CROSSROADSRotary Club of Singapore Vol. 48 / 45

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11th

June

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2“Good Samaritan Award” to Chew Chia Shao Wei

Lunch meeting of the 6th June 2012

- 2nd winner essay for NGS

Find your bulletin on the Facebook page of “Rotary Club of Singapore”

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Introductory remarksPresident Tapan welcomed members to the 45th meeting of the Rotary year and the first meeting of Rotary Fellowship Month celebrated by Rotarians in the month of June. President Tapan extended a warm welcome to our Guests for the Good Samaritan Award 2012, Miss Chew Chia Shao Wei, who was accompanied by her mother, Mrs. Chia Kwok Ying.

ToastToastmaster, Rtn. Jeremy Han invited visiting Rotarian Graham Wilcox, who is a priest, to address the Club. Rtn. Graham advised that Stratford Upon Avon was the home town of the famous playwright, William Shakespeare. He advised that there were about 4 million visitors to Stratford Upon Avon each year, visiting the famous sites and enjoying the theatre. Rtn. Graham added that there were many visitors to his club as well and he was pleased to bring his club’s greetings.Installation dinner

PE Jimmy Ooi reminded members not to miss the Installation Dinner on Saturday, 30th June to be held at: Joyden Hall 7th floorBUGIS+ (formerly known as Iluma)PE Jimmy added that the Organizing Committee has put in a great deal of effort towards the Installation Dinner to ensure a good start to the new Rotary year. Do get your tickets!

Happy birthdayPresident Tapan sent best wishes to all birthday celebrants for the week including PP Stan Low who would celebrate his birthday on 8th June. He invited PP Stan to come forward to cut the birthday cake. Sergeant-at-Arms, Rtn. Gerald Abeyawardena called on members to join him in wishing President Tapan a “Happy Anniversary” for 10th June.

Welcome of visiting Rotarians and guests

Rtn. Robert Craiu welcomed our guests and visiting Rotarians

- Guests :Mrs. Jyoti Dilip VoraMr. Ziad JabriMr. Nick TeoMr. Janus Yeo

Visiting Rotarians :PDG Kenneth Chew – Pandan ValleyPP & District Officer, Dilip Vora – Bombay Hills South, IndiaBown Heiko – Munchen 100, GermanyGraham Wilcox – Stratford Upon Avon, England

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Good samaritan award

President Tapan invited Honorary Secretary, Rtn. Goh Bock Seng to conduct the Award Presentation on behalf of Community Service Committee Director, Xavier Sanjiman. Rtn. Bock Seng advised that this year, the committee received numerous nominations, and the selection committee had difficulty in deciding the winner. However, Rtn. Bock Seng added that the committee were touched by this year’s winner – a straight ‘A’s student, who plays football at the national school level and contributes so much of her precious time to community work.

Following is an extract from the Good Samaritan Award 2012 Citation:Winner: Chew Chia Shao WeiWhy is this person deserving of the award ?Shao Wei is 16 years old and may not have money to give at such a young age, but she gives what she has and what is even more precious- her time. An amazing role model for other teens! Plus she does amazing in school. She's in the gifted program at Raffles and won global literary awards!She is most deserving of this award at such a young age juggling so many activities and exceling in them all!

Rtn. Bock Seng invited Miss Chew Chia Shao Wei to address the Club. Shao Wei gave a brief summary of her schedule of activities as follows:Lions Befrienders - home visits to isolated elderly in Chinatown every SaturdayHeartware Network Tuition Programme - student leader (coordinator) and volunteer for programme to tutor primary school kids 2 hours every week whose parent(s) are incarcerated; the particular school she tutors at is Chua Chu Kang Primary School.Glory Centre - before-and-after-school childcare in Hougang for underprivileged primary school children, which she visits once a week.

Assists at Meet People Sessions every Monday from 7.15-9.30pm and related programmes (i.e. Paya Lebar Community Support home visits for needs assessments).Youths for a Future of Social Entrepreneurship, of which she is on the Executive Committee.Rtn. Bock Seng called upon President Tapan to present to the Good Samaritan winner, Miss Chew Chia Shao Wei the Award’s Certificate, pewter plaque, Rotary paraphernalia and cheque, which was for the use of Shao Wei’s community work.

Community service project

President Tapan called upon Rtn. Noshir Mistri who called on all members to participate in the visit to the Singapore Garden Festival with the residents of the Sree Narayana Home for the Aged. He advised that this was the third such visit to the Festival organized by the Club for the elderly and wheel-chair bound. Details of the visit are as follows:Date & Time: Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 2.30pmMeeting Place: Main entrance of Suntec to escort and assist the elderly and wheelchair bound. If you are able to participate and assist, please contact Rtn. Noshir Mistri at email nmistri71@gmail.com

Essay : from Eugene Lim, Koh Liang Ping, Amanda Choo, 2nd winner of the NGS 5th Essay competition

Interaction between the elderly and the youth in modern Singapore : The challenges and solutions.

