Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (3)

De Dutch ambassador in thailand, Keith Rade, writes a monthly blog for the Dutch community, in which he outlines what he has been doing in the past month.

Dear compatriots,

Busy busy busy, the month of November is traditionally a month where a lot happens, before the rest of the Christmas period sets in. So here are a few brief impressions.

A theme that ran like a thread through this month was violence against women. It started with a well-attended coffee morning organized by the NVT in the residence on 8 November. During this coffee morning, Henriette Jansen, who has been researching this theme in the region for many years, explained to us how difficult it is to get reliable data on this subject. Women don't talk about that easily, especially when their husband or family is around. It is therefore important to set up the research more broadly, and only to address this theme after a while. The results of such research are shocking, by the way, a lot is happening behind the friendly facade of Asian society.
On November 23, six women gave a very personal account of their history in this field at a meeting organized by the UN. On this “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” a campaign was launched worldwide to draw attention to this theme. This campaign will end on December 4 with an event co-organized by us. And that such action is necessary became clear again from the poignant stories we heard.

On November 10, I had the honor to spend some time with a group of Dutch relatives of war victims who are buried in Kanchanaburi. A mixed group, with very diverse backgrounds but with a common goal: to pay tribute to their relatives, who died in appalling circumstances during or just after the Second World War. For some, given their advanced age, this will probably be the last time they can make such a visit. This resulted in emotional moments, which were excellently supervised by the team of the War Graves Foundation present.

After Kanchanaburi I was in Khon Kaen on November 19, for a completely different subject. A debate on human rights had been organized by the city's university. Together with a few colleagues from other embassies, we were invited to talk about our policy in this area. Always interesting to speak to students, although it is usually not easy to provoke a response from Thai students. That was completely different nine days later during a meeting at the residence with a delegation of students from Webster University. My story about the core elements of Dutch foreign policy, and the fundamental developments that are currently taking place on the global stage (emergence of Asia, democracy under pressure, populism, future western cooperation), elicited the necessary reactions from the (Western and Asian ) students. My somewhat provocative statements, incidentally made under the well-known “Chatham House Rules” (statements may not be traced back to a specific participant), had the intended effect. Always nice to think again about why we do what we do.

The month ended with another interesting evening with the Dutch community, this time in Pattaya. I enjoyed the great honor of being able to be present together with Sinterklaas. Was able to speak to many attendees, on a wide variety of topics, from perfume bottles to the air force to the hotel industry. Tastes like more. Have also been able to report the good news that the Dutch embassy will continue to issue visa support letters, something that some like-minded embassies no longer do. And even Sinterklaas had a consular question for me!

Contrary to my habit, I would like to close with a brief statement about the future. In view of its special nature, I consider this justified: on December 8, I will have the great honor of handing over my credentials to HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun. More about that in my next Blog!

Sincerely,

Keith Rade