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KINGSPARK NEWS Club Number: 30119 2006-07 Rotary Year : Issue 10 : 15 November | ||
| 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
(The
Game of Politics) - By Francis Wann | ||
| District Website | RI Website | RI President | TRF | News Room | Global History Fellowship | ||
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The Game of Politics A year ago, nobody would have thought about it. Two weeks ago, people were still skeptical about it. So much has happened in the past two weeks and even the major stakeholders of world politics are getting baffled. Last week Margaret Chan, the former director of health, became the first Chinese official to enter the world stage, taking charge of the World Health Organization (WHO). Alan Leong of the Civic Party officially declared his intention to be a contender in the chief executive election. What both incidents have in common is the presence of China's influence backstage in a rather substantial manner. When you look at the kind of official support at national level for Margaret Chan, and compare it to other candidates, you'd probably realize why the votes went to her. Once it's started, the Chinese official propaganda machine is almost unstoppable. It was a different story for Alan Leong who has been a thorn in the eyes of Beijing. There have been rumours that the Central Government is seriously considering letting him enter the contest - by not putting in extra hurdles for Leong to get a hundred signatures from members of the election committee. The situation has since become more dramatic as I suppose even those go-betweens may not be able to read the minds of the Beijing Government, and it's all reflected in the media. Such is the tragic nature of politics that sometimes - and indeed at all times - people will consider the consequences first, the price to pay for "upsetting Beijing". Nobody knows what's on Alan Leong's mind, but as a barrister by profession, he must have examined the risks involved. While his chance of toppling the incumbent is almost nil, he can be guaranteed maximum media publicity, apart from making enough noise in the process. It would be the biggest political roadshow ever staged here in Hong Kong, and even a minor incident of political incorrectness would have rendered it a political farce. Whatever the results, he'd definitely emerge as the real winner. Let's hope both of them live up to our expectations. While Rotary is not a political organization, Rotarians have never been detached from politics. Some members might also remember the Rotary United Nations Day some two weeks ago on November 4. It was a timely reminder for all Rotarians that we can help shape the world in many ways. Rotarians all share one common belief, ie service above self, but apart from it, we are all individuals with our own priorities. This year the theme of the Rotary UN Day came with a good dose of humour - Unfinished Business of Rotary. I mentioned in my last editorial that for teachers, work is never done. Perhaps for Rotarians, work is never enough. | ||
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President's
Column I have been falling behind seriously writing in this column, and was not able to report timely to my members what has been going on with some of the club activities lately. Hope members would bear with me with their usual admirable level of understanding and tolerance. Firstly, I would like to briefly report on the Mock Court organized by our Club under the District's "Rotary-School Partnership Adopt-A-School Program". The event and the related activities have been verbally reported during regular lunch meetings. As you all should know by now, our Club adopted Hotung Secondary School as our partner under the scheme launched by the District 3450 and the Education and Manpower Bureau ("EMB"). The event was already reported in the press coverage with Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Pao, Sing Tao Daily News, Ming Pao, HK Economic Times, and SCMP. On October 2 National day, while it was a holiday for schools, business and magistrate courts, Magistrate Judge Adriana Tse presided at the trials held at the Police Officer Training School at Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen. There were two trials: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There were 4 teams of students from Hotung Secondary acting as legal counsels. Each team was comprised of 3 teenage legal beagles. Two teams represented their defendants and two teams represented the prosecution to argue their cases. At the end of the day, the defendants in both cases were found guilty as charged. It was nevertheless a happy and successful ending to the Mock Court. We were all proud to see that the project took a mere 3 weeks of careful planning and organizing to complete. The whole project, spread out in different days, comprised an introductory tour specially organized for the students to the Kowloon City Police Station. It was followed by one weekend of more than 10 hours of intensive tutoring, training and instructions by Barristers-at-law and Senior Counsels, and finally cumulating to the climax of sentencing by the judge. The trial judge summarized the performance of the students as follows: "The students' performance was very impressive. They acted as if they were lawyers who have just started their careers." Those members who sat through the trials - PDG Alexander, PP Edward, PP Raymond, PP Thomas, IPP Dominic, Michael and Francis, would agree with me that the students had acted like professionals, some with more confidence, and some with less. This was quite an accomplishment considering that the girls have to learn such a great deal over a short period of time. Our story and romance with Hotung Secondary did not stop there. Exactly a month later, several members of our club attended their School Assembly. In the presence of PDG Anthony, PDG John, and PDG Alexander and other members, and by invitation, we offered to Principal Wendy Ho, teachers and about 200 students to help them to incept an Interact Club. More details on the progress should unfold in the next few months. The Board has discussed the feasibility to sponsor a new Interact club for several years. We were not able to and dared not undertake this challenge without the full commitment and support of our members. This time, with the assistance of Dominic, I am quite confident that Kingspark is ready to "Lend a Hand" and sponsor a new and the fourth