“Registan Square” in Samarkand city, photo from Uzbekistan National News Agency – UzA.
On November 10-11, 2017, international conference on ensuring safety and sustainable development in Central Asia under the auspices of the UN on “Central Asia: one past and a common future, cooperation for sustainable development and mutual prosperity” will be held in Samarkand.
The forum will become one of the important practical steps on implementation of the initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, aimed at ensuring safety, socio-economic prosperity and strengthening of regional cooperation in Central Asia. Transformation of Central Asia into a zone of stability, steady development and good-neighborliness is defined by the Head of Uzbekistan as the main priority of foreign policy of the country.
Organizers of the conference are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia and the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia.
According to the organizing committee, more than 500 people will take part in the international event, including foreign ministers of Central Asian countries, high-level official delegations from the CIS countries, Europe, Asia and America, heads of more than 10 international organizations, including the UN, EU, OSCE, SCO, CIS, EBRD, about 100 authoritative international experts and employees of leading foreign mass media, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Uzbekistan.
In accordance with the program of the forum, speeches will be delivered by the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca, the UN Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS at the United Nations Development Programme Cihan Sultanoglu, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica, OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, Chairman of the Executive Committee – the CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev, the SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov, heads of other international structures.
Foreign ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the Kyrgyz Republic – Erlan Abdyldaev, the Republic of Tajikistan – Sirojiddin Aslov, Turkmenistan – Rashid Meredov, the Republic of Turkey – Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Islamic Republic of Iran – Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – Salahuddin Rabbani, Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the US National Security Council Lisa Curtis and other officials of foreign countries will also deliver speeches.
It is expected that Samarkand conference will provide an opportunity for its participants to exchange views on current issues of security and development of the region, to develop proposals on effective ways of their solution. The two-day forum will allow to discuss specific areas of enhancing cooperation between the Central Asian countries in political, trade-economic, investment, transport-communication, hydropower, environmental, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as the role of international organizations and partner countries in promoting implementation of the regional development projects and enhancing the potential of countries in countering modern challenges and threats.
By H.E. Mr Vidmantas Purlys, Ambassador of Lithuania to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Lithuania and the Netherlands co-operate in many areas and at different levels, ranging from security to economy. Both countries share similar values of democratic governance, rule of law, human rights, openness to trade and innovation. Lithuania and the Netherlands are partners in the European Union, including the euro area, and allies in NATO. The intensity of co-operation achieved to this date is remarkable, notwithstanding the fact that it was terminated by the Soviet occupation of 1940, and was only resumed after the re-establishment of the state in 1990.
The Netherlands and other Western nations never recognized Soviet occupation of Lithuania of 1940-1990. It was an important expression of solidarity with Lithuanians who continued resistance to the Soviet rule. It is quite striking, that even during this period the diplomatic network of the independent Lithuania was continuously functioning with diplomatic posts to the Holly Sea, in Washington and London. This represented continuation of the state. Also, it showed dedication of Lithuanian diplomats of that period, and set high moral standard to the colleagues who joined diplomatic community after 1990.
Today the Netherlands is one of leading trade partners of Lithuania. 20 per cent of cargo handled by the Lithuanian Klaipėda sea port is forwarded via Rotterdam. The Netherlands is also second largest investor in Lithuania and second destination for Lithuanian investments. Dutch investors avail of favourable Lithuanian business climate and are increasingly active across number of sectors, including information and telecommunications technologies, pharmaceuticals and others. Also recently a number of innovative small and medium size Dutch technology companies opened up their businesses in Lithuania.
The area of particular interest of co-operation is energy. As legacy of the past, Lithuania was heavily depended of energy supplies from external actors, who also used their monopoly position for political ends. Therefore, diversification of supply sources for electricity and gas, as well as integration with EU infrastructure networks, was national priority since early 1990s. In 2014 LNG terminal was docked at the Klaipėda port.
The construction of this terminal has significantly changed supply situation and was shaping the dynamics of the Baltic regional gas market. This is genuinely regional infrastructure with capacity of supplying also regional needs. A number of enterprises deliver gas to the Klaipėda LNG, most recently also US and Dutch companies. In this context, there are many opportunities for further bilateral co-operation on technological innovation, research and business practices. These venues of co-operation were already addressed at the 3rd Lithuanian-Netherlands Gas Forum in Vilnius this November.
