Students, Lee Roebeck, Cape "Port" & Rotary and Religious Values

Last Week

We had a now show situation with the same speaker for a second time.  David Bradshaw is going to cross her off in the Book of Life.

Lindelani Ntuli & Howard Johnston playing games

It didn't matter because we had two students from Alexandra who the Club had sponsored through Phutijataba who came to visit us and they were able to talk...and talk...and talk!

Warren Radebe brandishes his BA degree.

They were great fun to have as guests and it was all round a pleasant social meeting.

This Week
We have Lee Roebeck talking on the Power of Humility.  He's the Network Administrator at Unified Communications and is one of those motivational speakers.  It'll be interesting to hear a humble one!
He started something called the "Born to Lose Built to Win Academy"  This is what he has to say about himself:

Lee Roebeck, Founder of Born to Lose Built to Win Academy, is a speaker with a commanding presence and he has this rare ability to combine humorous stories with content that inspires, entertains and motivates all at the same time. Lee went from rock-bottom and bankrupt to someone making a significant impact and difference in the lives of those around him. You could say that he was Born to Lose, but through the study of Personal Development he has changed his story somewhat - for the better. His in-depth study of Personal Development has created this belief in him that every single human being has deep reservoirs of latent potential, and Lee has made it his life’s mission to awaken this latent potential in as many lives as he possibly can. Lee travelled to Boston in the United States, to receive his training at the “Harvard of Professional Speaking Schools” – The Bill Gove Speech Workshop. Other noteworthy graduates from this prestigious workshop include speakers like Bob Proctor, Mark Victor Hansen and Zig Ziglar. This very specialised training has earned Lee the designation of Certified Corporate Speaker with the International Association of Corporate Speakers (IACS).

We mustn't give him a hard time.

Port Tasting & Dinner
I sent out invitations to this yesterday. Please come back to me as soon as possible. The invitation from New Dawn was pure chance. I happened to walk into Cheese Gourmet just as they were planning it and asked if we would like to attend.

Axe Hill was started by the late Tony Mossop and wife Lyn, at a remote site on the outskirts of Calitzdorp in the Klein Karoo during 1993. Calitzdorp is a viticulture area situated in the Klein Karoo Wine Region. The area has been acclaimed for its fortified wines for a number of years and Calitzdorp is known as “the Port Capital of South Africa”. The unique micro-climate prevalent in the region is typically characterised by dry, arid conditions which add to the overall concentration of true Portuguese varietals. The name of the vineyard originates from the stone hand tools found on the farm and used by pre-historic man over a quarter of a million years ago.

Only one vintage is made each year from a blend of the traditional Portuguese varietals Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca and Souzão. The wine is matured in old 500 litre French oak barrels after hand sorting and foot crushing in lagares for maximum extraction of both flavours and colour. This method closely resembles traditional Portuguese port wine making techniques which have been in use for centuries.

A dry, white Port, is also produced. Chenin Blanc grapes are used in this drier style, fortified wine. The wine is barrel-aged by the fractional blending of old to young wine so that each bottling is a fusion of ages, with the average age gradually increasing over the years. Axe Hill Cape White has its origins with the first vintage in 2003 and will continue to grow in complexity with future releases.

New additions to the range include a Cape Ruby Port, a Shiraz and a very limited bottling of a unique Dry Red blend made from Portuguese varietals Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca and Souzão and a dash of Shiraz – Machado 2010 – which means Axe in Portuguese!

Meet the winemaker:
Mike Neebe is the winemaker at Axe Hill. He started making wine at Axe Hill in 2008, facing a daunting challenge to maintain Axe Hill standards. Mike spent a harvest at RAMOS PINTO in Portugal in 2010 honing his port and winemaking skills. He lives in Johannesburg commuting to Calitzdorp frequently – in his other life Mike runs a pub, The Bohemian - "catering for the real life bohemians among us..."

His favourite wine from the cellar:
Mike’s current favourite wine at Axe Hill is undoubtedly the new blend Machado 2010 – which has been described as the “vinous equivalent of sheepskin slippers…” one of a kind, a bold, food-friendly wine made in a classical style.

I sometimes wonder if Rotary isn't a religious substitute......and I think this interesting article answers the question.

