China's 5000 year old Cultural Traditions

Guests: 

Melissa Unidad York R.C.

Cath Lui and guest speaker Jim Zhang
Rev. David Singh

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
● Charles Whitney reminded us that the “drop dead” date for submission of items for the TV Auction was tomorrow.  (However some flexibility was wiggled out of the Auction management team until Nov 8th LAST CHANCE
● Charles reported that 133 items had been donated so far amounting to a total value of $24,000.
● Frank Allison announced that the Warm Hands project is getting started and he asked for two volunteers to call 6 schools to determine whether they would need the gloves and how many.
● Group 1 is scheduled to have a meeting Nov 5th but the venue will be announced by e-mail to all concerned. However all members are invited to attend but call Danny Cassidy or Rocco Colangelo if you intend to participate.

MARBELOUS DRAW:

To-day it was the high flying team of Wengler and Mushet whose luck was announced when their collaborative ticket was pulled.  But they were unable to fly as high as they would have wished ....on only a $5.00 refill of their av gas.


SERGEANT AT ARMS:

Kevin Moore quickly grabbed the $5.00 win from Gerd and went on to advise that he had made a mistake last week.. He reported that the $15 that many of us had “donated” toward the Polio Plus vaccination program had multiplied to $75 rather than $45 as he had previously reported. It’s a wonder of modern math how a donation for a cause such as this can be matched with government and foundation funds to the tune of 4 to 1.

● Gerd offered up a sad $ having lost a friend of theirs from Long Island NY in a plane crash.  He was 82 years old.
● Jacob gave a donation in memory of his computer which has finally died.
● Fran Allison has just returned from his annual medical and discovered that he is shrinking ... at least in height.  Soon we may have to get him a pedestal so we can see him when he stands.
● Other important happy bucks were thrown in Including from visiting Melissa Undad but you scribe missed the details and is repentant.   

PROGRAM: 

Emmanuel Nwankwo introduced our guest speaker, Jim Zhang, who, when he has some downtime from his responsibilities at the Royal Bank investing for his clients, has been spreading the word about the 5,000 year old Chinese culture. It was virtually destroyed by the Communists when the ‘Cultural Revolution’ swept over China during the regime of Mao Zedong (1965 to 1968 but not concluded until 1976 when the Gang of Four were tried).  The Red Guard were the enforcers who sent professors and other professionals to farms and otherwise attempted to enforce Mao’s ideology in the Little Red Book.

But notwithstanding the rush toward modernism and secularism where it seems  money is the new god of China, there is a group that was formed in New York called Shen Yun who are bringing back the culture of China that was infused with Taoism (truthfulness), Budhism (compassion), and Confucianism (tolerance, respect for elders and loyalty).  They are bringing back the traditional dances and musical instruments.  Go to http://tickets.shenyun.com/ to see the program that will be coming to the Hummingbird Centre Jan 17 to 20, 2013. It will also be on in Mississauga, Hamilton and Kitchener.

Barry Smith thanked Jim for opening the eyes of his fellow Rotarians tfor the gift of traditional Chinese culture and so it was appropriate that he be presented with a certificate that acknowledges that a man in India has had his eyes opened in honour of Mr. Zhang’s visit.

The full presentation was sent out as an mp3 file for all to listen to Jim’s talk.

BIRTHDAY & ANNIVERSARY REPORT

Member Birthdays
Gordon Brown, Nov 21
Dhanni Ramdeen, Nov 12

Spouse Birthdays
SarahTurner, Nov 21

Anniversaries
Lakirovich, Jacob & Maia 24 years Nov 20, 1988

NEXT MEETING:

Remembrance Day to be held on the club's regular Nov 7th meeting date.