Home | About Our Club | Who's Who  | For Members  |  Calendar  | Bulletin  |  District 5130 | Rotary Int'l |

The SARS Epidemic in China

President "King" Louis brought this throng of late summer a attendees to order by once again reminding us that we all are “the greatest members in the world”, and as such “are members of the greatest club in the world.” That being said he moved on to:

Pledge: Ray Schofield

The Rotary Moment: Gary Lucas

Introduction of visiting Rotarians: Fred Zmarzly

Jim Hinton and Jim Valinoti did the setup. Pres Louie hoped that Jim Valinoti would stick around for pickup. (He didn’t. But we all understand, Jim. We’re glad you’re with us!)

PDG Mike Merrill was unanimously approved by our Board for nomination to the International Rotary Board of Directors. This is a “Biggie”. Mike stated the honor he feels for our Club to support him. He stated how important it is to Rotary International to have the local club support. Great going, Mike! We’re with you!!

Secretary Janet announced that she will be calling people regarding data update for the Roster. She wants it correct before she sends the raw data to Chuck for inclusion into the Roster.

Association of Sonoma County Rotary Clubs meeting will be on August 28 in Guerneville at Northwood. Contact. Janet if you would like to attend.

David Mac Donald announced that we’re gearing up for the Dictionary program. He wants more people than the 4 that have volunteered to date. This is Community Service where we give dictionaries to third grade students. Help is needed for this October event.

Harry Rubins, Foundation Chair, expressed thanks to those who attended the Pinot for Polio event that took place at the LBC. Anyone who has sold tickets and has checks to submit, please get them to Harry. (Connection between Pinot & Polio...go ahead, drink that Pinot!!)

There will be a Foundation Meeting in Napa on September 6th.

John Meislahn announced the results of his first Crab Feed Committee meeting. He stated that all is progressing well. Past President Brian Herndon is now the co-chair of this committee. John mentioned the need for gifts of wine, or whatever. The theme for this year is "Margaritaville"

.

Arnie Carston rose to talk about the live auction. He wants Ed Burr to get into the club quickly so that Ed can do the arrangements for the live auction.

The advertisements on the tickets for the Crab Feed were auctioned:

• Raffle Ticket advertisement Auction: $300 to Arnie Carston
• Entrance Tickets advertisement Auction: $350 to David McDonald

Arnie called on his guest (Bill Daniels) who has a 5 bedroom villa in France. He is donating this for the auction in the Crab Feed. The auction will be for a week in the villa. Bravo, Bill!

Our club bought a hog from the Fair with the Windsor Club. Each Club has a half of the hog. Pres Louie decided to auction off the half-hog that we have; this is about 120 pounds of meat. Jim Valinoti immediately bid $100. (Louie tried to encourage higher bids by reminding us that some little kid gave up his pet in exchange for untold millions, just so we could add further to the total funds for charitable organizations that were associated with the demise of this fair piglet.) Fred Zmarzly eventually won the contest with a $250 bid. (Oink!)

Pres Louie provided some background on the joint meeting that took place last Friday. It was a great speaker. Turnout from our Club was not good. If you listed your name as an attendee, you owe the Club for that ticket, even if you did not attend.

Fines and Recognition

Ken Prouty lost his Cal Alumni hat, which Pres Louie found (with some help). $10 to get it back.

Pres Louie then headed out into the membership.

Jim Hinton, Pres Elect, has been away for awhile. $10 for various trips. Jim offered $10 per missed meetings. Total was 4 meetings, Fine = $40.

Bryan Fikes, has returned to us after an extended absence. He mentioned that he has had some family tragedies, and that he has stopped working for the bail bond business. The good news is that he has started his own business. (Your own business??? No employees??? This really got “Rasputin Bob’s” attention. J - Ed) Pres Louie decided not to fine Brian....You never know when you might need someone with...

Chris Rosell, is now the treasurer of Leadership Santa Rosa Alumni Association. $10 for the prestige of the new position.

Marci has a birthday on August 27th. $10.

Ginny Pitt’s husband, Bob, is having a birthday. Even though he’s not a member, Ginny was charged $10, which she said should be charged to Ken Kushnir. This reporter did not catch what happened on this little exchange.

Tarina Hall received 3.5 stars for a photograph she published. $20.

Chuck Baker, birthday on August 27th. Planet Mars will be closest to Earth on that day. Chuck recounted the story about Jeri Arnold’s trip to Las Vegas and the hooter convention. He was in Vegas also and didn’t even know about the hooters convention. $10. (a pair?)

Fred Zmarzly, $10 for an anniversary.

Raffle

Value $275, with 24 marbles. Phil Talamantes had the first ticket, drew the wrong marble. Arnie had the bottle of wine ticket.

Speaker

PDG John Withers introduced the speaker, Dr Baron Gold. He is a Chinese expert. Essence of his presentation: His topic was a discussion of SARS and how it affected China. In total there were about 8,500 cases worldwide of which 5,000 were in China. Hong Kong alone had 1,700 cases. Overall about 850 deaths.

Salient issues:

1. Economics: china has had the fastest economic growth rate in the world. Effect of SARS was a minimal depressant on the Chinese economy.

2. Media: In a communist country the media is tightly controlled. This is one reason the epidemic went out of control. After the government realized the impact of SARS, the restrictions on the media were released.

3. Socially: Government has historically restricted travel in China. After SARS, people began moving about more freely. These freedoms actually, in one view, helped to spread the epidemic.

4. People who were better off financially received better care than others.

5. Chinese food, especially Cantonese food, spread the disease more rapidly. Chinese will eat almost anything (If it has 4 legs and isn’t a table or a chair, or if the sun hits it’s back, it gets eaten!). Restrictions on this for health reasons became necessary to control the epidemic.

6. China has a rapidly growing and active Internet presence. Restrictions of the Chinese government were essentially ineffective because of the internet. The great Chinese Firewall did not work.

7. Political Aspects: New people came into the government who, being younger, brought in fresh ideas. The old guard fled Beijing and waited for the new people to fall on their faces. So far it has not happened. However, the fact that the old leaders fled the disease somewhat discredited them.

The political changes have been the most profound changes in China as a result of the SARS epidemic. The awareness of the secretiveness of the government hindering the public health has had a profound effect on bringing changes to China.

The Chinese government is not as weak as the Soviet government was at the time of Chernobyl. However, the failure of the communist government in China to deal with this SARS situation may spell the beginning of the end for the totalitarian government. Some had speculated that the end of the communist government in China. That remains to be seen. So far the communist party has managed to spin the facts in a way to deflect some of the criticism.

He is optimistic for the future of China and its involvement in the world.

Thought provoking, interesting presentation.

Bob Harris, Writer

Bulletin Editor, Jim Valinoti

* * * * *

Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.

Bulletin Archives