Rotary and the dilemma of religious values

by noronwe

by John Borst, Past President Rotary Club of Dryden

When I first joined Rotary my club held a Friday evening, all day Saturday educational workshop. We covered a lot of topics, but one comment has stuck with me to this day; probably, it wasn’t meant to have such an impact.

The trainer was discussing the role of Rotary in her life and said that “Rotary was her religion”. I was taken aback but I figured she was speaking figuratively to make the point about how important it was in her life.

Yet it seems to me that there is in fact, at the very least, a quasi-religious nature to the organization. Although Rotary professes to be secular, its guiding principles and ethical beliefs are grounded in all of the World’s great religions.

This takes two forms.

The first is the fervor with which some members support the organization. This manifests itself, particularly when someone is critical of some aspects of how Rotary is managed or the nature of one of its many programs.

Some members are so wedded to all aspects of how the organization is managed that it is too much like heresy to even suggest changes to the Manual of Procedures.

The furor over the change in the logo is another example of how symbols exert a strong pull on a person’s identity much as they do with religions and are to be tinkered with at considerable risk.

There is also a somewhat proselytizing nature to many of the key programs such as PolioPlus or the Peace Scholars program . Even such habits as the President’s annual theme appear inviolate to change.
The second form is more important and finds expression in the very mission and principles of Rotary itself. And in many ways, this for secularists and non-believers this is a far more serious issue.

When Rotary was formed American Society was overwhelmingly Christian. When Paul Harris argued that religion and politics should be banned from discussion for the good of fellowship, division was over the different denominations of Christianity not between different religions as it might be today.

This issue is addressed by the Rotary Global History Fellowship which states:

“One of the more interesting things about Rotary history is to follow the thinking of Rotary leaders as they work to balance guiding principles that do not always agree. Rotary was originally conceived as a service organization that brought business people and professionals together to improve their community through club actions and through a shared commitment to ethical conduct in all aspects of their lives. All community leaders who adhered to these values were welcome, regardless of their religion. To create a harmonious environment for the fellowship that held clubs together, Rotary discouraged religious and political positions. However, the commitment to ethical conduct is essentially a commitment to the golden rule, which is a nearly universal religious principle. Consequently, in 1935, Paul Harris worried that the golden rule probably needed to be abandoned by Rotary to avoid religious overtones, but doing so would deny a core value of Rotary. The solution was the Four-Way Test, which is nothing more than a more detailed articulation of how to follow the golden rule.

The retention of the Golden Rule as a summation of the hopes and ambitions of Rotary has recently met with serious opposition from different quarters. It is not that any appreciable number lack faith in the Golden Rule as a guide in the affairs of men. The objection most frequently heard is that it has so long been identified with religious movements that its adoption by Rotary affords reasonable grounds for the assumption by the uninitiated that Rotary is in fact a religion. It being the case that Rotarians do not consider Rotary a religion, it is probable that the use of the Golden Rule in Rotary literature will be abandoned.
 (Paul Harris, This Rotarian Age, page 91)

Actually it goes beyond high ethical standards and the golden rule. Many if not most clubs say a version of Rotary grace which recognizes the existence of a deity beyond ourselves. This surprises me because I suspect there are many members who do not believe in a God or an after-life.

Even Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” is imbued with religious principle, a principle common to all of the World’s major religions. I understand that during the discussion on the design of the new branding of Rotary thought was given to revising and updating of this motto too.

Sometimes however, an individual comment demonstrates just how fine the line between Rotary and religion may be.

In a post on a woman as president this response appeared at LinkedIn:

“A masculine privilege is be Rotary President in a honest couple with his wife, in name of the family & the harmonic unity of a legally union to be both one in God law & civil rights.” (The writer belonged to a club in Peru.)

To me it demonstrates the degree to which a very religiously conservative person can find within Rotary an organization she believes to be fully compatible with her religious faith.

One example might be the preference or is it practice within Rotary at both the District, Director and Presidential levels of showing the District Governor, Director and the President with his or her spouse. It is just a little thing but it does send a message that marriage, and family are the ethical norm to be expected within Rotary.

Interestingly, when one visits Christian churches in much of Europe, Canada, and even South America one finds a growing abundance of grey hair and dwindling number of young members not dissimilar to Rotary itself.

I expect this dilemma is not going to go away anytime soon. There is however, need for a review of Rotarian practices. Some through long time use may no longer be questioned, but which, if reflected upon for their hidden religious meaning, may be in need of reconsideration.