The Second CWC Review Conference (2008) has a nice website and some excellent live blogging by Cheryl Voss and Daniel Feakes.
Somehow, though, they both missed (I stand corrected). Cheryl Vos noticed an extraordinary statement by the Dutch Foreign Minister regarding his hopes and dreams for the OPCW:
One of the world’s best ice hockey players, the Canadian Wayne Gretzky, once said that a good hockey player plays where the puck is; but a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. The ambition of this review conference should be to turn the OPCW from a good player into a great player. Understanding the future and preparing for it are key. I wish you a most productive conference.
All of this raises the natural question, of course, do the Dutch play ice hockey?
The answer, as the picture above suggests, turns out to be “yes” — though not very well. That’s a Dutch goalie, letting a pick slip by, in a 3-1 loss to mighty Kazakhstan.
Wonders never cease.
Thanks and for the link to my blog. I remember Verhagen’s statement and the quote definitely raised a few eyebrows as it stood out from the other rather dull diplomatic statements, but I must admit it didn’t mean that much to me (if instead it had been cricket and mentioned, say Kevin Pietersen, that would have been different). In our defence though, I must point out that Cheryl did actually pick up on the quote in her Day 1 post. Unfortunately, by the sound of it, the RevCon is currently playing like that Dutch goalie. For more on daily progress – or lack of it at the RevCon – see Richard Guthrie’s daily reports.
Please find my post on Day 1 of the RevCon here: http://fas.org/blog/cw/2008/04/day-1.html
I mention it at the end.
I am Canadian, so I never miss a good hockey reference. Even better, I am from Edmonton where Gretzky won his Stanley Cups, so you can bet I certainly never miss a Gretzky reference!!!
I am glad that you appreciated the quote as well.
The Russians, of course, love hockey
And bears, of course. But apparently bears and hockey is the way to go.
Nederland is zijn eigen soort sanctiedoos.