Tom Wheeler's Talk, Steve du Plessis on Somewhere Equally Exotic! Farewell to John Paisley.....and Don't Forget the Big Walk!

Tom Wheeler in many different guises and wearing many different hats!  The photo in the middle is him in his traditional Uzbek attire the others are his various work clothes.  They are made of silk and as industrial clothing are tax deductible.  It was a very interesting talk on the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia.  The natural mineral wealth and their sheer size was quite amazing.  Many thanks, Tom.  Perhaps we can welcome you back at some stage to talk about other aspects of foreign policy relating to the region?

Presidents in our Club are a bit like monarchs, in profile they face to the left and then to the right from reign to reign.  After the left-facing President Graham Donet comes the right-facing Jankees Sligcher.  Congratulations, Jankees, on being our President-elect for 2011 -12!  The moustache is an addition.  His idea is that to counteract the female habit of wearing tiaras to formal Club events all men should wear moustaches.  They don't have to be grown, just stuck on.  One of our members will bare an uncanny resemblance to a well-known historical moustacheur if he combs his hair slightly differently!

It's our member talk this week and Steve du Plessis is going to talk on Hawaii where he was based for a while.  I thought about a hula girl picture and then realised that it would probably be wasted on 51% of the Club.

As we are a democracy, I opted for a landscape that could be  Mozambique.  In order to liven things up here's another landscape!

Rather sadly John Paisley is returning to Cape Town so we have effectively lost him already.  Here he is announcing his impending departure.  He will remain a member of our Club until he finds one that he will enjoy in the Fairest Cape.  We are sorry to see him go but he was introduced to Rotary by our Club and is not lost to the organisation and that is the most important thing of all.

I rather like the concept of Rotary Peace Fellows.  Here's what one of them, Kelly Nichols, has to say:

I was in a taxi on the way to testify before Congress on the situation facing Colombia’s human rights defenders, the first time I was to appear before a congressional hearing, and I had the jitters.

I turned to my Colombian colleague – a  human rights lawyer with two decades of experience backing the victims of Colombia's 40-year war – and asked if he felt anxious too.

“What makes me nervous is the thought of returning to Colombia after these hearings and what could follow,” he responded.

In that moment, he summed up the challenge of my job as executive director of the independent U.S. Office on Colombia and as an advocate in Washington, D.C., defending human rights workers. None of it would have been possible without the Rotary Peace Fellowship I was awarded for 2005-07.

I’d just returned from working with indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Chiapas, Mexico, and wanted to promote peace and conflict resolution, but had no idea how to move forward without a master’s degree. Then a person I met while volunteering for Oxfam told me about the Rotary Peace Centers program. Being Australian, I contacted the Rotary Club of Roseville Chase, in a suburb of Sydney, and a few months later, I was selected as one of 50 fellowship recipients.

The program brought me to the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom to study international conflict resolution where I focused on mediation and politics. I developed friendships with other fellows – two of them came to Australia for my wedding. I was able to research human rights, regional politics in Latin America and Africa, internal displacement, religion, and conflict resolution.

I was fortunate to do my applied field experience – a requirement of the Rotary Peace Fellowship – with the United Nations independent expert on minority issues. I examined human rights abuses against Afro-Colombians, who have been disproportionally affected by conflict, especially by forced displacement.

Now, three years after graduating, I’ve met with young women who have shown me their wedding photos, much like my own. The difference is that their husbands are dead, murdered by the armed forces and later dressed up to look like enemy guerrillas killed in combat. Between January 2007 and July 2008, nearly one person a day was murdered by the armed forces.

Efforts to bring international attention to this have forced the government to purge some officers and officials. In my position at the U.S. Office on Colombia, I have met with senior Obama administration officials and members of Congress to urge them to pressure Colombian leaders to end the lethal abuse of power. We’ve been able to reduce the number of “extrajudicial executions.” We’ve also helped persuade the country’s government to rid the armed forces of over 50 rogue officers and senior officials, and to establish an armywide human rights curriculum.

