Contents

President's Message - By Raymond Sin
Inertia, leadership and youths - By John Wan
All the President's Men - By Francis Wann
Attendence Record
Notice Board
Photo Album
Upcoming Events
The Board

President's Message

By President Raymond Sin (2001-2002)

Our last luncheon meeting on 20th September was a special one in our club history. We observed a one-minute silence for the 911 disaster in USA. We all sincerely wish that world peace and understanding will not be far away from us.

At that meeting, I had invited PP Edward Lau, who had just happened to be back from USA, to share with us some personal views from someone who lives in USA. The detail of his sharing has already reported by Ho Chi Ming and printed in last week's bulletin. Rtn Jimmy then come out to say that he was actually on a flight flying in the USA sky while the disaster happened. It was a special meeting, but I hope circumstances would not require me to hold any more like it.

We had a good fellowship night with Kingspark's old friend PP Edward on Tuesday night. We firstly went to Grappa's for some drinks. CP John was smart enough to pick the red wine for it was 2 for 1 happy hour promotion. Even though some of us needed to rush for other appointments, seven of us stayed for dinner. For this kind of fellowship with all men, you could imagine what we talked about, almost anything. We shall have more like this in future, I would like see more to join in.

Last Sunday, many of us had a very good time at the District Swimming Gala. We had more than 20 people joining the Gala. Although the events started at 11:00am, IPP Tom managed to rush back from China, and Ted was kind enough to pick him from Sheung Shui train station. On that day, I discovered who is the best swimmer in our club. He is Terence Leung. He joined almost every event for different swimming styles, free style, breaststroke, back and even butterfly. Ted's daughters must carry the genes for sports from their parents, they got some medals. We were also strong on the female side. We had Moray, Micheal Au's wife who also received a medal. Well done and congratulations to all of you. The best part of the day was that all the children of Rotarians could go to the recreation part of the swimming pool while they were not having any events. They had all sort of kids' things to play with. For the biggest loser of the day, I would bet on myself. I lost my ring after the President's event of 25m free style. It must have dropped somewhere in the pool while I was try to swing my hands hard enough in order to swim faster. With this kind of down mood, I also left my daughter's swimming suit and towel in the changing room at the end of the day. Anyway, we did have a fun fellowship day. Please be reminded that the next district sport event will be the Bowling at the end of October.

That is all for this issue. I am bringing some cigars to the club at the dinner meeting on 27th September.

Return to Contents

I have been contemplating to talk to you on a number of things, perhaps too many, ranging from the very petty happenings around my life to the esoteric, from what I feel about our club, other clubs, our members and our district to how I see the war unfolding. I have been through this before when I was governor, normally when work caught up with me and when I could not decide between priorities. When it struck, I became less communicative, resulting in a longer break between letters. It was okay in the past because I had never committed myself to a schedule for my letters. Now that I have, it is somewhat different. Believe me, the pressure is there. I become even more respectful for those daily columnists, for their discipline, resilience and commitment. I was quietly happy therefore when Chief Editor was away, and I was looking forward to the long weekend to catch up on a number of things.

Well, the long weekend did not seem to be long enough. I did however manage to post on the Club Website all the issues of Kingspark News since Raymond Sin became President. Considering that I had little to no experience of doing this until recently, I feel justified to be happy with my achievement. Then there were other priorities, for example, I have not trailwalked for more than a few weeks, I have decided to support Lo King Man's production, Il Trovatore, I have signed up for a day out in Lamma Island with a group of friends, I could not miss the Flag Raising Ceremony, and so on. The result was that I could not focus on this letter until now.

I opened the folder and clicked the latest letter. I found two paragraphs of an unfinished letter I began writing on 27 September, but which I aborted as soon as I found out that the Chief Editor had gone on holiday that same day. I offer no defence for the inertia, not even the obvious one that I could not have been the critical cause for the late release of the next issue of Kingspark News.

Herein lies a rather important principle, one that I had expounded in an issue of my Governor's Monthly Letter. I was discussing the role of volunteers, Rotarians being all volunteers. As volunteers, we volunteer our time and talents to serve others. Volunteers worldwide set high standards for their work and would put in extra efforts and time to ensure that the work and hence the service they render others freely would be of a standard even higher than the work for which they are paid. In other words, the fact that we render our service freely would not and ought not entitle us to do so perfunctorily or at reduced standards, not if we wear a badge that symbolizes reliability and dependability, not if we call ourselves Rotarians, and not if we believe in Service Above Self.

Even without the recent tragic events, the world is changing all the time. I would like to believe that we have become Rotarians not only for the fellowship that we all can expect from each other, but more fundamentally, for the service that we would collectively and individually render our fellow human beings, and more importantly, that we would become better individuals in the process. Rotarians have changed the world before for the better, through helping to draft the United Nations Charter, through countless humanitarian and educational programmes, through our commitment to eradicate Polio and so on. Rotarians are going to change the world for the better again, but only if the individuals are committed to the professed Ideal of Service and are ready, willing and able to take up the responsibilities and go that extra mile, voluntarily and of their own freewill and accord.

Hong Kong observed the International Day of Remembrance on 29 September at the City Hall Auditorium. Hong Kong's Chief Executive together with the eight religious leaders offered prayers and words on the occasion. Leaders representing the Catholic, Islam, Judaism, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i and Anglican spoke one after another and literally joined hands in prayers. It was something that does not happen very often. As I was sitting there, I wondered why the major service organizations could not do something similar in public to express their grief and emotion, to praise the valiant and the brave, and to offer condolences and prayers to the victims and their families.

