A walk in the park on a Sunday morning.
Weather was beautiful; flowers everywhere and the greenery was just captivating. This was the experience of a few Rotarians led by President Aaron at this morning walk at the Botanic Garden. It was a good start for the group comprising of President Aaron, Cze Hong, Chris, Jean,Sigrid and Mark to usher in a new form of Rotary fellowship - healthy, refreshing and inexpensive. The walk ended up with light refreshments at Mr. Prata. (not sure if it was light if you had prata eggs with onion?)
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| President Aaron and the Botanic Walkers before the plunge at Mr. Prata. |
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| Sigrid and Cze Hong posing at the Botanic Garden |
"RCRC triumphs in Golf (again)
by Jeffrey Chan
18 RCRC Rotarians and family members led by President Aaron and PE Cze Hong woke up early on Good Friday to take a long bus ride to the Tropicana Golf and Country Club in Shah Alam, Selangor for the Annual Golf Challenge Cup competition with our sister-club, R C di-Raja KL. 5 competitive flights and one social flight did battle on the greens, pouring rain notwithstanding. In true form and tradition, despite the best efforts of the di-Raja Club, we emerged trimuphantly as the runner-ups (i.e. 2/2). This achievement was made sweeter when PP Kaka emerged as our top golfer and we swept most of the novelty prizes.
Where we truly shorne was the fellowship during and after the golf came. R C di-Raja rescheduled their weekly meeting to take place at the Tropicana immediately after the golf game. This was 25 kms away from their normal weekly meeting venue at Shangri-la KL. Yet numerous diRaja Rotarians made the journey, obviously just to join us in the fellowship. The warm atmosphere of friendship, plentiful food and mellow lubricants made the evening truly enjoyable and memorable. It was fondly recalled that this annual golf series began when Horst of d-Raja and Billy of RCRC were the respective International Service Directors and were thinking of ways and means to bring the 2 clubs closer. So they dug into their pockets and came up with this Challenge Cup.
As earlier pledged, di-Raja presented RCRC a cheque for USD$1000 (SGS$1250) for our community projects. In turn President Aaron presented di-Raja with a "crystal" model of a lion. All golfers received goodie bags while the RCRC ladies received Rotary handbag holders from d-Raja.
Our Rotarians joined PP Jason of di-Raja in the rousing karoake after the dinner with Johnson strongly re-affirming in song that he is a "Teochew-lang". President Aaron did his best.
For some of us, the long day and huge repasts were were still insufficient. So at past midnight a delegation explored a food centre in Petaling Jaya for supper. Bedtime was thus for most of us well past midnight at the Holiday Inn Glenmarie. We are still wondering why we were booked at that isolated hotel rather than somewhere near town.
The next day PE Chan Kum Fatt of R C di-Raja brought all of us, except those who had made other plans, out for breakfast at PJ, and also for a "bak-kut-teh" lunch in KL. President Andy of di-Raja and his family joined us. Everyone then was to assemble at the "main entrance" of KLCC for the trip home. How were we to know that KLCC actually has 5 "main entrances". But with lots of Rotarian goodwill, patience, and moblie phones, everything was sorted out. The sumptuous seafood dinner that evening was at Lee's Restaurant in Ayer Keroh, Malacca, featuring the highly recommended "cheese noodles". We thank President Aaron for succumbing to the unanimous encouragement to pay for the dinner.
PP Jimmy led a vote of thanks to PP Eugene for organising the event and President Aaron for arranging the travel. We noted and thanked the di-Raja Club for their generousity and Rotary Fellowship. PP Jimmy urged that we reciprocate in kind and more when it is our turn to host this Annual Challenge Cup. The di-Raja Rotarians have gone out of their way for us. It is only right that we do the same for them".
"Installation Dinner of Rotary Club of d-Raja, Kuala Lumpur: the Installation Dinner of the Rotary Club of di-Raja, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, District 3300, will be held on 15 July 2012 in Kuala Lumpur. Rotarians of Raffles City are invited to attend. As with all Installation Dinners of the di-Raja Club, this will be a fund-raising event."
RCRC Meeting of 3 April 2012: Report
by Jeffrey Chan
We had a small number of visiting Rotarians including PP Uttam Kirpalani of the Rotary Club of Singapore, a very welcome regular at our lunch meetings, Rotary Dinesh from Colombo and a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Neanderthal, Germany -Dr. Tobias Schulz-Isenbeck . Neanderthal was where the fossils of the Neanderthal Man was found. The Club has so far declined to admit lady members, leading one of our members to quip that he now knows why the club is called “Neanderthal”. To encourage the club to move forward, President Aaron asked all the lady members of RCRC present at the meeting to present our club banner to our most appreciative visitor.
