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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2005-06 Rotary Year : Issue 4 : 15 August 2005 | ||
| This
is the biweekly bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kingspark Hong Kong Club Website: http://www.rotary3450.org/kingspark-hongkong | ||
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| Chief
Editor : Francis Wann Club Webmaster : John Wan | ||
| Editorial
(Too Simple, Sometimes Naive) - By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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Too Simple, Sometimes Naive
Nobody would dispute that indeed. Why should they? The last stage of A Level admissions has just ended today with only a few S6 places remaining, most of them in undesirable areas. And for those who are still homeless, there are of course alternate routes to their future. The past few days have seen officials defending its mother-tongue teaching policy, riding on the back of an increase of 5.6 percentage points from students of Chinese-medium schools with passes in five or more subjects. It was the third batch of students taking the cert exams since the implementation of mother-tongue education policy in 1998, resulting in a bitter fight between the Government and schools - and a scramble for EMI school places. The Government says the results vindicated the controversial language policy, and it certainly has its allies. CK Lau and Alex Lo of South China Morning Post has written on various occasions about the positive nature of it, and as a leading English newspaper, their views would probably be taken seriously. But last month the same newspaper also reported in a seminar that many students entering university with "woefully inadequate" English and vocabulary. Yes we now have more people in the community understanding more English than ten or twenty years ago, and Deputy Education Secretary Chris Wardlaw claimed in the same seminar that although our English standards were not improving significantly, things were not getting worse. But however the officials manipulate the statistics, the community at large knows clearly what's best for our students. You only have to look at those schools which are battling to maintain their English medium status; those which become international schools and are under DSS; and many which defy official instructions to teach in Chinese. Michael Tien has repeatedly reassured us the benefits of mother-tongue teaching, but has yet to convince the diehards whose vision of education begins with the English medium. He would have to prove to them that students in CMIs would receive an education the same as those in EMIs, if not better, and he knows only too well his arguments are on shaky grounds. Perhaps Mr Tien and our government officials should take a moment to reflect and recall the days when they were still struggling with their English at school. Their teachers would be amused today at the avalanche of arguments on policies and on education reform. In those days teachers taught what they wanted, and in whatever language they like. Nobody questioned. We're not here to argue the language policy, but we are concerned about a level playing field in education. There are already too many compromises in our reform. The 15 percent English proficiency requirement laid down as a benchmark for EMI schools might be eased for some of the more vocal stakeholders. And we are all back to square one. And when it comes to education, nothing speaks louder than fairness. | ||
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President's
Column
Within 5 days in August, our members gave birth to 2 babies. Stephen Lin and Huey Jin have their third child, Kayla, born on 1st August, 2005 weighing 3.25 kg. James and Deborah have their first baby, Jamison, born on 6th August, 2005 weighing 4.25 kg. The exciting news has invited numerous emails sharing the joys and happiness among our members. Both Stephen and VP Patrick have 3 children and they are chasing after Ted who has 4. We have been calling our club the most productive club in our district and we should get an award from the district. PP Edward is coordinating with the parents to organize a celebration dinner for the new born babies. PP Tom Hui is moving to Shanghai for his new assignment. He will spend most of his time in Shanghai and certainly we will miss him for sometime. PP Edward has organized a happy hour and fellowship dinner on 7th September for Tom and Mildred before they leave in the middle of September and the venue will be confirmed later. Our CP John has donated US$1,000 to the Rotary Foundation after 1st July, 2005. Thank you CP John for your generosity, it will be contributed to the Annual Program Fund and add towards the goal of our club this year. However, we are also trying to achieve the goal of every Rotarian donating US$100 every year and I am asking all our members to donate the US$100 before 31st October, 2005 because we will be one of the host clubs for the District Rotary Foundation Seminar on 5th Novermber, 2005 (Saturday). We should set an example for our District and should support the Rotary Foundation, particularly when CP John is the District Rotary Foundation Chairman. The Seminar will start at 10:30a.m. with a keynote address from the Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator PDG Dens Shao from Taiwan. There will be lunch and the Seminar will finish by 4:00p.m. Details will be announced later and I am inviting all our members to help or attend the seminar to make it a very successful one. We submitted an application for Matching Grant of US$1,500 before 30th June, 2005 for a project for building a water