Announcements and reminders
 
A visiting Rotarian from the Santa Cruz  Sunrise  club announced that they now meet at the Back Nine on Tuesday at 7:15.am
 
May 26th is our major fundraiser. The planning committee will meet on the first and third Thursdays before the regular meeting. Come and join in!
 
Keith reported back on the International Rotary dinner where they spoke about the foundation and the convention in Atlanta.
 
Doug announced that we ran an ad in the Aptos Times congratulating them on their 25th anniversary.
 
Doug also announced The speech contest  will be Feb 23rd and the area contest will follow. Sign-ups next week.
 
We received a nice Christmas card from a student we support at the school of St. Jude.
 
Dr. Art says flu vaccine is ‘right on target’  this year and you can receive shots from him.
 
 
Dr Laina Fambrat Holtzman was our speaker today. She spoke on  the topic ‘Is there a global rule of law? And who is enforcing it?’
 
 
Dr Laina Fambrat Holtzman was our speaker today. She spoke on  the topic ‘Is there a global rule of law? And who is enforcing it?’
She said that for the past 70 years (after WWII) a world system was created to promote international law.  She told us the story of the 1944 Breton Woods Conference where the world bank and IMF were created to help Europe recover from the war and promote international free trade. No more closed systems would be permitted.
She stressed that we helped rebuild many economies this way. Goods can travel freely around the world. Our navy protects it. Global norms were mandated that benefitted everyone such as law of the sea, elections, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and gender equality.
But she believes currently in Muslim countries 7000 people a year are murdered by terrorists. Religious zealotry is a real problem in the Muslim world and that this current world order may cease to exist.
She then opened the topic up for discussion and there was quite a response. Our club has a fair number of well-read historians and they challenged the speaker on a number of her facts and conclusions. It made for a lively exchange of opinions.