Speech at 49th European Lions Forum
13 November 2003
By George Vassiliou
Dear President
Dear President of Lions International
Dear Lions guests and participants
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
We are all extremely pleased that Cyprus has been chosen
to host the 49th European Lions Forum and I am greatly
honoured for having been asked to be the keynote speaker
at the opening ceremony.
Over 1000 of distinguished Cypriot citizens are members of
the 25 Cyprus Lions Clubs. Cyprus may be a small island
but we are proud that we have one of the highest
percentages of members not only in Europe but in the whole
world. In the last few decades the Cyprus Lions, with
their dedication and hard work, have considerably
contributed to improving the quality of life in the island
by alleviating pain and suffering between many groups of
people and particularly the blind. I have not the
slightest doubt that if your founder, Melvyn Jones, was
alive today, he would have been extremely proud for the
achievements of Lionism in Cyprus but also in the whole
world.
In preparing for this brief presentation I came across a
very interesting statement in one of your web pages. It
says that "all individuals are citizens of their community
and their nation. A Lion is something more. A citizen of
the world."
The first object of Lions Club International is to create
and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of
the world. This is indeed the fundamental reality of our
age that community or national interest can no longer be
attained in isolation from world interest.
Today, more than ever before, we all realise that we
cannot possibly go on living in our small little world in
isolation of the others. We recognise that actions, in
places thousands of miles away from us, are having a
direct effect on our lives. Either by affecting the
environment or the world economic situation or, what is
even more important, the world political situation and the
sense of security for all of us. The need for collective
action has never been greater and it is no coincidence
therefore that this is the main theme of your 49th
Conference. Quality of life through acting collectively
and caring collectively.
Dear friends,
The challenges we have to face wherever we live are many
and great; poverty, under-development, injustice, disease
epidemics, trafficking in human beings, destruction of the
environment. One could speak for hours for any one of
these challenges and many others that I haven't mentioned.
So I will only briefly outline some of the aspects of
underdevelopment and illegal immigration.
I start with the problem that we face in many countries
but particularly in countries, like Cyprus, situated in
main crossroads to Europe; the problem of illegal
immigration. We read in the papers every few days the
tragedy of old boats sinking taking with them tens or
hundreds of illegal immigrants and we do know that there
are thousands and thousands of such destitute persons
living either illegally or in various camps around Europe.
There is no doubt that illegal immigration has increased
considerably in the last few years. Why is that? Is it
because conditions are so really wonderful in the
countries where those poor people wish to find a new home?
Up to a point, yes. There is no comparison between living
conditions in Europe compared to Africa, for example.
Television is projecting everyday scenes of this
life-style to the hundreds of thousands of poor people in
Africa, Asia or Latin America, making thus even more
obvious the contrast to their own lives and increasing the
appeal of the developed nations. Much more important,
however, is the fact that conditions in developing
countries and particularly in Africa have been getting
from bad to worse. Millions of people live under the
poverty line, thousands of children die because of
malnutrition and other thousands suffer from diseases,
like aids, without much hope for treatment. We have to
admit, whether we like it or not, that we have failed our
main duty as human beings, as Christians or Moslems, as
good Lions, to Africa. Colonialism has left behind it
corrupt administrations, a heritage of tribalism, civil
wars, luck of infrastructure, all kinds of diseases. Can
really any one of us blame these poor and hopeless people
for wishing to escape from the hell in which they live?
They have nothing to lose, so they are ready to "make a
gamble" to take their chances. They are ready to suffer
anything as long as they can have a better future.
The European Union has a noble and ambitious objective to
reduce by 2015 by half the number of people living in
extreme poverty around the world and particularly in
Africa. However, let us not celebrate because even if this
noble objective is achieved, it would still imply that the
other half will continue to live in extreme poverty after
2015. Furthermore, judging by the amount of money spent on
development assistance around the world, it is not at all
certain that this objective will be achieved. With poverty
and suffering at such a level it is not difficult to
understand that people in their desperation try by all
means to escape. Prostitution, the illegal trafficking of
human-beings or the export of death through the
cultivation of all kinds of drugs is for many the only way
to escape.
Dear Lions,
Looking at the very interesting program of the work of
your Conference I have realised that you will be dealing
with some of the many challenges that our societies are
facing currently. Issues like protecting the youth from
drugs and alcohol, ensuring recycling and protecting the
environment, helping people with special needs, promoting
the transfusion of blood and donation of body organs for
transplantation, helping the blind. To all these
activities which are all extremely worthwhile one could
add others like for example helping the Roma people,
alleviating poverty, contributing to the need to reduce
unemployment, etc.
You are very well aware that in order to be successful in
addressing all these challenges one has to act
collectively. To mobilise, not only the other Lion
members, but also as many people as possible in our
communities or in our work place, the appropriate
Government bodies, political parties, professional
organisations, etc.
We are all fully aware that our economic system, the
system of enlightened capitalism is based on
individualism. It is the effort and work of the millions
and millions of individuals that leads at the end to the
desired result of progress in every sphere of life. There
is no doubt, however, that individualism, although
important, cannot under any circumstances help address and
cure the many problems our societies face. We need to work
together; we need collective action if we want to achieve
any results. Let us not forget that by helping others, by
alleviating misery, illnesses, poverty, etc. we are also
helping ourselves. A decent human-being's life cannot be
satisfying unless he contributes and helps his neighbours
and those around him, to have a better life themselves.
The egoistic approach to life is a recipe for disaster in
our today's strongly inter-dependent societies. One or two
centuries ago people relied mainly on themselves and their
families, but today to have even the slightest chance of
being successful, we have to work and communicate with
hundreds and thousands of persons around us. We need to
care about what is happening in places far away from
us.
You the Lions are the good Samaritans. Through your
actions you are giving a wonderful example, an example
which I hope you will not mind if other people, non-Lions,
will try to emulate.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
I hope, or rather I am certain, that your Conference,
judging from its program alone, will be a great success.
But please try to find some time to get to know a little
bit about Cyprus as well and understand our problem, the
tragedy of living in a small island that has been cut in
two by a brutal coup d'etat and the invasion that
followed. The people of this island, Turkish Cypriots and
Greek Cypriots have clearly demonstrated in the past
months that they want and can live together. We are
certain that jointly we can create and build a better
future for ourselves. We sincerely hope and do our utmost
so that with the support of the U.N. and the help of
people like you and your governments, it will be possible
to restart negotiations, early in the new year. We
strongly desire to achieve an agreement and join the
European Union reunited.
I wish every success to your 49th Conference and a really
pleasant and enjoyable stay in Cyprus.