Surviving is hard but oh so much fun (sometimes)
On the evening of 10 December 2015 Beijing Rotary and Beijing Rotaract joined forces for a social event, this time at the Belgian Morel’s Restaurant on Gongti Bei Lu.
We had a total of 20 Rotarians and guests and 16 Rotaractors.
Very lively and successful evening, all seemed happy with the great deal of only RMB 150 per person, all included except extra drinks.
Rotary Beijing’s General Assembly took place on 8 December 2015. Eighteen members attended and formed a quorum. Incoming board for 2016-17 was elected:
PE Daniel Roetting (President 2016-17)
Vice President, Club Secretary: Martin G.
IPP 2016-17 Daniel A.
Treasurer: Rene S.
Membership Committee: Chris V.
Service Project Committee: Christian B.
Foundation Committee: Stefan A.
Youth Services Committee: Dominic L.
President Elect: Russell B.
(pictures by Celine)
The members also approved the change of club bylaws and discussed the regular club meeting time.
New Member Induction: Membership Chair Chris hosted the induction of two new members: Ms. Monica D. and Mr. Klaus Z. Chris put the Rotary pin on the new members and President Daniel handed over the induction certificates.
Visiting Rotarian Arleen and President Daniel exchanged banners
This time I was back for the monthly lunch on Friday 4 December, in Morel’s as usual.
We were exactly twenty, we always have a different mix of people. And they all are chatting happily, the ,old-fashioned way.
Next lunch is Friday 8 January as the first Friday is, well, kinda special!
With the high turn-over we have in our Beijing Rotaract Club, there was a need to fill some empty seats.
On Monday 7 December a great turnout, beating all records: 28 attended the meeting in The Bookworm.
I could not make it as I had another event to attend, but I got some pictures of the meeting.
Happy to say, there was no problem to fill the vacant positions.
Rotaract has several events lined up: many members will join the Christmas dinner at Morel’s Restaurant on Thursday evening 10 December. Many Rotarians will join too.
On the morning of Saturday 12 December, a group of Rotaractors will head to a migrant children school located in the South of Beijing, where they will mingle with ten kids with hearing difficulties. It is part of the long-term cooperation with the Migrant Children Foundation. The volunteers will teach the children clip art, make clay and play fun games.
Well, that is what Chinese government gives you as a message.
Try: http://www.bjgaj.gov.cn/eng/
Good luck. What I understand, the websites are tailored to be visited only by Windows users (how much were they paid for that?). Use Apple and you are out of luck.
Now, how more short-sighted can that be? As a webmaster I even wonder how they managed that filtering in their web design.
We already are living in an Intranet in China, not Internet. Isolated from the world, unable to reach the most important websites one needs for research and business. And forget many of the international email platforms, blocked in China.
In other words:
Unless of course you think Baidu delivers “information”. I had a hilarious moment with a Chinese friend looking up the word “horny” on Baidu. He found it was well, some rough skin stuff. I explained it was not really that meaning…
Oh well. China says it opens the door more and more. They forgot to say they installed double glass in the doorways, so the “flies” will not come in.
There are still many naïve foreigners who did not get it. Until they sit in their 5-star hotel and can’t open gmail.
I just wonder what all those hundreds of thousand of Chinese who study and travel abroad think when returning home. And are back in their isolation.
So, when the government talks about “innovation and creativity”, allow me to become cynical.
And this sarcastic comment from Sinocism:
“Mark Zuckerberg’s Donation Spurs Philanthropy Debate in China – China Real Time Report – WSJ – One of the jokes going around is that the announcement must be fake because when a PRC user tries to find Facebook their browser says the site does not exist…”