Golden News

Volume 14 No 23

12th December 2000

The Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile  www.rckgm.org 

 

NO BIRTHDAY BOYS OR GIRLS!!!

 

 

LAST MEETING

Was it the need to find out the latest about aids or my threat not to play my Sinatra record? Anyway there were 32 members, 6 visiting Rotarians, 4 guests and a speaker ie 43 persons present ... the shares of the Holiday Inn Kowloon Golden Mile are going up!

The call to sit was at 1.05 followed very quickly by the hotest Tom Thumb Gung Ho soup I've experienced in a while. "Clears the head my boy!" Those of you not present missed a tasty vegetable or chicken curry and famous frogs' spawn sweet.

The gong to pay attention to President Cassidy was at 1.15 with a warm welcome for PDG Moses Cheng and Rtn Mukesh who had been on an expedition to cross the Antarctic. Rtn Silva got a birthday card and President Cassidy a kiss ( ... the things you have to put up with as a President!!). Rtn Sgt Clarissa then gave new meaning or was it value ($20) to the Father Christmas beard.

 Visiting Rotarians

Rtn Niels Ruddy Hansen - Gemstones - Copenhagen

Rtn Ken Lai - Kowloon Northeast

PDG Moses Cheng - S.A. (Law) - HK Northeast

Rtn Lal Hardasani - Insurance - Peninsula

Rtn Kishore Sakhrani - Financial Services - Hong Kong South   

Rtn John De Boer - Furniture Retail - Toronto, Willowdale

            Guests                    Introduced By

                    Teresa Cheung                   Rtn Miranda

                    Sussie Misini                       Rtn Per Larsen

                     Edward Chiu                       Rtn Neerja

 

 The Speaker

A Review of 10 Years AIDS Work in Hong Kong

Rotarian Vincent introduced Mr Graham Smith of Aids Concern, an organization with the mission of strengthening community responses to AIDS through targeted outreach prevention for vulnerable groups and support services for people with HIV/AIDS. The following is the aide-memoire given to me by Mr Smith after his very thought provoking talk:


10 Successes

1. A Growing Community Response: There are now 7 AIDS-specific non-governmental organizations; when AIDS Concern was established there were none.

2. Greater Involvement of Vulnerable Groups: The current Community planning Process run by HKCASO is a good example of such involvement.

3. Some Attitudes are Changing: The younger generation is more open about sexuality.

4. Advanced Treatment Available at Low Cost to Patient: People with AIDS in Hong Kong have very good access to the latest drugs.

5. AIDS-Specific Funding: There is designated government funding to support AIDS work.

6. A More Open Society: Issues such as homosexuality are more openly discussed.

7. Anti-Discrimination Legistation: There is legislation in place to prevent discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.

8. A Structured Government Response with some community involvement at sub-committee level.

9. The External Consultancy Report commissioned by the Advisory Council on AIDS which recommended a shift to Community Planning.

10. Greater Collaboration of AIDS NGOs as evidenced by the establishment of HKCASO 1998.

10 Challenges

1. Low Social Acceptance of People with HIV/AIDS: This is still a society where people with aids don't dare to show their faces.

2. Condom Taboo: Condoms still can't be seen on TV until too late for most to see; they get banned from shopping plazas.

3. Sex Education in Schools is Inadequate: Most youth report learning about sex from other sources. Sex has yet to become an integral part of the curriculum.

4. Absence of Concrete Government Funding Policy: The AIDS Trust Fund has no policy for funding allocation. This means groups with higher vulnerablity end up with less than proportionate funds allocated for their prevention needs.

5. No Sustainable Funding Mechanism: the government funding mechanism favours low-impact one-off activities. Persistence and sustainability are critical for bringing about the changes needed to stall the epidemic.

6. The Chief Executive has Ignored the AIDS Problem in his policy addresses since the handover. This gives the mistaken impression that AIDS is a problem we can afford to ignore.

7. A Closed Advisory Council on AIDS: The government repeatedly ignores requests for its Advisory Council on AIDS to include people with AIDS, people from affected communities and people from AIDS NGOs.

8. Persistent Misconceptions: Many still think you can get HIV/AIDS from a mosquito bite.

9. Vulnerable Groups are Vilified and Stigmatised making it harder to do effective AIDS prevention work.

10. Few People Get Tested for HIV regardless of their level of risk; a concrete campaign to promote early testing is required.

As is customary in our club a lively session of questions followed which wanted to extend into the afternoon but ofcourse couldn't be allowed.

Rtn Vincent gave the vote of thanks.

 

Prospective Member

The Membership Committee and the Board of Directors have approved  applications for Active membership in favour of

(a) Ms Teresa Y.C. Cheung; membership classification - Import/Export Handbags and Shoes and

(b) Ms Susie Misini; membership classification - Physical Fitness Direction. 

Any club member who wishes to lodge an objection to either of these proposals is required to do so in writing to the Club Secretary within 7 days from the date of this notice (i.e. on or before 19th December, 2000), setting out the reasons for their objection. 

If no objections are received within the specified period (and subject to advance payment of the ruling joining fee), Ms Cheung and Ms Misini can be inducted as an Active member of KGM on or after 21st October, 2000. 

 

NEXT MEETING.......

Will be The President & Board of Directors AGM and the 2nd Club Assembly, so like you gotta be there so to speak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lifted From Our Web Page
Next fellowship: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday 13 December 2000

Joint Fellowship with the Rotary Club of =anchai
at the Hong Kong Cricket Club,
 Wongneichung Gap Road, Hong =ong.
 
 


ON VOCATION!

With PP CK Tsang - Classification - Electrical Engineer

I  was  born  in  Hong  Kong  and  went  through the normal education systems of kindergarten,  primary,  secondary  schools  and  university, all  in Hong Kong majoring  in  electrical  engineering  but somehow my preference is business and commerce  which  I am now actually involved.  I have enjoyed my school days with only one regret that I never had a single female classmate.

