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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2005-06 Rotary Year : Issue 5 : 1 September 2005 | ||
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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
(Good Morning Class) - By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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Good Morning Class
Is Rotary basically a class phenomenon? Readers might still remember in an earlier issue of Kingspark News, Webmaster John made some pertinent remarks on the future of Rotary in his personal reflections after the RI Chicago Convention in June. It's nevertheless a serious issue waiting to be addressed within the Rotary world. The future of Rotary hinges on two deciding factors. We all know the problem. Women and the youth. Why is it there are so few women Rotarians among us, and why is it that so few youngsters are prepared to join the club? Isn't the transition from Rotaractor to Rotarian a natural phenomenon? Have individual clubs made enough efforts to ensure a more balanced composition in their membership, both in terms of gender and professional backgrounds? It's inconceivable that the world's oldest service organization has chosen not to listen to their voices, and even today, at least in some clubs here in our district, we still see some of our longest serving clubs vowing not to admit women to their establishment as official policy. Over the years this practice whether intentionally or not has cost us dearly. The imbalance in our membership has meant that our policies are not conceived with women in mind, and as such, it would be difficult for us to live up to our words. Rotary business can never be family business unless everyone is involved. And unless there's a change of attitude across the board, Rotary is still a men only club. This year RI has endorsed the motto Service Above Self as our guiding principle. These three little words are no stranger to Rotarians and should become our binding force. It does seem a bit odd that every year in the past we had a different motto. However thought-provoking and meaningful it might be, it simply can't beat the impact of these three little words. Yes finally we've come full circle. As Rotarians, we do have our moments of weakness from time to time. Let Service Above Self be your star, and let it be the RI motto to end all other mottos from now on. While some members lament at the fact that much of our contribution has gone relatively unnoticed, and which explains the current RI emphasis on Rotary's global image, we'd have to put the question to ourselves - was it why we became Rotarians in the first place? Florence Hui asked in our last issue whether Service Above Self is unconditional. Perhaps she's been in a state of confusion, or despair. Of course she knows the answer, like all of us. We are all individuals first and Rotarians second, and we do have different opinions and value systems. But we're after all only human beings with our limitations, and even the most committed Rotarians among us would from time to time put the question to themselves. Perhaps the real Rotarian is a lonely one… As our students roam the streets on their first day back to school, that should give us a timely reminder to look at our future with them in mind. Good morning Class. | ||
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President's
Column
July and August are the peak months for Youth Exchange activities. We have completed our Youth Exchange with the Rotary Club of Pune Downtown of District 3130 of India. The Inbound student, Vinita Jain, from Pune was hosted by my family and we enjoyed hosting her. She brought in lots of joy and experience of a different culture to us and it was a new exposure to my son, Vincent. Our outbound student, Maria Cheng from St. Clare's Girls' School has returned from Pune and she presented her wonderful experience in India in our last luncheon meeting. The exchange was very successful and we have achieved one of the goals of our club as suggested by the District and RI. We have another outbound student, Tiffany Li, from the Belilios Public School and she has also returned from Canberra. She has completed her duties as an ambassador of our club to visit our Twin Club, i.e. the Rotary Club of Canberra Sunrise. She is jointly sponsored by our Club and the Rotary Club of Peninsula South and we are going to hold a joint club meeting on 29th September, 2005 to invite her to be our speaker of the meeting. This year we have accepted to be the host club of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Drew Thorley, from the U.S.A. and PP Raymond Sin has taken up the dutues of being host counselor for the scholar. Drew arrived Hong Kong on 26th August, 2005. PP Peter greeted him at the airport and PP Raymond and I met them in the Sheraton Hotel. Drew came in with his mother and PP Raymond has invited them to our luncheon meeting on 1st September, 2005. Thank you PP Raymond for being host counselor, one of the most important assignments from our Club and District this year. Our Vocational Director, Marvin, introduced the School-Company Partnership program 2005-06 (organized by the Young Entrepreneurs Development Council) to our members and it has met with good response from our members, i.e. Michael Au, Kennedy Tsang, PP Peter and PP Anwer. Marvin is the coordinator of this meaningful program and this shows how Rotarians can help in different vocations. We have preliminarily agreed with our mother club, the Rotary Club of Kowloon East to organize some joint projects jointly. We have proposed 2 projects in Zuunmod, Mongolia which are the Bath House and the English Training Room and I am going to Mongolia from 2nd to 4th September, 2005 to collect more information. Our IPDG Alex will go together with me if he can get his air tickets confirmed. PP Edward, Michael Au and James Huang have shown their interests to join me, but unfortunately the time is not suitable for them and they will visit Mongolia in our next trip. I feel that visiting Zuunmod is something that the mother club should do. | ||
International Understanding Trip By Jerry Lam [Jerry Lam is an Interactor]
