The Rotary Club of New York

www.NYRotary.org                                    www.NewYorkCityRotary.org                     

 

 

 

 

May 3, 2004

 

 

 

Fellow Rotarians,

 

The speaker at our next meeting on May 4th will be Jim Powell. He has written more than 400 articles for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune and a number of other leading publications. His latest book is named FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt Prolonged the Great Depression. That title gives a lot of promise for an interesting and controversial speech on Tuesday. You can read more about Jim Powell in the latest Bulletin on our website at www.nyrotary.org/bulletin2004/bulletin_05-04-2004.pdf (click on the link).

 

This week’s Reporter of the Week is written by Peter Brizard, who joined the Rotary Club of New York in 2002. Thank you Peter for a very interesting report! Peter’s classification is Independent CPA.

 

Don’t forget reserve your space on the President’s Dinner Cruise on Wednesday, May 12 at 6 PM. The departure is from the New York Skyport Marina at 23rd Street and East River at 6:30 sharp. It costs $100 per person. You can read more about it in the Bulletin and on our website at http://207.21.237.12/dinnercruise/.

 

Voy Sobon, who was born in Switzerland, became a New York Rotarian earlier this year. A couple of weeks ago, he gave a very interesting invocation at our Rotary meeting. It was from an anonymous script dated 1692, which was found in St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, MD. You can read this invocation on our website at www.nyrotary.org/invocations/invocations.htm.

 

I have written before about Larry Parks and the great speakers that he brings to our legendary Rotary Club. What I did not know at the time was that Larry also has his own weekly TV show in New York City on Channel 56. It is called The Larry Parks Show and it can bee seen on Fridays between 5 pm and 6 pm.

 

You can read an article by Camilo Uy in the latest Bulletin about our latest Paul Harris Fellows. These are Hugh Hamilton, Carlos Bergantinos for the 3rd time and Jim Morita for the 10th time. The contributions towards a Paul Harris Fellowship go to support the programs of Rotary International.

 

There is currently a debate in our Rotary District 7230 about what Rotary Programs to support. The two positions are as follows:

 

  1. There is only a limited amount of money available among the Rotarians in our district and therefore the District can only support one program with the goal of raising an average of $100 per Rotarian for Rotary International. All other fundraising programs are to be discouraged.

 

  1. They also support the goal of raising $100 per Rotarian for Rotary International is the same, but there is also enough capacity among the Rotarians in the District to support other fundraising projects.

 

Past District Governor Glen Nygren represents the second point of view and he has sent me the following message in support of his view:

 

Rotary faces many challenges. The Rotary Foundation resources have been strained, in part because of difficulties in completing the elimination of polio worldwide by our Centennial Year, 2005. They have found it necessary, for example, to reduce Matching Grants from dollar-to-dollar matching to $0.50 to a dollar. They do not make grants for buildings. The applications from clubs and districts continue to increase in number. In an attempt to increase income they have encouraged incoming District Governors to emphasize "Every Rotarian - $100 a year to support the Rotary Foundation." More of us need to commit ourselves to this personal giving.

 

There are several projects seeking funding in our District. These are not competitive with giving to the Rotary Foundation. Rotarians respond to perceived needs. Gift-of-Life is one such project which many of us contribute to generously. Another project seeks to improve school facilities in poor countries. The South Africa AIDS Plus Project seeks to provide medical help to children and women who are helpless victims of this disease. It is only natural that these multiple requests for funds from individuals and clubs should occasionally engender objections.

 

One active Rotarian asked why spend money treating AIDS when rape and incest in many areas is what produces the epidemic nature of AIDS? We must admit that halting rape and incest is beyond the ability of private organizations such as Rotary to effect. That is the role of local and country-wide governments. Isn't anything being done on this?

 

This past week the European Economic Community increased its member countries from 15 to 25.  The news reports stress the economic dimensions of this growth. However, there is another dimension which may prove to be of even greater significance. Each member country, including the ten just added to the EEC, is required to be signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, which is enforced by a supra-national court, The European Court of Human Rights, at Strasbourg. This has led to defining the rights of women, the victims of rape, and in effect changing the whole perception of human rights.

 

In Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States there are legal structures and enforcement agencies that seek to prevent the exploitation of women. In Asia, India has also been able to create nation-wide policies in the human rights area. The weakness of all this, however, is that poverty, the unequal distribution of food and medicines, is a major problem in dealing with AIDS and there are no success stories demonstrating a willingness to deal with that problem.

 

"Lend a Hand,' "Service Above Self," represents what we as Rotarians can do to help save a generation of children in affected countries. Thus we support efforts in that direction. We encourage support of the Rotary Foundation. \ Giving to such purposes is love in action!

 

 

Glen Nygren

District 7230 Governor 1986-87

 

Glen has been a Rotarian for 50 years. He is also a retired Senior Vice President Emeritus and Professor of Sociology of Lehman College, City University of New York.

