Last Week's Meeting
Started at 1.23 with a report that
5 KGMilers attended the recent District happy hour at the Kowloon Club in Tsim
Sha Tsui while PP Robin and a small party had attended and enjoyed the Rotoract
Inauguration Dinner during the week.
PP Brian then became a Sergeant
again after almost a decade but had trouble with inflation in
calculating the fines.
Rtn Kumar introduced PP
Winnie Yuen, Happy Valley and Rtn Nanu introduced guests of Rotarians,
Erica Taylor who was with Rtn Patricia and Caron Chan with Rtn Carola.
There followed a bit of business as the assembled endorsed the Board's
recommendation to nominate PP CK Tsang as RCKGM's a candidate for the coming
02/03 District Governor Nominating Committee.
The Speaker, Cassius
Rolfe-Johnson, was introduced by Rtn Vincent, and almost gave the speech in his
introduction. But Cassius had a kind and well fed look, rather a mean and
hungry one, and instinctively mentioned what was on everyone's mind ie how come
he was talking on this subject with so little of the subject in evidence upon
his pate, so to speak? Had he perhaps un-selfishly donated his entire supply for
the cause of scientific research? Or was it a case of Mohair is better than
grass growing on a busy street? But seriously, Mr Rolfe Johnson then proceeded
to tell us in no uncertain terms how the condition of our bodies could be
determined from an analysis of the chemical content of our hair growing (would
you believe at 1/2 inch per 6 weeks) some one tenth of an inch
from the scalp. Basically, hair tissue mineral analysis and diagnostic screen
services assisted in determining the state or balance of vitamins and minerals
in the body. The former being manufactured by the body and the latter being
absorbed by the body from the things we eat. There followed a summary of the
goodies and the badies of the world we live in. The goodies by and large look
after themselves but it does no harm to keep an eye on them through HTMA which
is not Hyper Text Mark-up Analysis. However beware of the big bad toxic metals,
mercury (seafood from the sea around Hong Kong due to factory effluent), Cadmium
(improperly disposed used batteries), aluminium (various sources at one time
thought to be saucepans) and lead (the former ubiquitous channel for our
drinking water to be delivered from roof to tap, still in use in some old
places!). A lively session of questions followed before the vote of thanks from
Rtn Jagdish.
Speaker for the Next Meeting
Mr Alan Abrahams
Chairman Amnesty
International, Hong Kong Section
Club Visit to Rotary Club of Kowloon North on 28th July
Rtn Neerja Sujanani
Pres Bill Clinton, oops Benter!
(Thanks for that joke, President Cassidy) welcomed us very warmly indeed.
August 9th will be the reciprocal visit to our club so all members
please attend.
The main speaker was Tony Miller
JP- Director of Housing of the HKSAR- He spoke eloquently on the issue of
privatisation of public housing. Seven members of our club attended (Cassidy,
Ebe, Jane, Nanu, Robin, Raju & Neerja), totalling 4 tables in all.
I
have transcribed a bit of the speech here for you if you are interested (Thanks
to my handy-dandy Palm Vx palmtop computer!) The Housing Authority is working on
implementing a fundamental change in the way they operate. People on waiting
lists for public housing don't have anyone fighting for them. The move is to go
from public rental housing to home ownership schemes - it costs the taxpayer
less, much less. The Government is also introducing a tenants’ purchase scheme.
In the long run, home ownerships more feasible for the buyer than opting for
public rentals. The focus is now to provide to those in real need as opposed to
those who could easily buy a private or semi-private property. The Housing
Authority are reducing the waiting time from 5 years to only 3 years by 2002
i.e. 2 years ahead of schedule. They are aiming at better site-specific designs
because everything built is ultimately saleable or at least, that is the goal.
There is also a drive to increase loan amounts to encourage purchases. Another
way of taking Public Housing quality forward is to partner with the private
sector to improve management and maintenance. One example is Valley road in Ho
Man Tin.
Rotarians present responded with lots of relevant questions. The
Vote of Thanks was presented by PDG Joseph Lee.
It was a very good meeting
preceded by excellent fellowship- those that missed this club visit missed a
lot!!! Go and visit: Fridays, same time & venue as our
meeting.