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Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club
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PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE
A
(belated) Christmas message from Jeff Crofts
DECEMBER is CHRISTMAS, a time
for family & for thoughts of those less fortunate than ourselves!
November has again been a busy period,
with the District represented at the 37th Rotary Zone Institute
(Zones 7A & 7B) in Adelaide by myself and Gloria, DGE Mike Rennie
and Heather Moyle, DGN Trevor Williams and Margaret and PDG's Lex
Fraser, Laurie Evans, Jim and Jill Beresford, and Frank and Gwenneth
Darveniza.
The Institute is a valuable forum for
current, past and future officers of Rotary International to be
informed on matters of interest and current and future developments
in Rotary. The week prior to the Institute is also an opportunity
for training for DGE's and DGN's, as well as an opportunity for
consideration of issues of mutual concern for current DG's.
A number of positive outcomes were
negotiated by the Australian DG's with respect to initiatives related
to drought relief; Australian Corporate Alliance Program (ACAP);
PROBUS; and child protection issues.
The end of November also marked the
formal charter presentation to the Rotary Club of Dili, Timor
Leste. This took place at a gala evening on 30 November at the newly
refurbished Timor Hotel in Dili, with local traditional dancers
providing a cultural highlight.
The more than one hundred participants,
made up of Dili Club members and friends, invited guests (including
the Australian and New Zealand Ambassadors to Timor Leste), senior
Government representatives, Australian Rotarians (particularly from
Darwin), FAIM Volunteers, and DGN Ritje Rihatinah from Bali, District
3400, ensured that the club's charter was received with great celebration.
The evening was a great success and
was a credit to the hard work and organisational skills of all members
of the Rotary Club of Dili. We expect that this event will be more
fully reported in other Rotary publications in due course. However,
given the importance of this event to our District and to Rotary
in general, I have included details of my presentation to the club
elsewhere in this Newsletter.
We now look forward to the coming Christmas
period, a time for thoughts of family and for caring and sharing
with those less fortunate than ourselves.
Two recent club initiatives in Cairns
epitomise this spirit. The first was the Rotary Club of Cairns
North's "Dreamflight", where 200 disadvantaged children and
their carers were taken on a one-hour mystery flight in a Boeing
767 courtesy of Australian Airlines.
The second was the "Give a Damn,
Give a Can" appeal run by my own club, the Rotary Club of Cairns
Mulgrave, in which donated cans, food and toys were collected,
sorted, packed into Christmas hampers and delivered to over 200
needy families in the Cairns area. Both these projects epitomise
the spirit of Rotary and of Christmas.
To each and every one of you and your
families, may Gloria and I wish a happy and safe Christmas and a
prosperous New Year.
Jeff Crofts Governor, Rotary International
District 9550, 2002-2003
Samurai
Back in the time when samurai were
important there was a powerful emperor who needed a new chief samurai.
So he sent a declaration throughout the land that he was searching
for one.
A year passed and only 3 showed up.
They were: A Japanese samurai A Chinese
samurai A Jewish Samurai
The emperor asked the Japanese samurai
to demonstrate why he should be chief samurai. The Japanese samurai
opened a matchbox and out flew a Bumblebee, swish" went his sword
and the bumblebee dropped dead to the ground in two pieces. "Impressive!"
the emperor exclaimed then he issued the same challenge to the Chinese
samurai to come in and demonstrate why he should get the job.
The Chinese samurai also opened a matchbox
and out flew a fly, "Whoosh! whoosh!" went his sword and the fly
dropped dead to the floor in 4 pieces "THAT is very impressive!"
declared the emperor and brought the Jewish samurai in and issued
the same challenge to demonstrate why he deserved the job.
The Jewish samurai also opened a matchbox
and this time out flew a gnat. "WHOOSH! WHOOSH!" went his sword
but the gnat was still alive and flying around.
The emperor obviously disappointed
asked" After all that why is the gnat not dead?" The Jewish samurai
just smiled and said "circumcision is not meant to kill"
From Bill Winn
I
can't believe we made it!
If you lived as a child in the 40's,
50's, 60's or 70's, looking back it is hard to believe that we have
lived as long as we have.
As children we would ride in cars with
no seat belts or air bags, and riding in the back of a ute on a
warm day was always a special treat.
Our cots were covered with bright coloured
lead-based paint, we had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles,
doors or cupboards and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.
We drank water from the garden hose
and not from a bottle - horrors!
We would spend hours building go-karts
out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find that
we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times
we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning
and play all day, as long as we were home when the streetlights
came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No mobile phones -
unthinkable!
We got cut and broke bones and teeth,
and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents
- no one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights, punched each other
out and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate patty
cakes, bread & butter, and drank red cordial. We were never overweight,
we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with our friends
from one bottle and nobody died from this.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo
X-Boxes, video games, 65 channels on pay TV, video tape movies,
surround sound, personal mobile phones, personal computers, or internet
chat rooms - we had friends. We went outside and found them.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's
place, knocked on the door, just rang the door bell and walked in
and talked to them. Imagine such a thing - without even asking a
parent! Out there in the cold cruel world without a guardian - how
did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis
balls and we ate worms, and although we were told that it would
happen, we did not put out too many eyes, nor did the worms live
inside us forever.
Football and netball had try-outs and
not everybody made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal
with disappointment.
Some students weren't as smart as others
so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason - our actions were our own!
Consequences were expected - no one to hide behind.
The idea of a parent bailing us out
if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the
law - imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever - the past 50 years
has seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, success, failure and
responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all! And guess
what - you are one of them. Congratulations!
Please pass this on to others who have
had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and government regulated
our lives for our own good. And if you are too young to remember
- pass this on to your Mum.
Contributed by Garry Shirvington
From
the Australian Bureau of Statistics
31 Australians have died since 1996
by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged
in.
19 Australians have died in the last
3 years by eating Christmas decorations they believed were chocolate.
Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last
year after cracker pulling incidents.
101 Australians since 1997 have had
to have broken parts of plastic toys pulled out of the soles of
their feet.
18 Australians had serious burns in
1998 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Australians were admitted
to casualty in the last two years after opening bottles of beer
with their teeth or eye socket.
5 Australians were injured last year
in accidents involving out of control scalextric cars.
3 Australians die each year testing
if a 9V battery works on their tongue.
142 Australians were injured in 1998
by not removing all the pins from new shirts.
58 Australians are injured each year
by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers. and finally:
8 Australians cracked their skull in
1997 after falling asleep (passing out) while throwing up into the
toilet. YEP! It's great to be Australian this Christmas!
Anyway
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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