As to the broader EU agenda, in many respects Lithuania and the Netherlands hold similar view on most important issues. I believe that both countries would like to see that the EU develops in consolidated way, effectively delivers on the most pressing priorities by making full use of instruments provided by the current Treaties.
Lithuania favours removing remaining restrictions in the EU internal market, notably for services and energy, and pressing forward with the creation of digital single market. We should also work to complete the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union of the Economic and Monetary Union. We need to continue addressing migration, border protection and security. EU has to pursue effective external policies, especially towards EU’s immediate neighbourhood. In particular, Lithuania and the Netherlands should continue explore ways to join efforts in supporting EU-related reforms of EU Eastern Partners.
In recent years Lithuania and the Netherlands stepped up co-operation in security and defence, especially in NATO framework, in response to security challenges for the Alliance. The Netherlands contributed to the NATO Baltic Air Policing, and since 2017 Dutch contingent is deployed as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence battalion battle group in Lithuania. Countries also work both bilaterally, in EU and NATO, on addressing hybrid security risks, such as cyber, propaganda and others.
———-
Photography by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.
A unique exposition in the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam until March 25th 2018.By John Dunkelgrün.
Salomon (1917-1943), perhaps the least known of the great 20th century painters has produced an absolutely unique oeuvre. It comprises some 1600 paintings and gouaches that depict her life story. Her work cannot be properly understood without knowing that life story. While many of her works show her to be very much part of the mid 20th century art scene, it is as a total story that her work has unique value.
She was born into a wealthy family in Berlin. Her father was a famous doctor, who is credited with the invention of the mammogram. The family was at the center of Berlin’s cultural life and she grew up in a huge and fashionable apartment surrounded by servants. However, there was a deep dark streak in the family with her aunt, her mother and much later her grandmother committing suicide.
Her father remarried a well known contralto four years after his wife’s death. Meanwhile Charlotte (as she is generally known) had developed a love for art. In 1935 she was, surprisingly for a Jew at the time, admitted to Berlin’s Academy of arts, because “her character was so modest and reserved, it would not pose a threat to male Aryan students”. Nevertheless, when she won first prize in a blind competition, the prize was given to a fellow student and she had to leave the Academy.
Meanwhile her stepmother had engaged a voice teacher who became Charlotte’s tutor and first lover. After 1933 the family’s social life steadily shrank and the mortal menace of the Nazi regime started to sink in. Following Kristallnacht in 1938 her parents sent her to stay with her grandparents in Villefranche sur Mer in the South of France.
There, a year later her grandmother tried to hang herself. They had moved from Villefranche to a small apartment in Nice, where her grandmother succeeded in her quest for death by jumping out of the 3rd floor window. Her grandfather then told her about the family history of suicides. This weighed heavily upon her and together with her experience in Berlin it caused her extreme anxiety.
A doctor, Dr. Georges Moridis, suggested she started painting her experiences as therapy. This she did in a complete frenzy, painting day and night, hardly eating or sleeping.
Her visa required that she be the caretaker of her grandfather, who started to make ever stronger sexual demands of her. This became so unbearable that she decided to kill him by spiking his omelette with Veronal.
The murder was not detected, but she wrote about it and even painted the man while he was dying. Meanwhile she had married Alexander Nagler, a Jewish refugee from Romania from whom she expected a child.
Then in 1943 after the Germans had occupied Vichy France as well and demanded that all Jews register, Charlotte packed all her works in brown paper and handed them to Dr. Morides with a plea to take good care of them, as they “contained her whole life”. Then she and her husband registered as Jews rather than go into hiding, perhaps as her own act of suicide. They were taken to the infamous transition camp of Drancy and hence to Auschwitz where they were both murdered.
Ironically her parents survived, hiding out in The Netherlands. Dr. Morides duly gave them the packages for which they had six red boxes especially made. It would be years and years before they decided to share them with the world. The current exposition in the JHM is the first that shows all her gouaches, some 800 of them, in chronological order. It is an incredible visible history of a family caught in the most calamitous episode of the 20th century.
