Nico de Haan

“I had the opportunity to listen to Fleur Ravensbergen speak at the Friendship and Conflict discussion hosted by De Balie in June of last year. The discussion topic was an original one and the three panel members approached the subject from varying angles. Coming from very different cultural backgrounds, the Filipino and Cameroonian speaker that preceded Fleur gave fascinating accounts of how friendship was perceived in the particular cultural (and conflict) contexts to which they each belonged. As someone from a peaceful European country addressing a sizable Dutch audience, it was a difficult act to follow.

But Fleur quickly got the audience's attention. In the confident yet unassuming tone and style that characterizes her, she skillfully drew in the audience by basing her presentation on her personal experiences with friendship and conflict. Her unique experiences in having to engage with violent individuals in places like the Congo proved both fascinating as well as highly entertaining for all of the audience. Her funny anecdotes on dealing with tough yet charming dissident Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland, in particular, were one specific highlight which everyone obviously enjoyed. Most importantly, Fleur proved skilled at drawing out the various challenges, tensions and dilemmas that a job such as ours entails. Presented in a clear, yet entertaining way, I thought she did an exceptional job at adjusting her speech to her specific audience. The talk was the perfect balance of intellectually challenging, personally-based and simply entertaining.

While I had worked closely with Fleur for over a year by that time, I had never seen her speak in public to a large audience. I was truly impressed. In our specific (and very small) field of work, most people involved don't have the ability to explain what we do to a wider audience. When they do it either sounds too informal or exaggeratedly grandoise. Fleur has managed to find the right tone and she presents it brilliantly. I hope that she has many further opportunities to share the unique experiences she has. I believe there is much to learn from the kind of work we do that is applicable to anyone irrespective of their work or background.”