Doing what I do takes commitment, but it also requires training. That’s where my Rotary Peace Fellowship kicked in. I learned so much from my two years at Bradford that I’ve been able to put to use. Without that preparation, I’m not sure I would have been able to make any headway at all in a country with such complex and entrenched conflict.

After the congressional hearing, my Colombian colleague said to me, “Do you have any idea how important the work is that your organization is doing to allow us to continue to help Colombian victims?” In this line of work, it’s hard to measure success, and calculating numbers doesn’t seem all that relevant. Saving one person makes it worthwhile.

Don't forget the Rotary Spring Charity Walk this coming Sunday at Modderfontein.  Just to show that even I can do it, here's a happy finisher last year!

Welcome Gidon Jude! Kate Henry, the Club Assembly and Tom Wheeler this Week.

Welcome, Gidon Jude.  President Graham was away in Durban so I had the privilege of inducting him into our Club.  We have inducted 4 new members in the last 6 weeks.

Allan Beuthin and the Membership Committee are confident that we will reach our target this year....that's what he said at our Club Assembly on Saturday!

The Assembly was well attended and very constructive and what is more to the point, it was great to be there.  New Dawn has the ability to keep things short, light hearted and to the point so we all enjoyed it!  Here's a collage of the Assembly.

Our speaker last week was Kate Henry, recently moved from the Rosebank & Killarney Gazette to the Sandton Sun as News Editor.  She spoke on what it meant to be a journalist on a community newspaper.  It was interesting.  Our Club has two former and one active journalist as members which put a different complexion on her talk.  Our speaker this week is Tom Wheeler of the SA Institute for International Affairs on "The Great Game in Central Asia" where he was South African Ambassador for several years doubling, or trebling up as ambassador to Turkey.  Here's Tom, just out of bed, greeting the then Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, in October 1997.

Jenine Coetzer flashed around with her camera last week!  Thanks Jenine...but why is Don Lindsay bigger than anyone else!

The video is of Julie Andrew's triumphant début on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle in the original version of My Fair Lady in 1956.

Canadian Rotarian Swims to End Polio

A 43-year-old Rotarian from Dundas, Ontario, Canada, raised thousands of dollars for polio eradication through her attempt to swim 32 miles across Lake Ontario earlier this month.

Although Thie Convery’s Swim to End Polio did not end as she had hoped -- weather conditions forced her to stop halfway across the lake -- she helped her Rotary club raise US$44,000 for Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge. The Rotary Club of Dundas hopes to bring in an additional $30,000 through three future fundraisers that will capitalize on the publicity the swim generated.

“I was plugging along. I could have swum to Newfoundland. But we just didn’t have luck on our side,” Convery said, of the decision to end the event after eight hours. The 6-foot waves were getting larger, and support boats were having difficulty keeping Convery in sight. “I was very disappointed. But safety is the most important thing,” she said.

Her effort received extensive print and broadcast coverage, both before and after the event. She said Rotary clubs throughout Canada have contributed directly to Rotary’s challenge after hearing about the attempt.

“We wanted to raise awareness, and we certainly did that,” she said.

Convery, a financial adviser, said she decided to take on the endeavor after club members gathered last year to discuss raising money for the challenge.

Motivation

She was also motivated by her friendship with two polio survivors. Sadique Alli, a former Dundas club member, contracted the disease as a child in India and now uses a leg brace to walk. Convery also met Ramesh Ferris, of the Rotary Club of Whitehorse, Yukon, several times, and earned his support. Ferris hand-cycled across Canada in 2008 to raise more than C$300,000 for polio eradication.

Before her training, she had never swum more than a few laps in a local pool.

"I'm not a distance swimmer. But when the idea came up a year ago, I decided to begin training," explained Convery, who achieved a national ranking in Canada as a drug-free bodybuilder six years ago. "I'm used to being physical. But this was really something different."

