| 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
(Summer of Discontent) - By Francis Wann | ||||
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Summer of Discontent What happened over the past two weeks was nothing short of a political drama which would certainly be remembered long after its impact is felt in retrospect. It was first unveiled on July 5 with the release of the Legco's Select Committee on the SARS outbreak which has claimed 299 lives with 1755 still suffering from various levels of aftereffects. The report was the latest and the most scathing one after the other two reports appointed by the Government and the Hospital Authority respectively. Understandably no officials were held responsible. Even the Select Committee's inquiry, which did name names, did not go far enough as to ensure the integrity of the accountability system. Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong resigned two days later on July 7, saying that his decision was to "demonstrate my political accountability and to bring a closure to this painful episode..." A day later on July 8, HA Chairman Dr Leong Chi-hung followed suit, but not after creating a scenario of a possible mass resignation of board members, and claiming that "The Hospital Authority has made no mistake." His honorary status as chairman of a statuary body was highlighted in the media as a counterargument to any claims that he should be held politically or administratively accountable. On the same day Dr Yeoh announced his resignation, the Chief Executive CH Tung met members of the pro-democracy camp who asked him to ask the central government to reconsider its decision to rule out direct election for the chief executive in 2007 and universal suffrage in 2008. Mr Tung responded with his "One country" premise card. When members of the Frontier put him to the same task, the response was the same. The "One Country" China card has become Mr Tung's trump card and could have helped him decide not to make major changes after some half a million people took to the streets to march under the scorching heat only two weeks ago. Mr Tung had responded with a one-liner "We hear you." And it's not all quiet on the education front which has already been under an avalanche of reforms, teachers who have been made redundant staged their hunger strike over the last two weekends. While people outside the profession might have made their judgements over their action, the policies have already resulted in sharp divisions, bitterness, and distrust. The Education (Amendment) Bill 2002 was passed last Thursday on July 8 amid growing controversies and opposition. It may still be too early to gauge the implications of the bill which requires all public-funded schools to establish their incorporated management committees (IMCs) which include teacher and parent representatives, but the fact that it gives the Education and Manpower Bureau the right to appoint members and, in extreme cases, dissolve the committee must have given cause for concern. In the tertiary education sector, the release of A-level results last Friday has once again revealed the discrepancies in our system with the hardselling of associate and pre-associate degree programs across the board. With too many universities and a shrinking budget under the UGC, thousands of our students have thus become political footballs. Two days ago the LegCo had its end-of-term session before its summer recess and before electioneering begins. It was an occasion for members to bury their hatchets, and while the Chief Executive admitted flaws in his accountability system which was introduced two years ago, he nevertheless reiterated that "the road ahead is broad and boundless as long as we firmly follow the directions laid down in the Basic Law..." Enough to make one wonder. (Today we'd see President Thomas conducting his debut meeting of Kigspark. We urge members to write in and express your views on policies and directions - Ed.) | ||||
President's
Column Thoughts on Leadership What will you do if you are invited to become the Vice President of our Club? Are you ready to become the leader? I remember when PP Anwer invited me to be Vice President two years ago, I hesitated because I thought I was not ready yet. Nevertheless, I was finally convinced as it was my honour to serve our members, the Club and community in the capacity of President. More importantly, they told me that I had two years to prepare and every member would be leader in the future. Time flies and its time for me to take up the challenge. Although I have tried to get prepared through participation in activities of our Club and the District , it is never enough because the job is tough and demanding. It is fortunate for me to have a committed Board and the support of our past presidents. They are a valuable asset to our Club and their experience will guide me to achieve our objectives. Hence I would like to thank all our PPs here and I would also like to advise our members to start preparing for this challenge as early as possible because you will be our future leader and will definitely need a lot of time to get ready. | ||||
By William Tong Community Leader Training Scheme [William Tong is President of the Interact Club ay Wah Yan College, Kowloon - Ed] Loud shouts, clattering noise of vehicles, jostling pedestrians and congesting traffic seem to be characteristics of a prosperous Hong Kong. Many people have found life difficult and very few could find time to stop and appreciate or recognize the better parts of our city. As a service to the newly immigrated children and teenagers, we have proposed "City Hunting" as our last project under the Community Leader Training Scheme. "City Hunting" comprised three parts: A workshop on the 6th of July, an Orientation Day on 10th of July and an outing on 11th of July. There was a total of 16 volunteers from 4 colleges - Hotung Secondary School, SKH St. Benedict School, Wah Yan College, Hong Kong and Wah Yan College, Kowloon. We began with a workshop in Shek Tong Tsui Caritas Community Center at 2:30 p.m. We had about 2 hours of games to enable the volunteers to know each other better. The volunteers were separated into 5 groups. Each group had to organize a game for children during Orientation Day. We aimed at improving their leadership and organization skills. Proposals were made an hour later. Unfortunately, the July 9th Orientation Day was cancelled unexpectedly because the social worker of the community center informed us that they could only find 3 children for the event. We carried out the outing on 11th July as planned. There were about 30 newly immigrated children participating in the activity. The outing was the core part of this program. The game involved certain tasks aimed at improving their knowlege on Hong Kong. Each group comprised 4 volunteers and about 5 children. They had to look around Causeway Bay to find answers to questions such as "Where can one take a minibus to Queen Mary hospital?" "How many entrances are there in World Trade Center?" They were also asked to carry out tasks such as taking a photo with a tourist, sending a postcard, collecting ten persons' signature…etc. Each group was monitored by a committee member, and they were allowed to spend no more than $200 sponsored by the community center. All of us enjoyed the game and were exhausted when we returned to the center at 5 p.m. The Community Leader Training Scheme has been successful. All the committee members including Philomena from SKH St. Benedict School, Hedy, Lucy from Hotung Secondary School, Joe from Wah Yan College, Hong Kong and I have gained a lot from it. I think most of us have treasured more the friendship and the opportunity to improve our leadership skill. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to all the committee members for their enthusiasm. I would also like to say to the participants: Well done! | ||||
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Foundation Night
The latest figures from Evanston indicated that the Club had contributed $3,600 to the Annual Program Fund, thus making the per capita contribution just over the $100 mark and which made us technically above board as far as contribution to the Foundation was concerned. However, if one looked at the fine prints, one would notice that the contributions were from only three members of the club, which means that over 90% of the membership had not contributed anything in the year when Jones Wong was Governor. This is certainly not something we can be proud of, particularly when less than two years ago, we had enjoyed basking under the limelight of being a 100% Paul Harris Fellow Club. Our club leadership responded like a civil servant would: We would look into the matter; the Evanston figures were not up to date and did not include the contributions the club was about to remit to the Foundation, and so on. Sure enough, the club made a last minute rush to remit the contributions, but to this date, they had yet to be recorded or displayed in the club contributions summary. There could be a cross wire somewhere. This little episode illustrates that the information and knowledge level among the membership in relation to the Rotary Foundation, in particular their awareness level, could be improved. Let me quickly say that this is not unique to our Club. Many clubs in the District are in the same boat. It is therefore opportune that Governor Alexander Mak has scheduled a Foundation Night for 9 August 2004 featuring a keynote speech from a Past RI Director and Past Foundation Trustee Jose Alfredo Pretoni. Last year, the club leadership rescheduled a few club meetings to enable the membership to attend district meetings or intercity meetings. I suggest this would be a good occasion to do so again. I suggest that the club leadership should encourage all members to attend the Foundation Night on 9 August 2004. Mark your diary now. | ||||
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
: Thomas Chan | ||||
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