  Guest speaker, Carlos E Chardon, was born in Venezuela and raised in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He left a great job in New York State to join Luis Ferré and organize the Board of Education, and then became the House Puerto Rican in the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare during Nixon's administration. He then was drafted by Carlos Romero Barcelo for Secretary of Education. Subsequently, he developed a training center for Peace Corps volunteers in Parguera, became the Executive Director of the Ponce Museum of Art and Caribbean Director for the SBA. A contributor and author of many educational books in Spanish and English, his is ready to publish a novel, Volver a ver las Estrellas. Carlos is also working on a book on his father - Carlos E. Chardon Palacios, Trujillo and Munoz Marin - a scientist, a dictator and a democrat.. With the title of his talk being “The End of One Peaceful Revolution and the Beginning of Another”, he noted how we have gone from the compartmentalized world of his youth to the globalized world. The infamous chat and peaceful revolution made Puerto Rico a world-wide phenomenon like the Egyptian Revolution, the Velvet Revolution, and eight consecutive weekends of massive protests in Hong Kong, and three illegal protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg with hundreds incarcerated. Our speaker called upon our leaders to begin a conversation with the people, hear them out by showing your respect for those who live on food stamps and health card and temporary assistance. He added that many of the protestors were the children of a middle class, or the middle class itself, sliding back into poverty. Quite naturally, Carlos Chardon's talk created an interesting Q & A period. Thanks go to fellow-Rotarian, Ricardo Betancourt, who arranged for our speaker. |