Let me return to the two paragraphs I mentioned earlier. I was writing in relation to Law Week 2001, specifically on a Youth Leadership Training Programme organized by the Law Society of Hong Kong. The lawyers had designed a programme for the last two weekends in September and had invited 50 top secondary schools to nominate one or two students to go on the programme. I was invited to be one of the four panelists for a discussion on "What does it mean to be a good leader?" The event was to take place on 23 September, a Sunday morning.

I had thought that I was invited because I was known to be active in Rotary and Rotary was known to be serious in youth leadership training. Besides, I had relevant experience on youth policy from my last job. It turned out not to be quite so. I was invited because I worked for the Government and because the President of the Law Society is a good friend. I would return to this point in a while.

The other panelists were a consumer interest organization specialist, a young industrialist, entrepreneur and writer, and the Law Society President himself. I found out that these were all top students from band one schools. They were all self-motivated, well disciplined and reasonably articulate in English and Chinese. Each panelist spoke for 20 minutes, and there was a question and answer at the end. I recognized a few Interactors and the daughter of the Rotarian who told me the evening before that his daughter would be in the audience, which created some pressure. The event organizer (not Law Society personnel) assured us before the discussion that the students would not ask awkward questions. Indeed they did not, and how intellectually unchallenging! I hope they were not primed not to ask stimulating questions.

It was a pleasant morning. My only regret was having to miss the District Swimming Gala that was well supported by my club. I learnt that many members and their families had turned up and had a good time.

Back to the panel discussion, I had planned to draw on my Rotary experience, but since I was to represent the Government, I could only make a passing reference. It is always refreshing to be with young people, particularly the better ones. Too bad that there are not enough of them. As to the discussion theme, I hope I manage to get across the key message, which is that young people of today are to be leaders of tomorrow, whether we like it or not, and whether they like it or not. Leader positions are not advertised in the papers like job vacancies. One becomes a leader when one excels in the job he does and when opportunities beckon.

I think the Law Society should be congratulated for organizing a programme for young people in the Law Week. That is what I think an organization of public-spirited professionals should do. Rotarians are business and professional people. More importantly, we profess to be leaders in our business and professions. I therefore think there is scope for more involvement from Rotary for these and similar programmes. I might take the matter up with my friend and see whether Rotarians can take a more active role in next year's programme. I see a role for Rotarians to do more for our youths in the community, and to be seen to be doing so.

Return to Contents

Kingspark News didn't hit my inbox last week as it should have, and I was indeed slightly worried at our display of complacency. Firstly if we all agree that it's something worth pursuing, we should make every effort to ensure its publication every week. Or else why bother?

I've been trying to complete my assignment with Anwer over the past week. I was supposed to meet him last Thursday evening at the China Club but anyway it didn't materialize. By the time you read this, hopefully I should have managed to track down the antique man. Now I realise that the toughest part of making a profile like this is not in the writing, but finding the subject.

I once asked John whether there's an agenda for every meeting, I remember he said there was, but then since most regular meetings would follow the same procedure, perhaps they didn't see the need. I've been pondering over this for some time, not because I want to be the guardian of formalities, but I see in the agenda a sense of discipline. If the agenda can be sent to members say 48 hrs in advance, individual members may have more time to reflect on matters of their interest, and may even make amends and comments via email which will enhance the quality of discussion at the meeting.

Last Thursday's evening meeting was more like a social gathering. There wasn't much on Raymond's agenda at least. The meeting started late, and ended early. And before dinner, Raymond treated all members to a tabacos habana cigar as a show of appreciation -for all the cards, bouquets and whatever the family received.

The situation in Afghanistan was tense to say the least as American¡¦s military presence intensified. We exchanged our personal views on the possibility of war casually, so casual it's almost like poking fun at an imminent manmade disaster. Member might need a lighter dose of infotainment and we're with ATV's Millionaire show. I must admit this programme has all the success ingredients. Raymond asked about the facilities at the Foreign Correspondents' Club and Michael happened to be a member. I think the FCC is an excellent option for both evening and lunch meetings. Well the name tells a story and no wonder as Michael told us, hedgefund investor George Soros was there, British writer Tony Parsons was there. The venue does have a class of its own. I remember two years ago my broker at Ernst Maude also suggested I signed up as an associate member. Indeed last year I invited the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission Sub-Committee under FCC Francis Moriarty to a debate competition in our school. Then there were women talks, and it became known that at least three kingspark members are in their various stages of pregnancy. I couldn't remember the names though there're not too many female members at kingspark. What makes it statistically interesting is they're all in the legal profession. John suggested we officially present something to Raymond for his achievement, ie Matthew.

In John's latest letter, he talked about his experience as a panelist at the Law Society and was told the students would not ask "awkward" questions. I have no idea exactly what questions those students raised, but given our own culture, it would be difficult for them to ask anything academically or professionally challenging. And of course like most government servants, whatever they ask, you have a model answer! In today's cable news, the Taleban spiritual leader seemed to be repeating what George bush said two weeks ago, ie, either you are with us, or you're with the terrorists ie US. It's a small world.

Return to Contents

Notice Board

(1) The Board meeting scheduled for 13th February, 2002 will be held on 20th February, 2002.

(2) The lunch meeting on 14th March, 2002 will be rescheduled to coincide with the District Conference on 16th March, 2002.

Return to Contents