ROTARY AND PEACE
Dear Fellow Rotarians:
As we observe
World Understanding Month in February, I would like to suggest that we take the
time to reflect deeply upon the importance of this month to all Rotarians. As
Rotarians, we all share an objective to promote peace and international understanding.
We work toward this end in many ways-through humanitarian service projects that
relieve human suffering and want, through exchange programs that bring together
people from diverse cultures and turn strangers into friends, and through our
Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution,
which are educating tomorrow's diplomats and peacemakers.
Our founder,
Paul Harris, once said that "The way to war is a well-paved highway and
the way to peace is still a wilderness." Today, with tensions escalating
throughout our world, many of us feel lost in that wilderness, immobilized by
the thicket of fear and hatred growing around us. But these troubled times also
lend urgency to our calling as Rotarians. This February, more than ever, we
must redouble our efforts to break down the myths and misconceptions that fuel
conflict among the peoples of the world. More than ever, we must focus, not on
our differences, but on our shared human condition.
All people in
the world have a common cause, and it is our misfortune that we sometimes fail
to recognize how we are all connected to each other. When the situation of one
person is improved, the whole world benefits. Through Rotary and in our
professional and personal lives, let us dedicate ourselves to serving our
common cause and bridging the gaps that so violently divide countries, races,
cultures, religions, and ethnic groups.
Coming from 164
countries, speaking dozens of different languages, and professing a diverse
range of religious beliefs, Rotarians represent a microcosm of the world-with
one important difference. Rotary is a microcosm of a world at peace where
tolerance, understanding, and love prevail. Let us extend the Rotary model of
international understanding and goodwill throughout the larger world, and
wherever hatred, conflict, and violence might grow, let Rotarians instead Sow
the Seeds of Love.
Yours sincerely,
Bhichai Rattakul
President, Rotary International
Rotary’s Position on War
The article goes further to explain how Rotary promotes world understanding and
what Majiyagbe plans to focus on while he is in office. Click below to read the
entire article.
Rotary World Peace Scholars
Click below to read about some of the Peace Scholars experiences while studying
abroad.
http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/centers/inthenews.html
Rotary International:
AusAid/RAWCS:
http://rotarnet.com.au/users/9/96452/ausaid.htm