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| Lady members of RCRC present at the meeting to present our club banner to our most appreciative visitor from the Rotary Club of Neanderthal, Germany - Dr. Tobias Schulz-Isenbeck |
Nidhi to mobilize members of RCRC to form a new VWO the
“Crohn's & Colitis Society of Singapore”
Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The guest speaker was Dr Michelle Gowans of NUH who spoke on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Rtn Nidhi who introduced Michelle breached medical confidentiality by disclosing that she had suffered from IBD for quite some time before this was diagnosed. She came to understand how seriously debilitating IBD can be and resolved to do something to help sufferers of this. Dr Gowans explained that IBD is different from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which is quite common in Singapore. The causes are still unknown but it is an auto-immune condition which presents itself in severe pain, constant bowel movements and ulcerations in the gut. IBD patient can suffer from depression and constant social inconvenience which then leads to immobility and also inability to secure or retain employment. Nidhi has mobilised members of RCRC club to form a new VWO called the “Crohn's & Colitis Society of Singapore” to create awareness of this disease and assist sufferers. Nidhi is the protem President. Other members of the protem committee include Low Siew Joon, Low Cze Hong, Vincent, Kaka and Uttam Kirpalani. RCRC will no doubt be supporting this new society and members can expect to hear more about this society in the coming months. This society will join the Singapore Dyslexia Association as VWOs established by RCRC Rotarians of Raffles City.
Given the subject-matter of Dr Gowans’s talk, it was considerate of Nidhi to commence the talk only after we had completed our lunch.
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| The guest speaker Dr Michelle Gowans of NUH receiving a token of appreciation from PE Cze Hong |
13th Malaysian General Elections
in the Air.
Speculations are rife in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur that the 13th General Elections will be held either in June or the very latest September this year. June seems to be the more appropriate date given that July is the starting month of Ramadhan and September would probably will be a little too late as things would have mellowed down immediately after the Hari Raya celebration in the month of August.
Be it in June or September, the key questions that are generally being asked by many people are:
Q. Will the Barisan Nasional be able to win a two third majority or at the very least maintain a large majority in the Parliament?
Q. Will the Barisan Nasional be able to win back Selangor after losing to the opposition in the last General Elections?
Q. Can Barisan Nasional regain dominance in Penang from DAP?
Q. Will Anuar Ibrahim be able to rise as the next Prime Minister of Malaysia should the opposition wins the mandate to become the ruling coalition?
These were some of the discussion points tabled during the luncheon talk by Dr. Johan Saravanamuttu, Visiting Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. The talk drew an enthusiastic response from a large turn out of Rotarians and visiting Rotarians who fielded probing questions to the speaker.
Two conclusions could be drawn from the talk:
1) The coalition government trend in Malaysia will continue to be the main feature of Malaysian politics in the future.
2) Najib whose popularity rating has risen from 69 to 79 points in a recent independent poll, seemed to be a popular figure among neighbouring countries.
The talk even aroused the interests of visiting foreign Rotarians at the meeting.
Attention,please ! |
| Dr.Johan stressing the point on coalition party politics in Malaysia |
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| Dr.Johan receiving a token of appreciation from PP Mohan |
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| Pres.Aaron presenting the Club's flag to a visiting PDG from the USA |
R I Convention 2012: this will be held in Bangkok from 6-9 May 2012. The venue is the Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre. As it is being held so near to Singapore RCRC members are strongly urged to attend . Kindly inform Preident Aaron if you are able to attend.
New F & B Manager of Singapore Cricket Club: Mr Daljeet Singh, the newly appointed F & B manager of the SCC, visited us immediately after the meeting on 3 April. It turned out that he is a Rotarian, previously from the R C of Bukit Lampong, Sumatra. We could thus immediately speak with him using the same language. He promised us his co-operation. Unsurprisingly, we asked him to join our club and he was not adverse to this. We look forward to welcoming him as one of our number.
Club Attendance: our attendance at meetings continues to be disppointing. We have a commitment of at least 20 diners for each meeting, failing which a minimum charge will be imposed by the SCC. Members are urged to attend the club meetings whenever they can. Also, members attending are requested to join in the lunch. The SCC is well known for the quality of its food and the price for the quality of food and ambience is very reasonable.
Outstanding Monies: concern has been expressed by many members over the large number of arrears owed by some members. Some debts have been outstanding for quite some time. Also, some debts were in respect of purchase of tables at club events which the club has already paid for. Members are asked to clear their arrears as soon as possible. The club has to pay dues to R I and the District for every member. Thus is the member does not pay his assessed dues or other expenses incurred by the club on his behalf, it is the other members of the club that end up having to pay for him. This is patently unfair. Under the R I Constitution, members in arrears can have their membership terminated. A Rotarian whose membership has been terminated in prohibited from joining any Rotary Club in the world. The name of the terminated Rotarian and the reasons for his termination can also be made public.
