Ang Magiting - The Official Web Site of Rotary Club Makati North

Size doesn’t matter . . .

The Week That Was
January 21, 2008

By PP Tony Chong

David and Goliath – that’s the impression many of us would get when we look at the size of Taiwan (also known as Republic of China) and the People’s Republic China (also known as Mainland China). And in fact that’s how it seems to be.

This in essence was the message of Ambassador Donald C.T. Lee, officially the representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines. In land area alone, PROC has 9.6 million square kilometers while ROC’s is 35,000; in terms of population, PROC has 1.3 billion while ROC only has 23 million. But in terms of per capita income, it’s ROC ahead by a mile!

One person whose face lit up when he heard that ROC, inspite its size, is standing up to PROC on many fronts, was PP Donnies Alas who told seatmates PE Vic Austria and PP Ric dela Torre “See — small but terrible!” Danny R
Rayos del Sol couldn’t agree more.

Mac McLean called on Pres. Klink Ang to convene the meeting as early as 12:45 “to give everyone more time to ask questions later” and indeed there were questions.

From PP Bert Lingad “will Taiwan ever become an independent country?” and from Vic Magdaraog “what’s keeping the Taiwanese from investing in the Philippines?” An unasked question was from IPP Joe Reaño who wanted to know when the group can get back to Taipeh for its steaming Taiwanese cuisine.

PP Pabling Calma whispered out loud to seatmate PP Gus Lagman “ . . .if they have a problem joining mainland China, why don’t they just join up with us – we can offer them endless business opportunities!” PP Chet Tan overheard this and wondered if there are legal impediments to such a move.

Bob Hecks, of course was busy jotting down notes he failed to notice visiting Rotarian Shiela Gelman of RC Holladay – Utah, giving him a complimentary smile. Robert Syjuco was too far at the other side of the room to notice the flying kiss.

And so the meeting ended early in spite the many questions, thus giving everyone time to enjoy more for tete-a-tete.