Rotary in Thailand: Seventy Years of Service

by Rotarian Peter Cummins
Adapted from The Rotarian November 2000

More than 1,000 Rotarians gathered at the Convention Centre of the Central Plaza Hotel in Bangkok last month to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Rotary in Thailand and to greet RI President Frank J. Devlyn and RI President Elect Bhichai Rattakul.

The giant Rotary wheel rolls ever onward

One of the highlights of the evening was the parade of past and present district governors and club presidents. It was like a journey through a time machine, but not because you saw old and worn out Rotarians who were so active in their heyday, but that these very same personalities are just as active if not more so today. Thus confirming their true convictions of service in their clubs, in their community and in our world. In keeping with the spirit of ever moving forward, a gigantic Rotary wheel rolled ahead of the parade and installed in its rightful place in the 70 year celebrations insignia.

RI President Elect (2002-03) HE Bhichai Rattakul ‘The Guru’ District Governor 330 (1963-64)

From the very first, since its founding in Chicago in 1905, Rotary International (RI) sought to broaden its base and become a truly global organization. Thus, it was 70 years ago when James W. Davidson of the Rotary Club of Calgary met HRH Prince Purachatra to discuss the establishment of Rotary in Thailand.

Subsequently, the Rotary Club of Bangkok was chartered on 17 September 1930; an English-language group of 69 charter members from 15 countries, with Prince Purachatra the first president. In the short space of just five years, all clubs in Thailand and the former Indochina became grouped as District 80, later changed to District 46 and Prince Purachatra became the first district governor.

Gen Saiyud Kerdphol DG 3350 (1991-92) ‘Fair and Upright’

The proliferation of clubs in Thailand reflected the expansion world-wide and, by 1992, it became necessary to sub-divide Thailand’s more than 250 clubs and approximately 6,000 members into four separate districts, specifically: 3330, 3340, 3350 and 3360.

Since 1983, the monthly publication of “The Thai Rotarian” and, in 1992, the establishment of the Rotary Centre in Bangkok, greatly improved the dissemination of information about Rotary and Rotary projects.

HM The King: A Great Rotary Supporter

Xanxai Visitkul DG 335 (1988-89) ‘The wise’ gives the thumbs up sign for a job well done.

Certainly the major landmark for Rotary Thailand came in 1995, on the 25th anniversary of Rotary in Thailand, when His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej graciously agreed to become the Honorary Patron of Thai Rotary. Since that time, the King has taken a most positive approach, based on his profound understanding of Rotary aims and ideals.

Chow Nararidh
DG 3350 (2000-01) ‘Unstoppable Steamroller

PRID Bhichai Rattakul, the first Thai national ever to be nominated for the presidency of Rotary International - for the years 2002-2003 - is keenly aware of the King’s long affinity for and support of Rotary. “During the past decades, His Majesty has always granted an audience to any visiting RI presidents,” said Bhichai at the 70th Anniversary dinner. The King would have long discussions with any such visiting president, displaying much knowledge of Rotary goals and ideas.

Wutichai Wanglee DG 3350 (1999-2000) ‘The Organiser’

Clifford A. Randal was one RI President (1959-1960) who became close to the King and, in fact, became the protector of the copyright and royalties in the United States of His Majesty’s songs and compositions.

His Majesty, in fact, has addressed Rotarians at various times, one being the Royal Address at an inter-city meeting of Rotary Clubs in Thailand in November 1970, when the King remarked, “Historically the first goal of Rotary was to provide an opportunity for men of different professions to meet and recreate a communal atmosphere of friendliness and comradeship.”

