20. 9. 2007

Prinsjesdag 18. 9. 2007

On the third Tuesday of September, on 18 September, we organised for the third time in a row our “Prinsjesdag” event, this time at the Michna’s Palace.

The program started with a summary of the Queen’s speech by HE. Jan-Lucas van Hoorn on his own birthday and continued with this year’s keynote speaker, Professor Václav Pačes, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

We would like to thank the Ambassador once more for being with us on this for him and his family so special day.

Professor Pačes made a giant effort to explain to us the differences between human and chimpanzee, our nearest cousin, but as we understood, he and his fellow scientists are still looking for what makes the difference. The genomes seem to be identical and as far as there is a difference, it should be in the combination of genes, if we understood it well. As a token of our gratitude, we offered Professor Pačes an enchanting picture of our recently born nephew Tatu.

The traditional cultural contribution to the program came this time from the dance group Moták, performing Czech folk dances. Under the inspiring leadership of our Katka, the group performed wonderfully, leaving us wondering how Katka can combine this with her outstanding work for our Chamber.

We also finally experienced a very tasty real Indonesian “rijsttafel”. The clue was that we finally found a real expert, Louisiana van Menxel, who gave us the contact to a wonderful Indonesian cook, willing to perform with our Patron member Zátiší Group. Thus top quality catering and local Indonesian flavour combined, resulting in an excellent “rijsttafel”. We would like to thank Louisiana once more for her help.

The attendance hit a record height and we hope all have enjoyed this “Prinsjesdag”.