The Pandemic Pandemonium

As the war in Ukraine pushes the pandemic from the front pages of our newspapers, more and more people think the health establishment was spectacularly wrong on almost every aspect of the pandemic, even demonising those willing to stand up to it.

How can we forget “Staying Apart keeps us Together” and “A game of golf is not worth someone dying”

Is the purpose of epidemiologists to make witch doctors look good?

Fake Fundraising

Scammers are reportedly attempting to take advantage of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine using fake fundraising emails to scam unsuspecting Europeans and Americans hoping to support charitable causes in the war-torn country. Donors are advised to manually type in the name of a charity instead of clicking links, and to check charities with watchdogs before donating.

We’re happy with the RAWCS and Rotary Foundation sites, but beware of others . . . .

One Million Migrants…

Presidential Candidate Eric Zemmour has promised to kick out one million migrants from France within five years should he be elected.

The promise comes as Zemmour has fallen in the polls compared to his right-wing rival, Marine Le Pen, who is also promising widespread deportations should she be elected French head of state. 

By sheer chance, next week (4th April) The Bookworms will be discussing Douglas Murray’s “The Strange Death of Europe”. What could be the connection?

This is the most disturbing political book I've read this year. Based on travels through key European centres, Murray weaves a tale of uncontrolled immigration, failed multiculturalism, systemic self-doubt, cultural suicide and disingenuous political leadership. Accurate, insightful and devastating, with applicable lessons for countries on both sides of the Atlantic. - * Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks *

If you'd like to join in and have your say, President Andrew will give you the Zoom details:  andpam@bigpond.com or 0 411 297 873

One for the Lingua File:

Illicit migrant crossings via the English Channel are soon to become illegal in the UK as the Conservative party attempt to get a handle on the ongoing crisis. - Peter Caddle

Illicit or illegal ? What’s the difference?

Rotary Planning

“Rotary Leader” has tools for our President-in-Waiting:    

Club presidents-elect, are you already thinking about how you’ll help your club succeed? You can get advice on planning for the coming year, creating an engaging club experience, and working with your leadership team to ensure your club runs smoothly by taking the Club President Basics courses in Rotary’s Learning Center.

But who will “just do it”?

DIK Doldrums

We had a slight glitch at DIK this week: it seems the contractor who was due to remove our out of date and “rubbish” donations has a contract to dump waste, but not “medical waste” .

Bits of plastic tubing, airway connections, bottles of water and saline, sterile dressings?  Certainly not!

As if we were trying to dump infected or soiled linen!  Bob Glindemann is frantically searching for someone with the right paperwork to dump a few tons of rubbish.

Your Feedback

We offer a special thanks for feedback on last week’s bulletin. Instead of comments on Dolly and Ruby’s surprise solution for unresponsive grandchildren, we had a lovely note from our old friend Wayne Worladge of Glenferrie Rotary. He reminded us when he was a member of Hawthorn Rotary, he occasionally assisted Lawrence Reddaway with our Bulletin, and took over when Lawrence was away. 

Wayne (for his sins) has now taken on co-chairmanship of Glenferrie RC’s Farmer’s Market, which, running roughly fortnightly, must be pretty demanding. 

That reminds me: we are short of veggies at home, so I must go along and check out the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, 2nd April.

https://rotaryglenferrie.org.au/event/boroondara-christmas-farmers-market-april-2nd-2022/

Your Vocation

In the absence of any vocational comments from our members, we continue the Vocational Theme with an article from the Rotarian Healthcare Professionals Google Group, who sent us News from UK about some new medical gadgets.

www.healthcareprofessionalsinrotary.org

So what’s new in YOUR vocation?

Driftwood - The Musical

Tania de Jong AM, Lyricist and Executive Producer of Driftwood – The Musical (which tells the inspirational story of the renowned Austrian/Australian sculptor Karl Duldig and his artist/inventor wife, Slawa Horowitz-Duldig) has asked President Andrew to support the production (so we do our bit for arts revival). It tells us of their lives in pre-war Vienna, Slawa’s ingenious invention of the foldable umbrella, and an incredible chain of events after miraculously escaping the Holocaust and rebuilding their careers as artists in Melbourne. A magical story of art and creativity, survival and perseverance, family, freedom and love. 

See more under “Events”

ALL travel by RAWCS Project Volunteer Teams remains suspended until further notice.
The advice from the RAWCS Executive issued in June 2020 remains current.

Please note the following entries on the RAWCS website.

https://rawcs.org.au/volunteers/

https://rawcs.org.au/register-teams/

Finger Trouble?

How lucky we are as a club, having some members who are digitally adept. When speaker Caroline Milburn became stymied at our lap-top, Ian Bentley was available to keep the show on the road. Thanks Ian.

I'm pretty sure Paul Harris never dreamt of these problems . . . .

Alumni?

Did you get confused today about when to use Alumni, Alumna, Alumnus and Alumnae? Don’t worry, you’re not Robinson Crusoe.  You could wait and see if it ever appears in President Andrew’s Lingua File, but help is at hand here: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/alumna-alumnae-alumni-alumnus/    O.K. now?

Trivia

Finally, Kevin Rose has a piece of trivia. (Or should that be "trivium"?)
At Kooyong today each place setting had a ‘horizontal’ fork with the setting. Some thought it was for Ian’s birthday cake, other for oysters.
But it was a mistake.  ;-(

 

TTFN