A seventeen-year-old student saunters into the MRT, enclosed by his soundscape of the latest Top-40s lasting through tiny silver earphones. Like a well-instilled drill, he wordlessly gestures towards a seat as an old man hobbles in. The old guy must be arranging another gambling session, the teenager thinks, unable to hear much besides his iPod, for the elderly passenger hurriedly picks up his bulky mobile phone and begins speaking in a loud, exaggerated manner. A seventy-six-year-old retiree enters the MRT, and is shocked to see a fresh-faced youth almost like his grandson. But the boy remains plugged into his device, noiseless and expressionless – a countenance no different from his own grandson’s. His favourite Cantonese ballad begins to play – it is his daughter-in-law. Hard of hearing, he struggles to hear precious scraps of dialect on the other line, and tries his best to answer. Silently he wishes his adolescent descendants could speak his language. Two generations, two worlds, deaf and mute to each other. This is the state of interaction between the elderly and youth today. With proportion of those 65 years and above expected to increase to a record 19 percent by 2030, a “silver tsunami” looms over Singapore. Yet, the two generations are largely disconnected, separated by a “generation gap” brought about by differences in language, use of technology and lack of face-to-face interaction. Despite a focus on filial piety and respect for the elderly via an “Asian values” drive in the 1990s, as well as the creation of a task force aimed specifically at intergenerational bonding by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports in 2002, the fact is that Singaporean youths and elderly lack regular and quality interaction. One reason is changing household and social patterns that physically separate the elderly and youth. Nuclear households have become the norm in modern Singapore, and the percentage of households with only elderly residents has jumped by 70 percent. This means lesser youths are living with their grandparents, leaving fewer opportunities for interaction. The hectic lifestyles of today mean that grandchildren may be unable or unwilling to leave the confines of their nuclear home to pay their grandparents a visit. Physical barriers inevitably lead to another kind of separation—a language barrier. With only 3.3 percent of secondary school students speaking dialects in 2005, it is no wonder that many youths struggle to communicate with the dialect-speaking elderly. The inability to speak a common language makes for an uncomfortable (or even non-existent) dialogue, and reduces a family reunion to an exchange of not words but red packets. Even when both generations are living under the same roof, a sense of disconnect is still possible. With the influx of technology and the media, the youth’s lifestyle is unfathomable to the elderly. Grandparents see their grandchildren constantly glued to their computer screens; grandchildren assume their grandparents’ only preoccupation is the Japanese Occupation. Hence, the possibility of regular and quality interaction remains distant in their view.

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It is clear that the expanding generation gap stems fundamentally from increasing segregation between the two generations and a lack of meaningful opportunities for them to interact. Thus, the most important solutions would focus on creating opportunities for sustained communication and bonding between the generations. Towards this end, social projects initiated by both generations with the purpose of promoting better understanding and sharing of experience among the two is crucial. These activities help create cross-generational friendship and deconstruct stereotypes that both generations have of each other by creating an opportunity for them to connect and also to comprehend each other. A success story was the SPHERE project; short for “Students, Singapore Pools and HDB Enriching and Reaching out to the Elderly”, an ongoing community project since 2002. Students were sent in groups to organize community activities for older residents residing in selected HDB rental apartments and studio apartment blocks. Dr Leng Leng Thang from the National University of Singapore observed a group of 14 – 15 year olds. She described the initial meeting between the elderly and the youth as awkward, with attempts at communication stymied by a language and cultural barrier. However, over subsequent sessions, as students planned recreational activities for the elderly and kept in frequent contact with them, friendship developed even though communication was still difficult. This amply demonstrates the effectiveness of service projects spanning the two generations in promoting cross-generational companionship, even in the face of daunting cultural and language barriers. But beyond activities specifically geared towards providing opportunities for intergenerational interaction, the concept of creating “intergenerational interactive spaces” in the public domain is also worth exploring. By consciously creating public spaces where the two generations are placed in close proximity, intergenerational interaction can be integrated into everyday community life, bringing the two parallel worlds of the two generations together. For example, children’s playgrounds could be constructed right next to exercising grounds for elderly, and this offers chances for the two generations to communicate as they each engage in their daily routines. Also, spaces catered to either generation can be integrated and can provide incentives to attract each other into its compound. Children’s libraries could be built inside retirement communities, and elderly could be encouraged to read to children, thus facilitating the process of intergenerational sharing and bonding. All these work towards creating a seamless environment where generations become increasingly integrated and not separated. However, communication is not just about speaking and sharing, it is also about adopting and adapting. Communication between the generations could be greatly enhanced if both generations were taught and equipped with the skills to better communicate with each other. Teenagers could be provided with dialect courses, while elderly could be taught on the use of social media. This way, instead of existing in two different spheres, the two groups could communicate in a manner which they are comfortable with. No doubt, the need to promote interaction between the youth and the elderly may well be a statistical one, with those aged 65 and above expected to grow to 20 percent of the population by 2020. However, we should not only be motivated by practical concerns, but also a genuine empathy for the elderly, who in their twilight years may require even more support and companionship. Furthermore, such interaction is mutually beneficial for both the youth and the elderly by allowing them to connect on an emotional level with others, regardless of age.

