| ACTIVITIES |
| Weekly Meetings |
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31 January – Induction Michael Miggins + Guest speaker Louis Tobback After being introduced and praised by his sponsor Leo Verbruggen, Mike (Michael) Miggins was officially welcomed and formally inducted as a new member of our club by our President Alain Verbeke. Alain mentioned to our first English-speaking member that as a Rotarian he should follow our motto "Service Above Self." In addition to service, Mike will have the benefit of strong bonds of friendship with fellow Rotarians, locally and worldwide. At Cantersteen, we all consider friendship as the core value of our membership or to quote Alain: “It’s all about Quantity and Ambiance and being in an authentic way ourselves without taking ourselves too seriously”. Welcome to Rotary, Mike! We all look forward to the enrichment of our lives as well as that of your own, by your association in this, the world's oldest, largest and finest service organization.
Our guest speaker tonight was, Louis Tobback, Mayor of Leuven, Minster of State and Former Interior Minister and President of the Flemish Socialist Party. He shared some of his views about a possible next State reform. To support his argument, he stated seven points:
9 January: Allison El Koubi Originally from Newfoundland (Canada), Allison El Koubi is now settled as a teacher in Louisiana (USA). Awarded by her sponsor club RC Baton Rouge (www.rotarybr.org) with an Ambassadorial Scholarship of the Rotary Foundation, she is currently following a MBA-programme at the Solvay Business School in Brussels. The Ambassadorial Scholarship is Rotary Foundation's oldest and best-known program is. Since 1947 nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded for study in 2005-06. Through grants totaling approximately US$500 million, recipients from some 70 countries studied in more than 70 nations.
Allison introduced us into the culture of her adoptive Louisiana: the typical creole and cajun cuisine with f.i. the gumbo, a spicy, hearty stew or soup – the magnificent mansions – the New Orleans jazz. She also told us her personal experience helping victims of Hurricane Katrina and gave us some insights into the US educational organisation.
Guy’s proverb: " Wie zich met een woordenstrijd bemoeit die hem niet aangaat, trekt aan de oren van een hond die rustig voorbijloopt” - He who meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.”
12 December: Marcel Claes – Chief Executive Amcham Belgium Before being appointed Chief Executive of AmCham Belgium (American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium), Marcel Claes has spent his career as a management consultant and international banker. Previous employers included Capgemini, KBC Bank and Bank of America in business development and management functions in Belgium, the USA and Switzerland. As AmCham’s Chief Executive he is responsible for developing and strengthening the relationships between the Chamber and the Belgian Government, the EU institutions and other high-level political and business representatives.
5 November: Induction of Alexander Mourisse After a short introduction by his “godfather” Michel Casselman, Alexander Mourisse was inducted as a new member by our Past-President Bruno De Mulder. Here are some extracts of Bruno’s speech … ;-) “Dear Alexander, you have been proposed for membership in the Rotary Club of Brussels Cantersteen by our friend Michel Casselman and duly elected. Therefore, it is my pleasure to formally induct you into this club.
I understand that you are aware of Rotary requirements and that you have indicated your willingness to follow them, as well as your willingness to offer your services to assist your fellow
Rotarians in their community and international projects. As you know, Rotary is a service club, each member performing what Rotary terms as "Service Above Self." In addition to service, you
will have the benefit of strong bonds of friendship with fellow Rotarians, locally and worldwide.
28 November: Prof. Dr. Mark Van den Wijngaert In less than one hour Prof. Van den Wijngaert succeeded in telling the complicated (hi)story of Belgium and its kings.
21 November 2006: Luc Daems about “Bright Future” After a short personal and emotional intervention about the dramatic news of the restructuring of the Volkswagen plant in Vorst, our friend Luc Daems brought us a more positive and hopeful story. The “Bright Future” project has set as objective to help promising and talented young students to be successful in the professional life. Main tool to achieve this goal is to give students the opportunity to meet and to be coached by company owners and managers. More information: see presentation sent by Luc to all members.
14 November 2006: Genaro ALARCÓN BENITO Genaro Alarcon-Benito, Economic counsellor at the Mexican mission to the EU gave a passionate presentation about his home country. From politics to economy, from culture and demographics to the new beetle, corona beer, beans and tequila, we got a very complete introduction about The United States of Mexico.
31 October 2006: Round Table Due to autumn holidays, business trips and illness (all the best to Luc and Alain), the Round Table meeting was an intimate and “gezellig onderonsje”. It was nice to see Michel Deboeck again and discuss with Lieven Top (the advisor about Energy and Climate to Minister Kris Peeters) about movie star Al Gore and Verhofstadt’s taxes! 24 October 2006: Tea Tasting with Mrs. Ann Vansteenkiste During a very lively and multi-sense presentation our guest speaker Ann Van Steenkiste talked passionately about the magnificient world of the golden beverage, Camellia sinensis.
