Rotary Club of Trenton
Serving Our Community since 1922
http://www.trentonrotary.ca/
Rotary Bulletin for Oct. 18, 2010
In a surprise move the Holiday Inn decided we should move our meeting to the catacombs of their facility. Once again we suffered through the crowding, lineups and poor acoustics of the HI dungeon. I guess to make up for the poor surroundings we were treated to a choice of two kinds of overcooked fish.
Be that as it may, President Joan called the meeting to order with the singing of O’ Canada, a toast to The Queen and then Rotary Grace.
Head Table: tonight’s head table comprised guest speakers Tanyss and Gem Munro, PP Bert, Secty Steve and Treas Kurt.
The Munros are flanked by Pres Joan and PP Bert.
Guests Joining us this evening were HR Gwen, Rot Keith from Ajax, the offspring of the Munro’s, Grace, Gabriel and Alistair, Don Love, Rot Michael Maloney of the Belleville Club, Lynn Brearley and Dianne and Leighton Kemp.
Grace, Gabriel and Alistair Munro were absolutely delightful guests.
Happy Bucks
· A beaming PP Bert had J $ to announce the birth of his fourth grandchild, a son to Kathleen.
· Rot Linda had a mixed feeling $20 for the news that she has received a promotion J but it means that she will move to a Belleville branch and likely not be able to continue as a member at our club L.
· Dir Joe had $10, half for his son Colin’s marriage last Saturday and half to recognize PE Ken and his wife Barbara for their friendship.
· Rot Tammy had $20 to recognize her upcoming wedding anniversary, one dollar for each year she and Brad have been wed.
· PE Ken had $10 for his and his dog Wilson’s upcoming birthdays.
· Rot Jinni had $5 to advise that her practice will be providing a low cost spay and neuter clinic for pets of local families that are on limited incomes. Our members can help Jinni in this initiative by donating blankets that the animals can be wrapped in post-surgery. The 8 hour clinic will take place on Saturday Oct 30th.
What a wonderful initiative by Rot Jinni and her team.
· PP Edna had $10 for an upcoming November of golf in Florida.
· Rot Sheri Lynn had $5 for a recent week on Saltspring Island where she likely sang Kumbaya everyday.
Kumbaya apparently originated with the Gullah, an African-American people living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. (The best known Sea Island is Hilton Head, the resort area.) Having lived in isolation for hundreds of years, the Gullah speak a dialect that most native speakers of English find unintelligible on first hearing but that turns out to be heavily accented English with other stuff mixed in. The dialect appears in Joel Chandler Harris's "Uncle Remus" stories, to give you an idea what it sounds like. In the 1940s the pioneering linguist Lorenzo Turner showed that the Gullah language was actually a Creole consisting of English plus a lot of words and constructions from the languages of West Africa, the Gullahs' homeland. Although long scorned as an ignorant caricature of English, Gullah is actually a language of considerable charm, with expressions like deh clin, dawn (literally "day clean"); troot mout, truthful person ("truth mouth"), and tebble tappuh, preacher ("table tapper").
And of course there's kumbayah. According to ethnomusicologist Thomas Miller, the song we know began as a Gullah spiritual. Some recordings of it were made in the 1920s, but no doubt it goes back earlier. Published versions began appearing in the 1930s. It's believed an American missionary couple taught the song to the locals in Angola, where its origins were forgotten. The song was then rediscovered in Angola and brought back here in time for the folk singing revival of the 50s and 60s. People might have thought the Gullahs talked funny, but we owe them a vote of thanks. Can you imagine sitting around the campfire singing, "Oh, Lord, come by here"?
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
· Ken and Wilson Kee Oct 19
· Cynthya Schmidt Oct 21
Spouse’s Birthdays
· none
Wedding Anniversaries
· Brad and Tammy Oct 20 20 yrs
Club Anniversaries
· None
Songs
This evening Rotarians Sheri Lynn and Helen joined forces to bring us a tune that is in theme with the recent Thanksgiving holiday, John Denver’s classic “Hey Its Good to be Back Home Again”. Unfortunately the printed words were not appropriate for the weak eyes in the room but we were able to chip in on the chorus.
Dir Dan will be delighted to learn that the song segment carried on in his absence.
Sheri Lynn then performed an Allison Kraus song which she described as music to provide our hearts with a lift given the dreadful news coming out of the courtroom in Belleville. The song is titled Heartstrings and judging by the silence from the gathering was not a well known tune but was much enjoyed nonetheless.
Attendance
Tonight it was announced that our attendance was counted at 36 with all signed in.
In-club Auction
Doesn’t PP Lionel look trustworthy?
PP Lionel took the auction gavel in hand to flog a carving set comprised of various sized knives, kitchen scissors and a storage block. Lionel was able to quickly sell off the item for $25 to Rot Sheri Lynn.
Just in time for the holiday season.
Program
Tonight PP Bert introduced our speakers Tanyss and GEM Munro. Bert described the Munro’s as a family that truly represents the concept of Service Above Self. The Munro’s work in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, through their organization The Amarok Society helping those who are most in need. GEM has written a book on their shared experience in Dhaka, sales of which help to raise funds for their good work.
The Munro’s split their year between Dhaka and the Balaclava Valley of Vancouver Island and at one time resided in Brighton.
GEM Munro shared a most poignant insight into the lives of the poorest Bangladeshis.
GEM led off by sharing that he and his family have been speaking to Rotary clubs across Canada and have been gratified with the support received from Rotarians.
Partnership with Rotary International
As a result of a hastily prepared meeting of Canadian and Bangladeshi Rotarians, held in a cafeteria at the Montreal International Rotary Conference in the spring of 2010, a new partnership has been born.
