Rotary international service / (Record no. 3337)
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| fixed length control field | 10056nas a22001577a 4500 |
| 003 - CONTROL NUMBER IDENTIFIER | |
| control field | Ost |
| 005 - DATE AND TIME OF LATEST TRANSACTION | |
| control field | 20230616153741.0 |
| 008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION | |
| fixed length control field | 230510b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d |
| 040 ## - CATALOGING SOURCE | |
| Original cataloging agency | RCM Library |
| Transcribing agency | Rotary Club Manila |
| 100 ## - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME | |
| Personal name | De Peralta, Rizal G., Dr. |
| 9 (RLIN) | 4791 |
| 245 ## - TITLE STATEMENT | |
| Title | Rotary international service / |
| Statement of responsibility, etc. | by Dr. Rizal G. De Peralta. |
| 520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC. | |
| Summary, etc. | The meaning and scope of Rotary International Service (let us call it to keep up with the time) can best be told by quoting the Object of Rotary, quote to encourage and foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional men united in the ideal of service end quote. In other words the international aspect of Rotary service seeks to bring about a better and greater understanding among peoples wherever Rotary is found. It aims to build bridges, as they were, of friendship, goodwill and peace across the seas and across seemingly insurmountable barriers of race, color and creed. This seems to be a big order for Rotary to achieve. It was perhaps bigger, it looked perhaps more impossible of attainment 43 years ago, in 1912 to be exact when Rotary became officially an international movement, because it was a time when men's minds were not yet totally receptive to the growing idea of one race and one world, when the horizons of men's thinking were limited to and circumscribed by the geographical boundaries of one's country. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, so to speak, from the time a new objective quote to emphasize the international influence of Rotary end quote was adapted in 1911 and we became Rotary International at the Los Angeles convention the following year. The international color of Rotary can be found even in the first Rotary Club organized by Paul Harris wherein the membership consisted of peoples of different ancestries and different faiths. And as the symbolic wheel of Rotary continued to roll thru the long corridor of the last 50 years from country to country (this year we now have 400,000 Rotarians belonging to 8,400 clubs scattered all over the world except in countries where the scythe and the hammer are the token of power and authority) it was inescapable, nay it became mandatory that international service should become one of the principles of our organization. In this service, the true Rotarian, the willing and world-conscious Rotarian finds an extension of his community service. It is a projection of this local service beyond the limits of his country to a stage as important but very much bigger than his own. Imagine, if you may, three outstanding Rotarians one from each of the countries of Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay meeting together in 1941 for four days in an atmosphere of Rotary friendship and settling boundary disputes between the first two countries for which wars had been waged for about 150 years. This was Rotary International Service in action; this obviously was exemplary service to bring about international goodwill and peace; this was a practical application of the fourth avenue of the object Rotary. But the opportunities for the exercise of Rotary International Service do not mainly comprise the settlement of international disputes and easing tensions between countries. For then they would indeed be few and far between. Like character- building which is not attained by just one single display of courage, one single act of charity or one single demonstration of loyalty to a principle, international service is made up of much less exciting and glamorous opportunities which are lived up to almost from day to day. For an effective implementation of the fourth avenue of Rotary object it is necessary that we start from a proper conditioning of the attitude of the individual Rotarian. Let him become a world-minded Rotarian by cultivating interest in the happenings of other countries, by burying six feet deep underground or more the myth, the unfounded and often disproved belief in any form of racial superiority, by defending freedom of the individual in other lands just as he would fight for this freedom in his own, by giving active support to any movement which aims to diminish poverty of the masses anywhere, by developing a spirit of understanding, not contemptous intolerance, continuously leaving to understand other peoples, by respecting them as they should respect him by working with them in ways and for ends that will be beneficial to all of us and we shall have world-minded Rotary clubs which in turn will make up an effective Rotary International. A world-minded Rotarian pays more than lip service to "world fellowship." He understands it to be more than a shibboleth, a catchy phrase. He grasps every opportunity to foster personal acquaintance or promote friendship with Rotarians in other countries. Unlike a Rotarian in name only whom I know who never attended a single Rotary meeting