In 1996 it was decided that we should have more economics in our foreign policy. 10 people from the Economics ministry were selected to teach those diplomats that just talking is not enough to maintain our welfare. I was also selected and from 1996 till 2000 I worked in the North America division of the Western Hemisphere Department of the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Highlights were (see the photogalery for some historic pictures):
– Reading pink secret cables that came from our embassies and that we received on our disk every morning.
– Preparing the visit of president Bill Clinton to the Netherlands (1997, see programme booklet), including the organisation of the commemoration of the Marshall plan
– Visit consulates in the United States to help installing their first websites (I was one of the few people who had the html skills at the time)
– 3 weeks stay in Houston for research report ‘Cowboys in the Polder’
– The conference series Bridging Gaps in Financing Infrastructure where we tried to organise a kind of Marshall plan for Eastern Europe but then through public private investment.
Fred Lafeber 