Last week’s breakfast speaker was Jose L.Cuisia, Jr., the Ambassador of the Philippines to the United States for the past two years. His educational degrees include a B.A. degree in Social Science from the Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania.

There are 11 principal Philippine islands, with the Pacific Ocean to the East and the South China Sea on the West. The most important island is Luzon in the far north, with the capital city of Manila (population about 1.6 million). One of the finest harbors in the world is Manila Bay.

During their years as a territory of the USA, the Philippines became important in world commerce, and today they have been projected to be the 14th largest economy in the world. The Independence of the mother country dates from July 4, 1776, while that of the Philippine Republic dates from July 4, 1946.

Our speaker last week was Roberto Matus who is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Chile— a country that is approximately 2,600 miles from north to south along the Pacific Ocean. About 90% of its population lives in its central valleys and most of the transport between countries is by air because there are no southern winds down the 2,600 mile Pacific Coast line to transport boats. Thanks to good guidance, Chile exports most of its grapes, berries, nectarines and peaches, and is the 3rd largest country exporting salmon (behind Norway and Canada)..

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Claes Ryn was our breakfast speaker last week and used the opportunity to speak about his new novel, A Desperate Man which is already out as an ebook at Amazon and will soon be available also as a traditional hardcover book. The novel is a suspenseful political and psychological thriller as well as a serious literary work. It paints a picture of the state of America that some might find disturbing. The milieus are Washington, D.C., Paris, and Charleston, S.C. and Claes suggested that a good novel with real characters can tell you more about life, leave a more permanent mark than many factually bases biographies or history books. Claes speculated that this suspenseful story might convey some important things better to the educated general public than his more philosophical works. He pointed out that writing is more taxing work and that if there is interest in the club, he would be willing to sign copies of A Desperate Man at a future club meeting.