Convention Day 4 - WOW!!

Well, it's not often I find myself lost for words when looking for ways to describe a Rotary event, but Wednesday's final day at the 101st Rotary International Convention was close. An unexpected opening to the day came from Ontario's Lieutant-Governor, Hon David C Onley. He's a shining example of what can be achieved by one who has the strength of character to work past his disability and work to change the perception of people with disabilities, particularly in the workplace. A polio victim, he spoke passionately of the need for everyone to see ability not disability in those they encounter.

We elected as our President for 2011-2012 Kalyan Banerjee, of the Rotary Club of Vapi, Gujarat, India. He told attendees about his first encounters with Rotary in India. "I loved the way the Rotarians seemed to enjoy meeting friends and enthusing about community service projects to benefit hundreds of people," he said. "I decided then that I must be a Rotarian as soon as I could make it."

Bob Mazzuca, Boy Scouts of America chief scout executive, described himself as the warm-up act for the next guest, of which more later. He set out clearly why Scouting is still an integral part of American culture - without encouraging young people to lead more active lives we stand at risk of this generation being the first where their health and lifespan will be worse than that of their parents.

First real treat of the day was from Dolly Parton. On the face of it an unlikely choice for a staid organisation which just shows how wrong that is on both counts!! The philanthropist and literacy advocate went on to explain her foundation’s Imagination Library , which promotes reading among preschool children by providing them with a free book each month from birth until age five. The programme has grown from its base in her home state of Tennessee, USA, to other communities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Dolly told us she was inspired by her father, who was illiterate but "one of the smartest people" she knew. "He knew it was a crippling thing not to be able to read and to write, so he was proud when people would call me the 'book lady.'" Opening with "9-5" Dolly also treated us to her unrecorded work inspired by her advocacy "Try".

But all this was just for openers. After this uplifting morning session we took off for a trip up Mont Royal, a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 1800's (he also designed Central Park in New York, amongst many others). Views across Montreal were cloudy but worth the trip - we failed to notice the 5.0 earthquake on our public bus trip back to the city - not sure whether we missed it or it was down to the suspension on the bus.

And back for the finale - would it be worth it? Absolutely!! Our final session opened with a superb perfomance from British tenor Russell Watson who had the 12,000 plus audience on their feet with a mxiture of operatic and show tunes. A rousing start. Outgoing Rotary International President John Kenny rounded out his year with an emotional reflection on his year in office followed by a rallying call from incoming President Ray Klinginsmith. And then, to cap it all, a mesmerising hour-long performance from the incomparable Cirque du Soleil. Impossible to capture the feats of strength and agility in words - you have to see it to believe it's possible - and definitely don't try this at home!

Where to go from there? Well back to a favourite restaurant for dinner - a reprise for Les Pyrenees in Rue St Paul. This time we found ourselves in company with a family of Rotarians from Cornwall, Ont and Victoria, BC - take a bow Chris & Barb, John & Linda Edgell who rounded off our visit to Montreal with true Rotary fellowship. We wish John all the best with his upcoming Presidential year - may it be as fruitful and enjoyable as our past year has been.

And now - well we're off to Toronto, via an enforced stop at Oshawa, Ont - VIA Rail is terminating all services outside Toronto during the G20 period. So we'll let you know how we get on!!

Convention Day 3 - Royalty & Terrific News!

Convention plenary sessions are a mixture of the prosaic formalities of a vast international organisation coupled with addresses from worthy and occasionally stand-out brilliant orators. Today paid tribute to the partnerships that Rotary International has made with other service organisations over decades. Rotary Foundation chair Glenn Estess updated us on the outstanding work of the charity despite economic setbacks - our continuing response to the Haiti earthquake disaster being a notable example and the progress of our fundraising efforts towards the Gates Polio Challenge now top the $133 million mark. Jo Luck, CEO of Heifer International explained how partnership with Rotary is furthering their development work.

We were graced with the presence of Queen Noor of Jordan who spoke of her determination to work for lasting peace in the Middle East and of her work for a nuclear free world.

