| This
is the biweekly bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kingspark Hong Kong Club Website: http://www.rotary3450.org/kingspark-hongkong | ||||
 | Kingspark News Rotary
Club of Kingspark |  | ||
| Chief
Editor : Francis Wann Club Webmaster : John Wan | ||||
Editorial
(PRAISE GOD IN THE HIGH ST?) - By Francis Wann | ||||
| PRAISE GOD IN THE HIGH ST? Praise God in the High Street? Well that's a joke from Scotland about the youngsters who erased the letter "E' from the word "HIGHEST" as a display of their disillusion towards religion - and the establishment. Indeed why should people go to churches and cathedrals for the ceremony? Is it about time God listened to their voices out in the high streets? A week ago at the Midnight Mass at St John's Cathedral, Revd Hugh Philipson in his sermon made a striking resemblance between the Cathedral and Lan Kwai Fong. Jesus wouldn't have been born in a manger had there been a choice. When revellers enjoy themselves in the hot spots in LKF, would they also think of the back alleys a stone throw's away where the class distinction is most evident? And on Christmas Day, Beagle II, a British funded space project was supposed to help scientists and laymen all over the world to answer historic questions about Mars. Is there life on Mars, or are we alone in the universe? This and other questions raised by Open University's Colin Pillinger, Beagle II's lead scientist, inevitably go beyond the question of life on Mars; they make us look at the very foundation of life - what is life? Unfortunately Beagle II hasn't fulfilled its mission which disappointed many, but that wouldn't stop man's quest for the meaning of life. Towards the end of the year, our world was plagued with disasters and terrorist threats. The earthquake in Bam, a town in southeast Iran noted for its historical heritage and citadel, has resulted in more than 40,000 dead and more than 100,000 injured. The gas blast in Chongqing is still counting its casualties. Suddenly the meaning of life has been reduced to the meaning of life and death - at least in those areas. Church leaders are asking people to seek virtue and compassion which have long been lost because of the crave for materialism. It's not the intention of this small piece to delve into the meaning of life, but it's indeed something very much close to our heart. Rotarians are always in the forefront whenever help or service is needed, and indeed we should find inspirations from the young Scots, and reach out to the high streets. Where were you last night? Clubbing in LKF? Doing the countdown ? Would you spare a thought for those behind the back alleys who deserve our attention? And where would you be today? How would you start the new year? Or would you contemplate joining the New Year Rally to demand more democracy...? In a recent interview on ATV, Chris Yeung of SCMP put it this way - "When something has to be made an issue, it's no longer an issue." A happy New Year to you. | ||||
President's
Column Christmas Presents We could hear X’mas songs everywhere. Everybody had celebrated this wonderful & joyful festival, but during our celebration I always remember some of our underprivileged people and children in Hong Kong. They have been suffering from the economic downturn in the last few years. Children are receiving their X’mas presents from their parents and friends, but many children in orphanages might never know about this feeling. For me X’mas is quite a frustration: I’m a catholic, but I do not go to Mass on Sundays because of my laziness. However, I always attend mid-night Mass with my whole family, because it’s the time for us to celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and to say a prayer for the poor and the minority in the world. It is also an occasion to remind my children X’mas was not for Santa, but for Jesus Christ. Most young people in Hong Kong apparently are misled by the commercial promotion programs and advertisement about X’mas. This year our club held our X’mas party on Sunday, 21 December. There were a total of 140 members, their families and guests. I would leave my members to talk about the program because they would be in a better position to do so. About 14 years ago, I was the acting president of Jaycee and chairman of a project to visit to a home for the blind and an X’mas party. During the party I received a present from the blind boys and girls. The gift was a puzzle in a word of "Love" measuring about 18" x 18" in the shape of ping pong board. Their teacher told me that this kind of handicraft might be easy for the normal person, but it was difficult for the blind especially if they are mentally or physically disabled. The gift was made by a boy and a girl who had both worked for two whole days under the supervision of their teacher. This has become one of my memorable and valuable presents and I still have it. I put it in the middle of my display cabinet to remind me to serve the community at all times. This year I also received a lot of X’mas presents, the most valuable one being the support from members, especially from my past presidents and their family members. They have all "Lend a hand" to our club and they have really examplified themselves as true Rotarians. On 16 January 2004, our club will hold a vocational seminar for 600 students in SKH Lam Kau Mau Secondary School in Sha Tin City 1. The object of this project is to share our working experience with the students. I hope this will be a New Year present to all the participants, not only the students, because we would also be rewarded through interacting with the young students. Wishing you a Happy New Year and a Lunar New Year. | ||||
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Happy New Year! Most of you would have watched many movies in the Christmas and New Year holidays. I suppose the most popular movie would be The Return of the King, the last part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure The Lord of the Rings. A friend of mine told me that the books are much more interesting and detailed than the movies and that I should watch the movie after reading the books. However, I have only read the first chapter of Part One even though I had bought the complete trilogy more than a year ago. My excuse is that I want to take the “challenge” of finishing them later when I can read them all in one go. Nevertheless, I have read another book by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is called The Hobbit and I would like to share with you my reading experience of this book in the following paragraphs. Let me begin with the summary of the book, as appeared in its first page, as follows, “The Hobbit is a tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves, in search of dragon guarded gold. A reluctant partner in this perilous quest is Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving, unambitious hobbit, who surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and his skill as a burglar. Encounters with trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves and giant spiders, conversations with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent, and a rather unwilling presence at the Battle of Five Armies are some of the adventures that befall Bilbo. But there are lighter moments as well: good fellowship, welcome meals, laughter and song……..It is a complete and marvelous tale in itself, but it also forms a prelude to The Lord of the Rings.” Unlike the complete The Lord of the Rings which has some 1,300 pages, The Hobbit has only 280 pages and there are fewer characters and battles in The Hobbits. However, it doesn’t make The Hobbit less attractive. On the contrary, its relative simplicity makes it easier to read and difficult to put it down before finishing it. The nineteen chapters are closely interlocked and filled with great unexpected developments. The focus of this book is on Bilbo Baggins, the uncle of Frodo Baggins who later, as depicted in The Lord of the Rings, leaves his home and makes a journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the One Ring. In this book, Bilbo has to face the most of the dangerous times alone since Gandalf, the great wizard, often appears after the crises have been solved through the intelligence of Bilbo. In this book, you will also know how Bilbo escapes from the old Gollum, the small dark slimy creature with the two big round pale eyes in his thin face, and steals the One Ring from him. After reading this book, you will have another impression on Bilbo, probably a much more positive one, who later appears to be mysterious and obsessed with the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. I think this book is good for everyone regardless of their age and character. It might be particularly encouraging for those who lack self-confidence and courage to explore. They may be able to learn from Bilbo’s problem solving experiences and optimistic attitude. For the arrogant, I hope they will appreciate that even a small and physically weak guy may possess great abilities to take up challenges and the high EQ to handle crises. I understand that no filmmaker has made any film based on The Hobbit yet. Even if there is one, I still strongly recommend you to read this book first. From my experience of reading the complete book series of Harry Potter and watching the two movies based on the first two books, I do agree with my friend that the books are often better than the movies. I think the main reasons are, firstly, Hollywood film producers have tried to limit the length of a movie to no more than 150 minutes in order to control costs and maximize the number of daily release sessions, thus maximizing their benefits. As a result, most of the important details have to be sacrificed. Secondly, we can better use our own imagination to visualize the descriptions in the book during reading. It will create much more in-depth impression of the scenes in our minds. | ||||
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By President William Tong (William Tong is President of the Interact Club at Wah Yan College, Kowloon. - Ed.) It was a very amazing month! In the past month, our club participated in two large scale social service projects, the Caritas Bazaar and the Community Leader Training Scheme. The Caritas Bazaar was held on the 16th November. This was a major fund raising event to support Caritas. Our club was responsible to run a stall. The work involved about 15 members of our club and the bazaar was held in Fa Hui Playground. In order to avoid last minute rush, we started our preparation work on 5th November, about two weeks before the event. During the preparation, we found that the making of our proposed equipment was much more difficult than we had originally expected. For example, we made water containers from 250cc drink boxes, which should be able to stand frequent fallings, but we had problems of water leakage through the small hole we made for draining the drinks, even though we had already wrapped the boxes with thick layers of plastic films. In another game, we need to shape a copper wire into very smooth words of IACT, through which a copper electric loop can pass through. We spent a lot of time to smooth out the angles of the wire. On the day, all 15 members turned up. The event was a great success as our school, with 12 stalls, collected more than $92,000 for Caritas. Furthermore, we were lucky to be awarded the first prizes in both the banner and the store design competitions. Five colleges are involved in the Community Leader Training Scheme including Wah Yan College Kowloon, Wah Yan College Hong Kong, St Clare’s, St Benedict and Ho Tung College. This project is a long term project which began in December 2003 and will end in July 2004. The first social service event was held on the 21st December in Caritas Center in Caine Road. It was co-chaired by Philomena Chan from St. Benedict School, Hedy and Lucy from Ho Tung College, Joe from Wah Yan College Hong Kong and me from Wah Yan College Kowloon. The service was to play with about 30 children who were new immigrants and about 30 members from five clubs joined this scheme. The activity lasted for three and a half hours from 1030 to 1400 hours. In the morning, we played three games with the children. The first game was named ‘one dollar, fifty cents’. Boys were dollars and girls were fifty cents and they had to gather together in a group to achieve the exact amount of money that the M.C. asked for. The second game was called ‘hope aeroplane flying’. Children had to fold aeroplanes and write down their wishes inside the planes. After that, they had to throw the aeroplanes past a line about 5 metres away from them. The third game was called ‘two people three legs balloon stepping’. In this exciting game, children and workers played as a group with their legs tied together with a string. A balloon was also tied to a leg. Participants should step on others’ balloons until bursting. The last group remaining was the winner. During the games, we had the opportunities to communicate with the children. Everyone had an enjoyable time, not only the children but also their parents who supported them. In the afternoon, we taught the children to fold a Christmas tree with paper. The children found the game quite interesting. Then there was a prize presentation and a party with refreshments made by us. Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Peter Lo, Mr. Dominic Ko for their support and Philomena, Hedy, Lucy and Joe for their co-operation to make this activity a successful one. | ||||
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A new year or a spent one?
