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Riotous Assembly
The Week That Was
By: Dir. Tony Newnham
Nov. 15, 2006
We had a good turn out this week; maybe it was the subject of our guest speaker. Talking politics is always a crowd puller.
As is usual, in our August club, the topic on my table was relating to age and eyesight or rather lack of it, led by our eye guru Ed Sison. I have never seen PP Bert Lingad look coy except when Ed asked how old he was!
The reverie was broken with the arrival of Sal and the subject quickly changed to politics; US politics. Sal confirmed what we had always believed, that he was slightly to the right of Attila the Hun when he stated his solution for Iraq.” Either arm all groups and let them wipe each other out or drop a bomb on the country.”
The two Mikes arrived, Messer’s Clancy and Wotton, with our only guest this week Dr David Freeman. Another table had to be found to accommodate them. It was good to see them both after quite some time.
Chito reminded us that the Inner wheel Golf Tournament was being held the following day at Ayala Greenfields.
President Porong said that he was trying to arrange a party next week to celebrate his 60th and that on December 6th Sal would be introducing us to Illy coffee. What is Illy coffee, you have to be there on the 6th to find out. Eric Natividad was Rotarian of the week; he admitted a golf handicap of 18 and chose Ateneo by default!!
Our speaker was introduced by Daniel, who was responsible for Louis Perron being in the Philippines. He had been best man at Daniel’s wedding. Louis has lived here for two years and started his talk with the obvious question, why hire a Swiss political consultant in the Philippines? The main reasons he gave, new ideas and an outside-unbiased view.
He then treated us to some extremely interesting insights into the political scene here and how gradually the electorate is moving to issue based campaigns. How important or not a ‘name’ was, how early surveys were almost always wrong.
During question time PP Tony P asked how much Louis charged for his services, and more specifically how much he would charge PP Bert if he ran for Governor. PP Bert looked coy again!
President's Corner
So, Happy New Year, damn it!
Before anything else, allow me to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.
Perhaps not a few of you are tired of getting this greeting, which probably swamped your mobile phone and e-mail mailboxes. Given the challenges ahead – the global crisis, its repercussions here, the run-up to the next national elections, and others – maybe it will help to hear more well wishes.
So, happy New Year, damn it!
Seriously, the gloomy forecast suggests that this year Rotary is more relevant. Many of us are already feeling the pinch, and the others are probably bracing themselves for the worst. But in a sense, we are still the lucky ones. Imagine the hardship and anxiety of those with lesser means. No matter how difficult our situation is now, there always seems to be someone else somewhere experiencing something worse.
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