Den Haag

In Roberto Saviano's book 'Gomorrah' he makes the claim that the Port of Naples handles ‘20 percent of the value of Italian textile imports from China, but 70 percent of the quantity’. This is by way of saying that Naples is the great smuggler’s port of Europe. Yesterday we were at the Port of Rotterdam. We heard legal discussion on maritime arbitration and carriage of goods issues and the resolution of liability disputes. And we had an impressive overview of the whole operation from the Port Authority before touring the man-made canals to see the vast container towers for ourselves. There was no mention of smuggling. It was interesting to contrast what seemed the orderly world of shipping in The Netherlands with the operation I’ve been reading about in Naples where amongst all the other macabre pursuits of organised crimes it’s possible to have your frozen body packed into a container and shipped back to China for burial (illegally of course).

As you can see I’m now at the pointy end of my time away, and a bit strung out by the amount of eating, drinking, chatting, sight-seeing and ‘exchanges of ideas’ that the last few days have consisted of. But as ever with the IALL conferences it’s been good. Amongst our speakers have been law professors, judges and historians. We’ve sat in the Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice and taken a Port Cruise aboard a splendid floating palace of snacks and drinks and been received in the Burger Zeal (City Hall) in Rotterdam. Tonight we go to the very grand Societeit De Witte in the heart of the ‘old City’. For this I have brought my pearls!

Although I personally haven’t sampled any of the ‘cigarettes’ which can be bought across the street at the local coffee house, one of our number has. A disappointment apparently; about on a par with smoking a Drum rollie. Perhaps the (not exactly) legal nature of dope here could be a trade-off with its milder form. And the availability of this stuff has lessened some drug related problems in Holland. Euthanasia is the other great topic which has come up for discussion both amongst our speakers, and amongst ourselves. We were addressed by Eugene Sutorius, the Dr Nitschke of The Netherlands. In the past he acted as counsel defending doctors on trial for so-called assistant suicide. But with voluntary euthanasia in existence since the ‘Termination of life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act 2002’ he now advocates an ‘out of free will’ amendment to the requirements of the Act (which seems quite close to our own fleeting NT Act). That is he aims at giving the right of citizens (over 70) to medical assistance in ending it all, without needing to meet the medical requirements of the existing Act. This seems a melancholy end to choose.

This morning I'm cutting class to go to the Mauritshuis - lots of Rembrandts, Jan Steens and Vermeers there (including Girl with the Pearl Earring).   Not sure if I'll have time to add more so vaarwel my friends, until we meet again en blog.