After months of practicing the efficient, gliding strokes necessary for long-distance swimming, Convery completed a 12-mile swim across Lake Erie in June, which served as a qualifier. Solo Swims of Ontario, a volunteer group that governs solo attempts to swim long distances, assesses swimmers and their crew for preparedness.

On 7 August, Convery dropped into Lake Ontario at Niagara-on-the-Lake at around 9:40 a.m., accompanied by a small fleet of boats loaded with support crew, physicians, and lifeguards. About 15 miles into the swim, and well short of her goal to reach Toronto, Convery's crew decided to pull her out of the water.

“She made a fantastic effort,” said Karen Cumming, a friend who handled publicity. “If it had not been for the weather, she would have made it across.”

Convery said that she has not ruled out another attempt, and that she was touched by the dedication of her crew and the support of Rotarians. “To look around and see the faces of the people who committed their time, energy, and money -- that was the most powerful experience.”

“We did make a difference,” she added. “We didn’t get across the lake, but we definitely made a difference. Ask the children who will be receiving polio vaccine if it was worth it.”

Welcome Kate Henry. John Paisley on Madagascar and a Rotary Peace Scholar from Zambia.

John Paisley gave us a very interesting talk on Madagascar last week.  Just seeing the pictures made me want to go there.  The size of Madagascar is amazing!  I suppose we naturally think of it as a small island off the African coast.  I liked his comment on it being a destination for the non-fastidious tourist, non faint-hearted as well!   I was particularly struck by those strange limestone formations at Tsingy.  And I mustn't forget the beaches.












 
This week we have Kate Henry as our guest speaker.  She is the News Editor of the Killarney Rosebank Gazette and has really helped us a lot with publicity.  I don't know what she is going to talk to us about but it does give us the opportunity to say thank you for all the help she has given us in the past.


Next Saturday is the Club Assembly.  I'm sure President Graham will have more to say about it on Wednesday.  Don't forget that we have to find a President Elect for the Rotary Year 2011/12 and that nominations have to be in by Saturday Morning.  Mike Vink will no doubt tell us who has been nominated on Wednesday. 

The video bar has some interesting Beatles videos of "Let It Be" including a dreadful cover version by a Russian Navy group....enjoy it!

Protecting the World's Most Vulnerable People

by Dan Dixon

Francis Kabosha says that growing up in the southern African nation of Zambia has given him a heart for helping refugees.

“Zambia is poor, just like many other third world countries, but quite peaceful, with a long history of looking after those displaced by violent conflict,” he says.

A 2008-10 Rotary Peace Fellow, Kabosha recently began serving as an officer in the returns, reintegration, and recovery section of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, working in support of refugees and the internally displaced. Previously, he was a refugee officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia.

“I have been a resource person on refugee protection and have conducted several workshops for government officials, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], and UNHCR field staff,” Kabosha says. “I have done human rights and disaster management training, among other areas of humanitarian work.”

Kabosha is the first peace fellow to complete both the professional development certificate program and the master’s degree program offered by the Rotary Peace Centers. After earning his certificate at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2007, he worked for UNHCR with government and nongovernment representatives to repatriate refugees living in the Mwange camp along the Zambian border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was responsible for administration of refugee affairs in the camp and enforcing national, regional, and international conventions, statutes, and protocols for protecting refugees. He also trained refugee leaders in building and maintaining peace in their communities.

Kabosha says his experiences with UNHCR and the certificate program “triggered the desire for advanced training in conflict resolution and management,” leading him to study as a Paul and Jean Elder Endowed Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford in England, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nkwazi, Zambia. During his applied field experience, he worked in joint peace-building efforts with the West African Youth Network in Sierra Leone and its partners, including the Ministry of Defense, Office of National Security, Special Court for Sierra Leone, and National Commission for Social Action.

His “desire to serve the needy has grown from one level to another,” Kabosha says, instilling in him a commitment “to protect the world’s most vulnerable persons: refugees, who as a result of violent conflicts, find themselves as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.”

