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. |
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.
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