pump to deliver water to the hilly areas of Zuunmod in Mongolia. It is a joint project between our club, our sponsored Rotary Club of Zuunmod and our twin club, the Rotary Club of Canberra Sunrise. However, it was turned down by the Matching Grant department of RI because the Foundation decided in April 2005 that with effect from 1st July, 2005 RI will not process Matching Grant applications of less than US$5,000. We were confused that RI would process applications submitted before 30th June, 2005 but in fact RI would only process applications which were submitted before 31st March, 2005 and finished before 31st October, 2005. In order to complete our water project the Board of Directors have decided to apply for the District Simplified Grant together with the Rotary Club of Zuunmod and ask the Rotary Club of Canberra Sunrise to share our contribution. We hope that we can work out this way. The Model United Nations assembly held at the Chinese University from 4th to 7th August, 2005 has been completed. We have organized the assembly for the 4th year. Thanks to our IPDG Alex Mak who initiated this project 4 years ago. This year we are co-organizing the project with the Centre of University and School Partnership of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Centre is studying whether the Model UN is appropriate to be part of the curriculum of the secondary schools in Hong Kong. It was IPDG Alex's dream 4 years ago and now it has come true. I really appreciate his long term foresight. The District Interact Bazaar was held at the China Hong Kong City on 14th August, 2005. I was there and I have never missed any of the bazaars since the first one I attended 7 years ago. It is one of the major events of the Interactors and it gives them a chance to work together before the beginning of the school year. It also gives them a chance to identify and develop new committee members for the next school year. Our sponsored Interact Club of the SKH St. Benedict's School operated a booth in the bazaar and I enjoyed myself with the games there. | ||
By PP Edward Lau We all know that Kingspark Hong Kong is known to be productive but Rtn. Stephen and Rtn. James broke a record early this month by having babies within 5 days, a girl followed by a boy - which makes a "good". Congratulations to Stephen and Huey Jin and James and Deborah. This should be good omen for our membership development! For the record, on 1 August Huey Jin gave birth to their third child, a long awaited daughter. Kayla weights in at 3.2kg. On 6 August, Deborah followed suit with Jamie, their first child, who must have caused some pain to his mother as he weighs in at 4.24kg! | ||
By PP Edward Lau [Edward is Polio Plus Sub-Committee Chair of the District Rotary Foundation Committee]
RI has indicated that Rotary will do whatever it takes to eradicate polio. In addition to contributions of over US$600 million by the time polio is eradicated, which will be more than the contribution of any organization other than the US Government, Rotary's even greater contribution and achievement has been the ability to mobilize the huge army of volunteers of Rotarians and non-Rotarians at the local level to provide support at clinics or mobilizing their communities for immunization or polio eradication activities. This is not only Rotary's most significant project but also the largest health program in the history of mankind. Over one million Rotarians have contributed, both as hands on volunteers and through their pocket and cheque books, to the eradication of polio and we can be proud of our achievement to date. Much work remains to be done - to stop the spreading of the polio virus, to contain it and ultimately to eradicate it. The best way to be involved and see for yourself Rotary in action is to participate in a National Immunization Day (NID) where literally tens of thousands of Rotarians and non Rotarian volunteers do their best to immunize all children under 5 years old in a country on a single day. This is a huge huge task as the polio vaccine has to be kept cold and making sure every child under 5 years old in every city, town and all the remote villages gets vaccinated is not an easy task. Inspired by this year's RI theme of SERVICE ABOVE SELF, DG Peter has decided to promote NIDs and invite fellow Rotarians from District 3450 to participate in NIDs. The two Asian countries most familiar to us with NIDs are Indonesia and India. Indonesia became affected last year after eradicating the virus in 1995, most likely due to returning migrant workers or pilgrims returning from Mecca. Over two hundred cases have been reported so far and RI has just announced an emergency grant of US$250,000 to WHO to fund polio immunization activities in Indonesia. Indonesia is no stranger to our District as we had raised funds early this year for tsunami victims and IPDG Alex visited Indonesia in January for a first hand account of the damage. Two NIDs are planned for this year: 30 August and 27 September and our District has been invited to participate in both NIDs in Jakarta. Chairman of the District Rotary Foundation Committee PDG John Wan will go to the 30 August NID and any Rotarian interested in either of the NIDs should contact PDG John Wan directly. Polio is endemic to India and NIDs have been organized for more than 10 years. The number of new cases has declined steadily and so far this year only 25 new cases have been reported. A number of NIDs are planned for the second half of this year. While our District has been invited to attend the NIDs, we are planning to go to Agra for the 20 November NID. Deputy Chairman of the District Rotary Foundation Committee PP Kenneth Chow