John was a dedicated hard working Rotarian who was Club Secretary for four consecutive years, Vocational Service Director, International Service Director and served in Youth Service. Programme, Bulletin and attendance committees by these commitments to Rotary he can be proud of his efforts in “Service above Self”. John had an excellent year as President who enjoyed, his year at the helm.
Club Service
New ventures, documented elsewhere in the Director’s Reports for this year, include participation in the Red Shield Doorknock appeal, provision of a roundabout for the opening of the Westfield Branch of the St. George Building Society, sponsorship and participation in the City of Wollongong Australia Day Naturalisation Ceremony, assistance with the Leisure Coast Cycle-thon and Tri-athlon events, and some initial work with the Combined Service Clubs Safety Campaign. In all of these, a conscious effort was made to indicate the involvement of Rotary and the W
The Club is grateful for the generosity of Frank Issa and his company that enabled us to conduct another Midford Clothing Sale. The fact that it was not as successful as previously was in no way due to lack of support from the Club. It was, I think, more a reflection of the general economic tightness of the community.
Another relatively new member deserving of recognition is Ray Ward. Ray has done a first class job as this year’s Bulletin Editor but, in particular, it was due to his personal drive that for the first time we have become involved in the Australia/New Zealand Youth Exchange Scheme, with Nicky Hulse from Auckland and Nikki McCarthy from Wollongong spending a term in each other’s Country, Home and School.
Turning to personal matters, the past year saw the retirement from business of our Renown Court proprietors John and Wilga Crittenden. We thank them and all their staff for the way they have looked after us for the past few years and take this opportunity to welcome the new proprietors Spencer and Cynthia Walton.
On a sadder note, we have to record the deaths during the year of two good friends of this Club; Bessie Foskett and Laurie Avery, Bessie, through her Secretarial Service was responsible for the printing of our weekly Bulletin and Laurie, with his lapidary stand at Hillview and annual Opal Bracelet raffle, was responsible for many hundreds of dollars going to local charities.
Several fellowship events took place during the year:
Show – “Brideshead Revisited” at the Coniston Hotel with plenty of audience participation.
A Fred Tressider organised “Fashion Parade” much to the delight of the ladies, March 13th
Community Service
In 1962-63 Interact, a Rotary-sponsored service Club for youth at the secondary school level, was initiated. The first Interact Club was chartered in Melbourne, Florida, U.S.A. The World Community Service program was initiated. The West African nation of Sierra Leone, entered the Rotary family with the chartering of a club in Freetown.
The Club again supported the Red Shield Appeal Door-knock, 7 July.
Sponsorship and participation in the City of Wollongong Australia Day Naturalisation Ceremony.
Provided Marshals for the Leisure Coast Cycle-thon and Tri-athlon events.
The Club assisted in the combined services Clubs Safety Campaign.
President John took the opportunity to thank every Club member who assisted in the Hillview effort and especially Alan Reid and George Burns. George said that in his view the hardest working person at Hillview was Joan Lamerton who did not stop on either day for lunch. He said he had his usual battle in trying to convince her that the Club was going to pay for her accommodation on the Saturday night. He said that she gave the Club a cheque by way of a donation to Hillview project and he expressed his personal thanks for her contribution. Hilton King confirmed that the helicopter pilot had arranged for two passengers back to Sydney at $40 per head and had donated $80 to the Club.
The Wollongong “Pioneer hall” working bee continued during June but was poorly attended.
International Service
The Club provided 450 meals at the District Conference held in Wollongong. Brian Hedley, George Burns and Cec Fahey and helpers were dubbed “The Team from West Wollongong”.
$500 was donated to Streehitakarini, a medical and support care scheme for the Bombay poor. The Club received a report on work carried out by this organisation.
Youth Service.
Our sponsored student for 1985, Mirjana (Mimi) Trifunovic, returned from Denmark in January 1985, and is now in her first year at the University of Sydney, hopefully, she will be able to tell us of her exchange experience during the August University break. Currently we are hosting that irrepressible guy from Germany who goes under the various names of “Motor Mouth” or “Dirk the Kraut”, however we have been treated to a unique experience with the hosting of young Dirk Thomas who has made friends wherever he has been in Australia. Thank you Dirk for your contribution to this Programme. Sponsored student for 1985, Sara Cocksedge who is in Helsinki, hosted by the Rotary Club of Herttoniemi, reports that all is well with her as she masters her new language and witnesses the great changes in the seasons of her temporary Finnish homeland.
We look forward to our exchange student from France, Delphine Duret, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Tourcoing. A first for District 975 – an exchange with France! The Club’s nominee for 1986 is Elisa Bellino, who, at this writing has yet to undergo the District Selection process.
Again, thanks to Ian Chapman for his contribution to the Programme, and to the Ganeys, Phelans and Mitchells for their hosting of Dirk during this year.
The Club received several nominations for participation in the Overseas Youth Exchange Programme. As usual, the extremely high standard of the nominees made selection very difficult and after much deliberation the Committee finally decided to put forward Elisa Bellino for consideration by the District Committee.
RYLA.Response to RYLA was good and the club finally sponsored three awardees, Tania Heffernan, John Reed and Peter Jones. Feedback indicates that they were enthusiastic about their experience and gained much from their week in camp
Guest Speaker – Samantha Kelly (Exchange Student – South Africa) Our Guest Speaker last week was Samantha Kelly (who liked to be known as Sam) and she was introduced by Kevin McGregor from the Corrimal Rotary Club. Sam has been staying as an exchange student in Australia since January 1984 and is a guest of the Corrimal Club. Kevin introduced her by saying that in his experience, all South African exchange students are prepared to do more PR work than other exchange students do and he has found Sam in particular to be more than willing to speak to as many Clubs as possible with the object being to convince those Clubs to become involved in Youth Exchange.