With the assistance of Rotary District 7070 Literacy Chair, Joan Hayward, Zone Coordinators Roger Hayward (for Canada) and Safina Rahman (for Bangladesh) and Rotary International Literacy Coordinator Richard Hattwick, an Agreement in Principle was made between the Rotary Club of Belleville, Ontario, Canada and the Rotary Club of Midtown Dhaka, Bangladesh with Amarok Society for the purpose of supporting specific initiatives in the poorest slums of Dhaka.
This tripartite agreement has the Belleville Rotary Club assisting Amarok Society by raising awareness of their work and raising money to support their Mothers-of-Intention program. The Midtown Dhaka Rotary will administer funds from Dhaka to ensure proper use, accurate record-keeping and transparent accountability.
This will allow Amarok Society to maintain and expand its work to many of the 300 slums in the poorest city in the poorest country in the poorest region in the world.
GEM shared that Bangladesh is characterized as the poorest of the poor and worst of the worst. He related that in conversation with the Turkish Ambassador to Canada the ambassador noted that in all his visits to countries around the world only Bangladesh made him cry.
Tanyss once worked in a consultative fashion with the Bangladesh government on their educational system and recognized that any level of education was just not available to the most poor as they had no ability to pay for it. She decided to work on a process of educating mothers in slums to become neighborhood teachers. Many roadblocks became evident including; corruption, slum lords, poverty and cultural challenges. Through perseverance however Tanyss was successful at setting up the first school and the outcome was successful. The school is aimed at teaching mothers’ literacy and numeracy in their own language and in English. Each mother taught is required to teach up to five others and in this way to spread education throughout the slums. Each school spawns some 30 to 40 mini schools in the slums.
Beyond literacy and numeracy Health, Hygiene, Nutrition, conflict resolution and family planning are covered. Emphasis is placed on teaching thinking skills as the population has no history of independent thinking. Birth control is a critical aspect of teaching as Bangladesh has an estimated population of 165 million all living in an area 1/8th the size of Ontario.
A most sobering presentation.
Dhaka itself has 300 desperately poor slums and an estimated population of 20 million most living in squalor in what is described as the worst city on earth.
The Munro’s determined that it is more beneficial to teach mothers than anyone else and have found that those that become teachers have lives that are tangibly improved. While Bangladesh is a moderate Islamic nation there are forces actively engaged in working to radicalize the nation. These forces despise the concept of education since it blocks the growth of hate.
In response to the question where does the funding for the Munro’s work come from Tanyss shared that initially it all came from their own resources. The first school that was opened five years ago was totally funded by the Munro’s. Since however it costs about $10,000 a year to run a school the costs for the blossoming program are well out of their reach. Funds from the sale of GEM’s book have been an invaluable source of funding as has the partnership with Rotary clubs in Canada.
Tanyss was critical of what she describes as the massive $ spent on expat’s compensation and lifestyles by many charitable organizations, $ she believes should be used to help those in need.
Rot Angie G thanked the Munro’s for not only taking the time to share their story with us but also for the magnificent initiative they created and deliver to help those so desperate for assistance.
Copies of GEM’s book appeared to sell briskly and those not in attendance (and those who were there) are encouraged to visit the website http://www.amaroksociety.org/ to learn more about the Munro’s good work.
Calendar Draw
VP Bob whisked about the room brandishing the Magical Mystery Drum like some deformed Claymore. In his usual fashion he managed to persuade six amongst us to draw ticket stubs from the bowels of the drum.
I’m confident Gabriel Munro never experienced this activity in Dhaka.
The Winners were:
18th OctAnn Galloway Keswick $100
19th Oct Deb Carruthers Frankford $25
20th Oct J Williams Belleville $25
21st OctBarbara PowersTrenton $25
22ndOct Carol Gilbert Trenton $25
23rd Oct Bob Rorabeck Milford $25
50/50 DRAW: Tonight Rot Chris announced that the pot had reached a whopping $1,390 and the members were thrilled when the ticket drawn belonged to Sgt at Arms Shane. Even with all of us pulling for him Shane was spectacularly unsuccessful at choosing the winning card.
There can’t be more than 20 cards left so the odds just keep improving that a winner is near at hand, it just wasn’t Shane.
Announcements
Dinner Theatre
Rotarian Helen updated us on the upcoming Dinner and Panto evening. Helen advised that 32 of the 40 tickets to the Panto – A Christmas Carol (Totally Scrooged) at the Empire Theatre for Dec 9th have been spoken for and encouraged interested members to take up the 8 remaining tickets. Helen asked those interested to sign up now on our web site. The cut-off date is Nov 9th.
Dinner: Caper's Restaurant
272 Front Street
Belleville, Ontario
This will consist of a 3 course meal. Alcoholic beverages will be an additional expense.
Cocktails: 5:00pm
Dinner: 6:00pm
Theatre: 8:00 pm
The cost is $ 69.00 pp which includes your dinner/theatre, applicable taxes and gratuities.
· Don’t forget the planned Military Appreciation Night which is scheduled for Nov 8th and which will feature an address by the Chief of the Air Staff - Lieutenant General Andre Deschamps, CD. Members are encouraged to invite guests as we will have both banquet rooms and can handle 120+ for the event.
The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS)
Lobster Dinner Auction
Pres Joan advised that tickets for this Nov 12th event will be available at next week’s meeting and each member will be asked to take four tickets.
And Finally
For those who wonder just what RIPP Wilf gets up to when he travels on behalf of Rotary International or the Rotary Foundation here are some images from his recent trip to Panama.
Wilf tried his hand at operating the locks on the Panama Canal and it is worth noting no ships were lost or damaged while he was on the job.
While I’m sure Wilf was pleased to participate on a panel I don’t know why he got the kid’s chair.
There’s always time to experience the culture but personally I would have picked the lady with the red feather hat as a dance partner.