Contents

Editorial (Polio Eradication) - By John Wan
District 3450 came Third in Per Capita Annual Giving
Letters to Editor
Quo Vadis - By Michael Eyles
Collective Leadership - By Harry

editorial

Polio Eradication

In 1985, Rotary launched PolioPlus. It was the 40th anniversary of the United Nations and Rotary pledged US$120 million to buy polio vaccine in support of a global effort to immunize the children of the world. Rotarians worldwide responded with spontaneity and generosity, and exceeded the target by more than 100%. By 1988, the world had made so much progress in controlling polio that the World Health Organization resolved to eradicate the disease, which had killed and paralyzed cildren of every nation for 5,000 years. Rotary decided to participate in the campaign and the largest public health initiative in human history began.

In 1988, there were 350,000 reported cases of Polio in 125 countries. By 2001, the figures have dropped to 600 cases in 10 countirs. Polio cases have dropped by 99.8%, due in no small measures to Rotary's financial contributions and efforts in mobilizing volunteers. To date, 122 nations around the world have benefited from PolioPlus grants and more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine. By 2005, Rotary's contributions to the global polio-eradication effort would exceed US$500 million.

We are now at the last leg of the road to eradicate Polio. The experts have estimated that we need about US$400 more. Through pledges by various donars, the Rotary Foundation has estimated that if Rotarians can raise US$80 by 30 June 2003, we should be on our way to eradicate Polio once and for all by 2005.

This is our current challenge. Now, most of the present day Rotarians, over 80%, were not on the scene in 1985 and hence did not have the opportunity to contribute towards the PolioPlus fundraising. Now would be a godsend opportunity to discharge their international responsibility and participate in the challenge to fulfil a pledge by Rotary to the children of the world, which is to give them a lasting and special gift - a world free of polio.

In real terms, it translates to a per capita contribution of about US$100. Think of the benefits of your contribution and take action now.

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Letters to Editor

You are welcome to write to Club Webmaster John Wan on any topic, particularly in response to articles published in Kingspark News. We would publish all contributions as long as the authors identify themselves, the contents are not offensive or abusive, and would not offend common decency or common sense. You need not be a Rotarian to write to us and you have a choice to withhold your name in the published version. Where the contents make reference to statements or policies of individuals or organizations, we would try to obtain a response fro the latter for publication in the same issue if possible.

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Quo Vadis
By Michael Eyles

We should be grateful that our editor, in issue 8, 4th November, ventured into the sensitive territory of politics: not with a heavy hammer but instead with a slight knock of the gavel to wake us from self-censorship in Kingspark News.

You mention those leaders who were involved in drafting of the United Nations Charter,two of whom were Rotarians.We are all grateful to those who worked tirelessly after 1945 in setting up the new world order, the United Nations, the European Coal & Steel Community which is the predecessor of the present European Union and indeed those institiutions which finally gave peace to Chinese peoples in 1949.

To a large extent their task was easy:people in Europe and China had said to themselves "never again" this war. However it is not so easy when Rotarians are in the middle of a revolution,they have sometimes taken sides when a population is not unified, when the outcome is quite uncertain.It is then that the individual risks his own life.Pastor Niemoeller, although as far as I know not a Rotarian, but a Protestant priest in Germany who finally during the second world war spoke out against the Nazis and was imprisoned in a concentration camp.He lived to tell his tale and afterwards regretted that he had not spoken out sooner.

During the revolution in Cuba in the late 1950s when Fidel Castro was fighting from his mountainous rural base against the dictatorial regime of Batista, it was actually the urban opposition which proved decisive.The urban opposition included middle class people and the rotary clubs in Havana also opposed the Batista government. This took great courage, they did not know how far Castro's socialism would affect their businesses and professions, but the Batista regime was worst.I have no doubt that many Rotarians found themselves more or less forcibly "emigrated" to Florida in the 1960s when Castro's own reforms made the middle class useless in society,indeed an enemy of the state; but they had been convinced in the 1950s that their participation in the revolution was right.

Now for us, quo vadis?

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Collective Leadership
By Harry

I read with great interest the latest Kingspark News discussing leadership. I found it relevant to my understanding on leadership experience, in particular in the closing paragraphs where you make reference to various types of leadership.

Obviously, leadership take many forms, and different times and circumstances call for particular types of leadership. As you mentioned, there are situations where a heavy-hand and more vocal leadership is the call. At other instances, a quieter and methodical approach is better suited. As such, it makes one wonder about the desire for flexibility in our leaders, how we are essentially asking them to be amorphous in effort to meld and adjust to all situations. Would it not be like asking for our leader to be photogenic, eloquent, gregarious, instructional, knowledgeable, etc? Are we not asking for the perfect individual where one does not possibly exist? Thus it seems relatively difficult if not impossible for our leaders to comply with the ever-changing circumstances of society and issues. One corollary then may be the use of a committee or group of leaders, allowing for the various strengths and weakness to interplay and work with one another.

However, even in a larger contingent of leaders, one leader needs to emerge. Thus the real importance is on the depth and the body of the organization, in the efforts of each individual to provide leadership in their own manner, because it is impactful and does matter. Within any successful organization, company, sports team or political body, you will hear the sentiments: "There is no 'one' leader because we are all leaders." Only in this manner can the governing body succeed in such a dynamic environment. Drawing on the collective talents creates the answer.

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