Sam commenced her speech by saying that she was no politician. She felt that she should endeavour to explain to us the new concept in South Africa of the Homelands System of Government.
This is a new system devised by the present Government and is an attempt to solve the extensive racial problems in that country. She said that superficially the proposal appears to be fair, however, the overall effect is that only the black tribes-people have some say in the Government of the country and accordingly the Government of themselves. What the system overlooks is that the urban black, which is the bulk of the black population, has no say in Government at all. He has no tribe and has left this style of life many generations ago. The system dictates that as he is not a member of the tribe and living in a tribal region, then he is unable to vote.
Sam said that she is very much in love with the country but was outspoken in her dislike of the politics. She did stress that answer to the racial problems is not as simple as we might think. She said that the economic situation and the culture diversity within the country indicate that a one-man one system simply would not work. She used as an example the political situation in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). Sam said that she did not wish to appear to critical of the Homeland System as it did have some advantages. She said in the various homelands areas, as a direct result of this system, there were new industries created as the people of those areas had more say in Government. The largest contribution system was that the education system has improved in the homelands and that the blacks generally were becoming much better educated. She said that one must look to the future and of course, improved education of these people would be of great assistance for them when or if they eventually take over the Government of the country.
Sam comes from the Homelands area called Bophuthatswana. In 1977, a Bureau of Language and Culture was set up in this area to preserve the language and the traditional culture. The main industry is the mining of coal, uranium, asbestos and many natural resources. Sam said there is a very good and liberal President and as a result of this, there have been many foreign investments of late. There are many incentives to foreign investment, one of which is that the first two years income is tax free. Another large industry is tourism and the attractions in the game reserve and a casino at which both gambling and pornography are available. (Both of these “entertainments” are illegal in Africa).
Sam showed us some interesting slides including those of the President and the regional authorities sitting under trees discussing presumably matters of major importance to the area. Apparently, palm tree justice is a reality. She also showed interesting slides of industrial areas and the differences in houses of both black and white people in these industrial areas. She highlighted differences in the clothing of the black and white people and general wealth. She stressed through another slide that in her Homelands areas things were not as bad as in other areas and showed us a photograph of many black people in shopping complexes.
Vocational Service
Mr Mick Best, co-ordinator for the work experience throughout the Wollongong area involving Secondary students addressed the Club on difficulties experience by school leavers. Guest Speaker – Lt. Col Peter Reid (U Peace Keeping 1985). Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Reid who was introduced by Alan Reid
Peter reminded us that he had spoken to us 16 years ago when he returned from Vietnam. This was to be a very different talk from that one. On a map of the Indian cub-continent, Peter pointed out the relevant areas over which he, as part of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force, was involved in for 12 months. The basic friction has historically been centred around the Kashmir area. Traditionally, Peter informed us Kashmir has always been a violently independent area and a thorn in the side of the British administration for many, many years.
In 1948 the Moslems elected to live under their own ruling and Pakistan was mutually agreed upon. However, the border to the Kashmir area could not be agreed upon because of the independent nature of the Kashmir Moslems. It was to police this area that the United Nations put in a force. Peter joined this Force approximately 38 years later and was told his role was to supervise the cease-fire and to prevent the build up of arms. The Force, over its period of time in the areas, consisted of, at various times, all of the United Nations countries with the exception of USSR, the USA and Great Britain.
The reasons for these exclusions appear to be reasonably obvious. Peter said his task was not difficult as the Force did not take an active role, but would have to wait until there was a formal complaint from one nation before his Commander in Chief could go to the opposing Government and ask for an explanation to the matters complained about. This is obviously a cumbersome procedure and Peter said that it had not changed at all.
The Commander in Chief of the United Nations Force is usually a two-star General and is a permanent employee of the United Nations. The position is a very powerful one and for this and other reasons, he is normally not a member of any other army during his appointment. At any one time there are 50 officers and whilst Peter was there, they came from nine different countries. On the administrative side of the operation whilst Peter was there, there were 55 permanent employees of the United Nations, these came from many different countries. The headquarters were in two places throughout the year, they have a summer residence in Shriniga where, as foreigners cannot own land, the employees live on boats on the lakes, and in winter they move to Pindi in Pakistan.
Peter said that he was not allowed a great deal of freedom to look over the area whilst he was there as indeed there were general restrictions on the United Nations Forces at large, which came from their supervisory role.
Whilst he was there, there were a number of breaches of the cease-fire both minor and major. One further problem that Peter perceived was that the attitude of the Indian Government is that the Kashmir problem is to be sorted out by Pakistan and India alone and the United Nations should not be there, whilst the Pakistani Government has the opposite opinion.
The Indian Government, however, acknowledges the presence of the United Nations and gives some administrative support. The Indian Government’s attitude is no doubt a result of having a vastly superior army than that of the Pakistan Government. Peter pointed out that there was another area of land that was a potential trouble spot and this was the buffer area between China and Kashmir. This area is not controlled by the United Nations and it would appear it is lucky that it is generally closed during the winter because of weather conditions. He sees this as an area to watch in the future.
In summing up, Peter said that the role of the Australian Army in the Force is more important than we realise. We are presently the only English speaking country on the mission and if we for some reason did not contribute our resources, the contact with the western world would be lost.