In conclusion, while the “generation gap” may appear insurmountable in the face of an increasingly fast-paced and changing world, sometimes all it takes is for one side to talk – and the other to listen. Whether done online, in service projects, or as part of a daily routine, genuine interaction between the youth and elderly is the best way to promote cross-generational understanding and friendship. And as the proportion of the elderly grows in Singapore, the need has become even greater than ever.

Eugene Lim, Koh Liang Ping, Amanda Choo (RIJC Interact Club– Years 5 to 6)

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CLUB HISTORY

President Tapan advised the significance of 6th June to the Club – he read the following excerpt from the “80 Years & Beyond…Service Above Self” book: “The year 1930 saw the Rotary flame kindle in Singapore. On June 6, 75 leading members of the community representing 20 different nationalities met at Raffles Hotel to inaugurate the first Rotary Club in Singapore. The flame was fanned by the visions of men like James W. Davidson, Lim Bock Kee and the founding President, Dato (Sir) Roland Braddell. The Board of Directors immediately set high standards for future Boards by organizing the first Malayan Rotary Clubs Conference in December 1930. Six months after its inauguration, the Club received its Charter under which it operates as Club No. 3360 on the roll of Rotary International.” President Tapan noted with interest that in 1930 there were 20 different nationalities in the Club and currently there were 22 nationalities.

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The Guide to Daily LivingBefore doing the things we want to do, consider first, the precept of the guide. Ask ourselves these 4 questions and act upon them:First: Have I spent some time in self-examination?Second: Have I spent quality time with my family?Third: Have I given my best to my work?Fourth: Have I given some time to someone near and far?The Guide, in fact, encompasses the 4 parts of the Object of Rotary.

MARK YOUR DIARYBirthday celebrantsRC wishes Happy Birthday to celebrants this week:June 15th – Sirish Kumar

Anniversary CelebrantsRC sends best wishes to Wedding Anniversary celebrants this weekJune 13th – S Malaiappan & LakshimiJune 14th – Rudi & Fides AckermannJune 15th – Jasbir & Koh Kok Keong

This weekJune 13th 2012

Reception Desk duty: Colin Miles, Jamshid MedoraSunshine Box duty: Louis Lim, Noshir Mistri, Michael Boegli

Speaker: Mr. Girija Pande Chairman – Asia Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.Singapore

Topic: “Leadership in an Interconnected World”

Vocational Service Date: Wednesday, 13th JuneTime: 7.30pmVenue: Tandoori Corner, 5 Boon Tat Street, S069613

Next week June 20th 2012

Reception Desk duty: Atul Merchant, Jim PollockSunshine Box duty: Kavita Singh, Garry Taylor

Last Weekly Meeting to be chaired by President Tapan who will give a brief message to round off his year of Presidency.

New Generations Service Date: Friday, 15th JuneTime: 7.30pmVenue: 34 Merryn Road, S298483Host: PP Dr. Yap Lip Kee

COMING ROTARY EVENTS

JuneRotary Fellowships Month

June 19thRewa Merpuri talk on “Humour” RC of Jurong on Tuesday 19th June 12 at Tangling clunb

June 27th Meeting Cancelled in view of the Installation Dinner on June 30th

June 30th Installation Dinner

JulyJuly 4th 1st Club Assembly for Rotary Year 2012/2013

July 12th Visit to the Singapore Garden Festival with the residents of the Sree Narayana Home for the Aged

Queries, comments and articles request can be sent to Jean-Philippe Lionnetbulletin@rotary.org.sg

The Four-Way TestOf the Things we think, say or do:* Is it the truth?* Is it fair to all concerned?* Will it build goodwill and better friendship?* Will it be beneficial to all concerned?