Golden News
Volume 14 Number
40 17th
April 2001
The Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of
Kowloon Golden Mile
www.rckgm.org
April is Magazine
Month
Birthday Boys and Girls
Lal Daryanani - 15th April
Romu Bellani - 21st April
Meeting on 28th
March, 2001
The meeting was held in Harry's Bar and we sat down at 1.16
p.m. with business starting p.d.q. after that at 1.20 p.m. with Happy Birthday
for Rtn Picco. Maybe the accoustics are better in Harry's than in the dungeons
but there was a finite improvement in the singing quality. There's hope for us
yet. Following the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests of Rotarians by
Rtns Rajiv and Ram respectively (Ah baat that for a bit'uv alliteration then!?)
we moved straight into the reporting of the Indian Night the Friday before.
Every NINC guest of the evening who had been smart enough not to miss the
occasion had a great evening and President Cassidy expressed their combined
thanks for a superbly organised and run evening of fabulous fantasy, family
fellowship, fun, food, fare, fable and frenetic fulfilment. (Urhm!). There
emerged from the successful evening a $1,000 donation the KGM Charity
Fund.
President Cassidy then assailed us with some
dates:
29th April - Interact Walkathon (5.3 K in
the Aberdeen Country Park
6-9th June - District's Annual Visit to
Peking
26 May 2001 - Annual Ball - Grand
Hyatt Ballroom - 7.30 p.m.
Les Fines (Sgt Rtn Clarissa)
Nice one Rtn Clarissa - $50 a head all round - except guests
ofcourse! plus the birthday and one early leaver.
Le Speaker
Programme Chairman Rtn Elissa then introduced the speaker,
our very own Rtn Jane Singer, who is more than
just a pretty lady, and a very lively speaker. Rtn Jane graduated from
Vassar College after earning herself a BS. in Economics. She then joined
Chemical Bank's executive training program and after 3 years, she left them and
joined Fairchild Publications working in the marketing department of their
Footwear News and Women's Wear Day. Later Jane moved to Asia and ended up
launching an Asia edition of Women's Wear Daily in Hong Kong. When her
contract ended, she stayed on and got involved with Inside Fashion. That was 10
years ago. Jane is now a member of AmCham and has chaired the textile committee
in 1999 and 2000. In 1998 she co-chaired the communication and advertising
committee. She is a liaison from AmCham to the Polytechnic Advisory Board. Jane
is a member of HK Mensa - although, to her own admission, not too active there
but she is a VERY active in Philip Wain because she works out everyday there.
That's the easy bit (Urchin speaking) because I copied it from Rtn Elissa's
email exhorting us all to come and listen. But now I am lost. The subject was
"Inside Fashion" which Jane used to give us an overview of the fashion industry
and to cover such aspects as:
(a) where does fashion come from?
(b) how do you know what (fashions,
ideas, trends) are coming up?
(c) trends
(d) seasons
(e) cycles
(f) life spans
(g) branding and
(h) Big designers v Street designers
.....
.... but if you want a summary of Jane's detailed thesis, a
quick word with Therese will assure you that my appreciation of fashion,
clothing, colours and all that sort of thing just doesn't exist. I have a
cardigan at home which I wear in the winter. I think it is green. Therese
assures me that it is grey. You will have no difficulty in deciding who to
believe I am sure!! Perhaps I can get Rtn Carola to help out being in a somewhat
similar industry.
The latter part of the talk covered Rtn
Jane's trade publication called "Inside Fashion", copies of
which were made available. It seems that this kind of publishing is very
labour intensive with never enough people to cover all the things that you might
want to, meanwhile deadlines lurk around you the whole time. One of Jane's
final points concerned the difficulty of being objectively critical
in fashion publications, given one's knowledge of all aspects of the
business and how cost sensitive the industry is. There followed a
lively question session, with PP Vince expressing interest in the undercover
details of the cover model on the publication. Now if that has whetted your
appetite, why not as Rtn Jane to subscribe you to "Inside Fashion"?
IPDG Dipo, also in the business, gave thanks on behalf of the
Club.
and no doubt can be made regularly available for those
in the business.
On Vocation With Ashok
Assomull - Classification Food Exports
Back in
September 2000, Rtn Neerja asked me to write up something for the weekly
Vocational Spot. Being a true Rotarian, I agreed immediately, without
giving it a second thought. Then it dawned on me: I was going to be away from
Hong Kong for 2-3 weeks so when better than to write out a little something
before travelling. That same day I proudly completed the basic outline and told
myself I would polish it up on my return. It is now almost 6 months later and I
must admit I have not yet got down to the polishing: the putting into shape, the
finishing of the basic outline so blithely embarked upon when was it? Oh last
September.