We got indeed the opportunity to listen to a scientifical and historical story but above all to see, smell, touch and taste some exclusive Chinese Pai Mu Tan, surprising Japanese Sencha, red Taiwanese Oolong, very fragrant Indian Darjeeling and finally some West-Flemish Chocola-té ! A real discovery for most of us ! Many thanks to the charming assistants Alain and Leo for serving the different teas! More information: Ann Vansteenkiste, CuriosiThee, avansteenkiste@skynet.be 17 October 2006: Visit Rotary Club Brussel Coudenberg Tonight, we had almost more Presidents (2) and Past-Presidents (8) present than regular members! We were indeed honoured by a visit of our parent club Coudenberg. Both presidents Frédéric and Alain underlined the importance of getting to know each other better and announced some common activities in the future, the next being the New Year’s reception on the 26th of January. We also took the opportunity of this visit to introduce two new initiatives. The Committee Social Affairs - represented by Olivier Trop - presented its fundraising event planned in March next year
Olivier also announced the launch of our website and showed in avant-première some pages developed by our webmaster Hendrik De Hertogh. The website will be live beginning of November! 10 October 2006: Alexander Mourisse Our guest speaker Alexander Mourisse - better known as the “homo Universalis” – gave a very spiritual multi-media speech about himself, his loves and his jobs. He discovered that it is not easy keeping the Cantersteen audience silent but he also succeeded in keeping our attention from the start till the end of his presentation. I refer to his resume for more details.
3 October 2006: Guy Liagre stands in for Eric van Dalsum The announced maiden speech of Eric van Dalsum could not take place, as Eric had to assist his colleagues at the hotel after a fire caused some damage.
And once again, our friend Guy fulfilled this duty with ease and excellence. Starting with the origin of the Amish (the Anabaptist Christians that are known for not using modern devices such as cars, phones, PC’s, … and keeping their hat on), Guy talked about the formation of modern cities (first a city is a fried egg, than it becomes an omelette and finally ends as a scrambled egg – dixit Guy!) and how modern religions develop according the “buffet-culture” also known as the “VTM-isation” of religions… Guy’s introduction was followed by an animated Q&A.
Once again the absentees were wrong. They missed a great evening! Indeed, Paul Dujardin gave us a unique insight into the fabulous world of the Centre of Fine Arts of Brussels. From the origin till today.
The building of the Centre (Palais des Beaux-Arts/Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) was part of the urban development project that the famous architect Victor Horta designed for the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg ("Mount of the Arts") shortly after the First World War. After the parliament had refused to fund the building, the Société du Palais des Beaux-Arts raised private funds and the project could finally be realised. The building was not permitted to spoil the king’s view of the lower town. That’s why the height of the building was strictly limited and 60% of this unique "Palace" was built underground. The Centre for Fine Arts first opened its doors in 1928.
Today, BOZAR is the most important Art Centre in Belgium. The activities are organised in different sections: Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Expo, Music, Literature, Theatre and Studios. 12 September 2006: Prof. Dr. MD, PhD, Bart De Strooper about Alzheimer’s disease After a very laudatory and deserved introduction by Alain, Prof. Ordinario Bart De Strooper, Laureate of the 2002 Potamkin Prize, one of the premier international prizes for neuroscientific research and Head of the Center for Human Genetics and the Laboratory for Neuronal Cell Biology at the University of Leuven talked about the Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder with no known cause or cure. It attacks and slowly steals the minds of its victims. Symptoms of the disease include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, disorientation, and loss of language skills. Always fatal, Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of irreversible dementia. In Belgium more than 70.000 people are believed to have Alzheimer’s disease, in the US more than 4.5 million and by 2050, the number could increase to 13.2 million. In every nation where life expectancy has increased, so has the incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is becoming tragically common. It is estimated that there are currently 18 million people worldwide with Alzheimer’s disease. This figure is projected to nearly double by 2025 to 34 million people! 5 September 2006: Colonel José Warnez about Peacekeeping Before leaving for Florida, our friend José Warnez gave a very inspiring and passionate speech about his experience as a military peacekeeper in Kosovo. Supported by striking and emotional pictures, José talked about his stay in Pristina and the different peacekeeping missions performed by the KFOR in very difficult and challenging circumstances. Examples of the peacekeeping operations were home searching looking for arms, protecting monuments, protecting local populations, rebuilding of bridges and airports. More information can be found on http://www.nato.int/kfor/kfor/nations/belgium.htm |