John Paisley, the Business Meeting, a Video and Haiti Six Months Later

The second Wednesday of the month will usually be a talk by one of our members. I say "usually" because next month the second Wednesday will be a Business Meeting because of the way the beginning of the month falls!

This week it's John Paisley, MD of The Coaching Centre, and here he is with the staff in front of The Long House, Dreyersdal in Bergvliet.

He used to be a professional photographer and he's going to be talking to us about Madagascar. I'm definitely looking forward to the photographs!

Coincidently another of our members, Arthur Begley, is leaving his assignment with International SOS as Occupational & Primary Care Doctor in Luanda and is being reassigned to Madagascar. This means that he will be in South Africa for longer periods and we will see him more frequently.

Last week's Business Meeting was a very full one and started off with Jenine Coetzer and Steve du Plessis being inducted as members of our Club. Welcome! I had the privilege of inducting them as President Graham was ill. We all hope you will be back in the saddle this week, Graham.




An integral part of the our Business Meeting was the visit by Mike Sunker and Gift Ntshangase from CCCCC as a sign of our increasing involvement there. What started as soccer team sponsorship through last year's District Soccer Initiative with Street Children has fast become a relationship that we value highly.

The last two meetings have been taken up with mug shots of all our members...I think there are only two to go....for the new Club website that is under construction thanks to Peter Rolfe. This blog will be linked to it and I am sure that this will raise the Club's profile.

Jankees Sligcher mentioned a video his daughter, Genevieve, had organised for the UK based Zimbabwe Children's Charity Vimba.


Rotary begins to allocate resources to Haiti

More than six months after Haiti sustained a massive earthquake, Rotary clubs and account holders of the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund are beginning to allocate resources to help rebuild schools, provide prosthetics, and equip thousands with adequate shelter.
Despite assistance from around the world, the situation in Haiti remains bleak. An estimated 1.5 million Haitians still live in tent cities, while billions of dollars in aid from foreign countries has yet to materialize. Debris from 280,000 destroyed homes and buildings clogs the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Rotarians have contributed more than US$2 million to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, a donor advised fund set up by The Rotary Foundation.
"By beginning the work on many of the projects, we anticipate that additional funds will be contributed by Rotarians who are motivated to continue that help," says Past RI Vice President Eric E. Lacoste Adamson, an account holder and member of the Rotary Club of Front Royal, Virginia, USA. "We also hope to encourage other partners and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] to match these funds so that we can double or triple the impact of the funds in Haiti."
Local Rotarians, the Haiti Task Force, established two years ago to administer financial aid to the nation, and District 7020 (Haiti and parts of the Caribbean) review and coordinate every project. Some of the initiatives include:
District 6990 (Grand Bahama Island; part of Florida, USA) will raise $40,000 to help rebuild a medical clinic in Kenscoff. The Haiti fund will provide the balance of the $80,000 project.
District 7570 (parts of Tennessee and Virginia, USA) will rebuild Catherine Flon College in Carrefour with help from the Haiti fund.
Rotarians in Canada has gathered school supplies and furniture. The Haiti fund will allocate $21,000 to ship the items to Haiti.
The Haiti fund will contribute $10,000 toward a vehicle to serve as transportation for midwives.
The Rotary Club of Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and the Good Samaritan Foundation began construction on a new school in Île à Vache, an island off the southern coast of Haiti. About $50,000 from the Haiti fund has been allocated to the school. Emergency aid still needed.
The Tortola club also has provided $25,000 in emergency food aid to Île à Vache, which has been overwhelmed by the mass migration of quake victims from mainland Haiti. The island’s population doubled to nearly 30,000 in the last three months, says club member Stephen Cooper. "This increase in population has put immense pressure on the fishing- and farming-based community, where food and resources were already scarce before the earthquake," Cooper says.
Rotarians in the British Virgin Islands have links with Île à Vache that predate the disaster, he says. they appealed to District 7020 for help after community leaders on the island described the situation.
The first of what will be a series of $5,000 food distributions took place in June, with the Rotary Club of Cayes, Haiti, overseeing the project. The rice, beans, and cooking oil were all purchased locally.
"The food was carefully portioned out and distributed fairly among those in need," Cooper says. "Rotarians should feel proud of the contribution they have made to ease the suffering of the people of Haiti. I saw with my own eyes that this food is making the difference between life and death for many people."