How
many of you remember the black and white series that appeared on the box in the
Sixties "The Naked City". There are 6 million stories in this City, this is just
one of them.
Actually, I should withdraw my question: there cannot be more than a
handful of members in our Club who were around to watch TV at that time. But I
digress..........
I was
born in Malaysia, went to school in the UK and India and graduated with an
Economics degree from London University.
I spent
7 years in West Africa in our family business of imports and exports followed
by two and a half years in Indonesia where I set up and ran
an Electrostatic Flocking plant.
We have
now been in Hong Kong for almost 24 years in the course of which I opened a
buying office for a large group of companies based in West Africa. Our work
focused on two of the three essentials: Food and Shelter. The Hong Kong office
was responsible for sourcing canned goods, basic commodities such
as rice and maize, frozen sea food and building materials and hardware
fro the Far East.
We were
truly importers and exporters; bringing in instant lemon tea and Provence
wine for sale in Hong Kong and exporting green tea fro China to West
Africa.
An
acute shortage of foreign exchange in our markets compelled us in common with
other major companies, to downsize our operations in Hong Kong after 10
years of China trade. Thereafter, following two brief years in the garment trade
I started up on my own. Recently I have linked up with my wife in her giftware
business.
We have
two sons working in investment banking in New York and a daughter who is
preparing for her 'A' levels in Hong Kong.
Living
in Hong Kong is a preparation for life: any place after would seem tame.
One tends to have to learn the skills of a juggler. How else can one balance and
keep going the many demands on one's time? ... work, family, play and yet more
work. Was 24 hours in a day ever enough? And yet, Hong Kong offers much
more.
It is,
still, a cosmopolitan city. There is so much to do. It is up to you to just do
it. You can be alone or you can enjoy the company of good
friends.
This
brings me back to what happened in the 6 or is it 7 months since Neerja told me
to write a little bit for the weekly spot.
In
those months, I have learnt so much more about our fellow members in KGM. We
have truly talented writers in our ranks; a sense of humour, a turn of phrase, a
sense of achievement; there is much to be gleaned from the weekly Vocational
Spot.
We meet every week, we sit, talk, eat and are entertained if
not educated. But like all things in Hong Kong, the time is never
enough. The fellowship is always present but it has taken Neerja to coax us
all into revealing something more of our own lives to each other.
As I started out by saying, Hong Kong, known as the "City of
Lights" is like the Naked City: there are a million stories, and we, the members
of the KGM are just a small part of Hong Kong.
But we have much to be proud of in our Club: its
achievements, its leaders, a sense of belonging and not least its members and
the fellowship we enjoy.
Presidential
Inspiration
For a few weeks now President Cassidy has been regaling us
with inspirational videos. This week we heard the heart warming story of an
elderly lady whose husband chose a picture of her from their
collection, taken many years before, to be used in a publication for a
Club or Society they or she belonged to.
Naturally she was a bit miffed about this because she got a
ribbing from all the members of the club or whatever and slammed into hubby when
she finally reached home the day of publication.
"Why did you give them that picture and humiliate me?" she
furiously complained.
"Humiliate my dear, why would I want to do that?" He replied.
"I gave them the picture that most closely resembles the way
you always look to me".
You could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet, and Harry
after whom the premises we were in was named, smiled a tear or two over the
years, ... and knew what a lucky young lady it will be who finally captures
President Cassidy.
Joke of the
Week
"Cheer For The
Beer Drinker"
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the
beer I drank I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the
workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this
beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say
to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true
than be selfish and worry about my liver.”
Jack Handy
I feel sorry for people who don’t drink.
When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all
day.
Frank Sinatra
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be
drunk to spend time with fools.
Ernest Hemingway
A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t
even have the decency to thank her.
W.C.Field
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave
up reading.
Henny Youngman
24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence?
Stephen Wright
When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk,
we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we
go to heaven. Soooooo, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!
Brian O’Rourke
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to
be happy.
Benjamin Franklin
Without question, the greatest invention in the
history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine
invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
Dave Barry Remember
“I” before “E”, except in Budweiser.
Anon
To some it’s a six-pack, to me it’s a
Support Group!
Anon Anon