Volume 14 No
10
6th September, 2000
The Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden
Mile www.rckgm.org
SEPTEMBER
IS NEW
GENERATIONS MONTH
Last Meeting
The 1.14 p.m. gong as opposed to the
noon day gun went off and so did the meeting.
It was a great pleasure to
welcome into our midst a past member Ben Pasco and to
see a better
attendance. Must be that the holiday season is coming to an end.
After the
usual formalities, Rotarian Sgt Clarissa made it quite clear to those
who
didn't make it for the walk on Lamma that they ought to try harder next
time to
avoid the fines! Rtn Diane introduced PP Gary Harilela and Rtn. M.S.
Kalra from
Kowloon North and Rotn. Shane Parmanand from Kowloon. Rtn. Kishu
then
introduced guests of Rotarians, Marjorie Chan (Rtn Amy) and Ben Pasco
(Rtn
Brian). There followed some announcements regarding future engangements
(see
web page) and some serious stuff from IPP Ram on Rotary knowledge. To
answer
them all we certainly need plenty of Random Access Memory. Rtn Elissa
then
introduced our guest Dr Iain J MacRobert and from then onwards the eyes
had it!!
We were gently taken through a complex subject of laser surgery to
correct vision
and certainly had a clearer idea of the most up to date method
of treating short
sight and astigmatism than we had before. Most interesting
for me was the way the laser is produced from argon gas which I wouldn't even
dream of trying to
describe. Similarly with all the other technical stuff,
but do not despair. When I
asked for some notes to help me write up his
speech Dr MacRobert said just point
your members to the Website http://www.icair.com, which I
hereby now do.
hopefully by the time you see this the address will also be
clickable; which it isn't
at the time of writing! There was a lively session
of questions after the talk.
Dr Iain J MacRobert Addressing Us Last
Week
Birthday Boy and Girl
Rtn Agnes Kuan - 1st
September
Brian Hodgson - 11th September
Next Meeting 6th September 2000
At 12:00 p.m.there will be a meeting of the KGM
Board of Directors with
Assistant District Governor Amy Ho as part
of her Official visit to our Club.
Our Speaker will
be Mr. J.P. Lee JP OBE, of the Agency for Volunteer
Service
Date for your
Diary
Fiday,
15 September
2000
The
Harilela
Mansion
1
Durham
Road
Kowloon
Tong
Dinner Fellowship provided through the kind
courtesy of Membership Director Rtn. David Harilela
and the Harilela Family
On
Vocation
VOCATION-
IMPORTER - LAW ENFORCEMENT
PRODUCTS
By PP
Vince Pinto
I had been working in Sydney for the freight
forwarding arm of a multi-national
conglomerate (a subsidiary of a listed
British company) since 1974 but, in 1981,
I was asked to relocate to Hong
Kong, in order to establish the first freight
forwarding branch office for
my employer here. However, at that time, the
group already had a substantial
trading office here, and they were the exclusive
distributors for such major
brands as Nina Ricci. They very kindly gave me a desk
and chair in a corner
(somewhere near the ladies loo), and a small but very
nice serviced
apartment in the recently completed New World Apartments, which
certainly
spoiled me. That view was something else, especially for an
impressionable,
24 year old, still-wet-behind-the-ears idiot from Down Under.
Some of the first people I met during my first
few months in Hong Kong included
former KGM members Eric Lee (my hero
forever !), William Fai (aka Grumpy),
Ishwar Sani (big brother of IPDG Dipo)
and the late Ira Kaye. In the first few
years of my employment in Hong Kong,
my employer acquired Eric Lee's airfreight
company and I was delighted
knowing that Eric was tied in for at least 4 more
years, which would give me
a chance to try and win back some of my massive poker
losses from him.
As it turns out, I actually lost even more money playing poker
with him
every week but, hey, I still had a ball.
During this same period, my Secretary (who is
still with me today but who nods
off occasionally while typing), taught me
how to play mahjong, which entailed me
shuffling noisy plastic tiles around
on a table, slapping them down occasionally
and yelling "Pung", then giving
her lots of money too. Education in Hong Kong is
a wonderful thing.
In 1987, another British public company made a
successful hostile takeover
bid for my employer and, soon after doing so,
they quickly made it clear that
they did not have any interest in retaining
the Transportation Division, of which
my direct employer was a member. So, in
1988, I started my own freight
forwarding company by selling my soul (and my,
er, "family jewels"), to Hongkong
Bank. Luckily, all of my staff and major
clients followed me and my friends stuck
by me, so I landed squarely on my
feet, so I consider myself to be extremely
lucky.
Although I was originally invited by IPDG Dipo
to become a Charter Member of
KGM in 1987, I just didn't have the time to do
so. However in 1989, I was
persuaded by my dear friend, the late PP Hans
Schult, to join KGM, which has
undoubtedly been one of the best decisions I
have ever made in my life. I married
my second wife Jeanette during my
Presidency of KGM (1993-94), and we had a
fund-raising wedding reception at
the former Hilton Hotel, which raised over
$125,000 for KGM in lieu of gifts
to us.
In 1997, I acquired an established company in
the Law Enforcement Products
business, which is my primary business today.
This means I spend every week
in a Police Station somewhere in Hong Kong,
however they are really nice guys and
they let me go home at nights.
Highlighting the KGM "E-Store"
!!
Savvy surfers who have already visited the KGM
E-Store have given your
Webmaster "Two thumbs up" in respect of the number
and variety of reputable
on-line merchants which are available, and I am
delighted to inform you that KGM
has already recorded it's first sales !
Thank You.
Each week, bulletin space permitting, I intend
to highlight some of the merchants
available at the KGM E-Store, and I would
like to begin with one of the most
famous on the web, namely Amazon.Com.
Shopping on-line at Amazon is breeze if you are
looking for the latest books,
DVD's, CD's, videos, software and electronics,
and they have some of the most
extensive selections on the Internet. Amazon
also provides excellent world-wide
shipping, and their prices are usually
cheaper than those available from retailers
in Hong Kong. Moreover, they
offer numerous titles which are not available locally. Check them out.
Click on www.rckgm.org/estore.htm to be
whisked away directly to the KGM
E-Store, or you can simply click on the
"Visit our E-Store" hyperlinks on the top
of our web site.
From our Treasurer
There are still five (5) members who have yet to
pay their Semi-Annual dues of
$1,500 for the period June to December 2000 by
the deadline of 31 July 2000
and the extended deadline of 31 August 2000.
This is despite sending them four (4) direct
emails each and reminders placed in
ten (10) consecutive bulletins and
announcements made at ten (10) consecutive club meetings.
In accordance with Rotary International rules,
these members are now deemed to
have resigned from the club, hence the matter
will now be referred to the BOD
for further action.
Quotations of the Week
Just because you do not get the meaning doesn't
mean that it is not meaningful!
Pat Nicosia
Some people wait so long for their ship to come
in that the pier collapses.
John Goddadrd
Joke of the
Weak
When a citizen of Montreal was found lashed to
the train tracks and somewhat the worse for wear as a result of the
ordeal. A reporter asked the police chief if he thought this was part
of a foreign plot. The chief replied that he thought there was a locomotive
Miss Elain E Yuss
Of all the lochs in Scotland, the most
frequented is the Loch Upp, which is fed
by
the Tumbril (in Fairness)
Loch Upp is like a red, red nose
That's newly born and may,
Unless I can escape it soon
Chase all my loch
away
URCHIN
