Rene De Vries - ICV 25: Opening Speech

Speech by the Harbour Master of the Port of Rotterdam 

The first presentation of the 25th International Congress of Vexillology was given by Rene De Vries, the Harbour Master of Rotterdam Port.  It started with a visually stunning video about the Rotterdam, which is the largest port in Europe.

In sci-fi terms Rotterdam is like Coruscant in the fictional Star Wars universe.  On Coruscant you can see thousands of ships flying by, but in Rotterdam thousands of huge ships gently gliding through the river port.   But in Rotterdam's case there are thousands of ships heading in and out of this port.  Amazing Rotterdam is neat, organized, efficient, and lacking that noisy, toxic, grimy, in and out pollution of other large port cities found in other parts of the world.  Everything moves at fast, quick, polite, and in a gentle pace like a well oiled super aquatic station.

De Vries noted that, "flags in politics are a source of pride yet not a symbol of superiority."  Likewise flags are a popular tradition and useful in the maritime tradition.



 https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/port-authority/organisation



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Photo Credit:lhttp://www.porttechnology.org/news/rotterdam_promotes_lng_as_shipping_fuel