Last blog of ambassador Kees Rade (31)
By the time you read this I will have already left Bangkok. After three and a half years, our placement here has come to an end, where I had the honor and pleasure of representing the Netherlands in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (30)
Departure is approaching. As mentioned earlier, I will leave this beautiful country at the end of July and start my next, hopefully very long placement in the Netherlands: my retirement. Until then there is still plenty to do.
Agenda: Farewell to ambassador Kees Rade
On Tuesday, July 6, the NVT Bangkok will hold a special coffee morning because they say goodbye to our ambassador Kees Rade and his wife Katharina Cornaro.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (29)
Unfortunately, still Covid that continues to dominate the news in Thailand. While there is finally good news in the Netherlands, and more generally in Europe, developments in Thailand are still not going in the right direction, although the number of daily infections and fatalities is more or less stable.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (28)
I ended my previous blog on an optimistic note; the Covid epidemic had now entered its final phase, the vaccinations should really have an impact soon. A month later I unfortunately have to admit that I was a bit too positive. Many of you, like me, are in a de facto lockdown.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (27)
A sector that we unfortunately can not often report on, because Thailand is not on the relevant list of priority countries of The Hague, is that of culture. That is why we were very pleased that no less than two events in the cultural sector took place in March.
Interview with Dutch ambassador in Thailand
The Facebook page of the Dutch embassy in Bangkok mentions an exclusive interview with ambassador Kees Rade and his wife, which recently appeared on the YouTube channel “Meet the Ambassadors”.
Thailand – Netherlands Water Dialogue
On March 15, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on water between Thailand and the Netherlands took place at the Dutch residence to facilitate cooperation between our two countries.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (26)
To start on a positive note, one new Covid-19 infection was reported in Bangkok yesterday. That certainly doesn't mean that more cases wouldn't have been discovered with active testing, but it's a promising figure that hopefully means a turn for the better in the Thai situation.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (25)
After all the gloomy messages in previous blogs about the Covid-19 crisis, I would have liked to start this blog about the first month of the new year with a positive story about the pandemic, in the sense that we are really on our way back, the worst is past and so on. Unfortunately, we have to leave this kind of positive noise in the fridge for a while.
New Year's blog ambassador Kees Rade in Bangkok
First of all, of course, on behalf of the entire embassy team, I would like to offer you all our very best wishes for this new year! Much has already been said about the hopefully atypical year 2020, which will not go down in the history books as a pinnacle of well-being and prosperity.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (23)
In the past month, we have again been able to use our historic residence to organize work-related events, of course taking into account Covid-19 prevention measures.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (22)
Despite the fact that it is still not possible for delegations and tourists from the Netherlands to travel to Thailand, which obviously has a major impact on our work as an embassy, October was still a busy month with many different activities.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (21)
The biggest change that has occurred for me personally since my last blog, over two weeks ago, is the end of our quarantine. Despite the fact that those two weeks of quarantine went by fairly quickly, I was still reminded of the behavior of the Dutch cows when they go out to pasture for the first time at the beginning of spring, when we were allowed to go out into the world again .
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (20)
A little later than planned my twentieth blog. Later because my return from the Netherlands was delayed, the KLM flight we had booked turned out not to go and we were put on a flight a few days later.
Ambassador Rade visits Philanthropy Connections project
Last week, an important event took place for Sallo Polak and his Philanthropy Connections staff. The Dutch ambassador to Thailand, Mr. Kees Rade, honored the organization with a visit to Ban Pha Lai Preschool. It is one of the many projects supported by Philanthropy Connections, in this case even for four years.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (19)
Ambassador Kees Rade in the Bangkok Post
Ambassador Kees Rade wrote an article about green economic recovery after Covid-19 entitled “Recovery after Covid-19: Let's make it green”. The publication of the article coincided with International Climate Change Day, which fell on June 21.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (18)
Thailand has just entered the third phase of the country's reopening. Fortunately, normal life is starting to return more and more. Many shops are open again, many companies have started up again. But this certainly does not mean that we are already back to the situation as it was before the start of the pandemic. The question is whether we will ever go back there again.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (17)
This time a short blog. Not so much because not much is happening in our countries, on the contrary. The COVID-19 crisis is still causing untold suffering worldwide, and certainly also in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Fortunately, the epidemic as such appears to be reasonably under control in these countries. The figures in Thailand are reassuring, with fewer than ten new infections per day for several days. The figures in Cambodia and Laos are also still manageable, although it is not entirely clear what role the small number of tests plays in this.
Additional COVID-19 Blog by Ambassador Kees Rade
Normally Easter weekend in the Netherlands, and Songkran in Thailand, is a period where many people visit family or friends, enjoy the beginning of spring in the Netherlands or spray each other with water in hot Thailand. How different is the picture this year! Empty roads, deserted bus stations, no street festivities. In the midst of this exceptional period, just an interim message from the embassy.
Blog Ambassador Kees Rade (16)
You will not be surprised that everything we have done in the past month, and I am afraid that will not be much different in the coming weeks, has focused on just one subject: the COVID-19 crisis. In February we already had a preview of the vicissitudes around the Westerdam. But now the crisis has erupted in full force in just about the whole world, and certainly also in “our” three countries.