A Fellow Rotarian
It’s rare that we step back and look at events from a more considered perspective but this week it occurred to me that three issues domina
te our news, each with very different lessons to be learned.
te our news, each with very different lessons to be learned.Many may be unaware that the Duke of Edinburgh was a member of Rotary, and in particular, was a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor and Eton in our district. Until about 5 years ago, the Duke would attend meetings in “his” club and refused to be treated differently to other Rotarians, including sitting at the President’s table.
Our District Governor was fortunate to meet Prince Philip when he was invited to the Rotary Club of London, where he was a guest speaker on the topic of conservation. He was witty, charming and reminded us all that he was a member, so he was effectively just a visiting Rotarian who happened to be the speaker!
More of Ken's story in "Read More" below
Ken's deliberations cont'd:
The death of Prince Phillip is of course sad for the family. He may have been the Queens Consort but he was also a father, grandfather and great grandfather. Immediately the media was full of his life story. His difficult childhood, his war years, his warmth and friendly demeanour were all exclaimed in telling detail. It’s sad that it requires one to die before our finer points are exclaimed and celebrated!
The U.K. vaccination programme has been hailed globally and of course whilst failure is a bastard success has a thousand fathers. In the case of the vaccination programme it wonderfully demonstrates how the combined resources , experience and capabilities of the public sector NHS, the logistics of the Army and the inventiveness and drive of the private sector when harnessed can achieve great things.
Today as lockdown is eased still further we must thank those who have worked tirelessly to vaccinate over 32million people, if only because on Friday I can finally have my hair cut!
I read yesterday of how social media was calling one of our great actors a racist just for relating a story of how the Queen, when he had lunch with her, referred to an ambassador as a “gorilla”. The Woke culture- or Cancel Culture- could have ended his illustrious career, until it was revealed that the ambassador was in fact a white man with unusually long arms, hence the “gorilla” tag. Innocent until proven guilty, once a mainstay of our civilised society seems to have been replaced by “hashtag guilty”.
Finally, is it just me or has the “news” aired by our National broadcasting channels been replaced by the woke, anti government, victimised “opinions” of everybody and anybody! People never ask for my opinion- until now!
The U.K. vaccination programme has been hailed globally and of course whilst failure is a bastard success has a thousand fathers. In the case of the vaccination programme it wonderfully demonstrates how the combined resources , experience and capabilities of the public sector NHS, the logistics of the Army and the inventiveness and drive of the private sector when harnessed can achieve great things.
Today as lockdown is eased still further we must thank those who have worked tirelessly to vaccinate over 32million people, if only because on Friday I can finally have my hair cut!
I read yesterday of how social media was calling one of our great actors a racist just for relating a story of how the Queen, when he had lunch with her, referred to an ambassador as a “gorilla”. The Woke culture- or Cancel Culture- could have ended his illustrious career, until it was revealed that the ambassador was in fact a white man with unusually long arms, hence the “gorilla” tag. Innocent until proven guilty, once a mainstay of our civilised society seems to have been replaced by “hashtag guilty”.
Finally, is it just me or has the “news” aired by our National broadcasting channels been replaced by the woke, anti government, victimised “opinions” of everybody and anybody! People never ask for my opinion- until now!