Scandal!, Lots of Visitors, Social Meeting, the Arts Festival and a Rotary Alumni Award

Last Week
Ralf Meyer, our visiting Rotarian from Frankfort, gave us a talk on the Libor Scandal.  I don't claim to understand much about banking and rate manipulation but what was fascinating was how much money the banks made and how small the fines were.  $9 Billion, as a fine, may sound like a lot of money but when you have made $37 Billion it's just a minor expense.
When numbers like this are banded about I do wonder why we pay bank charges.

Ralf also presented us with his Club Banner in exchange for the one we gave him some weeks ago.








And we had other visitors as well.

 Brian and Louise Hancock from the Rotary Club of Osborne Park, Perth, Australia.  Louise received the banner because she is the President of the club this year.

A special welcome to Russell Banful from Accra, Ghana.  He has visited us before.

All round a very social meeting.








This Week
It really is a Social Meeting.  Since we decided to have a meeting once a month when we can just chat to each other it's really been great.  I think a couple of our Rotary artists may be at the meeting as the build-up to the Arts Festival is about to begin.

Joan Sainsbury will be handing out Arts Festival Raffle Sheets and the prizes are fantastic this year so let's make an effort to sell as many as possible.: 

ROTARY ARTS FESTIVAL – GUEST ARTISTS

Helena Hugo

Helena Hugo has been a full-time artist since graduating from UP in 1996. She creates highly finished, detailed, expressions of people in pastel and recently also started to explore the world of fibre arts.

She has participated in many exhibitions across SA and abroad and her work has been bought by corporate and private collectors globally.

She was a finalist in BP Portrait, Absa Atelier, and New Signature Awards and ABSA KKNK’s festival artist for 2011.

She won the Bettie Cilliers-Barnard Award, earned top 10 at Ekurhuleni awards, top 5 at Sanlam awards and first prize in Beaux-Arts Réaliste et Impressionniste contest.

Paul Botes

Growing up among mountains and vineyards of the fairest Cape, awakened in Paul a deep and lasting awe of the eternal beauty of nature. During his years in the corporate world, he lived an alternate life dedicated to the expression of his artistic vision.

Over the past 24 years Paul has become the artist of choice of collectors and art lovers all over the country. From a Citation of Honour for Art in 2007, to having his work published in a book by Glynis CoxMillet-Clay, Paul continues to win acclaim with every exhibition of his work.

Edward Selematsela

Full time artist, born in Limpopo province of south Africa, Edward is passionate about his art. He had exhibited his art around Gauteng
and abroad in galleries like Johannesburg Art Gallery, Museum Pretoria, Museum Africa, Sasol Rosebank, Kubiak gallery USA, Scatzy USA, ABSA gallery, Alliance la Francaise, Bordeaux Pessac France. Though Edward is a full time artist, he takes one day a week to teach art to youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in Hillbrow Berea, which he started in 1995 till today.

Edward likes to experiment with a lot of mediums, he works hard to develop the art that speaks to him first and is easy for the viewer to understand. He prefers to tell a story through his paintings.

Guitar Presentation at TJ Audio Club Thursday 2nd March, 19,00 at Marks Park

You don't have to book for this and I had quite a bit to say about it last week so I won't repeat myself.  Just come and join us for a pleasant social evening.

Japanese Diplomat earns Rotary Alumni Award

The recipient of this year’s Rotary Alumni Global Service Award winner is Dr. Sadako Ogata, a former Ambassadorial Scholar and a past United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

Born in Japan to a family of diplomats, Ogata was drawn to studying international relations after Japan’s defeat in World War II. When she began graduate studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., USA, in 1951, she was part of the second class of Rotary Scholars from Japan.

“During that period, I also learned about the importance of community service and broadened my perspectives and experiences thanks to various exchanges with Rotarians,” she says. “The Rotary motto of Service Above Self has left a deep impression and has guided me ever since.”

After completing her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, Ogata returned to Japan to teach at International Christian University, which now hosts a Rotary Peace Center, and Sophia University, where she taught until accepting the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (head of UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency) in 1991. She also represented Japan at the UN General Assembly, served at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, and chaired the UNICEF executive board.

During her decade-long tenure with UNHCR, Ogata helped refugees who fled the Gulf War, the ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and Cold War-era strife in Afghanistan and former Soviet satellites. She has been credited with expanding UNHCR’s budget and staff and strengthening its relations with the UN Security Council by emphasizing the link between refugees and international security.

“Protecting refugees is — by its nature — controversial,” Ogata has said. “Carrying out this dynamic and action-oriented function requires us to challenge the sovereign preserve of states to deal with non-citizens and, in some instances, their own people.”

Since leaving UNHCR in 2000, she has remained active in government and international affairs, serving as co-chair of the UN Human Security Commission and as a special representative of the Japanese government in Afghanistan. She led the Japanese International Cooperation Agency for two terms and advised then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Her government work has shown her the power of private citizens and civic groups to effect change.

“We live in a rapidly changing world,” Ogata says. “As the world is confronted with threats more complex than ever before, the role of civil society and the linkages among people has become more important than ever.”

The award for Rotary Alumni Association of the Year went to the Alumni Association of Rotary District 1210 in England. These alumni regularly visit club meetings and district events, and they lead a project to provide children’s books to homes across the district.