The International Beat

Working to serve humanity and creating hope in this world never stops with Rotarians. Your International Relations Committee is here to try to keep us in step with the rest of the Rotary world.

After a fun-filled and productive visit to Seoul, President Raffy and your IRC Chair headed a small group of Manila Rotarians to visit and celebrate with the Rotary Club of Taipei on the 75th anniversary of their founding. RC Taipei is one of RCM’s sister clubs. During this visit, we signed a reaffirmation of our commitment to maintain, develop and nurture our relationship with RC Taipei and its members.

It was a relatively short two day visit but we achieved significant goals that we had for this visit. Firstly we had an excellent opportunity to bond with our Taiwanese counterparts. We reconnected with Past RI President Gary Huang, we bonded with President Shirley Ting and her board of directors. Then we had the rare opportunity to spend a few casual hours with RI PE Stephanie Urchick. RCs Singapore and Bangkok, both sister clubs of RC Taipei were represented in the celebrations. We had the opportunity to bond with RC Singapore President Chan and some of his members as well as Dr. Charles Cheung who represented RC Bangkok.

Secondly, we reaffirmed our support for RC Taipei by celebrating with them and by reaffirming our mutual commitments to each other through a written document. President Raffy represented RCM. This reaffirmation of mutual support augurs well for cooperation in future projects.

Thirdly, our small group attended the welcome dinner, the main celebration and a day tour hosted by PRIP Gary Huang. We had fun bonding among ourselves, those two days. We were treated to a tour of a small museum of a highly regarded Taiwanese sculptor. We saw amazing wooden sculptures that awed everyone as to how they were completed.

The activities began with a welcome dinner at the Shangri-La Pavilion on the 59th floor of the five-star Far Eastern Shangri-La Hotel in Taipei.

Before dinner was served, RC Taipei signed renewals of and reaffirmations of commitments to its sister clubs. Our other sister clubs, RC Bangkok and RC Singapore also signed their respective renewals/reaffirmations. After dinner, we chatted, drank and laughed with each other. Then every visiting club was asked to sing. After some trepidation, President Raffy led our small group in presenting a much loved Tagalog song, Pasko Na Sinta Ko.

The next day, we went on a day tour. We visited a small museum dedicated to the accomplishments of Past RI President Gary Huang. Then we visited a site where the works of a known Taiwanese wood sculptor were exhibited. In the evening, we attended the main event of the celebration. Musical performances, excellent food and continuous interaction with all the Rotarians present. Through our presence and action, we were able to remind every Rotarian we met that RC Manila was strong and solid and always ready to be an active Rotary force in Asia. Before our departure on Sunday we had a few hours to ourselves to shop, walk around, while some caught a last-minute opportunity to savor Taiwanese cuisine.

It was a brief but very happy trip, which was succeeded by another memorable visit to Hongkong from December 3 to 5 to celebrate with RC Kowloon East their 54th Charter anniversary. The photos the trip to Taipei were featured last week, while the photos of the Hongkong trip are featured in this week’s Balita.

One final reminder, the Rotary International Convention for 2024 will be held in Singapore from May 25-29 2024. This will be another opportunity to meet, greet and listen to Rotarians from around the world. A first world Singapore can offer much to any tourist. Please sign up early. Till next time….

The International Relations Committee, Arsenio “Nick” Z. Locsin, Chairman