Interact Club in 2007. The previous Saturday on November 4, our Club entered into another phase with the engagement in vocational talk under the School-Company Partnership ("SCP") program. Whether driven by fate or by chance, our partner under the program is none other than Hotung Secondary School. This is the second consecutive year Kingspark is participating in the partnership program. In the 2005 SCP program, captained by VP Marvin, our Club joined with Valtorta College HK and was recognized with the "Best Performance School-Company Partnership Award", and the "High Achievement Company Ambassador Team". The awards were presented by the Youth Entrepreneurs Development Council of Hong Kong ("YDC"). This year, 8 members: PP Peter, PP Thomas, PP Ted, Kennedy, Joyce, Elsa, Feroz, and Calvin are volunteering five alternate Saturdays to more than 30 senior students of Hotung Secondary. They will each share experiences and success stories on entrepreneurship, and will coach the students on career. I wish to thank PP Peter for agreeing to captain our members on the road to another "Service Above Self" vocational project. We have decided that the YDC vocational talks to be held in the coming weekends will replace our annual large-scale vocational seminar project. In the past 6 consecutive years, Kingspark has sponsored and undertaken such a project to reach an accumulated audience of over 3,000 secondary school students. We were proud of the achievements and the positive responses received from the school community. However, we have to make this decision after assessing the manpower situation, and the load of future project commitments. I wish to stop writing here, but not yet. Our chief editor has persistently asked me openly and critically to write the column regularly. I thank him for his patience. I do not find the writing easy. It took me long time to organize, write, edit again and again before I was able to finish a piece in quality acceptable to myself, but which may not be acceptable to others. I started this piece as soon as the Mock Court was over, but it took me one month to finish writing. Few members have mentioned that they may not like reading long articles. I will consider breaking mine into shorter pieces. Lastly, I also like to comment on a report by SCMP a month ago. It was on the subject of "Adopt-a-School" program. I was alarmed to read that the chief editor was quoted saying: "Rotarians would like to get involved in the school management and engaged in high level meetings with EMB". I wish that the words were the opinion as an individual not representing Kingspark. I wish that they were the personal ambition of a teaching professional, or a parent speaking for the selfish interests of sons and daughters, and not speaking for the Club. Some senior members of the Club expressed deep concerns and that they were disturbed by this reporting. I believe that this is a serious matter that needs to be rectified. This is not a matter of perception. Let me state clearly: Rotary is not a political organization. These words have been sworn a hundred thousand times in many occasions. I would not support and endorse any projects or partnerships that could get Rotarians involved in school management or could engage members in high-level meetings with the EMB. EMB is a government body. Involvement by Kingsparicans in a different capacity is another matter. I believe that getting our members involved in such sensitive activities is dangerously and politically incorrect. I do not pretend that I also understand the role of school management. It is quite probable that the people in the management could involve in sensitive school policy and political issues. Our Club has no business in managing school. I would rather steer the Club away from involving in such areas, and avoid getting entangled in unforeseen complications that we may not understand. I think I have fairly represented the minds of the majority of Kingsparicans on this touchy issue. Wish it were just a misquotation after all. | ||
Adopt
A School [PP Dominic Ko's Report on this programme was compiled in mid October - Ed.] The "Adopt a School" Program (formerly known as the Rotary School Partnership Program) was formally launched at a signing ceremony in the Central Library on 4th October, 2006 by Professor Arthur Li, Secretary for Education and Manpower and our District Governor Tony Wong. 10 Rotary Clubs and 9 schools have formed partnerships and through this close relationship the students can extend their learning beyond the classroom. Under the matching scheme, our Club and Ho Tung Secondary School have entered into this partnership agreement. PDG Alexander Mak, Francis Wann, Michael Au and I have been working on the program since its inception in March this year with meetings and reciprocal visits between us and the school. Principal Wendy Ho is very open mined and the teachers are very dedicated. We are a perfect match and we hope the partnership agreement will make a long term commitment for us. Personally I like the Chinese name, rather than "Adopt a School". We have kicked off our first encounter with the school by inviting the Ho Tung students to our Kingspark Camp in July this year. We have received excellent comments from the students on the camp, particularly the "Get the Edge" training organized by Stephen Tsai. To kick off the Adopt a School Program we decided to organize the Model Court in September 2006 and the Leadership training workshop during the Orientation Camp of the school on 28th September, 2006 for the students to cope with school motto "Justice and Peace". During the first week of September PDG Alexander gathered some dedicated Rotarians of our District including PDG Anthony Hung of RC of Tai Po (Solicitor), IPP Alex Leung of RC of Peninsula Sunrise (Police Commander), PP Francis Lo of RC of Kwai Chung (Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions), PE Arthur Luk of RC of Happy Valley (Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions) and Steve Chui (Barrister) to consider the feasibility of organizing a program for students to walk through a case from the police handling to the court trial. Without any hesitation they all agreed with hands on participation to organize the training for the students. The Vocational Service Director and the training expert of our Club, PP Stephen Tsai, also agreed to organize the leadership training workshop with the theme of "Leadership is a choice, Not a position" for the students in the Orientation