After a five-hour flight, we finally reached Hokkaido, destination of the IU Trip this year. It was already dinner time after we settled in the hotel, and we decided to have noodles. We had originally planned to walk around the city after the meal, but we soon found that all the shops would close at about 8pm. Japanese seldom have nightlife. Without any customers, the shops would rather close. Phone-chatting is also restricted in most of the better restaurant, because Japanese think that people need to take a break after a lon working day. Phone-chatting could cause disturbance to other people in the restaurants. On Day 2, we visited a handicaps' sanatorium. It is not only a place for handicaps to live in, but there were also nurses and doctors to look after their daily living. Apart from seeing high-tech machines like bathing machines and special wheel chairs, we also served some of the patients there. In the afternoon, we went to a lavender farm. It was of course very amazing and we took tons of photos there. We also tried the popular lavender ice-cream and bought souvenirs. At night, we ate supper at alpha hotel and had crab sashimi for dinner. Also, the workers invited the customers to make their own desserts. Towards the end of the supper, they taught us to dance. Me and my classmates, Mutant had great fun that night. The next morning, we paid a visit to a local high school. They were holding a carnival to celebrate a famous local festival. At the school, there were many counters and booths selling different kind of snacks. Also, they had game booths and performances, and we enjoyed ourselves very much. We first went to some classrooms learning local culture like making Japanese tea etc. Later, we were invited to sing to the students. We hoped the Japanese enjoyed our singing. At night, the local Rotarians invited all of us to a dinner. Many Japanese Interactors in the high schools also attended. They gave us certificates and the atmosphere of the dinner was so nice. That night, those Japanese Interactors decided to stay in our hotel with us. Although we spoke different languages, after playing and chatting throughout the night, we were no longer strangers to each other anymore. Nevertheless we had to leave the next morning. Many of us cried before getting on the coach and we are sure we would miss them very much. We then went to the Fish Market. We saw a lot of fresh and strange seafood which we have never seen before. After having a set lunch in the fish market, we went to the Otaru Canal. This is one of the most famous tourist spot. We could see many traditional Japanese houses there. While there, we tried some weird-taste ice-cream. Such as Japanese sake, beer, and even cuttlefish! Of course, eating that kind of ice-cream would not do any harm to our body. At night, we did a lot of shopping in different streets including the popular underground street. We could buy a lot of trendy clothing and accessories there. Such as bathing ape, stussy, beams boy etc. After shopping and visiting for a whole day, we visited the JR Tower the next morning. This was a huge shopping mall in Hokkaido. Similar to those in HK, but the things are more expensive than Hong Kong since taxes will be drawn on every product there. After that, we have lunch ourselves and fly back to Hong Kong. In my opinion, this trip was very marvelous. At least, I have tasted and seen many trendy things which I may not have another chance to try again the rest of my life. Moreover, we can really learn and experience foreign culture, for example, making tea and making Japanese desserts. After this trip, we can really exchange with local Interactors there, learning foreign cultures, visiting foreign countries, and lastly, broaden our horizons. Last but not least, we would like to thank Mr. Dominic Ko for his full support on this trip, without him, we will never have this precious chance to visit Japan. Of course, we are grateful for the sincere support of every board member of Rotary Club of Kingspark. Without their approval, we will never have enough resources for this trip. So I would like to thank our mother club sincerely for the tremendous support given to us. I hope that I will be one of the participants of the IU trip two years from now. | ||
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Leadership Revisited
Interestingly enough, that is exactly what world leaders have been doing on a day to day basis, and from year to year. They have either congregated of their own accord or are put together because others think that it would be a good idea for the world that they are together or seen to be together for a while. These forum or fora have continued to multiply and expand and the institutions thus set up become of necessity increasingly complex. But the problems remain, sometimes redefined and often returned more complex and multifarious. Indeed, someone has said that these leaders are out there to create more problems so that they can keep their jobs forever and a day. One must say they are getting increasingly good and professional. Back to Rotary, this is the time of the year and future leaders are being elected, at world level, district level and club level. Later in the month, Evanston would announce the name of the Rotarian destined to lead this one hundred year old organization from July 2007 as our club presidents are being asked to nominate someone from among themselves to lead them from July 2008. Rotary not being a religious organization notwithstanding, the bible contains references that provide guidance for mortals and leaders alike. Take the Gospel according to Matthew, which was read in Catholic churches almost all of last week. For example, on Saturday, we had what is known as the Parable of the Talents which is one of the three parables about the Kingdom that could be relevant for all times. This one was particularly long, but the message was rather simple and straightforward. A master was about to travel. He called three of his servants and entrusted them each with very large sums of money which they were to put to good use, in the ratio of five, two and one. The master returned. The first two told their master that they had doubled what they were given and were duely praised by their master. They third however had kept what he was given in a safe place for fear that he might lose it, and happily returned that to his master, who became very angry and had him banished and punished. You may say that we had a very strange master or Matthew had used too many words to say a very simple thing. Simple indeed, but how true. Each one of us has been given gifts by God. They are not just gifts for us. They are to be used and specifically used to make life better for other people. At the end of the day, the question we would be asked is what difference we had made to other people's lives with what we had been given. Thus, it would not be enough for one to say that he had left the world the same as he found it. Leaders of the world, and Rotary leaders in particular, are to make the world a better place in which to live for our fellow human beings. They can make a difference by commission as well as by omission. In other words, they are equally culpable if they did nothing when they were in a position to do something to make the world a better place for others, compared with those who managed to leave a bigger mess behind than they found. We have been told that one of the four measures of an effective club is its ability to produce leaders beyond the club level. As we are about to elect or select leaders, let us think hard on the fundamental questions on leadership, take stock on what we have done, on we could have done and most importantly, on what we should do now to make a difference. | ||
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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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