Tag Archives: Bangkok

Rotary World Peace Symposium 2012

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In front of the live Twitter stream from @RotaryChula using Twitterfall

On day two of the Rotary World Peace Symposium we (Class 12) ran a workshop session looking at how peace fellows (over 650 worldwide) can assist with the Rotary “End Polio Now” Campaign.  Polio has not yet been eradicated from Nigeria, Afghanistan or Pakistan and one the reasons for this is the difficulties caused by conflicts in certain areas in these countries.  One of the aims of the session was to see if we could start to utilities the alumni network in these regions and beyond.

With the help of @rotary (International) and @EndPolioNow we managed to be repeatedly re-tweeted to over 150,000 “followers”.  It was my first time  running (along with Chris Quinlan) a live Twitter stream from a conference and it was great to see first hand the power of social media in being able to get the message of the session out to many more people than were actually in the room.

Unfortunately my netbook screen has decided to kindly stop working as my Fellowship draws to a close (I’m blaming the Bangkok humidity -84% today!)  I will add more to this blog as soon as I get up and running again!

Modern Bangkok Life

Walking back from the University today I came across over 100 monks outside the National Stadium for a retreat event.  I thought this picture (taken in the major shopping district) speaks to how modern Bangkok has amalgamated  religious ideology with modern life.  Buddhist monks are still highly respected in Thai society.

Just Arrived

I just arrived in Bangkok a few hours ago and I’ve been finding my feet around Chulalongkorn University campus where I’ll be based over the next twelve weeks.  Its been nine years since I was last in the city and it’s still every bit as humid as I remember it.  It’s the first day of the course tomorrow with an early start for 9am Bangkok time (2am Belfast time!) with four days of orientation ahead.

If your interested in more information on the course or on how to start an application through your local Rotary Club check out the link to the Rotary International site here.