But the standout highlight of the day for me was Dr. Bruce Aylward, Director, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, World Health Organisation. Bruce was outspoken in his praise for the work of Rotary - highlighted the extraordinary achievements of the last two years, following a period when polio seemed to be fighting back against our efforts. He described how we "have Polio on the run" with no new cases in Uttar Padesh or Bihar in the last six months and those in Nigeria showing a 99% drop in the past year. On the Afghan/Pakistan border there are now permanent immunisation stations to catch all of the children migrating across the border. And the release last year of a new bivalent vaccine which has increased the possibility of permanent immunisation by 50% has further helped our efforts. None of the work of the last two years in West Africa, in Uttar Padesh & Bihar and would have been possible without funds and the time of Rotarians through the Polioplus initiative. We have in thsoe two years fundamentally changed the game in our favour. It's just not possible to stress though how vital it is that we continue - polio continues to fight back - this year has seen more than 300 children paralysed in Tajikistan, with a migrant attack of the polio virus strain recently tamed in Uttar Pradesh. Adults have died, travel has been banned - this vital work must continue.

Dr Aylward closed by saying "Rotary's decision in 1985 challnged the world to change the course of history by eradicating this crippling disease. Rotary is the heart & soul of the largest global health effort in history".

Convention Day 2 – Women & Children First!

Many of the programs of Rotary are focussed, either by design or by inevitability, on improving the lot of children and more prominently women. Whether we are providing safe water or helping with literacy programmes these inevitably tend to beaimed at children as the most vulnerable and on women as the driving force for improvement in communities.

Our day started with breakfast with our RIBI (Rotary in Britain and Ireland) colleagues. Our talk from past Rotary International Bill Boyd drew together the multiple impacts that education can have; raising the hopes of slum children so they can have a better life; the importance of the education of girls & women – more educated mothers have lower incidence of HIV/AIDS, fewer and more healthy children. And yet in the countries at the lower end of the economic scale education rates amongst children of secondary school age is below 30%, with girls below 20% or lower.

The day’s plenary sessions continued the theme – with Fr “Rocky” Evangelista focussed on his work with street children of Manila and Marie-Irene Richmond-Ahoua presenting an award for Rotary’s work in immunising the children of West Africa against polio. Fulbright & Rotary Peace scholar Marios Antoninou set out the role of education in reducing the perpetuation of past conflicts in the minds of today’s children. And finally, award-winning author Greg Mortenson spoke of his work with Afghan villages in building education as a “weapon of peace” Partly as a result of his work, there are 10 times as many Afghan children in education now compared with 10 years ago, although there remains much to be done.

With all this talk of the importance of women in building healthy communities it is shocking to find that Rotary has only one female Director this year and none next year. Seems like something needs to change!

On a lighter note we finished the day off with dinner at Bonaparte in Vieux Montreal (fabulous food – you must go there!) in the company of Irish expatriate John McGuinness, an ex-colleague from the early/mid-90’s at Deloitte where we set about building the consulting practices of the emerging former Soviet-bloc economies. Great company as ever - gift of the gab now available in 7 languages

RI Convention 1st Day Impressions

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.”

(Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy)

It's always great to be reminded of the power of the organisation you belong to and when it's an organisation that has as its sole purpose the service of others then you really feel it. Being with 17,000 like-minded souls is good for regeneration. From the more than 200 countries of the Rotary world we've all gathered in Montreal to celebrate our service to those in need.

Rotary International President John Kenny spoke evocatively of his trips during his year seeing the impact we have in the world. To Haiti where we acted impressively quickly in providing immediate needs and will continue to help the rebuilding process. To Bandar Aceh, where more than 250,000 lost their lives in 2005 for the opening of a Rotary built health centre from the ground up. To China where an orphanage cares for the unwanted - too many of them abandoned girls. And to Ramallah in Palestine for the chartering of a brand new Rotary club - opened with the cooperative spirit of Rotarians from Israel and Jordan working together - good news in a region where good news is scarce.

And back at our hotel to an e-mail from our own club - where we've raised more than £3,370 for two local charities - Michael Sobell House Hospice & Grangewood School for children with severe learning disabilities - 1,400 at the Ickenham Festival Gala Night witnessed the drawing of our Meal for Two promotion in co-operation with 18 local restaurants - 18 lucky people now have a voucher for a night out worth at least £90. Thanks to all those who bought tickets and all the restaurants that took part - we're proud to be able to make the contribution to two such worthwhile causes.

Alway good to round of the day with a good meal and today was no exception with a warm welcome at Les Pyrenees in Rue St Paul. Stumbled on it by accident - the next visit later in the week will be by design! Great ambience, great value.

