KINGSPARK NEWS

Club Number: 30119

2008-09 Rotary Year : Issue 5 : 30 September 2008

Contents

President's Column (The Journey Begins ....) - By President Joyce Mak
From the Editor (The Money Game)
From the Editor (The Herd Instinct) - By CP John Wan
Letters to Editor

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President's Column

By President Joyce Mak

The Journey Begins ....

September is not only the 'new generations' month but also the 'district seminars' month. There were a total of 3 seminars have been organized by the district for 3 consecutive Saturdays: District Membership Seminar on 13 September, Foundation Seminar on 20 September and District PR Workshop on 27 September. Great attendance at the membership seminar! President Alfred Poon from Kowloon West and myself had the privilege to present on behalf of Area 8 regarding District and RI resources we could utilize in helping clubs on membership development and retention. It was indeed a good exercise for us to realize that there are currently so much information both at the district and RI level but the most effective ways to introduce Rotary to new members are by bringing them to attend club luncheons, fellowship activities, district functions and also to participate in different community service projects. The District realized the importance of providing easy access on membership development information and therefore created a website (http://sites.google.com/site/3450mdc/) for members to retrieve information which contains a good collection of useful presentations and helpful manuals.

Another good turn up was the District Rotary Foundation Seminar and it was successfully held on 20 September. We had the pleasure of having a couple of distinguished speakers to share with us the program operations, projects currently working on and some special programs (e.g. Peace and Conflict Studies Program) being funded by Rotary Foundation. Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator, Jason Hsu also shared with us Foundation's future vision plan. To me, the highlight of the seminar was having the pleasure to meet with our Rotary World Peace Fellow again, Ms. Miho Kishitani. Not only she is pretty, but also a very devoted humanitarian worker who is willing to give up her time and safety, staying in Iraq since November 2000. She is now working for a NGO called Peace Winds Japan. She manages and coordinates reconstruction programs in Iraq focusing on education, social care, health, water and sanitation. Again, everyone was moved by her testimony that afternoon and overwhelmed by her courageous devotion to peace.

Let's turn to something more fun! Our first phase of our Rotary Bring Me A Book Project has finally kicked off - Musical Story Book Charity Concert was a smashing event for both parents and children! With the help of our co-organizers, Peegaboo and SAR Philharmonic Orchestra, the concert was duly completed by an overwhelming response. Three young performers were outstanding and they played violin, piano and cello respectively. Followed by 'Peter and the Wolf' the featuring theme for the concert was being performed by a narrator and the orchestra. Parents and children would need their imagination and creativeness to follow the narrator's description and at the same time to enjoy the sound of each instrument which represents each character in the story. Children found the most exciting part was to have the chance going up on stage to learn how to be a conductor. They were all very cute and not afraid to perform in front of the audience! Thanks again to all different organizers in putting this wonderful concert together and all the sponsors who supported the work of Bring Me A Book HK and we all endeavor to participate in future events for the project.

Last Thursday luncheon, PP Thomas invited Mr. Peter Schindler as our guest speaker. Reviewing briefly Peter's profile, he was once a race-car driver and became an IT consultant. This came to my mind the word "contradiction", since I do find car racing is something exciting and exotic, but "IT" - information technology does sometimes represent "boring" to me. He presented himself as a smart, funny and creative individual. He is a holding a Swiss passport and has been resided in Hong Kong for more than 10 years.

When he was a lot younger, he raced cars in Europe- Formula 2, Formula 3 for four years, he then entered the 'dark years' of his life as he mentioned which he became an associate partner in Accenture. His passion for driving has never left him and most recently, between May and Aug 2007, a dream came true for Peter. He took off on a 100-day road trip through China, not in a Land Rove or a Porsche Cayenne, but in the granddaughter of a 1950s Lotus. Peter's journey was to drive along 2 China's great rivers - the Yangtze and the Yellow River - from the natural splendor of the Tibetan Highlands, from the terraced rice fields of Longsheng to the plains of Inner Mongolia. He vividly described his exciting 21,000km journey with great passion. Moreover, in Nov 2008, he will be organizing a driving adventure tour into Sichuan to explore the beautiful scenery and at the same time see firsthand devastation of the earthquake as well as make a contribution to those most affected by it. At the end of the luncheon, I realized I have a new dream ¡K once in a lifetime to have the opportunity to follow Peter for such a mystical driving adventure into China. Unfortunately, I still think this is something too luxurious to me at the moment, but I know as long as I have the courage to dream and with my perseverance, it would not be difficult to make dreams real! Let's keep it up! Wish Peter and the crew all the best in their next journey.

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From the Editor

The Money Game

I just received a friendly letter yesterday [15 September 2008] which referred me as a "high net worth" individual, and that I was one of the selected few they've approached for an investment opportunity...

