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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2005-06 Rotary Year : Issue 9 : 3 November | ||
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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
(Rotary and Poverty) - By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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Rotary and Poverty
Then the wise men met and started talking about the definition of poverty, and whether there's such a thing as absolute poverty in social science. And if poverty does exist, does it exhibit any demographic patterns? What makes people poor - is poverty self-inflicted or is it the result of certain government policies? With academics on the committee, the discussion tends to get slightly metaphysical and so far members seem to be locked up with another set of terminology and has been at pains to establish the poverty line, an official poverty benchmark, and the minimum wage argument. While the argument goes on, poverty in our community is real, and for some families, it's become a matter of survival which is indeed a disgrace to a community renowned for its 'success stories'. It's easy for anyone to dismiss the Commission outright. Demands for it to set guidelines for alleviating poverty, study cases, involve different bureaus and departments to formulate plans to alleviate disparities, promote awareness, etc are not unfamiliar to us Rotarians who have been working with other international bodies with the same mission. And indeed November was designated Rotary in the UN month which should give us more insight into our partnership with the United Nations. And poverty is not, and has never been, new on our agenda. Nor on the UN's. Since its founding, member states have again and again, often with great flourish, declared their commitment to the elimination of global poverty. In its Millennium Declaration, for example, members declared that they would "spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty..."(United Nations 2000) Inevitably similarly commitments were made on various occasions. But the UN has certainly gone beyond mere declaring abstract, rhetorical and aspirational goals. There is now in place a large corpus of international treaties negotiated through the UN which seek to define economic and social human rights. Rotarians know only too well for their experience what poverty could mean to individuals, and hopefully our first PolyU commissioned study on the subject would be enough to give us more direction. Some readers might also be aware that Peter Townsend will be here in Hong Kong sometime next week for his honorary degree. As a leading expert on poverty who's been studying the subject for a few decades, the Professor of International Social Policy in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics has been arguing for stronger links between anti-poverty policies and the fullfilment of human rights. I hope our legislators, the Government's Poverty Commission, and of course Rotarian leaders would find time to talk to Professor Townsend. At a time when we want more people to understand Rotary with our Rotary Open Week which begins on November 5, why not take some time to understand more about the people we want to serve. Footnote - Poverty and Human Rights -with special reference to Children: HKBU public lecture. Speaker Prof Peter Townsend. Nov 9, 3:30pm - 5:30pm Dr and Mrs Hung Hin-shiu Lecture Theatre, G?F, Jockey Club School of Chinese Medicine Bldg, HKBU Road Campus, kowloon Tong Campus. | ||
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President's
Column
Our Club, the Rotary Club of Tolo Harbour and Kowloon West jointly represented our District to participate in the visit to the old aged homes in the Choi Hung Estate which was organized by the Po Leung Kuk on 16th October, 2005. IPP Thomas and his family, PP Peter and his family, PP Edward and his Rotarianne Alice, Joyce, 3 Rotaractors and I participated in the service and our visits were appreciated by the old aged very much. We had a joint meeting for all the 7 clubs in Area 8 on 27th October, 2005 to hold the Rotary Foundation Workshop. PP Kenneth Chow presented the basics of Rotary Foundation in an interactive way and I am sure many Rotarians will agree that no matter how many times you have been to workshops or seminars like this you always find them new to you. In other words we have to get ourselves involved in projects related to the Rotary Foundation and then you will understand it gradually. PDG Raymond Wong gave his presentation on Polio Plus. As he is an expert on this topic I am sure everyone has gained an insight in what Rotary has done on Polio over the world. There are many changes to the schedule of our regular meeting in November, 2005. We have changed our regular meeting in the first week of November to the District Rotary Foundation Seminar on 5th November, 2005 in order to support the seminar as we are one of its host clubs. We will have a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of Tai Po, Happy Valley and Shatin on 14th November, 2005 (Monday) and the luncheon meeting in the third week has to be changed too. We will meet at the Bankers Club in the evening to welcome DGE Carole Tjoa. She is a Chinese and she will be the Governor of District 7210 in New York next year. She was one of the Ambassadorial Scholars sent out by our district in the 60's and she will share with us her strong belief that the Rotary Foundation Scholarship program is not only an investment in young people but also leadership in Rotary. Please do not miss this valuable occasion. In the fourth week we will reschedule our Thursday meeting on 24th November, 2005 to the evening. We have invited the Presidents of our 3 Interact Clubs and some of their Board members to meet us and their fellow Interactors from the other schools. Again, as their sponsoring Rotary Club this is the opportunity for us to get to know them better. I have been the Interact Advisor for many years and I have noted that 2 Interactors from Wah Yan College, HK have become Presidents of 2 Rotaract Clubs in their universities. Kingsparicans, you are developing leaders and training young students through our Interact activities. Please join us to meet our leaders of our future. | ||
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Late again and I am sorry
I have moved out of Baguio Villa again; and for a week - seven days - I was disconnected with the so-called real world through the Internet, probably one of the longest periods in recent years. I re-connected myself a few hours before midnight and began to plough through the over 500 emails in the in-box, including the latest three from the service provider who told me that my inbox had been full and that a number of recent messages had been rejected because there was no more space. Of course, there were the two articles in this issue from our hard working President Dominic Ko and Chief Editor Francis Wann, both havinf arrived on 1 November. Did anyone notice that Kingspark News was late? Were we missed? Was there anyone out there waiting to click in? The house cooling party President Dominic mentioned in his column upfront was meant to be a club function - the Club Service function for October. The date had been changed so that it was sufficiently spaced from the last one held in September to see off a past president. An attendance of five members including the host, plus one spouse, is hardly something to write home about and certainly a far cry from the well attended September party. This would give me food for thought, and add new meaning to the special role and position of a charter president in a club. I am not surprised if some club members do not know or register that I had moved, not out of Baguio, but into it 30 months before. Chief Editor Francis Wann had been talking about an Editorial Board Meeting since early last month. It could not be held because a mutually convenient date could not be found. Again, did any members know or care? But some of us belong to the old school which treasures old values and would bend over backwards to meet deadlines, which was why I laboured myself at this hour to get this Issue to you, for what it is worth. My brother reminded me a few weeks ago that he had tried to get Alexander Mak to write for Kingspark News from the time he was governor-elect. He is now past governor, and we have not been fortunate enough to share his wisdom. Again, did anyone know or care? Was there anyone out there feeling a bit unusual about such level of support for the club bulletin which he had professed to be a vehicle for cementing ties and building fellowship between members? For all who care, I am sorry that this Issue is late, again. | ||
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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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