Premprecha Dibbyawan (right) ‘The Flamboyant’ DG 3340 (2000-01) with President Erika Keller and PP Nic Demet of the Rotary Club of Jomtien Pattaya

The King then referred to a way of life guided by common sense which was being destroyed and being replaced by a savage - almost primitive - struggle known as “the survival of the fittest”. Moral values are being swept aside, the King continued and, “it is the Rotarians who are trying to stop this trend and contribute to the improvement of the community in which they live and to the promotion of international understanding,” His Majesty added. “To achieve this goal, acquaintance among Rotarians is an essential precondition; ideas cannot be exchanged otherwise. By combining your knowledge and efforts, you enhance the great potential of Rotary,” the King concluded.

Supavat Poovakul ‘The Superman’ DG 330 (1977-78)

The King exhorted Rotarians to increase their potential and to expand contacts among those who can help and those who need help in the community.

His Majesty also supported Thai Rotarians when they pooled their resources to help alleviate rural poverty - a cause close to His Majesty’s heart, especially during present economic hardships.

One particular Rotary programme was the Ban Nern Dindaeng Development Project undertaken in Prachuap Khirikan Province which contributed much to the quality of life of the people. This paralleled, to a certain extent, the King’s theory of a “self-sufficient economy”.

Niwet Khunavisarut ‘The Pioneer’ DG 3340 (1992-93)

Thais and Rotarians alike share the same view about the diligence which His Majesty demonstrates in relieving the plight of the rural poor, exemplifying the Rotarian credo “Service above self”. Thai Rotarians thus take His Majesty as the paragon of service to society and the community, showing the way forward to a better future for the world.

Two major achievements for Rotary Thailand have been the “Polio Plus” programme and the eradication of illiteracy. In the case of polio, a concerted four-year campaign, from 1987 - 1991, by Thai Rotarians, enabled the Ministry of Public Health to announce that there had only been one suspected new case of polio by mid-1991, as against 17 new cases in 1989. A massive public-awareness programme implemented by Rotary became the conduit for the Polio Plus campaign to extend beyond Thailand to Laos, Vietnam and Burma.

MR Ophas Kanjanavijaya ‘Helpful and kind’ DG 335 (1989-90) and Mukh Wongchavalitkul ‘The Learned’ DG 336 (1989-90)

As part of its Health, Hunger and Humanity Programme, the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International provided a grant of $US402,400, dedicated to the elimination of illiteracy in Thailand. Started as a pilot project in just four provinces, the campaign soon engulfed other parts of the Kingdom and it eventually focused on the first six years of school, with a new Literacy Programme developed by the Ministry of Education, Srinmakharinwirot University and Rotary Districts 3350 and 3360. Some 30,000 teachers and more than a million children have benefited from this assistance.

Lady Rotarians of District 3340 perform a traditional Thai Dance

So successful has this been that several countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Zimbabwe have based their own programmes on the Thai model.

Rotary in Thailand

Two past district governors Krit Indhewat and Xanxai Visitkul recently reflected on Rotary’s contributions to the betterment of Thai society. PDG Krit pointed out that, “Rotary service has now spread to all 76 provinces and it continues to make a notable contribution to alleviating the plight of the poor, particularly in the rural communities where poverty is most severe.”

PDG Xanxai stressed that, “We are fortunate that Rotary International has a progressive, democratic organizational structure. More Thai-language information about Rotary and wider dissemination of Rotary ideals will help to build better Rotarians for the future.”

Picture Postcard - Britain’s Hedgerows

by C. Schloemer

For well over a thousand years, hedgerows have been a distinctive feature of rural Britain; the stitching that holds the fabric of the countryside together. From a distance, they give the landscape form and definition. Up close they give it life, filling fields and byways with birdsong, butterflies and the furtive rustling of small animals. The wildflowers that spill from their bases, foxgloves and buttercups, scent the air with their perfume. Walk up any hill on a sunny day and stretched out before you lies a checkerboard of small hills and small fields stretching away to a distant horizon. Winding lanes, squeezed together by plump hedgerows, wander along farmsteads, groves of woodland, and villages. Hedgerows don’t just enhance the countryside. They make it.

