Golden News
Volume 13 - Number 41 - 17 April 2000.
The weekly newsletter of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile, Hong Kong.
Web site: www.rckgm.org
Past RI President Paulo Costa dies at 70
 
Paulo V.C. Costa
On behalf of the RI Board of Directors, RI President Carlo Ravizza announces to the Rotary world the death of a great humanitarian and Rotarian, 1990-91 RI President Paulo V.C. Costa, who died 10 April in São Paulo, Brazil, from an infection following surgery in March. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, 11 April, 4 p.m., at the Cemetery Necrópole Ecumênica Memoral, Av. Nilo Pecanha, 50, in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. President Ravizza deeply regretted being unable to attend the funeral as he was traveling in Europe on Rotary business. He was officially represented at the services by Past RI President Luis Vicente Giay.
 
Nuisance Alert !
 
KGM members will probably receive an innocuous looking message this week in respect of the District Roster, asking you whether you have any objections to having your name, office telephone & fax numbers, home telephone & fax numbers, your email address, cellular telephone number, shoe size and fingerprints published in the next issue. I also expect this message will be sent to you in a rather sneaky "If you don't reply, this means you agree" format.
 
Apparently some people are still not aware of Hong Kong's privacy laws. Although I am not a lawyer, I seem to recall being advised by a legal eagle that "silence does NOT equal consent", but I could be wrong.
 
Anyway, members who have known me for at least 20 minutes will know that I am, arguably, the most outspoken "anti-District" person living in District 3450 but, if you didn't already know that, don't say you haven't been warned, OK ? Let the tirade begin.
 
Frankly, I think the District Roster has absolutely no value whatsoever to anybody other than those who would use it for commercial purposes, despite assurances (!!) to the contrary.
 
If the District wants to publicise contact details of District Officers, the District Web Site is the best place to do this. Similarly other Rotary Clubs in the District who want to promote their fund-raising activities, guest speakers, changes of information and so on, should also use the District Web Site for this purpose. Let's face it, printed media is invariably out of date before it is even printed, so why waste the money ?
 
So, unless you want to run the risk of receiving dozens of pages of unsolicited (and annoying) fax pages each week or, worst still, having huge email files clogging up your precious Internet bandwidth, it is my recommendation (as your Internet Guru) to decline publication of your contact details in the District Roster.
 
Anyway folks, it's a personal decision, so it's your call, but you have my $0.02 worth !
 
By the way, if anybody wants to argue the case in favour of the District Roster, just send me an email and I promise to publish your comments UNEDITED in the next issue of Golden News.
 
Annual Ball - 6 May 2000 - Grand Hyatt Hotel.
 
If the ball is to be a success, we need the support of EVERY member in KGM. Unfortunately we keep going back to the same old pots each year, but it's about time you, yes YOU, got off your backside and did something positive for the club for a change, OK ??. There are a number of ways in which you can assist, and the main three are:
 
1) Take at least ONE TABLE - no, you do not have to pay for it yourself - ASSEMBLE a table among friends who are not members of KGM. You do have other friends, don't you ? Or why not use this opportunity to invite your Bank Manager, your Accountant, your Legal Advisor and your Parole Officer ? Table sales are being handled by PP Raju and Rtn. Notan Tolani.
 
2) Place an ADVERTISEMENT IN THE BALL PROGRAMME - contact Neerja Sujanani, who will happily suggest an advert which is not one of those boring "With Compliments" styles, but something which is more interesting AND more in keeping with the "4-Way Test". For example, "Buy your next suit from Ali Baba's Tailor Shop - ready in 24 hours, guaranteed for 12" !
 
3) Contribute A PRIZE - no, I don't mean that free lunch for one at McDonald's which you won last week at another ball. We don't need a lot of crappy stuff that you don't want - we only need a dozen DECENT prizes, OK ? Contact Rtn. David Harilela with your proposed contribution.
 
OK ? Get the hang of it ? Simple really.

 Annual Ball - Next Committee Meeting:
 
This will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday 19th April 2000 immediately after the regular club meeting that day.
 
A separate reminder notice will NOT be sent out, so Ball Committee members are asked to please mark their diaries NOW !
 
Vocational Service:
 
Vocational Service Director Miranda "King" Kong informs us she has arranged an exciting new Vocational Service visit, as follows:
 
Venue: Hong Kong International Airport (Chek Lap Kok) Airport Control Tower.
 
