Rotarian zeitgeist – raison d’etre for centennial fete

MANILA, Philippines — We like to imagine that in a luncheon at the house of Leon J. Lambert, Rotary’s first president in the Philippines on Jan. 12, 1919, the confreres’ plan was just to form a social group to unwind, banter on mundane matters, and when a hint of something worthwhile for business or professional opportunity fills the air, the talks would drift to forming alliances, partnerships or mutual and beneficial exchanges.

Unfortunately, this was also a time when European powers were in mortal and senseless combat, the violent winds of World War I affecting a place as remote then as the Philippine archipelago. It was also two decades earlier when the Filipinos were deprived of their independence by the Americans through a bloody one-sided war, yet bewitched  the Filipinos in so short a time with their alleged burden to teach us the art of democracy and self-governance under the mantra of Manifest Destiny.

The Rotary movement in the Philippines was born against a backdrop of social Darwinism as the prevailing thought in American life at the start of the American occupation in the Philippines. In the World’s Fair in 1903 in Saint Louis, Missouri, the idea of white superiority flourished in the exhibition of the “development of man”, the Philippine Negrito was described as the missing link among the non-western people assembled there which included the Zulus from South Africa and the American Indians. The 1904 Olympics in the same city also featured an alternative Games called ‘Anthropology Days’, organized by whites, to show the differing times of the races of mankind. A Moro from the Philippines won the javelin. This was a kind of schadenfreude as pleasure was in display at the misfortune of others.

There was no doubt that the first civilian Governor General of the Philippines, William Howard Taft, was a social Darwinist.  When he became the US President in 1909 he refused to follow the example of his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, of appointing blacks to federal positions. Eugenics was a strong movement in the US in 1920 and at that time Leonard Darwin, the son of Charles Darwin had encouraged the policy that superior people breed more than the inferior people. During the early years of the Americans in the Philippines, the people of the mountain province were declared unfit to drink alcohol, no matter that they need a heat in the cool mountain climate. The Darwinian thought among a sector of the Americans provoked undercurrents of Filipino suspicion and resentment towards the whites.

With the kindling of the Rotarian spirit in the country in 1919, the icy relation with the Americans in the countryside started to thaw and it was not long before the relationship became warm and special. It is no coincidence that the social engagements of the early Rotarians composed of Americans and Filipinos had replaced the Darwinian thought of white supremacy to one of equality based on shared human values of charity and sharing. Thus, with one fell swoop, American face became kinder and its kinship with the Filipinos became friendlier and reliable. It was not long before a movement of service became a spectacle, a positive force was mobilized by the Rotarians to help victims of calamities, protect the health of the young with its anti-polio vaccines, fed the hungry, helped the disabled and the disadvantaged, the impetus for such causes like the Boy Scout movement and recently environmental protection.

We are therefore celebrating less because the Rotary Club of Manila, the first in Asia, was born, but more because a rotary movement like the gathering of clouds had established a climate of self-less service in this part of the world. The Rotarian zeitgeist is the raison d’etre for the centennial fete. 

We, the members of the steering committee led by Centennial President Susing Pineda, invite all Rotarians to partake of our humble offer – the Centennial Day experience on June 21, 2019, a capsule of that glorious 100 years, to reflect Rotary’s shadow of the past, reality of the present, and its vision of the future. Guests will be invited to a formal gala night chaired by businessman Hermie Esguerra on June 22 and an early evening Salubong Party on June 20 chaired by businessman Phillip Ong on different venues.

The Filipino Rotarians are fortunate to participate in this grand human saga commenced a century past. It was an exciting journey, this Rotary life, because it was never short of the Shakespearean weaknesses and challenges yet the results are no less noble and meaningful to our lives.            

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