Shortly after 5 December 2003 when the District Nominating Committee for DGN 2005-06 (the Committee) met, we were told that the Committee had returned Meggy Tseung of Peninsula Sunrise in preference to Peter Wan of Tolo Harbour, subject to there being no challenge from clubs by 29 December. Governor Jones wrote to all his preisdents on 23 December 2003 announcing that he had received communications from nine clubs challenging the Committee's decision and proposing Peter Wan to be DGN 2005-06 instead. A challenge was raging. Governor Jones also asked his presidents to circulate his letter to all members of their clubs. For our club, we have yet to hear from President Peter. On New Year Eve, while we were all attending or preparing to attend parties, Governor Jones sent round another letter to his presidents announcing that by 29 December, he had received from 12 clubs expressed views that Peter Wan rather than Meggy Tseung should be the District's top leader in 2005-06. Governor Jones then announced that he had suspended Meggy Tseung and Peter Wan of their respective appointment of Assistant Governor from today to 14 February 2004 and gave reasons. He also sent New Year greetings to all Rotarians and their families. The last time a district official was suspended from office under similiar circumstances took place under the governorship of Y K Cheng, in 1996-97, when he suspended Anthony Hung of his office of District Secretary so that he could deal with matters related to a challenge of the decision of the then Nominating Committee which had returned Dipo Sani to be Governor in 1998-99. After a Ballot by Mail throughout the District, Anthony Hung was returned as Governor for 1998-99. I wonder how many clubs, other than the 12 clubs which have put down their names to a motion for Peter Wan to be Governor for 2005-06, are aware of what is going on in the District, or for that matter, how many would be bothered. Time has changed since 1996-97. Then, only past governors sat on the Nominating Committee. The system was branded as archaic and unfair. The District has since resolved to assemble a Nominating Committee by fairer if more elaborate means, to obviate such accusation, which could explain why there was no need to go through the system of challenge in recent years. It should be stressed that a challenge in today's circumstance must be seen not as a challenge on the candidate returned by the Committee or any individual, but rather a challenge on the Committee primarily, a challenge on the system through which the Committee was assembled, a challenge on the district officials who oversaw the system and procedures, and of course, a challenge on the District Governor. Clubs throughout the District would soon be asked to go through elaborate and needless procedures in a Ballot by Mail. Experienced Rotarians and clubs will understand that in a Ballot by Mail, clubs with more members have more votes and therefore pull more weight, which implies therefore that it would not be a fair system for those who champion one man one vote. But let us hope that clubs and the membership understand what is going on. An editor of a rather reputable club newletter which publishes weekly, in referring to the DGN saga, has made the observation that the district administration is running like a headless chicken, or something to that effect. His words may be rather critical and hence may not please some people, but they ought not be brushed aside on sight, for they could indeed be a welcome wake up call. If the only thing that our top dog can think of doing thus far is to follow what one of his predecessors did in 1996-97, we could be in a spent year, rather than welcoming a new one. | ||||
Views in any article in Kingspark News reflect those of the authors. They are not necessarily the views of the Rotary Club of Kingspark or of District 3450. You are welcome to write to Chief Editor Francis Wann or Club Webmaster John Wan on any topic, particularly in response to articles published in Kingspark News. We would publish all contributions as long as the authors identify themselves, the contents are not offensive or abusive, and would not offend common decency or common sense. You need not be a Rotarian to write to us and you have a choice to withhold your name in the published version. Where the contents make reference to statements or policies of individuals or organizations, we would try to obtain a response fro the latter for publication in the same issue if possible. | ||||
Chief
Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Peter Lo | ||||
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