Meeting opening: President Randy called the meeting to order. David Dix played a patriotic song, “God Bless America.” President Randy led the Pledge of Allegiance. Al Barber offered the invocation.
Announcements: Alyssa Mazey said Kent Edibles is seeking volunteers to help with planting at the Haymaker Farmer’s Market on June 12th at 9 a.m. She said it will go on for three or four hours, but they will be grateful for anyone who can show up and donate some of their time. President Randy said he knows that Sherry Joy had a team of volunteers last Saturday to spruce up the shrubbery and plants around the Gazebo. President Randy also said that our club will start meeting in person June 29 at Pierson Hall at the United Methodist Church and that a committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday, June 2d to discuss arrangements. He said the local Kent Rotary Foundation Board is meeting June 17 at 7 pm via Zoom. He said the 100th Anniversary Committee will meet June 8th at 1:30 pm via Zoom.
100th Anniversary Moment: Jim Myers told us about club programs of 1944-45 focusing on one about three local businesses that manufactured products used in the World War II effort. See Jim’s remarks.
Program: Colombia Eager to Partner With USA
His Excellency Francisco Santos Calderón, the ambassador from Colombia to the United States, encouraged American entrepreneurs to come to Colombia to do business. He said the climate for business in Colombia is good and that his country is rich is natural resources, its leading exports being coal, petroleum, and coffee although it has a wealth of minerals including gold and lots of land that could be cultivated, especially for forests which grow quickly in Colombia’s tropical climate. Colombia, he said, is a democracy of laws and wants to work with American businesses although China has become his country’s top trading partner and the top trading partner of many Latin American countries in recent years. He said Chinese companies have the contract to build the first metro line in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The ambassador said that Colombia has gotten control over the drug cartels and the FARC, the long-running Left-wing guerilla organization whose goal has been to bring a Cuban style government to Colombia. He noted that Colombia has absorbed more than 5 million refugees from Venezuela where the Maduro government hosts representatives of Russia, China, Cuba, and even Iran, causing one of the largest man-made refugee crises in the world. He said the U.S. needs to continue to press the Maduro regime to host true democratic elections, which, he said, would likely result in a better, more democratic government in that country. The ambassador said that Colombia has been a good partner with the United States in working with the countries of Central America, especially Panama. The ambassador said that Colombia’s middle class is growing and that the percentage of impoverished Colombians in the last 20 years has dropped from 49 percent of the country to 20 percent. The growing middle class means Colombia is potentially a good market for American products. Colombia, along with the rest of Latin America, represents a market of 450 million people, which is more people than reside in the European Union. He said that America would do well to avert its gaze on the growing economy of China for that of Latin America, which aspires to American friendship. Colombia, he reminded Rotarians, has been a democracy for 180 years. On a lighter note, Ambassador Calderón told us he earned degrees in journalism and Latin-American studies at the University of Kansas and the University of Texas and while in Kansas became an ardent fan of the Kansas City Chiefs. He showed us a Chiefs’ football helmet he keeps in his office. He also said he became acquainted with Midwestern America in Kansas and appreciates its friendly, straight forward manner, a personality trait that other countries admire about Americans.
Response: David Myers provided the club response to the speaker
