20. 9. 2008

Prinsjesdag 16. 9. 2008

On the third Tuesday of September, the 16th, we organised for the fourth time in a row our Prinsjesdag event, this time at the Žofín terraces. The originally planned venue, Municipal House, appeared to be too expensive, after promised discounts were not respected. The Žofín terraces were a good alternative, because of the new participation there of our sponsor and patron member Zátiší Catering Group, enabling them to repeat last year’s success with their superb Indonesian “rijsttafel”.

The event started with a short program, which was opened, as traditionally, by a summary of Queen’s speech given by the Netherlands Ambassador, HE. Jan Lucas van Hoorn. Thereafter, our keynote speaker, the Czech-Dutch writer Jan Stavinoha, gave us in his speech called “A wet miracle” his personal impression of how he sees his new country fellowmen through his Czech past. Jan Stavinoha left Czecho-Slovakia after the Prague Spring of 1968 and has since then lived in his new home country, the Netherlands. He is the author of numerous novels, written in Dutch. His striking observations and interpretation of Dutch history were followed by the informal part of the evening, in which the participants could enlarge their network, while enjoying the above-mentioned “rijsttafel”, this excellent set of dishes that the Dutch have become so proud of.