International Convention, Cont'd.

Speakers included the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Right Honourable Douglas Alexander, MP and Secretary of State for UK International Development,  Mia Farrow, Ban Ki Moon Secretary General of the UN, and Dr. Alex Buchanan, the recipient of the Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award, Jane Goodall.

Can you believe it?  Ban Ki Moon?  He wasn't on the program (I can only presume for security reasons) but listening to him speak about what Rotary has done globally was a delight.  I had no idea that Rotary not only has a reach into more countries than does the United Nations, but that Rotary was the organization that founded the United Nations...also that the Rotary is one of the only non-government body to have a permanent seat at the United Nations (the other is the red Cross). 

The two speakers who had the greatest impression on me were Dr. Alex Buchanan and to my own surprise, Mia Farrow.  Dr. Buchanan is presently a member of the rotary club of Melbourne, Australia and was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at IowaState in 1959-60.  He became friends with another RAS named Achmad Birowo, from Indonesia.  Dr. Buchanan became a food researcher and eventually developed a high protein milk biscuit used by the Australian Government and others for needy infants and disaster relief around the world.  This biscuit was improved upon and eventually developed into an infant-weaning food based on local raw materials and local eating patterns.  It is now, 35 years on still being manufactured and distributed.  40 years later here he was in an ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) conference representing the government of Australia with the five other governments' representatives.  Seated beside him was his old friend Achmad Birowo, the other RAS.  They chatted away about their Rotary experiences and after a few minutes were interrupted by Elisa Cabahug the leader of the Philippines' delegation.  "Were you Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars, she asked?  I was, too.  I spent a year at ClaremontCollege in California".   Imagine that!  At a top level conference of six nations, and of the six Governments in ASEAN, three were being represented by ex- Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars. 

Mia Farrow is genuine. I have never, until now, had much regard for her.  I saw her as part of Hollywood and an activist.  She is a Polio survivor - spent time in an Iron Lung heard her priest advise her mother to burn her belongings when she was gone, but she survived.  She told the story of her early naiveté and her marriage to Frank Sinatra.  But she also told the story of Chad.  Who knew that she had 14 children?  Four are her of her own blood and ten are from other nations, and all ten have disabilities.  What a hero.  She talked of the genocide in Rwanda that America, Britain and France allowed to happen without a murmur; she talked of the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and she talked about Chad.  She said how proud she is that Barack Obama is her President but how ashamed she is of the fact that he and other world leaders are allowing the genocide to continue in the Sudan without, so far, a single comment calling for an end to the horror.

I could tell you a number of her stories but now is not the time.  She ended her talk by asking that all Rotarians around the world tell their leaders to stop the slaughter in Chad.