Beginning the Canadian Adventure (en route Toronto - Montreal on VIA train)

So far our Canadian Adventure has gone like a dream. Great flight (thanks Air Canada) – smooth passage through Toronto and out of the airport in our Nissan Sentra in under an hour. Lunch stop at Niagara on the Lake (or NOTL as it’s known), the more genteel mother town of the brash Niagara Falls destination. We can certainly recommend The Grill on King if you’re ever there for a visit, although we reckoned that the Niagara region wines, while generally OK, were overpriced for their quality against our more usual Aussie and Chilean (or South African) favourites. We’d definitely recommend staying in the Marriott Fallsview at the Falls, simply outstanding views of the Falls – what a view to wake up to or come back to or frankly at any time of the day or night.

Friday in the hands of Magnificent Tours for the Full Monty of attractions in and around the falls area – great taking the tour – we went to loads of things that we wouldn’t have gone to on our own – and learnt more facts than we can remember or imagine about the world’s premier waterfalls (not the highest, but definitely moves the most water – equivalent to 1 million bathtubs full every minute. Do the tour if you’re ever in town, things not to miss – Journey behind the Falls, an up close & personal view of the magnificence of the massive waters; the Skylon Tower for an all-round view of the area and over to Buffalo and Toronto; and, of course, the perennial Maid of the Mist voyage for that drenching with fresh water mist.

Excitement on our way to Toronto’s Union Station came in the form of complete road closure of the access to the station – including the rental car return location. Which gave us a personal police car escort through the area – now there’s something that won’t be available next week during the G20. And the train is full of Rotarians from near and far (near being downtown Toronto; far, apart from us, being our closest neighbours in the carriage from Antigua and Grand Cayman)

More from the Convention and Montreal as the week progresses.

Towards the RI Convention

Tomorrow we set off for Canada - first to Niagara for obligatory sightseeing, then by train up to Montreal where we'll be in company (probably) with more than 20,000 Rotarians from around the world. Then to Toronto where it seems we'll be with some rather less desirable company - the G20 leaders and their predicted entourage of denmonstrators. Promises to be an interesting take on sightseeing!

Hoping to get some stuff up here - and maybe some pictures as well - while we're away.

Stay in touch!!

President's Weekend Away 14-17 May 2010

As is our custom and this year was no exception, we trooped off for the weekend on our President’s whim. This year’s whim was to base ourselves in Yeovil and explore the surrounding areas of South Somerset and Dorset, where Joan & I got engaged some 41 years ago!

Our hotel, the Yeovil Court, set just outside the Town Centre on the way to West Coker was ideally placed for our weekend – good accommodation, good food, pleasant staff – highly recommended!After dinner Friday night we sampled some of the local produce – with speaker James Crowden entertaining us on the history and traditions of cider making (produce courtesy of Bridge Farm Cider).

Saturday morning (and the rest of the weekend) saw us in the company of Ron, our extremely patient driver from Taylors Coaches. Firstly to the Fleet Air Arm Museum where our guides led by Keith Saxon enthralled the entire company (yes, the ladies too!) with the history of the air service of the Royal Navy – well worth a trip – could be worth more than the 2 hours or so that we had.We can recommend the food too – we had a splendid buffet within the museum – suffice to say there was ample even for the most determined eaters. An afternoon at Clarks Village at Street satisfied the ardent shoppers – it was actually quite noticeable that there were more purchases by the men in the party than could be considered normal! We took a trip into the country for dinner at the excellent Kings Arms at Charlton Horethorne, where we were well taken care of and extremely well fed and watered – most certainly worth a detour if you’re in the area – they have rooms too.

Sunday began with some drizzle, which definitely hadn’t been ordered.Nevertheless, we set off for Forde Abbey, by which time it had stopped precipitating, where our private guided tour was well worth the trip. The former monastery has been lovingly preserved in private hands – we all agreed that we wouldn’t want a) to cut the grass or b) to pay the heating bill!Lunch – terrific bread and cheese – at the picturesque Haselbury Mill, which boasts a newly constructed tithe barn (we did wonder who pays the tithes these days, but then it is licensed for weddings………). And so to Lyme Regis, where the weather really let us down – just when we could have done with a bit of sunshine the heavens opened for most of our couple of hours – however, if you find yourself in the same position, we recommend the museum, worth a look, and the many coffee and tea houses. We rounded the weekend off with dinner at New Farm Restaurant, a little off the beaten track, but worth seeking out, where Jane & Crispin have tastefully converted this lovely Ham stone building, originally a working farm run by Jane’s family since the late 1800’s, into a delightful restaurant.They’re not normally open on Sundays but nice people that they are they opened up just for us and proceeded to fill us with excellent food and drink – in complete privacy!

All in all, a great weekend, super company, terrific food – we’d all recommend the area and all the places we went to.