Visiting
Rotarian
Classification
From
Ken
Lai Insurance Kowloon
North East
Eddie
Hung Admiralty
Kraig
Jorgensen Moses
Lake Wa. USA
Guest of
Rtn From
Jack L
Bailey Raju U.S.A.
Sukdave
Dhillon
Brian
III Singapore
What? Got It!!
Following a comprehensive introduction by
Vincent Lo, Aileen Bridgewater weaved a fascinating and intricate journey
through her career in broadcast interviewing with a talk
on communications between human beings. Golden Milers present and
guests were more than usually quiet.
The journey, which began sometime in the
early fifties, took us from the World of Suzi Wong, via William Holden and his
purchase of a substantial stake in a new broadcasting company, Commercial Radio,
where Aileen worked as an interviewer, to the possibility of an interview with
the Prime Minister of India, Indira Ghandi. This had been a long time wish of
Aileen who, having expressed this to one well known PP Chandru Parmanand,
suddenly found herself in possession of an invitation to go and get it, but with
the proviso, from the boss of not coming back without it! The journey
continues through a later supposedly self destructing tape recording of an
interview with a Tongan leper painter named Sinissi. This remarkable man
eventually refound his skills and confidence when his nurse tied a
paint brush to his hand and encouraged him not to give up without a fight. The
tape survived and later was instrumental in helping a blind man to learn to play
lawn bowls. Other memorable figures in Aileen's travel and interview career were
the Royal Family in Bhutan, through the good offices of Harry Harilela and
another by chance meeting with Mother Theresa in Calcutta.
All of which led up to the time when a well known unpaid
broadcaster (clue: his medium was the Ralph Pixton programme) 'phoned to advise
Eileen of the terrible conditions and plight of the 120 now well known caged
elder men in Tsuen Wan in 1980. The stench, heat and inhumanity of it all
soon led to the establishment, 21 years ago of the now well known charitable
organisation "Helping Hand". Today this organisation caters for 700 senior
citizens in some eight homes.
Rotarian Kumar eloquently gave the vote of
thanks and following Aileen's convincing words we raised over
HK$3,000 from the sale of Helping Hand's cookies for those less
fortunate elderly people who, unbelievably in these so called enlightened
days, continue to be allowed to suffer such indignity in the choice of
accommodation available to them.
Future Meetings
Today!! Ms. Yuet Ha Mo on the Subject of
Business Trusts
On Vocation!
With.......
No one regretfully due to the pressures of Chinese New Year,
but I thought you might like to hear briefly about a novel vocational service
idea I heard about in the Rotary Club of China Town, Vancouver earlier this
year. It is called "Job Start" and is a part of a major
government initiative to create opportunities for work experience and skills
training for British Columbia youth and to improve access to post secondary
education.
Job Start helps unemployed youth (ages 17 - 24), who have
limited work experience and are not immediately planning on returning to
full-time studies to get the experience they need to get work and to keep on
working. The programme does this by assisting employers through a wage-sharing
arrangement. Employers are provided with a reimbursement of 50% of the
provincial minimum wage for a maximum of 360 hours to help offset the time and
costs of training a young person they intend to continue to employ after the
funding period.
Employers provide young people with an opportunity to
gain work experience, develop good work habits and the skills needed to
keep working.
Host Agencies will encourage young people to approach
employers and provide information on this programme during their job search. The
host Agencies will provide young people with information to assist them with
their Job Search.
At the time it occurred to me that this might be something
that would go down well in Hong Kong and could be considered for recommendation
to the appropriate authorities by the Vocational Committees of the District with
Rotary and other Community Service groups in Hong Kong (See District Governors
Goals for the year!) acting as host agencies.
Just a Thought!
Presidential
Quotation
A
pessimist they say sees a glass containing water as being half empty; an
optimist sees it as half full. But a giving person sees water in a glass and
starts looking for someone who might be thirsty. If you don't, who
will?
Stone Soup for the
World
Joke of the
Week
A broadcaster, on a
big-game safari in Africa, was taken to a watering hole where the life of the
jungle could be observed. As he described the scene to his tape recorder,
two Gnus grazing peacefully nearby were suddenly charged by two
magnificent Lions, obviously the leaders of the pride, and dragged off
to the bushes for consumption. When the Lions, having finished their meal
emerged from the bushes the radio man said to his machine: "Well that's the end
of the Gnus and here, once again are the head Lions".
Brain Teaser
Roman drill Sergeant Fibius was born on the 256th day of 20
B.C. and died on the 24th day of 20 A.D. How old was Fibius when he died?