and PolioPlus Sub-Com Chairman PP Edward Lau plan to go to this NID and any Rotarian interested to go to this NID should contact either PP Kenneth Chow or PP Edward Lau. Fellow Kinsparicans, this is a wonderful opportunity to participate in the most important Rotary project, and you can truly experience Rotary in action. Depending on your availability, you can choose one of the 3 dates and each trip should take no more than 4-5 days including travel. Your major expense will most likely be your travel expense, the gifts for the children plus any additional donations/contributions you would like to make. Accommodation in Agra will most likely be taken care of by host families and we are still waiting for feedback from Indonesia on this point. You should also know that Indian Rotarians are very experienced in organizing overseas Rotarians for NIDs and they do an excellent job in taking care of us. Please let us know your interest as soon as possible so the host clubs in Indonesia and India can make necessary arrangements. Please remember that many Rotarians from all over the world are going to these NIDs and we need to respond soonest. Come and join us and be a part of the greatest Rotary mission - Polio Eradication! | ||
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Is
"Service Above Self" Unconditional? [Florence was inducted in RC of Macau in July 2005 - Ed]
Recently my belief has been kept being challenged - (1) A Rotaractor told me that a member of a Rotary Club in their District Rotaract Committee said it was a "must" for them to win another international award this year, further to the success of the last District project. (2) Another Rotaractor was frustrated in organising an international event. Members of the organising committee did everything on conditions. Political parties are involved to promote this event as a good opportunity to upgrade the political status of their beloved country around the globe. (3) An expatriate Rotarian was asked two questions by almost everyone he met at a district function in Hong Kong: "What do you do?" and "Where do you live?" He replied by asking "How about you?" One of them grinned and said "I live in Mid-Levels." This expatriate Rotarian asked us during a general meeting "I've lived in Macau for 10 years. People here have no interest to know these. Why are those in Hong Kong so keen to know the answers?" Based on my common sense: Rotarians/Rotaractors are those who have something to say whereas members of Rotary/Rotaract Clubs are those who just want to say something. According to Albert Einstein, "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." What if it is a black sheep? For Deng Xiao Peng, "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." Let us say we all want to catch the same mouse. Some of us believe we can catch it together while others strive to be the first to catch it. Result-oriented catchers begin to fight with each other. In the end, we don't even know where the mouse is. Worse, we forget what a mouse looks like. "True love, friendship and Service is unconditional" said my inner-child. We don't need another SARS outbreak to learn what is unconditional, do we? | ||
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Greatness
President-elect Bill, as he would like others call him, appears to be a quiet person, soft spoken, courteous, easy of address and firm in principle, and in every angle a gentleman and a man for all seasons. Like his predecessors speaking at this time of the year, he made it quite plain that he would not discuss the theme for his year or the colour of the jacket, but unlike some of his predecessors, he made what I feel would be perhaps the single most important plain and bold statement about Rotary and its future. Bill began by saying that between his predecessors, many fine and sound Rotary programs have been running and many people would continue to benefit from these programs. He thus saw no reasons to re-invent the wheel. Many of the initiatives, in particular clean water, literacy, health care, Rotary family and so on, simply must continue. He would like to see the polio virus being eradicated and was quietly confident that we were on the right track. He would like the Rotary membership to continue to expand so that more hands would be available for the many service projects that the world was increasingly looking to us to deliver. Then he spoke the magic words, "I would like Rotary to be great." He went on to say that greatest would not depend on numbers, the number of Rotarians or the number of clubs, or for that matter, the number of projects embarked upon or completed. Greatness comes from the people in the organization, what they beleive in, how they interpret the ideals of the founders of the organization, in particular, the ideals of service. Greatness will make an organization last for as long as there are people and will make it relevant. Has Rotary achieved greatness? Can we achieve such greatness? Are we prepared for the work and sacrifices called upon us to make Rotary great? These are just some of the initial questions that we can begin to ponder on, and I have no ready answers for now. Bill ended his presentation on an optimistic note that he hoped more and younger members would join our organization once they perceive such greatness in Rotary, to a rousing audience and a spontaneous standing ovation. | ||
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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. | ||
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Chief
Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Dominic Ko | ||
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