 

I look forward to receive messages from Rotarians in our Rotary District, who represent the opposite first point of view.

 

Rotary’s Founder Paul Harris said in a message to the 1930 Rotary International Convention in Chicago, IL:

 

In the battle between the “can’ts” and the “cans” in Rotary, the “can’ts” have never won a single permanent victory to my knowledge. The broad visions, the nobler purposes have always won.

 

You can read about the Programs of the Rotary Foundation on the Internet at www.rotary.org/foundation/index.html. You can read about the history of the Rotary Foundation on Rotary’s Global History Fellowship’s website at http://rotaryhistoryfellowship.org/foundation/. You can also take a quick tour about Rotary’s History at www.rotaryhistoryfellowship.org/history/history/index.htm.

 

The 95th Rotary International Convention this year takes place in Osaka, Japan on 23-26 May. I received the following information from Rotary International about it:

 

During 23-26 May, 2004, the Rotary world will converge once again for an exciting mix of information, inspiration, and international fellowship at the 95th Rotary International Convention in Osaka, Japan.

 

The convention will feature dazzling opening and closing entertainment, the ever-popular House of Friendship, plenary sessions on topics close to the hearts and minds of Rotarians everywhere, and a range of interesting speakers.

 

Osaka, a coastal city long known as an international gathering place, will be an ideal venue to welcome international Rotarian visitors — all united to Lend a Hand wherever it is needed.

 

These pages offer a wealth of information designed to help you make the most out of your Osaka Convention experience, from registering for the event, to downloading schedules, to exploring transportation options. Explore these pages and become familiar with Japanese culture and Osaka and its environs prior to your trip.

 

Information will be continuously added up until convention time, so be sure to check back often for updates.

 

www.rotary.org/events/conventions/osaka/program.html

 

Don't forget to reserve your table for our next meeting. You can reserve via e-mail to our office at ny.rotary@verizon.net, or call Andreas or Ana at 212-633-1311. You can also fax in the RSVP form, which you can download at www.nyrotary.org/bulletin2004/rsvp_05-04-2004.pdf. Our fax number is 212-633-1954. At our next meeting, the culinary staff at the Princeton Club will serve us Coq Au Vin with Orzo Pasta.

 

I recommend that you visit our New York Rotary website every week at www.NYRotary.org or www.NewYorkCityRotary.org.  You can study the history of the Rotary Club of New York at www.nyrotary.org/History/history.html. You can read every Bulletin since 2001 on our website at www.nyrotary.org/Bulletin/bulletin.html. We have previous issues of the Newsletter at www.nyrotary.org/newsletter/past_newsletters.html.

 

Rotary is about having fun

and do good things!

 

 

Matts Ingemanson

Chairman

Internet Communications Division

The Rotary Club of New York

www.NYRotary.org

www.NewYorkCityRotary.org

 

Acting Chairman

Rotary's Global History Fellowship

www.RotaryHistoryFellowship.org

 

 

The power of the Internet puts the brains of millions of people together. It also puts 1.2 million Rotarians together. It does not matter where we are and when we are available. The Internet makes it possible for Rotarians around the world to instantly participate.

 

This newsletter has also been posted on our website at www.NYRotary.org or www.NewYorkCityRotary.org.

 

I want to thank our Executive Director Andreas Runggatscher and his Executive Assistant Ana Rivas for working so hard every week creating and mailing the Weekly Bulletin. In addition to mailing it out to our members, they also send me the electronic Bulletin so I can upload it on our website. They have also been working hard with the administration of the World Trade Center - Disaster Relief Fund.

 

In order to read the PDF file of the Bulletin-on-the-Web, you need Acrobat Reader Version 5.0 or later. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download Acrobat Reader 6.0 for free from the web at:

 

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

 

 

You can find the following interesting websites at:

 

1.                New York Rotary Club at www.NYRotary.org and www.NewYorkCityRotary.org/.

 

2.                Rotary’s Global History Fellowship at www.RotaryHistoryFellowship.org

 

3.                Rotary District 7230 at www.rotarydistrict7230.org

 

4.                District 7230 Group Study Exchange Project at www.NewYorkCityRotary.org/GSE7230/

 

5.                Rotary Youth Leadership Awards at www.rotaryryla.com

 

6.                Rotary Radio every Tuesday 5-6 PM EST or 2-3 PM PST at http://12.162.161.64/cart/ProductList.asp?SearchFor=Rotary+Radio&x=36&y=6

 

7.                Matts Ingemanson, Helen Reisler and Jim Thompson from the New York Rotary Club were interviewed on Rotary Radio Tuesday July 9, 2002. http://12.162.161.64/cart/ProductDetail.asp?PR_ProductID=329

 

You need Windows Media Player to listen to Rotary Radio. Windows Media Player is included with Windows Millennium and Windows XP. If you use Windows 95 or Windows 98, you can download Windows Media Player for free from Microsoft.

 

Click here to download Windows Media Player