Lusitano's Position On
Unity
by The Lusitano Board Of Directors
Dear Members,
As you may or may not be aware, we received an earlier email from
Horatio Ozorio, editor of the “
http://www.diasporamacaense.org “ website directing us to an editorial
(click on Editorials & Articles to view ). We would like to share the
below response drafted by the Board of Lusitano which we will forward to Mr.
Ozorio. We will also post this on our Lusitano website; hard copy will
follow to those members without email and printed in our 3rd quarter bulletin.
Sincerely, The Lusitano Board of DirectorsAugust 24, 2008
Dear Horace,
In response to your invitation to address the question of unity,
Lusitano Club of California welcomes the
opportunity to state its position on unity.
There is Strength in Diversity – We are Fortunate
The Lusitano Club of California
disagrees with your editorial that having three clubs promotes disunity among
the Macanese community. To the contrary, collaboration among the three clubs is
currently at its best. With 3 separate clubs we are catering to various
cross-sections of the local Macanese community in ways that not one single club
can. Just as the United States is not diminished because it is
composed of separate states, the Lusitano Club of California does not believe that the
existence of three clubs diminishes the unity of the local Macanese community.
In fact, having three clubs increases the diversity and opportunity of
expression as each club differs in membership, scope and interests. Each club
fulfills the unique needs of its constituent members by providing diverse social
and cultural community events. Simply put, if an organization has a specific
membership and successfully pursues the interests of its members and mission, it
is a vital organization. Without a doubt, having three vital and separate
organizations co-exist peacefully, allows us to better serve our Macanese
community in the Bay Area.Lusitano’s Impeccable
Reputation- Success Comes from Good Leadership
Lusitano is arguably the most vibrant Macanese club in the United States with a diversity of
members young and old. Lusitano strives to serve our members with an
unparalleled degree of dignity, respect and goodwill. Our membership
continues to grow and our many events are always well attended. Our President,
Maria Roliz, and other members of the Board have been commended on this website.
Our board members have been responsible stewards of the resources entrusted to
our club and our perennial events have consistently generated revenues that
allow our club to thrive and continue to add value to the community. Such
outcomes do not come without discipline, skill and outstanding leadership.
Unity - At What Cost?
Bearing in mind our fiduciary responsibility, the Lusitano Board feels
that to consider a merger with UMA and Casa de Macau will not prove beneficial
to our members. The Lusitano Club of
California
has been very successful with the activities we choose to support - activities
which are unique to our club and membership desires. If merged, our club
resources could be used for purposes/events of little interest to our members.
We have a fiduciary responsibility to our members to safeguard our club’s
resources and execute our mission. Lusitano exists because our
founders envisioned a mission and purpose different from that of UMA’s.
Financial support from Macau/Portugal would also be affected by a
merger. The Macanese community has received and continues to receive
generous funding from Macau/Fundacao with separate distributions to all three
clubs. In all likelihood, one club would NOT be the recipient of the
combined three sources of funding. If only one club exists, then
Macau
will only fund one club. A merger could result in 66% reduction in funding
from Macau. This loss of funding would
significantly impact our club activities and programs resulting in a huge loss
to our community.
In closing, instead of asking: When? When? When?, we believe the more
critical question to ask is: Why? Why? Why?
The proponents of “Unity” have presented little explanation or
supporting evidence for WHY unifying the clubs is something that should be
pursued. Until the proponents of “Unity” can make cogent arguments
that adequately and objectively articulate why uniting the three clubs will
strengthen [rather than weaken] programs for the local Macanese community, the
Lusitano Club of California does not view the call to unity as a serious issue
for debate.
The idea of unity promotes feelings of community, harmony and
inclusion, but unity does not mean homogeneity or lack of diversity.
We, as the elected leadership of Lusitano, would be remiss if we failed
to also mention that we find your recent website postings somewhat
disconcerting. Specifically, (1) those postings that feed a self-perpetuating
myth about a disunited community and (2) those postings that contained
erroneous, derogatory and inflammatory remarks targeted at Lusitano and our
sister club, Casa de Macau. While we treasure freedom of expression and
opinion, we are disappointed that, as Editor, you did not choose to use your
forum to ensure that fair and truthful content is published to the Macanese
community. Currently, our 3 clubs are working cohesively together to
launch the MCC and we all get along very well and this to us is “unity”.
Respectfully submitted,
The Board of Directors, Lusitano Club of California, USA
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