| 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 | | ||
| Tsunami toll continues to climb. Have you called President Thomas with your pledges? | ||||
| Chief
Editor : Francis Wann Club Webmaster : John Wan | ||||
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Editorial
(Question Time) - By Francis Wann | ||||
District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||||
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Question Time
And now that speculations have ended, people are likely to wonder - would that make a difference? Enter Caretaker Chief Executive Donald Tsang who, having been in the government for more than three decades, should know a thing or two about his balancing acts ahead. As usual, he was not giving out much at press conferences, and indeed, nobody should expect much from Mr Tung's obedient servant. In his own admission, he claimed that "I will be just as conservative and just as forthcoming as Mr Tung...". And all cabinet ministers were quick to assure us that even with the changing of guards, it will be business as usual. And that means no changes. The constitutional reform will go ahead; the consultations will go ahead; and the much criticised education reform will go ahead. You might just wonder what's the point of a new face at the top. Now that his predecessor has been christened by the State Council, is the message getting across? By strange coincidence, just hours after Tung handed in his official resignation, the BBC programme "Question Time" was broadcast from China (Shanghai) for the first time in the programme's history. Apart from two local government officials, the panel also included our last governor, now Lord Patten; writer-journalist Isabel Hilton; and businessman David Tang. Asked about the current situation, Chris Patten said Britain should have introduced democracy earlier when it was still in power. Hilton raised the question of leaking state secrets when it was only financial information. And when the issue of human rights came up, David Tang said whenever that was raised (when he is abroad), he was ashamed. "Human rights abuse is human rights abuse, and no other abuses can mitigate... It's abhorrent, detestable, unacceptable,.. evil..." Not surprisingly, his words were met with rounds of applause from the audience. The current political drama is already raising eyebrows in an international context. May it not develop into a political farce. | ||||
President's
Column
Calling continuity a new wind blowing in Rotary, he announced that his other main emphases are literacy, water management, alleviating hunger and improving the health and well-being of all who are deprived of these essential resources. With the Rotary Youth Exchange program as another area for the incoming District Governors to promote in their clubs, he is also requesting every club to recruit one new member in 2005-2006 to reach a modest goal of a total membership increase of 31,000. Prior to welcoming our RI PE on board, we still have a long way to go and need to complete this year's projects. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Feroz, our Vocational Services Director, and her organizing committee including IPP Peter, PP Edward, PP Tom, Elsa, Joyce and Marvin because of their significant contribution to the Vocational Services Seminar held on Friday 4 March. With the participation of Mr. Andrew W. F. Wong OBE J.P. and 22 guest speakers (including 9 Rotarians!!), we have not only shared our experience with 520 F.4 -7 students on how to equip themselves for their future, but also generated a lot of publicity for Rotary successfully. By all means, I shall not forget Anthony, Michelle and Teresa who have also spent a lot of effort to make our project perfect. Being a model Rotary project, I have already nominated it to go for the RI Significant Achievement Award. Looking ahead, our Annual Dinner is just around the corner. After our first O.C. meeting, it was tentatively confirmed that our Annual Dinner will be held at Miramar Hotel, TST on Saturday 30 April. In order to make it more attractive, PE Dominic wishes to make an appeal to you on sponsorship of presents for the Lucky Draw. Please be generous and say "Yes" when our O.C. members approach you because your sponsorship will definitely make our Annual Dinner more enjoyable. Furthermore, please also mark your diary from 15 to 17 July 2005 when our Kingspark Camp will be held. This time we shall be out of Hong Kong and enjoy our fellowship at Qing Yuan, China. For further details, PE Dominic will let you know later. As mentioned in my previous articles, I am proud to be the President of our Club because I have got so many partners following the same motto "Service above self". I am sure we shall sustain our Rotary spirit to continuously make our community and the World a better place to live. | ||||
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Happy Easter In the past two weeks, I was invited to speak at two Rotary clubs, on subjects related to The Rotary Foundation, and in between, I attended the District Conference of District 3400 (Indonesia) held in Bali where I had discussions with Rotary leaders mainly on projects involving the Foundation. First, our two clubs. They are both big and well established clubs in the District, but on both occasions, attendance was well below 50%. Members of both clubs went to some length to explain why and to make the point that the situations were unusual. Interestingly, but rather sadly, both clubs had not had as many members registering for the coming-up District Conference as the club leadership would like to see. In one club, the leadership made the point that the Conference clashed with the Rugby Sevens, while in the other club, they talked of the increasingly heavy travel commitments of their members. One of the presidents, referring to the SOS message from Governor Alex Mak, made the point that the total number of registraions paled terribly compared with the attendance at the Centennary Race held in February, and asked the rhetorical question of how the situation could be what it was. Turning to our friends in Indonesia, they have close to 100 clubs in a country comprising thousands of islands spread out in three time zones with different degrees of prosperity or poverty. The problems they face must be enormous, but the resources available, limited, certainly compared to ours, particularly in the wake of the tsunami which had taken away so many lives and caused so much hardship, which was why our Governor Alex had been talking to theirs and which was why I had a sympathetic ear to their requests for DDF towards their Matching Grants. There are numerous projects awaiting funding, and I would be coming to you and other clubs with ideas. Back at Kingspark, members who regularly attended club meetings would recall my continuing appeal for contributions towards the Foundation. In particular, after an announcement from the President that Governor Alex Mak would sponsor members' attendance at the Governor's Banquet, I urged all members attending the Banquet to donate the same amount or more to the Foundation in recognition of the man's generosity. Meanwhile, nothing appears to be happening in the club to address the attendance problem and more fundamentally, the membership problems, having regard in particular to the fact that we have been handpicked two years before as a pioneering club in the zone for membership retention. The fact is, we are at best only half of what we are as far as membership is concerned, but successive club leadership have conveniently chosen not to address the question head on, and have allowed instead the amounts of receivables from some members to build up to rather unrealistic levels. The sooner these questions are addressed, the sooner it would be better for everybody. Easter is coming up in about ten days. For Christians, it is a season to take stock, to review past wrongs and to make amends as necessary. For the not so religious in the club, maybe it is an appropriate time to take stock of the various matters facing the club and to take steps to review the more fundamental and very-soon-to-become critical issues. In the meantime, I wish everyone a Happy Easter. | ||||
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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 from the latter for publication in the same issue if possible. | ||||
Chief
Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Thomas Chan | ||||
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