It is a great honour and joy to welcome so many members of different Rotary clubs.
Work of Rotary is built around charity and social responsibility. And social responsibility is one of the core values enshrined in Satversme (Constitution). It is first mentioned in the Preamble of Satversme which says that everyone, including, of course, all Rotarians, should promote common good.
There are various ways in which we can promote common good. We can do it through our everyday work, various public activities, and charity in particular.
Charity comes from social responsibility. We live in a system where you make more if you excel at something and get less if you are not as successful. However, as socially responsible members of society, we who have more need to take care of underprivileged. In 1905, the main idea of Rotary was that those who are better off take special responsibility and care for those who are less better off, irrespective of whether their problems have been caused by personal or institutional issues.
Charity is supported by modern societies, democratic societies and socially responsible states. I referred to one of the principles of Satversme a moment ago, the common good. And now I would like to mention another one, the socially responsible state. Latvia is a democratic, socially responsible national state based on the rule of law. These four principles are the core of Latvia’s democracy and each one of them, including social responsibility, is as important as the others.
As far as I know, not all world’s countries identify themselves as socially responsible. I believe that most of European countries would consider themselves socially responsible. However, globally speaking, not all world’s countries are socially responsible. And Latvia is one of these socially responsible states.
How do we exercise our social responsibility? Mostly we do it through tax system, government work and functions. And you can also contribute personally. Everyone can and should make personal contribution to social responsibility. Thank you for making this personal contribution.
I feel privileged to be here today, among so many of you who have committed themselves to common good and state social responsibility as Satversme and Europe has urged.