It shows the coming of age of a young woman in a family slowly squeezed out of a charmed cultured life. It shows her development as an artist, and early love for her tutor. It depicts her exile in France and the unbearable weight of her family history. As such, while most of the works are of great artistic merit in themselves, it is a a totality that it is an absolutely unique word of art.
Note from the author: For this article I have drawn extensively on the July 2017 New Yorker article by Toni Bentley.
On the picture: Owners Rik and Henriëtte Priester with Marit Bouwmeester (m) worldchampion sailing 2017.
When you enter Absolutely Fit you are welcomed in a motivating, personal and challenging environment.
This gym is open to every individual who wants to work on their body fitness. It’s also a National Trainings Center (NTC) for high performance athletes in the area and is equipped with professional and Olympic weight lifting material.
Whatever goals you set for yourself, Absolutely Fit is the place to make them happen. Cardio, weightlifting, core strength, general fitness, losing weight, gaining muscle; everything is possible here! After your work-out there is the possibility to enjoy the sauna or solarium and finish your healthy day with a good cup of coffee or juice.
The contract system is ideal for customers who participate on a regular base, since you can start and stop your contract each month, a flexible service that distinguishes Absolutely Fit!
Get in Touch
Adress: Dr. Lelykade 240, Scheveningen
Tel: 070 358 77 81
E-mail: info@absolutely-fit.nl
Opening hours: mon-fri. 8:15 am – 22:00 pm, sat and sun 8:30 am – 15:00 pm
In recent years Toneelgroep Amsterdam has put on stage three novels of Louis Couperus. This season the complete trilogy – Small souls, The things that pass and The hidden force – can be seen in Amsterdam. The rerun of The hidden force will take place from 9 until 22 December.
1900, Java. Otto van Oudijck governs his province with vigour. He sees himself as the representative of a superior European culture. He lives for his work. For the colony, which he wants to bring to a higher level. He is oblivious to the fact that his wife is having affairs with other men. But when Van Oudijck dismisses a local regent for misconduct, mysterious things start to happen in his house and around him.
The hidden force is an enthralling story about the misunderstandings and incomprehension between cultures, as well as between close relatives. The downfall of Otto van Oudijck makes us painfully aware of the impossibility to fully understand others.
On Thursdays Toneelgroep Amsterdam provides English surtitles (Projected English translation) in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam.
On 3 November 2017, the Japanese government announced the foreign recipients of the 2017 Autumn Conferment Decorations. Two Dutch citizens will receive a decoration for their contribution to the promotion of Dutch-Japanese relations.
Dr. J.A. (Joop)Stam, Professor Emeritus of Erasmus University Rotterdam and University of Twente, will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon. This is in recognition of his significant contribution to developing Japanese studies and promoting better understanding of Japan in the Netherlands.
Mr. C.J. (Cor) Nolten, a former staff member of the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, will receive the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays. With this decoration the Japanese Government recognises his significant contribution to the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands.
ICTY and MICT Prosecutor Serge Brammertz will be in Belgrade on 1 and 2 November, as part of preparations for his regular biannual reports to the UN Security Council (UNSC), due to be presented in December.
The Prosecutor will meet with President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Snežana Stanojković. Additionally, he will meet with members of the diplomatic community. With the ICTY closing at the end of this year, the Office of the Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (OTP MICT) will take over the remaining tasks of the OTP ICTY.
MICT Prosecutor Serge Brammertz will continue to submit a progress report to the UNSC every six months.