Camp held at YMCA Junk Bay. It was a small miracle that we could get the legal eagles and the training professionals in Hong Kong within such a short period to hold such a meaningful project together. Principal Wendy Ho and the teachers of the school were amazed by what Rotarians can do. I think this is the first Model Court organized for secondary students in Hong Kong and this is a good example of the Rotary resources Lead the Way to service the community. We must thank the above Rotarians and Rotary Clubs who have contributed to make this project successful. For publicity purpose, the EMB wants to extend the program to other schools and has chosen our Club and Ho Tung as a model for dissemination, and RTHK is to produce a TV documentary to publicize it.. The Model Court project is divided into 3 sessions - (1) Police Briefing - 32 students visited the Kowloon City Police Station on 16th September, 2006 to see exclusive places like the reporting room, weapon room, statement room, police cars, police equipments, etc. They were shown how suspects are handled, temporarily jailed; and how statements were taken. They have seen policemen with very high spirit sharing their experience with them. It was really an eye opener for the students, the teachers and also our Rotarians. We will not realize how professional the Police Force is until we have visited the police station. After the visit the students were given 2 cases for them to work on, namely the possession of dangerous drugs case and theft from vehicle case. They were asked to study the case file and digest them before the next training session. (2) Training Session - A whole day training session was organized in Ho Tung Secondary School on 23rd September, 2006 and 60 Form 6 students attended. The students were divided into 4 teams with 2 teams studying 1 case, i.e. the defence team and the prosecution team. Each team was headed by 1 teacher. PDG Anthony Hung paired with Steve Chui and PP Francis Lo paired with PE Arthur Luk to give a crash course to the students on defence and prosecution respectively. They were introduced with the judicial system, court procedures, rule of evidence, etc. and the training was designed to let them think critically and analyze the case from different angles. The students were so eager to learn that they requested for an additional training session and our trainers were so kind that they organized an additional session for the girls during their Orientation Camp. (3) Mock Trial - The 2 cases were brought to court for trial on 2nd October, 2006 in the Mock Court of the Hong Kong Police College in Aberdeen, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Magistrate Mrs. Adriana Tse was invited to be the judge of the mock trial and the lawyers and barristers were around to help the students. Several policeman, an immigration officer and Rotarians played the parts as witnesses. Students played as prosecutors, defence lawyers and defendants and they did so good that the judge said, "Some of them are better than the law students." Within only 1 month the students have experienced the Model Court and attended the professional leadership training workshop organized by Stephen Tsai. They also have their brains and profiles analyzed by the new technology Emergenetics which are introduced by Stephen and I am sure that they must have got some changes after this month. They must have built their own visions and missions and will try to achieve them in the next 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc… It is a real good start for the students, the teachers and our members in the Adopt a School Program and we should be happy about it. Many of our members have attended the Model Court, the signing ceremony and the Leadership training workshop and I am sure the program has been fully supported by our members. Our Club will continue to lead the way for youth developments in the District. Many newspapers reported the signing ceremony, particularly the Model Court and I am sure it has created a lot of publicity of how Rotary is helping the new generation in Hong Kong. After the launching ceremony, the students and teachers of Ho Tung were approached by the Principals and teachers of other schools congratulating and asking them how they could repeat the Mock Court in their own schools. I am sure that it is a good educational program for secondary schools in Hong Kong and it can be further developed in the future. The RTHK documentary (was) broadcast on TVB Jade on 22nd October, 2006 (Sunday) at 12:50 p.m. | ||
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From
the Webmaster
I had actually announced my itinerary before and I was hoping that members of the club would be interested in the visit. Alas, I did not even get an enquiry. Am I upset? Was I disappointed? No for both. Why should I be? We were in a contingent of a dozen, headed by the District Governor. Members included the next DG, three other past governors, five past presidents and a two-men film crew. We had a good time and we achieved all our objectives. Next week, the RI President would be briefed of the project, among other things, during his whirlwind visit. We were in Anqing to witness the first phase of a city-wide Hepatitis B vaccination for all children in Primary Five, made possible through the support of the Ministry of Health and the authorities and financed by a Major Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation. There are more work to be done in the following year; and we are making notes as we go, trying to pick up any lessons we can learn. Anqing is poor, economically. We saw evidence in some of the children lined up for vaccination. We saw evidence from where these children would be quartered and we were face to face with poverty. But these people and the community are not taking things sitting down. They are trying their best to make a difference. They have exhibited strong fighting spirits and are keen to move on. The government officials we met are professional as well as entrepreneurial. They wasted no time to show their visitors what the city could offer; and they are proud of what little they have. These are my first line thoughts. They are many others. I wish you were there. | ||
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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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Editor : Francis Wann The Board of Directors President
: Patrick Wong | ||
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