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THE ROTAWEEK
A
compendium of Rotary news
No. 1036 Sun 15-Jan-2012
www.rotacal.org/rotaweek
W.H.O LAUDS INDIA’S YEAR WITHOUT
POLIO
Friday, January 13, 2012
________________________________________________________
New Delhi: With a ‘zero-polio’ record in the last one year,
India on Friday carried its fight against the crippling
disease to hospitals and health care centres across the
country where parents brought their children for vaccination
as the World Health Organisation (WHO) lauded the country’s
achievement.
WHO has commended India’s one year of being a ‘polio-free
nation’, calling it a major achievement.
“India’s success is arguably its greatest public health
achievement and has provided a global opportunity to push
for the end of polio,” WHO director general Margaret Chan
said in a statement.
“Stopping polio in India required creativity, perseverance
and professionalism. The lessons from India must now be
adapted and implemented through emergency actions to finish
polio everywhere,” Chan said.
The union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the country
is vigilant yet alert.
“We are excited and hopeful, at the same time vigilant and
alert,” Azad said in a statement. January 13 marks one full
year when the country has reported no new polio case.
WHO also stressed on the need to remain vigilant.
“There remains no room for complacency. India must maintain
sensitive surveillance and high childhood immunity against
the wild polio virus to guard against any importation of
polio until eradication is achieved globally,” the WHO
statement added.
The country has spent more than Rs 12,000 crore on the Pulse
Polio Programme. It took a lead in introducing bivalent oral
polio vaccine (bOPV) in January 2010.
WHO in fact called the scale on India’s polio programme
“mind-boggling”.
“The scale of the eradication effort in India is
mind-boggling,” said WHO, “each year, more than 170 million
children under the age of 5 are vaccinated in two national
immunization campaigns, with up to 70 million children in
the highest-risk areas vaccinated multiple times in
additional special campaigns; the whole effort requires
nearly a billion doses of oral polio vaccine annually”.
The last new polio case in India was reported on January 13,
2011, involving a two-year-old girl in West Bengal. In 2010,
there were 42 cases, as compared to 741 in 2009, which
accounted for nearly half of the world’s polio cases. In
1991, there were 6,028 cases and in 1985 the number stood at
150,000.
“The progress is indeed remarkable, considering that in
2009, India with 741 cases accounted for nearly half the
global cases. This giant leap towards polio containment in a
short span of two years is an endorsement of India’s
tireless and persistent efforts,” Azad stressed.
Experts from WHO said the country should take the fight
against the disease ahead with its vigilance programmes and
national immunisation programme.
“India should be most concerned about complacency, which can
undo a lot of the strong progress that has been achieved,”
said Dr Hamid S Jafari, the project manager of the
WHO-National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP). [Source:
IANS]
RI PRESIDENT KALYAN BANERJEE
________________________________________________________
IS SA TIMES PERSON OF YEAR 2011
He spoke to The South Asian Times.
Keenly aware that Rotary is seen as an organization of the
old people-- in the West at least -- and losing members, RI
President Kalyan Banerjee is leading the organization to try
to connect with the youth again.
Harnessing the social media is part of the move to mend
matters. The legacy of his presidency he wants to leave is
“having raised Rotary to the 21st century level so people
come to Rotary."
In India, of course, Rotary is growing and attracting young
people. Banerjee’s presidency is bound to give a further
impetus and standing to the movement there, prominent Indian
Rotarians said, adding that Banerjee's ascension is matter
of pride for all Indians and India. Banerjee, a businessman
from Vapi in Gujarat, is a pioneer of polio eradication. The
global PolioPlus campaign has made Rotary very visible.
In India no case has been reported for almost a year. “Today
PolioPlus has taught us to have a bigger impact in the
world,” Banerjee says.
He may be heading the biggest service organisation in the
world, but he tapped his inner core and Indian ethos to come
up with the Rotary theme of 2011-11: 'Reach Within to
Embrace Humanity', pictured into a beautiful logo by
artists.
WEAR THAT PIN WITH PRIDE
________________________________________________________
THE MAGIC OF ROTARY
ROTI members,
My wife Tricia and I are still traveling in India. I
completed my
official duties as R.I. President's Rep at District
Conference 2980
last Sunday evening and have been traveling throughout D2980
ever
since seeing the sights and project locations.
Yesterday we drove from Salem to Chennai, but went through
Pondicherry
to visit my classmate as DG Joseph Suresh Kumar and to see
the
devastation caused by Cyclone Thane which came ashore on Dec
29
immediately on Pondicherry, breaking off nearly every tree
15 feet
above the ground and uprooting 50% of all trees, removing
lots of
roofs and destroying thatch huts and must more.
In the afternoon, Tricia and I got out of our minivan and
walked along
the promenade along Bay of Bengal. Our driver stayed with
the van, but
stepped out to stretch his legs - standing in front of the
van, while
leaving the van run so the air conditioner could keep the
van cool.