Tom Wheeler & Business.

As we guessed Tom completely forgot about us last week. Even when he was an Ambassador it was often a close run thing. Here he is greeting the Uzbek President still in his dressing gown.

We've rescheduled his talk for the 25th August and he has made a big note in his diary on the day before....he is filled with apologies for not turning up.

This week is our monthly Business Meeting. I normally wait until after the meeting before posting the blog just in case there is something to add. I don't think there ever has been so I'm sending it out tonight!








Foundation Alumni to gather in Cape Town

Former Ambassadorial Scholars who studied at the University of Cape Town and graduates of the university who spent their Rotary scholarship year abroad will be able to meet one another and reconnect with The Rotary Foundation during Ray’s Rotary Reunions in South Africa, 3-5 February in Cape Town.

The first of the three reunions will feature addresses by RI President Ray Klinginsmith and the university’s vice chancellor, as well as social events and campus tours.

“We have had over 41,000 former Ambassadorial Scholars worldwide, and we have lost track of many of them,” says Klinginsmith, who proposed the reunions. “This is an experiment, and if it works well, it will become a model for other universities in other countries.”

Rotarians in District 9350 (Angola; Namibia; South Africa) will host the events. The more than 3,500 former Ambassadorial Scholars, Group Study Exchange team members, and other Foundation alumni who studied in or are from the five districts in Southern Africa — 9210, 9270, 9320, 9350, and 9400 — are invited to participate in a larger reunion on 4 February.

Klinginsmith, a 1960-61 Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Cape Town, suggested an alumni reunion several years ago while visiting the city. As the first person from his native Unionville, Missouri, USA, to study abroad, he logged over 15,000 miles speaking to 35 Rotary clubs in Southern Africa, including present-day Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“It provided an exposure to the world,” Klinginsmith says. “I had traveled in the United States, but I had never been out of the country, and there was a good possibility that I would not have left the United States other than in the military.”

Spirit of service

Two weeks after Klinginsmith returned to Missouri, he joined the Rotary Club of Unionville. Since then, he has applied the ideals that he first learned as a scholar.

“They all were aware of that at the time of their study or visit abroad, but some of our alumni may have lost that spirit,” says Klinginsmith, now a member of the Rotary Club of Kirksville. “We want to regenerate that spirit of service.”

Rotarians from the five participating districts are invited to attend the 4 and 5 February reunions.

On the last day, 5 February, District 9350 will host an event for all Rotarians who have been involved or are interested in international service projects in Southern Africa. Klinginsmith encourages visiting Rotarians to seek out potential projects under the guidance of local clubs to further Reach Out to Africa, a two-year-old initiative to match the resources of the Foundation and clubs in developed economies with needs in Africa. The event is also open to alumni.

During the reunions, alumni will also have the opportunity to view ongoing and potential Rotary club projects in the area.

“You don’t have to be a Rotarian to work on a service project. You don’t have to be a Rotarian to make a contribution to the Foundation,” Klinginsmith says. “We need to keep our alumni involved.”

Attendees will be encouraged to travel in South Africa, and local Rotarians will help make arrangements, including providing contact information for Rotarians outside of Cape Town, says reunion committee chair Rodney Mazinter.

Alumni and Rotarians interested in attending one or more of the reunions should contact Mazinter at mavrod@iafrica.com or 27-21-438-9377 to add themselves to the mailing list (for reunion and Foundation purposes only).