Surviving is hard but oh so much fun (sometimes)
On 7 October, still the “Golden Holiday Week” of 1 October, so no official Rotary lunch. Instead I was asked to help for a “fellowship”, in Paulaner Restaurant (Kempinski).
Small crowd but also with visiting Rotarians from Kansa City, Rotary Club of OLATHE, Kansas City, KS, USA (Club #1625, District 5710).
The Olathe Rotary Club was chartered on August 17, 1937.
Our Sergeant-at-Arms James (yeah, he is an ex-NBA, so….) took care of the banner exchange with Carol.
This year I attended the Rotary China Convention 2014 in Shanghai along with several Rotarians and Rotaractors from Beijing, 20 and 21 September.
RI President Gary was the keynote speaker so was Dr. Cheng Che Min, a 91 year old preeminent professor who was the first Chinese recipient of the Rotary scholarships in 1948. Attended by over 150 Rotarians from over 20 districts and clubs the Convention was very successful event.
I was honored to be another “keynote speaker” in the morning session, to talk about my book Toxic Capitalism, the issues with pollution and CSR.
Some of the other speakers: Graham Earnshaw (well-known author), Richard Hsu (Human City), John Liu (The Art of Healing the Earth), Selma Steenhuisen, Johanna (Rotaract Beijing), Ruby and Piper (Rotary Beijing, and many others, some pictured.
On Saturday evening we had a musical evening in the garden of the hotel, by Nanmo (Nanya Model High School Orchestra), Tijana Kos (Serbia) and Janinia Simion (member of the new Chengdu Rotary Club), and a great BBQ.
We stayed in the Radisson BLU, Hotel Pudong Century Park. See the views of the room and outside. The area around the hotel is pretty lively with bars and restaurants and more.
The hotel also has a bar with a Philippine band, see the pics.
The pictures are just a personal selection (all reduced size for web viewing).
And if you think you see me talking into my mobile, no, I was singing along with “Yueliang Daibiao Wode Xin”, one of my KTV favorites!
The Conference was an important event as we had the exceptional honor the have the Rotary International President, Gary Huang and his wife Corinna, plus a host of other Rotarians from all over China and the world.
Well, Rotary China is growing. We have now three chartered clubs: Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. Plus a series of Rotaract and Interact clubs. Other Rotary Fellowship clubs are starting up and looking forward one day to be chartered.
The event received a great coverage in Global Times, see:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/884897.shtml
A happy meeting to LIGHT UP ROTARY!
Due to government regulations, Rotary Clubs in China, such as our club in Beijing, are not allowed to have Mainland passport holders as members. As a result, recruiting and keeping members is pretty difficult as potential members must be “of good standing” in the community, in other words, be of a certain level. Most expats are here for a short period, usually like five years. Long-term residents are rather few. Worse, recently we have seen an even larger turnover with people leaving because of the difficulty to have a visa/work permit, for the pollution, because of retirment or simply because they do not feel like staying longer.
So, pretty sad to see always good friends leaving. We had a farewell Peking Duck for our always-smiling Swedish lady. We will miss her, as many others.
New members join and finally I can take some rest from my near-permanent role as Sergeant-at-Arms, with James taking over. Now I can enjoy my lunch and put money in the Happy Box as everybody!
James, stick to your job for a while!
On Tuesday 24 June a busy Rotary lunch in our usual Kempinski Hotel.
It was the last official lunch chaired by our President Ruby, before the hand-over on 1 July when another lady – also of Chinese origin – will take over.
We had an interesting speaker, Dr. Christian Geinitz, the Business Correspondent of the German “Franfurter Allgemeine” and author of “Chinas verborgene Schätze – Wie wir am nächsten Aufschwung mitverdienen”, published in December 2013 (in German language only).
Christian gave an insightful view on the impact of the 3rd Plenum, the changes and challenges of China’s industry, environment, labor force, as well as the impact on the world economy and what it can offer as opportunities. He obviously knows what he is talking about, unlike many other “China Specialists”. Several of the issues he covered have a lot in common with my own book (Toxic Capitalism) and with the topics I cover in recent seminars talking about the many challenges China is facing today.
Another part of the lunch was to award Rotarians and family members for their contributions over the year. My wife and daughter were present and received their symbolic “Horse” (it is the year of the Horse!), for their contributions through the Ball and other social events.
I also received my horsy, for my semi-permanent job as Sergeant-at-Arms.
Then came a surprise for me, such that I had to look it up what it actually meant…
I received the “Avenues of Service Citation for Individual Rotarians” from Rotary International and signed by the President of RI.
Whaw. Indeed, I found out (RI publications):
Selection Process
The method of selection is to be determined by the club president. Club presidents may wish to appoint a special committee to select a nominee, or may ask their board of directors to carry out this responsibility. Club nominations are to be submitted by the club president to Rotary International, with an information copy to the district governor.
Eligibility
• The nominee must have consistently demonstrated support of the Object of Rotary through participation in service activities in each of the five Avenues of Service: Club, Vocational, Community, International, and New Generations.
• An individual may only receive this award once.
• The nominee must be an active Rotarian in good standing.
• Rotarians who are ineligible:
current club presidents
current, incoming, and immediate past district governors
current, incoming, and past RI directors
• Only one nominee is eligible per club per Rotary year.
On top of that I found out that in China only a total of 4 such awards were ever given:
Beijing Rotary Club: Carl-Ludwig Doerwald and Regula Hwang Ma.
Shanghai Rotary Club: Frank Yih and Randal Eastman.
So, a real unexpected honor in recognition of, among others, my close work with Rotaract.
Thank you, Beijing Rotary Board!
At our Rotaract Club of Beijing we do not always have “serious” meetings, we also enjoy social evenings. Many of those have been at Great Leap Brewing (near Chunxiu Lu and the Holiday Inn Express Hotel). A Great place indeed with a wide range of home-brewed beers and delicious hamburgers (probably the best in Beijing). A bit noisy as it is usually packed. Here our evening on 16 June.
I could not fail to notice that that sign could also be read LGB-T, if you get the point… Instead of GLB T-shirts…