Positive Peace and Rotary
Chris Offer
Past District Governor
Liz Ellis introduced Ladner Rotarian and PDG Chris Offer who has presented at national and international conferences on various topics including the Foundation, Polio Plus, and Membership. For his active work he has been granted recognition at all levels including the prestigious Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award. Retiring from the Vancouver police department after 31 years he is taking the time to pursue his volunteer travel excursions and his hobby of producing first rate photography.
Rotary which began as an organization primarily concerned with local projects moved more actively into the area of world peace during WWII by contributing to the UN charter and later promoting Rotarian Lester B Pearson to world prominence. In 1999 The Rotary Peace center was created to educate leaders to promote peace with the most recent one being opened at the university of Uganda. Our history in peace initiatives can be viewed through the Rotarian magazine , now entitled Rotary, available in digitized form.
Chris made the distinction between negative peace (absence of war) to positive peace (fostering attitudes that sustain a conflict-free world)
The pillars of positive peace:
- Well functioning government
- Sound business environment
- Low levels of corruption
- Acceptance of others rights
- Equitable Distribution of "Resources
- Free flow of information
- Good relations with neighbours
Chris produced a colour-coded peace map that illustrates the state of peace in the world with an equal balance of 81 countries labeled as most peaceful with 80 deemed as less so. He then provided examples of activities that can be made locally to foster peace;
. reduce local conflict ie supporting women's shelters
. join the Rotary Action for Peace
. nominate individuals for Peace Fellowships
. make young people aware of peace initiatives
. create a local peace project at the club level
. promote the Peace Map
. continue in the support of international projects
After Chris answered a number of questions Greg Muirhead thanked him for his excellent, well-organized presentation that informed us of the history of Rotary's involvement in peace to some practical suggestions on how we can help to achieve it.
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