It is easy to forget that in a landscape so at one with nature, the British countryside is largely accidental; the by-product of centuries of practical pursuits. The features that ennoble it, the neat fields, the meandering stone walls and hedges, the village greens and duck ponds were put there for a purpose, even though they also function as adornments. For hundreds of years this symbiosis held sway. And in much of Britain, it still does. But for how much longer? A revolution in the technology and economics of farming, urban sprawl, and the creep of suburban shopping malls are shrinking Britain’s countryside and subjecting it to more upheaval in a lifetime than in the whole of the preceding 500 years. The hedgerows are disappearing at an alarming rate. The sad fact of the matter is that they aren’t needed any more.

Hedgerows were built mainly to keep livestock contained. Historically, farmers were self-sufficient on their tiny farmsteads. Now farming is big business. Farmers drained their ponds and marshes, and ploughed under the miles of greenery which wasted precious land to plant single cash crops. Modern dairy farming methods don’t allow cattle to graze unattended through the countryside. And miles of hedgerows are expensive and time consuming to maintain. They need to be trimmed, woven and protected from disease to keep them healthy.

Despite the depredations of recent decades, hedges of considerable antiquity still dot the landscape. There are some hedges that are so old they actually have names. No one knows when hedgerows first became a feature of the British countryside. Parish records from over a thousand years commonly refer to them. Archaeological excavations give evidence that they existed in Roman Britain as early as the second century A. D.

Older still are the hedge banks. These are the rock and earthen barriers which are sometimes, though not always, topped with living shrubbery, on the Land’s End peninsula of Cornwall. Dating back to the Bronze Age, these banks are among the world’s oldest artefacts still in use. In Southern England alone, perhaps as many as one fifth of all surviving hedgerows date from Saxon times; a living link with the Dark Ages. Some date back to Roman times. Because they are older than almost any man made thing in a particular area, they can tell us a lot about the past. A hedge may reveal the outline of a Roman medieval field system, or the course of a parish boundary.

Some British hedgerows in woodland areas are home to some 800 different kinds of plants, from the common cowslip to rare ferns and orchids. Woodland birds use the hedges at least part of the time, as do most small mammals. They have no choice. The denuding of the land has robbed the indigenous wildlife of alternatives. Foxes, rabbits, harvest mice, house mice, dormice, shrews, weasels, and voles all depend on the hedgerows as a place to breed, hunt or shelter. Oddly enough, almost the only small animal that does not use the hedges is the hedgehog. In modern Britain, it is essentially a suburban creature.

Government policy concerning the preservation of ancient hedgerows has been inconsistent. However, in the early 1990s the Ministry of Agriculture unveiled a Hedgerow Incentive Scheme and allocated millions of Pounds to be spent on restoring neglected hedgerows. One factor likely to slow restoration efforts is the shortage of people with the skills to do the job. Young people are not interested in standing sodden, in merciless rain, weaving and trimming miles of hedgerows. Hedging is a skill which rests in the hands of the old and middle aged men of Britain. It is a winter job. The cutting must be done while the wood is dormant. Otherwise you kill the hedge.

Left alone, any hedgerow will eventually become a line of trees. And every hedge is different. Some of the skilled hedgers have been doing this job for decades. They are a glorious form of artwork which must not be lost.

Royal Cliff thanks the media and travel agents

The managing director of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Panga Vathanakul welcomed members of the media and travel agents to the resort last weekend. This annual Xmas party is given to thank the media and travel industry for their support during the year, and is also an opportunity to apprise the partygoers of the latest developments at the resort.

Media hounds always welcome a good, free buffet, and the Royal Cliff outdid themselves at this year’s thank you party.

General manager Andrew Wood also reminded those present of the past developments such as PEACH (Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall) and the Cliff Spa and invited everyone to look at the newly opened Royal Cliff Sports and Fitness Club (if you would like to see it, Sundays are “open house” for a few weeks).

The Rotary Club
of Jomtien-Pattaya

Skal International

Pattaya Fun City
By The Sea