We are meeting this week at the Timor Street Bowls Club (Not City Memorial). Meals $20, drinks at bar prices. Wednesday, 12.30 for 1.00pm as usual. Parking on the city side of the club off Timor Street.
rsvp to Brendan prior to Tuesday 12.00 noon.
0434 600 114
Club Calendar.
Wednesday 15th June - Club AGM, 1.00pm Warrnambool Bowls Club in Timor Street.
Friday 24th June - Changeover Dinner, Proudfoots.
Tony’s tribulations.
Greetings fellow Rotarians.
Pip sent us a meme recently expressing the view that we couldn’t possibly take action on climate change when ‘we can’t fight homelessness, hunger and poverty’. This pessimism, this idea that nothing that we do about these problems really works, is widely held.
I my week in Covid isolation I have read Factfulness by Hans Rosling, who was a professor of public health in Sweden. Rosling carefully lays out the data. Most of the world’s population has been lifted out of extreme poverty. Globally, the world is less violent, infant mortality is well down, life expectancy is at an all time high, children (including girls) are going to school for longer than ever before, and more people than ever have access to things like basic health care, family planning, clean water and electricity. The world is getting better. Not only that, much of this change has occurred in the last thirty years – that is, during the life of our club. The world has been completely transformed since the 1990’s, and in a good way.
What we have done has worked and what we are doing now is working. We have eradicated polio from Africa, and we are in the process of eradicating it from Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have eradicated malaria from Timor-Leste and we are in the process of eradicating it from the Solomon Islands. We have delivered electricity to families in rural India so now their children can study at night. We have delivered safe drinking water to families in Papua New Guinea so their children don’t die of preventable disease caused by dirty drinking water and can go to school rather than spend hours each day walking to collect water. This is what lifts people out of poverty, and it works.
Unfortunately, I will still be in isolation on Wednesday. Have a great meeting on Wednesday and have a great week. Hope to see you the week after.
Kind regards
Tony
Roster.
Please keep an eye out for your name in the weeks ahead. If you are not able to be at a meeting please organise someone else to stand in for you.
Rotten Returns.
Ron is a Rotarian who knows what it is like to produce the Central Spoke. This week Ron sent us some memes and wrote;
Hi Tony.
You might be able to use a couple of these in the future. They all sum up various sections of my life but I realize you probably won't be able to use the first one which refers to my tenure as bulletin editor.
Ron
As the current editor of this fine publication, I certainly relate to this first contribution. It reminds me of the advice Pip Ritchie gave me when I first took on the role.
‘All you need to do is take the piss out of everyone’ Pip noted to me, ‘And with this lot, that is the easiest job in the world.’
With this in mind I will remind members the position of Central Spoke editor will once again go out to tender again at the end of the Rotary year. If you would like to contribute to the club by accepting the easiest job in the world, please have a chat to me over the next few weeks.
Ron's other contributions this week;
Potholes retires.
Mark McFadden recently retired from VicRoads. We wish him a long and happy retirement. on has been looking into the circumstances surrounding Macca’s retirement and filed this report.
Rotary Horse Racing Report.
After her poor run in Adelaide, Sirileo Miss has been sent to Tower Hill for some rehab. Apparently Victorian planning laws allow you to set up a horse rehab facility on the western outskirts of Warrnambool, but not a human one. Anyhow, Sirileo has been sent out to Tower Hill. Hutto, Lynchie and yours truly recently had a horse that was sent out to Tower Hill for rehab. The horse returned to racing, came last three times in a row, and was then sold/given to a horse-riding school.
More exciting updates as they come to hand.
Ten Years Ago.
In the President's Report this week your correspondent wrote about how the world is getting better for most people. Our 'Ten Years Ago' photos this week continue this theme.
The first picture is a photo that appeared in The Standard of Bob McMillan raising money for the proposed Warrnambool Cancer Centre. At the time the centre was just a proposal on the drawing board.
Our second image this week is a capture from the bottom of the AFL ladder ten years ago. How things have changed! Admittedly they haven’t changed much for Port Adelaide, GWS or the Suns, but isn’t it different now for Dees supporters and their all-conquering team.
Warrnambool Central Committees for 2021-22.
Community Service (Matt).
Brendan, Tickler, Gerard, Blainey, Hicko, Lindsay M, Ian S, Bill, Mick,
Club Service (Bob).
Macca, Quincey, Gracey, Hutto, Bullant, Bruce, Paul R., Trev,
Vocation (Hayessey).
Lynchie, Clive, Paul O’B, Nooka, Sam, Bomber, Reevesy, Brad.
Youth (Greg).
Lew, Pip, Ian B., Dillo, Shane, Rowan, Francis, Peter K.