Somebody reached in and grabbed Tricia's purse, along with a
Rotary
blazer of the DG I was traveling with. Inside Tricia's purse
was her
passport, a credit card, and drivers license. Nothing else
of value.
I immediately called the credit card company and blocked
Tricia's
account (separate account from mine). Within 10 minutes one
of the
local members of parliament was helping us weave through the
police
system, obtaining a "certificate" from the police stating
what had
happened. Rotarians from Pondicherry hovered around us and
traveled
with us to Chennai, along with my friend, DG Asoka from
D2980 and his
DGND Bala.
I called Rotary International Travel service while still in
Pondicherry since we were scheduled to fly out of Chennai
this morning
at 8 AM. Our flight was moved back 24 hours within 5
minutes. This
morning, Rotarians scooped us up at our hotel at 10:15 AM
and took us
for passport photo's (8 photo's for US $2 ! ! !), then to
the US
Consulate, where they were waiting on us thanks to a phone
call from a
local Chennai Rotarian. We arrived by 11 AM and left with a
new US
Passport by noon.
When I reached my hotel last night at 1 AM, after driving
from
Pondicherry I had an email waiting from Rotary International
asking if
all details were being taken care of, that they were aware
of our
problem and giving us a 24 hour number to call if we had any
trouble.
We are headed out to dinner tonight to a hotel owned by a
Chennai
Rotarian which has an excellent Thai restaurant in it. I'll
enjoy
dinner with my batchmate Olivannan, a few other local
Rotarians and
spouses, many of whom were instrumental in helping ease our
way though
this (otherwise) tense situation.
We are headed tomorrow to Delhi, where my Rotarian travel
agent is
already working on smoothing the way for Tricia to obtain
her exit
visa from the Foreigner Regional Registration Office. We
will relax
the rest of the day Friday and Saturday in Delhi, visiting a
bit with
my good friend Dr. Pallav Agarwal (ROTI member) and then fly
home at
midnight to St. Louis via Chicago.
While inside the consulate, the consulate officer we were
working
with asked, "do you know Alexis?" I was puzzled at first,
but then
asked "is this the vice consulate?"
"Yes" was the answer. She is a good friend of Rotary and had
alerted
all in the office that we were coming and to smooth the way.
Even the
guard at the gate, behind the bullet proof glass asked my
wife "do you
have any photo ID?" Tricia said "No, it's all missing." He
then asked
"Are you Patricia?" Small world............... he already
knew
we were coming.
Friends, my glass is full to the brim. Rotary makes this
world a small
place full of friends united to help others. The fellowship
of Rotary
is OVERWHELMING. A few late reports that I can edit and use
with 10
minutes of work on Adobe Acrobat or a pencil and white-out
is not
going to ruin my day and cause me to gnash my teeth
together.
Warm regards from Chennai
Todd
--
Dr. Todd Lindley
Rotary Foundation Alumni Coordinator, Zone 31
Past District Governor, 2010-2011 RID 6060
St. Louis Missouri, USA
ROTARY - IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE
END?
________________________________________________________
LINKEDIN OFFICIAL ROTARY
INTERNATIONAL GROUP 12-Jan-2012
Martin Bridge • I have read the RI Board is preparing an
enactment to CoL to eliminate club attendance requirements.
Is this the beginning of the end of Rotary - founded and
built on the fellowship from meeting weekly?
D. Bruce Thomson • Martin, I have had a feeling this may be
coming. There has been a gradual relaxation of many
requirements. Whereby, I understand the desire to make
things "easier" for members and I do believe that good
things can still happen without mandatory attendance, I feel
that lowering standards seldom leads to greatness. I don't
recall any organization, public or private, that was highly
successful by lowering expectations. The persistent problem
of recruiting and retaining members is of great concern, but
when we don't expect participation how much more difficult
is it to build the bonds and relationships that Rotary is
known for?
John Borst • Martin at the discussion theme "Is Rotary out
of touch with the requirements of the 21st Century"
( http://linkd.in/wKFLvK ) I argued that this would be a
positive move:
For example I would propose that we should get away from any
attendance requirements at all. Keeping attendance is a
relic of the 19th and 20th C. industrial model of work and
schooling.
We long ago, if we ever really did keep any kind of
attendance records at the university and college levels of
education, gave up on that model in that setting. And
universities did not stop or die in fact they continue to
thrive.
Virtually everyone in Rotary is above average in their
educational attainment and in their own self motivated work
ethic. We attend Rotary because we want to. We do not care
whether we are being tracked or not. Results are what count
not, attendance at meetings.
This is an ethic which drives our youth today, even our high
school youth. Compulsory attendance rules are no longer
necessary even there. So why in heavens name do we keep
them.
Well I would say "Rotary is not silly; jettison the junk"
The junk being the attendance requirement and administrative
stuff that goes with it. In fact, in my experience, it is
pretty well gone.
Let's just make it official.
Regards
________________________________________________________
Dr Dipak R Sarbadhikari,
Past President
RC Calcutta, RID 3291, Kolkata, India
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