On the picture HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain, former German President Christian Wulff, HM Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.By Henri Estramant.26 October 2017, Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand: One year after the enlightenment of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) of Thailand, cremation and funerary rituals for the erstwhile longest reigning monarch were complete at the Grand Palace, after five days of national mourning and ceremonies to celebrate the late king’s life.Presiding over the Buddhist ceremonies and the cremation was his only son and successor, HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun (Rama X). Subsequently the ashes of King Rama IX were transferred by the Sovereign to a Buddhist temple holding the mortal remains of members of the Chakri Dynasty. Whereas his bones remain in a separate urn at a private hall inside the Grand Palace. The Royal Crematorium site for the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is seen near the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand October 20, 2017. Picture taken October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Athit PerawongmethaKing Bhumibol Adulyadej was 88 years old at the time of his enlightenment, and reigned for over 70 years. According to tradition the spirit of the Hindu deity Rama inhabits the reigning Thai monarch’s body. The cremation paves the way for King Vajiralongkorn’s coronation. The funeral ceremonies were attended by royalty, heads of state and government as well as their representatives from around the globe. From the Benelux countries, HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, HM Queen Mathilde of the Belgians and HRH The Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg attended. Germany was represented by former President Christian Wulff and France by erstwhile Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. For further information:Funeral cremation’s official website: http://kingrama9.net/en/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWhz1Qs2pPY
H.E. Saywan Barzani. Ambassador of Iraq.By Roy Lie A Tjam
The names Nineveh and Jonah, are inextricably linked. An impressive exposition on the ancient city of Nineveh has been inaugurated at The National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden featuring more than 250 articrafts from the city of Nineveh. The collection including reliefs, statues, clay tablets, and cylinder seals. Of particular interest are the large reliefs from the city palaces and the reconstruction of one of the rooms in the palace of King Sennacherib.
The exhibition archeological treasures came from more than 25 lenders. Among them renowned institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art N.Y., British Museum, Louvre Museum Paris and the National Museum of Iraq, Bagdad.
Approximately 2,700 years ago, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire and the largest city in the world. The city was ruled by King Sennacherib and other Kings, all wielded great power.
Pictures are a courtesy of the National Museum of Antiquities of Leiden, for additional images on the opening open the following link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/albums/72157690097068446H.E Jet Bussenmaker, Dutch Minister for Education Culture and Science.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in the Netherlands and supported by several national and international organizations.
H.E. Brandusa Predescu Ambassador of Romania, H.E. Heidemaria Gurer, Ambassador of Austria , H.E. Mrs. Sabine Nölke, Ambassador of Canada and Abir Ali, Charge d’affaires du Lebanon.
The official opening of the Ninveh Exposition took place on October 19th in the presence of H.E Jet Bussenmaker, Dutch Minister for Education Culture and Science who performed the official opening. In her inaugural address, Bussenmaker cited the opening lines of the Bible book Jonah, saying: The word of God came to Joʹnah the son of A·mitʹtai, saying: “Get up, go to Ninʹe·veh+ the great city, and proclaim judgment against her, for their wickedness has come to my attention.” 3 But Joʹnah got up to run away from God to Tarʹshish; he went down to Jopʹpa and found a ship going to Tarʹshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to go with them to Tarʹshish, away from God.
Other speakers at the inaugural ceremony were Mr. Wim Weijland Director of the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, a video recorded message by Ms Irira Bokova, DG of UNESCO was screened. Subsequently, the welcome remarks by the Ambassador of Iraq H.E. Saywan Barzani followed. Note a part of Barzani’s welcome remarks:
H.E. Mr. Ahmad Jalal Said Al Mufleh, Ambassador for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Abir Ali, Charge d’affaires du Lebanon, H.E. Abdelouahab Bellouki, Ambassador of Morocco, H.E. Odette Melono, Ambassador of Cameroon and H.E. Elyes Ghariani, Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia.Guests from all over the world, Allow me first to thank all of you for making this happens. Special thank goes to both: Mr. Wim Weijland and Ms. Anna de Wit of National Museum of Antiquities and their team, Nineveh, Heart of an Ancient Empire has brought us together to celebrate the opening of this Exhibition. Drs.Ron S. Ton, Director Diplomatic Training, Netherlands Institue of International Relations, Clingendael and H.E. Alireza Jahangiri, Ambassador of Iran.The collaboration of many museums and institution from different parts of the world makes it a