Business Meeting, #bear, Our Vocational Service Awards, AG David Price & Plastic

Last Week
It was a Business Meeting and President Jean has reported on much of what was said in her column.  I do wonder what she means about the President's Chain being overhauled.  Is she referring to Jerry?  Perhaps there is some secret chaining chez Jean & Jerry?  Maybe a large ball is being attached and it will be worn round the ankle in future.  No doubt all will be revealed.

It was a pleasure to see Alan Banister as a visitor again and we had another 'visitor, Andrew Chinnah of Amnesty International.  Here's the local Amnesty branch with the new Secretary General, Kumi Naidoo - the first South African to hold that position.

It was great to have Mimi van Deventer with us as she does so much for our Interact Club at Highlands North Boys' High

Mimi van Deventer

President Jean & # bear....the one on the right.

President Jean introduced us to a bear provisionally called # 
I am sure that #bear will become permanent.  The one advantage is that he will increase our membership and lower our average age significantly.  Also the cost of feeding him is negligible.  Our thanks to Jeannette Horner for bringing him into the world.

Spot the Deliberate Mistake

Vocational Service Awards

It's that time of year again.  Please forward CV's and a proper motivation for candidates to me by the 30th September.

The candidate must have never had any recognition for what they do and be highly unlikely to be noticed.  Please make sure that the potential awardee is unaware of  your application.  In the past we have had applications for people who do their job well, for example you expect a nurse to be a good nurse so we wouldn't give someone an award for that.  However we do look at people who, through their work, assist the community beyond the call of duty so we would consider the nurse who does volunteer nursing without pay to assist her community. We also take a broad view of Vocation. attendant..

I will send out an email mid-month as a reminder.

This Week

Our new Assistant Governor, David Price, is going to tell us about himself.  I must admit I know nothing about him other than that  he used to belong to Kyalami and has now joined the new Rotary Club Fourways/Main Reef.

GLOBAL WARNING

 According to live statistics website http://www.theworldcounts.com , five trillion plastic bags are produced every year. That’s 160,000 a second! Put one after another, they would go around the world seven times every hour and cover an area twice the size of France. Following last month’s ban of singleuse plastic bags by major supermarket chains across Australia, the Rotary Club of Cromwell, NZ, has joined the cause, banning the use of plastic bags at its annual book sale and offering Rotary-branded reusable bags as an alternative. The New Zealand Government is also considering banning the bag, after a 65,000 strong petition was handed over to Parliament earlier this year.

 PLASTIC BAGS have been in the headlines recently following their phase out by major supermarket chains across Australia as of July 1. This follows a number of state bans put in place over previous years, with South Australia taking the lead in 2009.

Prior to the ban, Australians used four billion plastic bags every year – around 10 million a day. It’s estimated 150 million end up as litter. Even if used again, for example as a bin liner, it is estimated non-biodegradable plastic bags take 500 to 1000 years to decompose – and even then, it is into microscopic granules of plastic. The environmental impacts are severe. Plastic bags are often mistaken for food by turtles, fish and other marine life, leading to a slow death by starvation or suffocation. Humans, too, are facing dangers as a result of plastic proliferation. Research conducted in Sydney Harbour found plastics in the nanoparticles of fish flesh among those species caught for human consumption. This means BAN THE BAG plastics are working their way up the food chain and onto our plates. The Rotary Club of Cromwell recently joined the cause by ceasing to provide plastic bags at their annual book sale, which offers up thousands of books to raise funds for club projects. As an alternative, the club commissioned hundreds of reusable cotton bags for book buyers who didn’t have a bag of their own. It is hoped they will see many years of use after they carried their purchases home.

The book sale itself is also in the spirit of reuse. Rather than being tossed away, books find new appreciative homes – and potentially another home after that, when readers donate them back once they have finished with them. “We recognised that if the environment is to be improved, we have to do something proactive,” sale co-convener Denis McEntyre said. Everyone agrees removing short-term use plastic bags from the equation is just one step in solving our global plastic problem – but it’s certainly a start. 