KINGSPARK NEWS

Club Number: 30119

2007-08 Rotary Year : Issue 23 : 17 June 2008

Contents

Editorial (What Rotary Is Not) - By Francis Wann
President's Column (A WCS Project) - By President Marvin Lai
From the Charter President (Here We Go Again) - By CP John Wan
Letters to Editor
The Board

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EDITORIAL

What Rotary Is Not

As I began to pen this editorial, some strange thoughts were haunting over me.

A question of existence, I'd say. At the risk of being labelled pseudointellectual, I've been looking at the meaning of existence for some time, and indeed it is such a universal subject and whatever you want to discuss, you'd end up arguing the meaning of existence, or existentialism in its various disciplines.

Funny enough, the existence and meaning of Rotary was also called into question. Now every week we'd read about a story of someone else telling us why he's become a Rotarian. Has the Rotary institution become so fragile that we need stories to strengthen our belief, or have we lost faith in our intrinsic human values?

Every now and then our bureaucracy would amaze us with their new initiatives. From class size to benchmark tests to mother tongue policy to finetuning to a possible overhaul, or else the farce over undersecretaries and political assistants, they never seem to understand the fine art of balancing act.

Nobody would expect any extreme opinions from Rotarians. Indeed, on many occasions Rotary work in partnership with governments in order to carry out their projects. CP John often reminds us that Rotary is a service organization and how we should only focus on service, or exploring service opportunities or otherwise we might not be able to sustain our working relationship with individual governments which is vital to our existence.

Well some of us may find it hard to accept a military regime or a corrupt government, but the irony is that these countries often give Rotarians the greatest assistance. Maybe it's small comfort to think that without the work of Rotary, people in those countries would be a lot worse off.

It's true that as a global organization, the meaning of Rotary should be all-encompassing, and that we should learn to tolerate others with different views. But has there been any changes in our focus? Much has been written during our centennial year about our missions in the 21st century. Is the new generation of Rotarians much different from the likes of Paul Harris?

Many senior members would be used to the idea when asked about the role of Rotary. They would say we're not a charity, and we don't just write cheques. Whenever it comes to inductions, CP John would perform the traditional ritual and repeat what he's done over a dozen times. Among other things, he would tell the new member what Rotary is NOT, and while we could make him a member, we could not make him a Rotarian as that's something he has to earn it himself...

John confessed his was not the original verson, but it matters little anyway. Every time I hear it, I'd pause and think, and I'd say many others would pause and think as well.

I seem to ramble from topic to topic, but I couldn't focus on a single issue. Kingsparknews has been fortunate enough to be the most featured club bulletin on our district site. This privilege has been dearly earned, but could be easily lost. We don't know how popular our bulletin is, but since we are strategically placed, at least we can assume we're read more than others, including the DG's newsletter.

This would be the last edition of KingsparkNews under President Marvin's presidentship. I have simply lost count of how many issues KingsparkNews have gone without a President's Column. I may not agree with what he writes represents the club in his official capacity.

So what should a president write? That's a question better left to our President Elect. Should we expect a sense of direction? But whatever she writes, we can look forward to a new era of Kingspark - with a woman president.

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President's Column
By President Marvin Lai

A WCS Project

On Friday (June 6th) and Saturday (June 7th), Kingsparicans started to depart for Taipei for the WCS project that RC of Kingspark Hong Kong has done with the two other sister clubs (RC of Taipei Chung Yuan and RC of Sathorn Bangkok) and for the celebration of 8th Anniversary of Taipei Chung Yuan. The Kingparicans who attended this function in Taipei were PP Dominic, IPP Patrick, PP Edward and Rotarianne Alice, PE Joyce, Dir. Michael Au & family, Rtn Calvin and Rotarianne Virginia, Rtn Fiona, Rtn Herbert and Rotarianne Lamda, and P. Marvin; a total of 14 Kingsparicans and family members.

11 Kingsparicans and family members that left on Friday afternoon were only delayed by the bad weather by about half -and-hour. PE Dannie, PP Leaward, and Rtn Antonio of Taipei Chung Yuan met the Kingsparicans at the airport and escorted all Kingsparicans to Westin Hotel. As Rtn Pearl (Taipei Chung Yuan)'s coral museum and shop is only one block from the hotel, she invited all Kingsparicans to visit her shop before the Welcome Dinner on Friday night. At the Welcome Dinner, all Kingsparicans were joined by eight Rotarians from Sathorn (Bangkok), led by President Kanneegar, who had arrived early that morning and had already been sightseeing the whole day. All had a great time due partly to the free flowing red wine supplied by President Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan and partly to the karaoke signing and dancing led by the very energetic fellowship director Cece of Taipei Chung Yuan.

The Kingsparicans who left on Saturday morning experienced the most dreadful rain fall in Hong Kong in the most recent years; the entire Central area was flooded by 8:00am in that morning when IPP Patrick and P. Marvin were sharing the taxi ride to the airport express; the airport was closed for three hours that resulted four-hour delay for them to arrive in Taipei; despite the four-hour delay, P. Vivian and PP Freezer of Taipei Chung Yuan waited all this time for them in the Taipei airport!

After checking in the hotel around 4:00pm in the afternoon, CP Andy of Taipei Chung Yuan came to the hotel to receive IPP Patrick, PP Dominic, and P. Marvin for the Anniversary Dinner that took place at the Grand Ball Room of Sun-World Hotel. The main theme of the Anniversary Dinner was "African Night" and the entire ball room was decorated with the synthetic "leopard skin", very eye catching. All men were required to dress in suit and were given a "synthetic leopard skinned" handkerchief as a souvenir. Ladies had more freedom to choose their own outfits; some dressed in traditional ethnic African outfits, but some dressed like elegant "leopards". The entire ball room lit up with all these glamorous outfits; truly an eye opener! Group photos were taken and three Presidents of the sister clubs - P. Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan; P. Kanneegar of Sathorn Bangkok, and P. Marvin of Kingspark Hong Kong - made their separate appreciation speeches and the sumptuous dinner was served. The night concluded with each club presenting a performance on stage; Kingsparicans presented a song called "commitment" in honor of the victims of Sichuan earthquake.