It wasn't too long ago when you saw virtually everyone was into equities - or seriously considering investing in equities. They talked about it at work, over lunch, and at parties, and suddenly they all knew something about PE ratios and yields. They would even discuss company reports and dividends and map out strategies. University students made millions with their grant and loans, and literally anyone with a bit of savings would want to have a piece of cake - and eat it.

We all believed money did grow on trees, and our financial advisors had been reinforcing that sentiment that we shouldn't miss out on such a golden opportunity. Ask your broker when is the best time to enter the market and they probably would say now is the time to buy. When the market is bullish, you don't want to catch the bandwagon, and when the market goes down, it gives you precisely the reason to buy. And they'd say, buy when everyone's selling.

Well, the money game sounds simple in principle, but complicated in practice.

What we, or most of us, don't quite understand is the actual role of all our financial regulators, considering the kind of respect they receive from the average man in the street. We are all made to believe that these people know a lot more about money than we do. Then gradually we realise what their trump card is - the interest rate. They'd raise or lower the interest rate to boost economy, to help employment, or to reduce production costs. And we have to believe every time after lengthy deliberations, they'd make the best decisions on our behalf.

We never seem to doubt their integrity. Their names appear to be synomous with money, and they seem to have the right to print it. They must be as respectable as our local HSBC when you realise how much business was at stake.

It doesn't seem long ago when we first heard about the term subprime rate, and we all thought it was their business. Then we heard about the credit crunch at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and later the rescue measures from the Federal Reserve, and we thought the worst was over.

Then we heard about Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and possibly a string of household names. Last night the Dow Jones shed more than 4 % and across the Atlantic the response was almost immediate. Overnight we saw billions of money being wiped out in the global markets.

We can only assume that the financial regulators have all been asleep over the years to have allow such a financial turmoil to happen. It'd be miles to go before financial credibility and confidence is restored. The experts are still saying you haven't seen the worst yet, and we should embrace for more had hair days.

Today I suppose you don't see a lot of people gathering in the banks and brokerages placing buy orders. It should also give us a breathing gap to really think about the concept of money.

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From the Charter President

The Herd Instinct

My Brother Editor strikes again. In case you don't know, he actually sent me an email telling me that our celebrated biweekly was late. I wonder whoelse noticed that.

I began my journey to Xinjiang on 15 September 2008. An hour before I left home, there was nothing on my computer with which I could work to produce an issue of Kingspark News. I returned on Sunday. I had actually typed "I returned to civilization .... " the first time round, but realized immediately how blatantly untrue that would have been, even though I fully relaize that none would dispute a statement that Hong Kong means civilization compared with Xinjiang. I would come back to this later.

That is what the herd instinct is all about; and that I think underlines what my brother editor has tried to address in his article. The theory behind the herd instinct is that everyone perceives a need to behave in the same way as everyone else. Wikipedia defines Herd behaviour as follows: It describes how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction. The term pertains to the behaviour of animals in herds, flocks, and schools, and to human conduct during activities such as stock market bubbles and crashes, street demonstrations, sporting events, episodes of mob violence and even everyday decision making, judgement and opinion forming.

Sociological research has identified herd behavior in humans to explain the phenomena of large numbers of people acting in the same way at the same time. The British surgeon Wilfred Trotter popularized the "herd behavior" phrase in his book, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1914). In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen explained economic behavior in terms of social influences such as "emulation," where some members of a group mimic other members of higher status. In "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903), early sociologist George Simmel referred to the "impulse to sociability in man", and sought to describe "the forms of association by which a mere sum of separate individuals are made into a 'society' ". Other social scientists explored behaviors related to herding, such as Freud (crowd psychology), Carl Jung (collective unconscious), and Gustave Le Bon (the popular mind). Swarm theory observed in non-human societies is a related concept and is being explored as it occurs in human society.

So far so good, or so far so bad?

It is a pity - and maybe that would prompt extensive sociological research - that the herd behaviour is not observed or manifested in human deeds that can benefit humanity in general and large groups of human beings in particular, for if it did, we would have a lot more people joining Rotary or other service organizations. Or maybe it does, but in an oblique way. Let me elaborate.

The herd instinct is a survival mindset which would place an individual (animal) amidst an entire crowd and farthest from a predator. In human beings, we call it a selfish act, as opposed to a selfless act in which an individual or a group of individuals would voluntarily and purposedly place themselves in positions of danger and face death and extinction so tha the rest of the group can survive.

Such acts may have strong religious overtone, but are actually common in insects and have been well documented in the annals on great men and women to whom Mankind owes a lot.

Rotary seeks to unite business and professional people to do good under the banner of Service, which may suggest that the founders had hoped that the herd instinct in man would apply to this area.

While in Xinjiang, I visited the Museum of History in Urumuqi and had a lesson in humility browsing through the rich culture of the early settlers in Xinjiang, long before they were discovered by central China. The Chinese Government of the day now has tried to portray the development as thoroughly as they could without detriment to the idelogical and political background against which modern China was founded. There is a lot to be said and contemplated in this area, but I have run out of space.

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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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