Date:  Friday 28 April 2000.

Time:  11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The assembly time and place shall be 10:45 a.m. at the 2/F lobby of the Regal Airport Hotel. Moreover, after the visit, there will be an optional lunch at the Coffee Shop of the same hotel, at a cost of only HK$110.00 per head. Excellent value !

KGM members who are interested in attending this Vocational Service visit are asked to email Miranda at miranda@clotex.com.hk as soon as possible. The DEADLINE for your reply is not later than Monday 24th April 2000.
 
Space is limited, and KGM members will have first priority, however vacancies can be filled by family members and friends.
 
Given the absolutely pathetic response to the last Vocational Service visit arranged by Miranda, I sincerely hope that she will not be let down yet again.

International Service:
 
Due to a lack of interest, KGM will NOT be sending a delegation to visit Japan to help our sister club, the RC of Hammamatsu South, celebrate their 35th anniversary on 23rd April, 2000.
 
This Week's Speaker: Mr. Alvin Lee.
 
Topic: The Better Hong Kong Foundation.
 
This Week's Birthday Celebrants:
 
19 April - The late Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary.
 
25 April - David "Bee Gee" Harilela, who shares his birthday with the late, but incredibly great, jazz/blues singer Ella Fitzgerald AND former ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus. Hmmm. What a combination ! No wonder young David is such an accomplished singer.
 
However if I ever see him singing "Misty" while wearing a white, gold-sequined, bell-bottomed jumpsuit, I am definitely calling the Fashion Police !
 
Forthcoming District & International Events:
 
30 April - District Basketball Tournament, Harbour Road Indoor Games Hall, Wanchai.
 
6 May 2000 - 40th Annual District Assembly - Hotel Miramar, Tsimshatsui.
 
4-7 June 2000 - Rotary International Annual Convention - Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 
29 June 2000 - District Handover Gala Banquet - Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Wanchai North, Hong Kong.
 
Email Nonsense:

Further to my article in last week's bulletin, KGM members who are interested in finding out whether or not an email they have received is legitimate (prior to re-sending it out to dozens of other people), are advised to firstly check:

http://www.snopes.com/index.html  the "Urban Legends Reference Pages", and/or
 
http://kumite.com/myths/   the "Computer Virus Myths" web site
 
Moreover I remind you that whenever you do send a "broadcast" message out to a large number of people (as I do with this bulletin), "Email Etiquette" requires that you use the "BCC" function of your email program, so that you do not publicise every recipient's email address to every other recipient on the list.
 
There are people out there who collect email addresses for "spamming" and/or commercial purposes, and your exercising a bit of commonsense will go a long way towards minimising the amount of junk email we all receive each day.
 
KGM Web Site:
 
Under "Rotary Information" the Webmaster has added a hyperlink to a photograph of Paul Harris and his three friends who started the Rotary movement in 1905.
 
By the way, the KGM web site has now been comprehensively "spidered" by the search engine "Google". Among other things, this means that if you click on the "Google" search engine and perform a "Google search" on your name, you will probably find that the first page will, more often than not, refer to your name at the KGM web site. Pretty cool, huh ?
 
However when you type your name into the search box, don't forget to use the (Boolean) "+" sign between your first and last name, without spaces (e.g. Nanu+Lachman). I tested most member's names already and the results were excellent, especially for members with less common names (Terrence, this definitely means you !).
 
For other members with more common names (sorry Patricia & PP Louis, this means you !), and newer members (sorry Danielle & Clarissa, this means you !), the results are not as good.
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Did You Know ?
 
If a statue of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 

Quotes Of The Week:

"Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good."

General Norman Schwarzkopf

Joke Of The Week:
 
One day the African Chief's wife gave birth to a white child and the chief was absolutely stunned. He suspected some hanky-panky, so he went to the white Jesuit missionary and looked at him suspiciously.
 
"So, you have been adulterous with my wife," he accused the white missionary, who looked very uncomfortable. The Jesuit tried to wriggle out of the difficult situation by trying to explain Mendel's laws of genetics to the angry Chief.
 
"You see that herd of sheep," he said pointing to the chief's herd, "Most of them are white, but you will also notice 2 black lambs among them."
 
"OK! OK!" said the chief. "You keep your mouth shut and so will I."
 
 
The Phantom