My  family  was  relatively simple and my father was working in the Hongkong and Shanghai  Banking Corporation and retired shortly before I graduated.  So unlike other  members  of  the club, I would not have the possibility to pursue further studies after the first degree but I must say that my parents have given me much more  than  what  they  can afford to and I feel myself extremely lucky.  Before graduating  from  the University of Hong Kong, I discussed with my tutor, who was also  the  professor  of  electrical  engineering,  about my career.  I have been advised  by  good  friends  (from  the Alumni of Ying Wa which many of them have acted  as  my  mentors) that I should not work for the government (in those days there was no mention of the handover and Chinese was second class citizen as far as  the government was concerned, and not in teaching because my character would not  be  suitable.  So my tutor recommended me to enter into the China Engineers Limited, which was subsequently acquired by the Southeast Asian Conglomerate the Sime Darby Group.  I worked myself from an apprentice engineer all the way until some  years later becoming the managing director of the engineering division.  I was approached and decided to join my present group some 12 years ago because of the  vast  opening  China  market and a much bigger portfolio to manage.  I have been very stable and continue my work with increased workload and responsibility until now and perhaps years into the future.

There  are  basically  3  major elements that I enjoy and occupy my official and private life :-
1)   my job and my profession in the industry;
2)   my Alma Mater for the secondary school as well as the university;
3)   my Rotary movement.

I shall take some time to describe each.

There  had  been  many  unfair  treatment  on  to  the electrical and mechanical engineering  field that I am working in and as far back as in mid-70's, I became involved in the pursuit of fighting for better treatment from the Government and I  have been quite vocal in this regard had held senior offices in various trade associations  and  had  been  sitting  on numerous government appointed advisory boards, mainly representing the E&M industry to assist in the betterment of Hong Kong,  naturally  finding better ways to preserve the interests of our industry. If  anyone  of you would be interested in the mumble jumble, I will be more than pleased  to  give  you a 1 to 5 hour's talk depending on your time availability. However,  looking back to what I have achieved and with many other colleagues in the  industry joining forces, with the recent Hon Henry Tang saying something in public that our interest should be reserved, I feel that my long time waging of effort have not gone unanswered.

I  have  become  involved in  my  secondary  school  Alumni  activities  almost immediately  I stepped out of the school and study in the university.  Therefore my ties had been strong and I had became the Alumni chairman and president and also elected  to  be  a  director  of  the school board for a long time.  The extreme strong  tie leads our own Rotary club to form Interact clubs in Ying Wa college as  well  as  the  Ying Wa Girls' School which is from the same sponsoring body. From  these  very  able young men and ladies, we have also been able to form our Rotaract  Club  which  completes our Rotary desire for partnership in service. although I personally do not have time to deal with these myself on a continuous
basis,  I  am  most  pleased  to  see  other  Rotarians  step  in  to make these Interactors  and  Rotaractors  go  from strength to strength.  My involvement with  HKU  has  led me to be a part-time lecturer for undergraduates for 2 years and alumni activities are still continuing.

You  can see from the above that my passion to be involved in community work has been strong and I was introduced to the Round Tables when I was in my very young days  by Donald Yap, whom I really wanted to introduce to our club as a member but he  chose  to  become  the  charter  president  of  the  Rotary  Club of Tai Po. Nevertheless, the Rotary movement has gained a very important member.  For those of  you  who  may  not know, round table movement was born out of Rotary in 1927 when  a  young  Rotarian  by  the  name of Louis Machessi at the age of 27, became extremely  bored  when every week he has to sit with other members of his Rotary club, old enough to be his grandfather and so he formed the round table movement in  UK  for young  people of 40 and below (mainly between the age of 25-40) and also  all male only, a tradition carry on from Rotarians until challenged in USA in  a court movement in the mid-80's).  I was proposed to become a rotarian when our  Kowloon  Golden Mile was being established and PP Robin Ching, who happened to be my colleague then, strongly urged me to join when I was still qualified to remain as a round tabler for some years (do not try to guess my age yet!).  Many of you of course knew that I love Rotary so much that I have devoted a lot of my time, albeit not only at club level.

Other than the 3 main areas that I have myself heavily involved in, I do have my hobbies.   The  principal  one  would  be  fine  wine and food and I believe our Rotarians  who  have known me for some time would have no doubt about this claim of  mine.   The other hobbies are philately with my collections spanning over 30 different countries and jazz music.  I do take time regularly to work out in the gym to keep myself fit (don't laugh at my size but remember I have been keeping like this almost for the last millennium!).

I  nearly  forget  to  mention my family.  My wife is working with the Hong Kong Government  and  I  have  a  son  studying  in USA in engineering and a daughter studying  in  high  school in Australia.  Either the family is rather noisy when they come back for holidays or is very quite when they return back to school.

It is lucky that in any profession or job there is a retirement age but I do not think  there is a retirement age in Rotary, my Alumni activities as well as my trade  and  professional  activities which I would like to carry on as long as my strength and time would permit me.


 

PRESIDENTIAL QUOTATION OF THE WEEK

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.


 

 

JOKE OF THE WEEK

A country yokel and a professor were on a long train journey and decided to play a game. "Every time you miss a riddle you give me a pound and every time I miss one I give you a pound," said the Professor. Ah but you are better educated than me, so I'll give you 50p and you can give me a pound," suggested the yokel. It was agreed and the yokel made up the first riddle. "What has three legs walking and two legs flying?" The Professor didn't know, so he gave the yokel a pound. The yokel didn't know either so he gave the Professor 50p.

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BRAIN TEASER

What has three legs walking and two legs flying? 

URCHIN