On April 28, in a hybrid meeting in which members joined the meeting both physically and online, we are happy to have our own Past District Governor Belinda to talk to us about “Doing Good in the World,” a “special edition” of what is going on in the world of the The Rotary Foundation. Past President Angela gave the introduction of our speaker. Past District Governor Belinda started with a quiz of basic The Rotary Foundation questions: When was it established? What are the focuses? What are the features of DDF and World Fund? Next, Past District Governor Belinda shared stories about doing good in the world, about a project in Uganda (empowering girls) and a Hong Kong project by RC of The Peak, teaching youth through STEM education. Also of note is Rotary’s Program of Scale Grant. Each year Rotary International approves one such grant, which goes towards a large scale, high impact program that uses at least US$2 million. Finally, Past District Governor Belinda congratulated our own President Sam as the first ever AKS Circle of Honor Member in our District. Past President Kay gave our club’s vote of thanks.
We started the meeting with the induction of our newest member, Professor Heiwai Tang. Proposed by Charter President Patrick, Rotarian Heiwai is Professor in Economics at the HKU Business School. This meeting we also welcomed Mr. Kwok Yat Ming (郭一鳴先生), a well-respected journalist and Vice Chairman of Hong Kong Federation of Journalists, as speaker. Rotarian Fei made the speaker introduction, noting their initial meeting years ago at a China trends study class. The topic of the day was: “李家超, 時勢造英雄”, loosely translated as “John Lee’s Coronation”. Mr. Kwok commented on the upcoming one-candidate Chief Executive election, noting that Beijing is not simply copying the “Macau model,” but mainly backing a candidate known for his loyalty and capability. Mr. Kwok spoke about current Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s performance through 2019’s protests and the government’s Covid response from 2020 to 2022. The reason for Mr. Lee to succeed Ms. Lam may be Beijing’s desire to have a results-oriented government. This also signals a departure from candidates with Administrative Officer backgrounds, which Mr. Kwok sees as a positive in that Mr. Lee, the candidate, has less “baggage” upon election. Mr. Kwok further believes the new Chief Executive will have to heavily focus on…