for the whole year that he was abroad on a scholarship grant, for which his club wisely dropped him from its roll of members, the internationally minded Rotarian, if such opportunity offers itself, should unfailingly visit Rotary clubs and become thereby an ambassador of goodwill of his club and country. In all if not most of our communities there are residents, permanent or not, from other countries, we shall not call them foreigners, who may have recently arrived in our country. Let us cultivate acquaintanceship with them so that they may learn from us the history, the civilization and the traits, good and bad, of our people. What they will learn from us and what we shall learn from them about their countries will surely go some way to contribute the proverbial grain to the building up of international understanding. Although not all our Clubs can send representatives to International Conventions which undoubtedly give a basic opportunity for international contacts, our clubs can make up by promoting inter-district or club-to-club contacts. In the Golden Anniversary issue of the ROTARIAN (February 1955) is a world map of Rotary. I shall enumerate hereunder the neighboring countries in which we could hold and inter-district meeting. Japan with 146 clubs; Korea, 3; Thailand, 1; Vietnam, 1; Burma, 2; Malaya, 9; Indonesia, 11; North Borneo, 2; Australia, 258; and New Zealand, 80. I leave to our District Governor Pons or to our incoming District Governor Danding the suggestion of holding in the near future a Rotary Interdistrict conference in South-East Asia. Who knows that such interdistrict meeting may have a far reaching importance, may alter the course of history, bearing on the explosive situation now obtaining in this part of the world. It may be a long shot but I think it is worth trying. Going down to the club level our clubs should be encouraged to make contacts by correspondence suggesting promotion of joint projects whereby one club takes charge of a contest and another club offers the prizes, exchanging programs and ideas and giving them due publication, not publicity, in the local press. Verbal expressions of good will may be made tangible by accompanying them with inexpensive gifts as simple souvenirs given by our clubs to Rotarians from the farthest distance in the District or another District, books and informative literature. When the chance arises for more concerted action as in the case of famine such as accurred recently in Eu- rope and Korea, earthquakes like that in Mindanao recently, our Clubs should do their best, as they have shown in other circumstances, to relieve human suffering. Every club thru its Committee on International Information should endeavor to inform its members first and the community later of the different agencies or organizations that have been put up to promote world peace. Let me emphasize once again that the individual Rotarian is the core foot soldier in all this activity. With an uninformed Rotarian, with an unsympathetic Rotarian only a certain amount of success, if any, is possible. Our schools and colleges by conducting forums and essay contests on international relations can greatly help in the dissemination of international information. The committee of every club charged with this specific duty should get the schools and colleges in the community to take an active part in affairs like the annual celebration of World Fellowship Week. Rotary's fourth avenue of service, has been greatly enhanced by our Rotary Foundation Fellowship, whereby each district is eligible to one Fellowship every other year. After the termination of their studies these Rotary Fellows now totalling 607 by improving other people of the country they become real two-way ambassadors of goodwill and international understanding. |
| 520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC. | |
| Summary, etc. | If there are exchange students in our communities we shall only be carrying out the promotion of international friendship if our Clubs invite them as guests or individual Rotarians will invite them as their guests in their own homes for a day or so. By extending to them the hospitality of our Clubs and our homes we shall reap for our efforts a better understanding by them of our customs and habits as a people. If Rotary in its own way has promoted international friendship and goodwill, and we are all agreed that it has, let us not rest on our laurels. Let us gear ourselves for greater efforts and for greater things to achieve. Let us make Rotary International Service, as one Rotary International President has said, hope in action. Hope springs eternal from the human breast is a common saying, and as long as Rotary International is dedicated to its fourth avenue of service, that of encouraging and fostering the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace then just as long shall we continue to hope in and strive for the brotherhood of all men with goodwill, permanent peace and understanding will have been greatly achieved. |
| 773 0# - HOST ITEM ENTRY | |
| Host Biblionumber | 377 |
| Host Itemnumber | 376 |
| Main entry heading | Rotary Club of Manila. |
| Other item identifier | RCM-000025 |
| Title | The Rotary Balita No. 775 to 799 / |
| 942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA) | |
| Source of classification or shelving scheme | Library of Congress Classification |
| Koha item type | Article |
| Suppress in OPAC | No |
No items available.