regions.
Dr. Mayelinne De Lara, Diplomat Magazine’s Publisher and Dr. Sofija Bajrektarevic, Culture for Peace, Program Director, based in Vienna.
On the margins of a major international media conference taking place in a very heart of Europe, metropolitan city of Prague, Dr. Mayelinne De Lara, Publisher of Diplomat Magazine based in The Hague and Dr. Sofija Bajrektarevic, Culture for Peace, Program Director, based in Vienna, have met and thoroughly talked over topics of their mutual interests.
Dr. Mayelinne De Lara, Diplomat Magazine and Dr. Sofija Bajrektarevic, Culture for Peace.
Dutch partner stated many complementarities in the scope of the Diplomat Magazine actitvites with those of the Culture for Peace.
By the next round of their bilateral talks at that international event, both sides agreed to elevate in cooperation, by signing their respective Memorandum of Understanding. (photo above)
Dr. Mayelinne De Lara, Diplomat Magazine, Mr. Tiberio Graziani, Vision & Global Trends and Dr. Sofija Bajrektarevic, Culture for Peace.
This MoU will enable both parties to enhance their exchanges of information and of best practices, to mutually promote works complementary to each side as well as to effectively plan their joint undertakings in the Netherlands, Austria and elsewhere within the EU.
