The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 25 September that Nigeria is now polio-free and has been officially removed from the list of countries where polio is endemic. It’s been 14 months since any cases of polio caused by the wild virus have been detected there. With Nigeria’s historic achievement, polio remains endemic in only two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. That means transmission of the virus has never been stopped there. Nigeria was the last country in Africa where polio was endemic. The continent celebrated its own first full year without the disease on 11 August. Once...

Celebrate our remarkable progress toward a polio-free world with the Rotary World Polio Day event, streamed live from New York City on 23 October. Co-hosted by UNICEF, the event will highlight recent milestones: In July, Nigeria marked one year without a case of polio caused by the wild poliovirus, and in August, the entire African continent celebrated one year without a case. Jeffrey Kluger, health and science editor at Time magazine, will serve as moderator, joining other health experts, including UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and polio ambassadors. The event, which drew 23,000...

People and nations worldwide will observe the International Day of Peace on 21 September, the date designated by the United Nations in 2001 “to be observed as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.” That commitment to peace is directly linked to goals pursued by Rotary members since The Rotary Foundation’s mission to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace was proclaimed in 1917. To fulfill that mission, Rotary conducts global forums, hosts international peace symposiums, continues its decades-long collaboration with the UN, and promotes initiatives such as the Rotarian Action...

From the October 2015 issue of The Rotarian As the world hurtles down the path of modernization, many cultures resist the speed of change. Korea embraces it, yet retains a balance many of us worry we’re losing. In Seoul, business-suited fathers patiently escort their children to school. Multigenerational families pause by ponds and brilliant bursts of wild azalea. Each day before dawn, Buddhist monks throughout the land sound fish- and cloud-shaped drums to wake all creatures, from sea to sky. It is a ritual thousands of years old, and in Korea, this rhythm of tradition infuses everything....

From the October 2015 issue of The Rotarian We Americans like to think of ourselves as “rugged individualists” – in the image of the lone cowboy riding toward the setting sun, opening the frontier. But at least as accurate a symbol of our national story is the wagon train, with its mutual aid among a community of pioneers. Throughout our history, a pendulum has slowly swung between the poles of individualism and community, both in our public philosophy and in our daily lives. In the past half century we have witnessed, for better or worse, a giant swing toward the individualist pole in our...