At 7:00am, the "morning call" sounded and more than 81 people from six clubs (all partners in service - Taipei Chung Yuan, Sathorn Bangkok, Kingspark Hong Kong, Taipei Chung Sun, Hulien JiAn, and City Northwest Hong Kong) got ready for the journey to Hualien where the WCS water-pipe project is. The train ride from Taipei to Hualien took approximately 2.5 hours. Before reaching the destination, all had the pleasure to sightseeing Taroko National Park, which is famous for its spectacular mountains and marble canyons. All then checked in at the Leader Hotel, which is located in the aboriginal area of Hualien and not far away from SiBao Elementary School where the opening ceremony of the WCS project would take place the next morning. That night all enjoyed the fine cuisine, followed by the camp-fire party and dancing by the aboriginal friends (i.e. the Tairoko tribe).

The following morning all departed the hotel at 8:00am for a brief bus ride to SiBao Elementary School for the opening ceremony. Actually in late December when P. Vivian of Taipei Chung Yuan wrote to P. Marvin of Kingspark Hong Kong about doing a joint water (WCS) project in Hualien to provide water to an elementary school, P. Marvin was somewhat perplexed in that why would an affluent place like Taiwan need assistance in providing water to any elementary school, but not until P. Marvin was there that he realized that the problem is not providing the water, but "delivering" it. You see Hualien situates in a very high altitude and also in the rim of the tallest mountain in Taiwan - Monte Jade, so the water tends to gashing downwards after any rain fall; it is this massive downward force that often bursts the water pipes and resulted in lack of water supply to the villagers; hence, the need is to provide more sturdy water pipes to withstand the pressure and to build intermediate water reservoirs to absorb the water pressure before the water can be safely transported to the villagers and the school.

Due to the high altitude of the site and quite a treacherous journey to reach some of the water reservoirs, only a few Rotarians are allowed to visit the WCS site; P. Marvin, PE Joyce and International Service Director Michael Au had the privilege to represent all Kingsparicans to witness completion of the site. A total of US$27,316 was invested into the project, of which District 3520, District 3350 and Rotary International matched US$4,000, US$3,000, and US$11,000, respectively. All then witnessed the opening ceremony of the water reservoir, followed by lunch at the school and the group photo session with the principal before departing for Taipei airport.

Overall, it is very grateful to have the privilege to participate in such a meaningful project, and P. Marvin is certain most Kingsparicans who joined the trip would agree that the trip has not only brought the three sister clubs closer, but also it is quite gratifying just to think at least some children in Hualien, because of this joint effort, is now able to enjoy clean drinking water from a stable water supply.

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From the Charter President

Here We Go Again

This is the last issue for this Rotary year. We have issued only 23 issues, and if you notice that, I thank you for being a careful and avid reader of Kingspark News.

President-elect Joyce and I discussed how to make the club website more attractive and our bulletin more accessible. Well, there is always room for improvement; and readers may expect some changes from the next issue.

I have been involved in the preparation and production of newsletters for a number of organizations, mainly alumni and the like. The recurrent theme seems to be the same - how to make them more interesting.

The psychology of the readers would indeed be a very interesting field of study and possibly learning. As a start, one would ask who the readers are, where their interests lie, and what makes them tick. In an effort to attract and retain readership, some newsletter editors have resorted to putting forth bold and controversial subjects, while some would invite well known or topical personalities to contribute to their newsletters.

Kingspark News have been rather consistent; and as my brother editor has pointed out for more than once or twice, ours is the most featured club bulletin in the district on the District Website. It would be interesting to conduct a readers survey, but one doubts whether the survey results would have any effect on the contents of our production if the same people continue with what they have been doing.

The ultimate test of the value of a newsletter is to put it on sale in the market. And it doesn't take a genius or an economist to tell us that no one would pay for any bulletin produced by any Rotary club in the world on a voluntary basis. It is interesting that the RI dues which are compulsory for every Rotarian include a sum for purchasing THE ROTARIAN, RI's official monthly magazine. It is an indication of the importance of the publication. If RI had believed in Milton Freidman's free market theory and put the monthly on sale in the market alongside with the weeklies such as TIME, NEWSWEEK or FORTUNE, how many copies do you think RI can sell.

Years ago, there was a plan to produce a District monthly which would feature the Governor's Monthly Letter and other news. The proposal never took off.

So, here we go again. It is the time of the year to review what we have been doing and to find out how we can do things better or in a better way. But when ours have been the most featured biweekly in the district and when most clubs in the district are not giving such matters priority, one would and should ask whether we should continue to do that. My brother editor for example had suggested a Club blog, and with devices such as group email and Facebook and others, there must be a more efficient and possibly effective means to facilitate communication between members, which is the primary and most relevant reason for Kingspark News in the first place. Would anyone miss Kingspark News if we stop producing them?

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Letters to Editor

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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The Board

President : Marvin Lai
President-Elect and Membership: Joyce Mak
Vice-President and Public Relations: Michael Eyles
Secretary : Kennedy Tsang
Treasurer : Ted Ho
Rotary Foundation : Patrick Wong
Club Administration : Edward Lau
Service Projects : Peter Lo
Sergeant-at-Arms : Alexander Kar

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