success to let everyone have a chance to see, at the same time, the beauty and power of Nineveh and Mesopotamia. Iraq has deep richness in artefacts that are still to be discovered with more than 12,000 registered archaeological sites. Nineveh is not a new name, we all might hear of it when we were younger, its name and/or people have been mentioned in both the Bible and Quran; a great city preserved the past, the past of great ancient empire.Today as we celebrate this important event, Iraq is about to have its land freed from ISIS (IS) totally. IS tried to destroy the whole Mesopotamian civilization in the region, the destruction to historical sites caused by IS should make us more vigilant, united and cooperative than ever.Iraq is grateful for the efforts of international community aiming to preserve the cultural heritage in Iraq, among them, the UN Resolution A/69/L.71 in May 2015, strict monitoring system of many UN member-states against smuggling artefacts and returning them back to its country of origin, UNESCO engagement is of value in this venue, not to mention the role of the host country, The Netherlands, Prince Claus Fund is a great example in this field.Our collective efforts need to have a deep sense of serious and historic responsibility to protect the value of cultural heritage, the heritage that kept the memory of past civilization alive through many centuries. Many inventions of our modern time have roots in past civilizations; let us spare no effort to preserve the cultural heritage that does not belong only to Iraq but to the whole humanity. How great to present the next generations with the gift of enjoying, feeling, seeing and nourishing their memory with the beauty of these artefacts!Allow me at the end to thank you once again for your valuable presence here with us today, my special thanks to the organizers, it is an honour to congratulate the Dutch government and people for the new government soon to be announced, and now let us all welcome the speech of H.E. Bussemaker Minister of Culture, Education and Science who might have the last chance appearing in public as a Minister of Culture due to the new Cabinet.
The exhibition Nineveh is under the patronage of UNESCO. and runs from 20 October 2017 until 25 March 2018.
With the purpose to stimulate better and more import and export activities among the Netherlands and El Salvador and to create the opportunity to promote business the new Binational Chamber of Commerce El Salvador / Holland will be launched in the Spring 2018 in the city of Amsterdam.
The founding President of the Chamber, Ms Sonia Meijer will work together with the Dutch authorities and the Embassy of El Salvador in the Netherlands, to provide the appropriate tools and information to those who are already doing business between the two countries.
Meanwhile her stepmother had engaged a voice teacher who became Charlotte’s tutor and first lover. After 1933 the family’s social life steadily shrank and the mortal menace of the Nazi regime started to sink in. Following Kristallnacht in 1938 her parents sent her to stay with her grandparents in Villefranche sur Mer in the South of France.
There, a year later her grandmother tried to hang herself. They had moved from Villefranche to a small apartment in Nice, where her grandmother succeeded in her quest for death by jumping out of the 3rd floor window. Her grandfather then told her about the family history of suicides. This weighed heavily upon her and together with her experience in Berlin it caused her extreme anxiety.
A doctor, Dr. Georges Moridis, suggested she started painting her experiences as therapy. This she did in a complete frenzy, painting day and night, hardly eating or sleeping.
Her visa required that she be the caretaker of her grandfather, who started to make ever stronger sexual demands of her. This became so unbearable that she decided to kill him by spiking his omelette with Veronal.
The murder was not detected, but she wrote about it and even painted the man while he was dying. Meanwhile she had married Alexander Nagler, a Jewish refugee from Romania from whom she expected a child.
Then in 1943 after the Germans had occupied Vichy France as well and demanded that all Jews register, Charlotte packed all her works in brown paper and handed them to Dr. Morides with a plea to take good care of them, as they “contained her whole life”. Then she and her husband registered as Jews rather than go into hiding, perhaps as her own act of suicide. They were taken to the infamous transition camp of Drancy and hence to Auschwitz where they were both murdered.
Ironically her parents survived, hiding out in The Netherlands. Dr. Morides duly gave them the packages for which they had six red boxes especially made. It would be years and years before they decided to share them with the world. The current exposition in the JHM is the first that shows all her gouaches, some 800 of them, in chronological order. It is an incredible visible history of a family caught in the most calamitous episode of the 20th century.
It shows the coming of age of a young woman in a family slowly squeezed out of a charmed cultured life. It shows her development as an artist, and early love for her tutor. It depicts her exile in France and the unbearable weight of her family history. As such, while most of the works are of great artistic merit in themselves, it is a a totality that it is an absolutely unique word of art.
Note from the author: For this article I have drawn extensively on the July 2017 New Yorker article by Toni Bentley. 
Get in Touch
