Gilbert, you have weak kidneys, and forget sex

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in general

Another unpleasant attack of kidney stones in January, fortunately the doctor at SOS did a miracle and the horrible pain disappeared in 20 minutes. Grateful for that.
The Chinese mafia in my house brought in the TCM connections. Oh yes, “I have weak kidneys”. Now in Chinese TCM that is quite a sensitive subject as “kidneys” here refer not just to our Western “kidneys” but to a whole concept of well-being and of … sex. Doing some search produced totally different opinions on what “seniors” are supposed to do in bed. According to the Chinese, based on some “specialist” who lived like some 2,000 years ago, once you reach a certain age, men should limit their bed activities.

Dr. Sun Si Miao, a physician and Taoist of the Tang Dynasty who lived from 580 to 682 (101 years), gives the following guidelines for a healthy amount of sexual activity. TCM recommendations given over 2500 years ago:

  • Teens:  Contrary to what the media pressures us to believe in today’s society, in Ancient China it was thought that teenagers didn’t have enough strong, mature energy to engage in sexual activity yet.
  • 20′s: It is healthy to have sexual intercourse once every 4 days.  Engaging in sex more frequently at this age runs the risk of prematurely depleting Kidney essence.
  • 30′s: Once every 8 days
  • 40′s: Once every 16 days
  • 50′s: Once every 20 days
  • 60′s: Once a month, if the individual is fairly healthy.  If the individual had a history of health disorders or generalized weakness, then only occasional sexual activities was recommended.
  • 70′s: Whether healthy or not, sex would use up too much energy therefore sex is not recommended at all.

Needless to say, Western views are kind of very very different… Funny how Chinese still swear by all that stuff while people have changed over the ages, better nutrition, health and more open minds.
More about it: “Sex and the Kidney”, the TCM view:
http://taliamarcheggiani.com/2012/01/17/sex-and-the-kidney/

And some of the Western views: “Sexual activity is a natural and important part of a healthy lifestyle, no matter what your age.” See:
http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-sante/sexual-sexuelle/senior-aine-eng.php

Anyway, I am always ready to explore TCM, so I accepted to follow some weeks of drinking a pretty awful concoction, prescribed by a “very experienced TCM specialist”. We have a special brewing pot that simmers for hours. Each time it produces like 10 small bottles, enough for about 3 days (kept in the fridge).
Whatever the effect, the stones disappeared (at least for now) and the rest, well, I don’t mention.

Beijing Rotary and Avenues of Service Citation

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in Rotary

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!

Rotaract social evening at Great Leap Brewing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

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…

Exploring The Pho Laboratory with Rotaract

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On 27 May we had an unplanned gathering of Rotaract friends in the tiny restaurant “The Pho Laboratory”, a Vietnamese noodle outlet across the street from the Great Leap Brewing restaurant. Thanks Jaime for setting this up.

 

I should go back there again to have a real dinner as the noodles tasted great but I had had another dinner that evening. And I need to find out more about their banner “Notre Dame Club”: every year I talk to their (E)MBA students visiting Beijing. A very well known U.S. University.

Birthdays and more birthdays!

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I did not post yet the pics of our birthdays. We have pretty unusual dates: myself 31 December, Sun 14 February. Valerie follows on 21 February.
Sun got two cakes on Valentine. As usual we celebrate in Morel’s Restaurant.

Except for Valerie as she had to work, she wanted her Japanese sushi and we had other friends joining.