 | Diederik Boomsma is a duo-councillor in the city council of Amsterdam for the Christian Democrat Party. He occasionally contributes opinion articles to Dutch and foreign newspapers and magazines, and has written chapters about the history of conservatism, the economic crisis, populism in Europe and Natural Law. He serves on the board of the Edmund Burke Foundation (The Netherlands), a platform for conservative thought, and the Center for European Renewal, an independent, non-partisan organisation dedicated to the promoting and protecting the Western ideal of a civilised, humane, and free society. Mr. Boomsma is currently writing a doctoral thesis (parttime) on the 20th century Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. He was previously one of the editors for the weekly opinion magazine Opinio. He obtained an MSc in Ecology and Nature Conservation from University College London, a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Durham (England). |
Africa and oil
"I was impressed by the intensity of the debate and the high level of intellectual engagement, not least by the audience. It was an invigorating, even exhilarating experience to be part of a festival based on the conviction that disagreement is good. The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic concept, may it spread epidemically to the rest of the world. I am already looking forward to next year's event."
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; novelist
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