Bellevue Rotary Club, Bellevue, WA
WEEKLY BULLETIN
JANUARY 23, 2006
PUBLISHING ITEMS IN THE BULLETIN
If you have information, articles, photos, etc., for publication in the weekly bulletin (paper copy, website and/or eFlash), please send it to bulletin@bellevuerotary.net.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Mike Stull, President of Pacific Bioscience, "Entrepreneurial Community in Bellevue" | Register Today for the 2007 District Conference! | Special Olympics Ski Competition at Snoqualmie Pass | Enjoy a Wine Tour on the Way to the 2007 District 5030 Conference! | New Orleans Reconstruction Project | Bellevue Rotary Forest Explorers Program, Lake Hills Elementary 2nd Graders | Tales of O'Connor : Dubai Update (Nancy Pasternak)
THIS WEEK AT THE BRC
GREETERS
Frank Buty
Jill Ostrem
BACK TABLE DUTY
Rick Hervey
Andy Barlass
NEWEST RED BADGE
MEMBER(S)
Keith Folz
Ev Stitz
Paul Dressel
Craig Hendrickson
CLUB MAILING ADDRESS:
Laurie Larson
Club Administrator
P.O. Box 523
Bellevue, WA 98009
bellevuerotary@seanet.com
Ph 425 451-3819
Fax 425 451-8025
Are you receiving
The Rotarian Magazine?
If not, contact Laurie Larson or email
.
Bill McCaughey, 01/03
Troy Roper, 01/05
Andy Barlass, 01/06
Grant Ringel, 01/09
Debbie Acton, 01/11
Mike Schaefer, 01/18
Jim Montgomery, 01/21
Phyllis Foro, 01/23
Geri Lucks, 01/23
Pete Swindley, 01/25
Roxanne Shepherd, 01/28
Steve Hopp, 01/30
Classification Report: “Banking” and "Financial Services" classifications are currently full.
Mike Stull
President of Pacific Bioscience
"Entrepreneurial Community in Bellevue"
Mike Stull, President and COO of Pacific Bioscience Laboratories, is responsible for managing all operating departments of the company. Mike joined PBL in early 2005 and has 23 years senior management experience with high growth technology and health care companies. Previously, Mike was CFO of Optiva (maker of Sonicare), from the early revenue stage through the sale to Philips.
Mike received his business degree from the University of Washington and began his career with the international accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche.
Mike will give us a brief company history, including comparisons to Sonicare. He will share with us his experience with the business community on the Eastside and talk about the market opportunity for their product and how they plan on making Clarisonic a huge success (several interesting and entertaining examples).
Register Today for the 2007 District Conference!
Sarah Langton
District 5030 is pleased to announce that the 2007 District Conference will be held at The Coeur d'Alene Resort in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, from 2:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, to 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, 2007. Join us for a celebration of the accomplishments of District 5030 clubs during 2006-2007, and enjoy the true spirit of Rotary fellowship.
To register for the conference, please go to the Rotary District 5030 website, and look for information on the District Conference and the registration forms. Fill out the form and mail it in to the District Office. Please note that hotel reservations are made separately (information is on the registration form). We encourage you to book your hotel rooms early, as the resort will likely fill due to the conference.
We would love to have a strong Bellevue Rotary showing at the conference. Hope to see you in beautiful Coeur d’Alene in April!
Special Olympics Ski Competition at Snoqualmie Pass
Tom Eckhart
This year's annual Special Olympics Ski Competition will be held February 10 at Snoqualmie Pass. Please mark this date on your calendars. We have had great support for this event in the past, and I hope you can come this year. More information will be forthcoming. If you have questions, please
.
Enjoy a Wine Tour on the Way to the 2007 District 5030 Conference!
Northgate Transit Center, 8:00AM
OR
Issaquah Park and Ride, 9:00AM
Arrive The Coeur d'Alene Resort, 6:00PM
Return departure from Coeur d'Alene at 1:00PM on April 22
Arrive Issaquah Park and Ride, 7:00PM
OR
Northgate Transit Center, 8:00PM
• • •
Tour price includes:
* Round trip Deluxe Motorcoach Transportation
* Wine Country Concierge Service
* Tour of 2 Wineries
* Expertise of Washington Wine Tour Guide
* Maps and other visuals
* Lunch and Snacks in route to Coeur d'Alene
* Fun and Fellowship with other Rotarians!
$135.00 Per person
Limited space! Reserve your seat by downloading this registration form and sending it in to the District Office today!
New Orleans Reconstruction Project
April 14-22, 2007
Peter Kalunian
You are invited to be a member of a medical and construction team to assist in the reconstruction of New Orleans. Participants will stay at the St. Paul’s Homecoming Center, New Orleans, which can house 25 volunteers and includes a full kitchen. The construction team will meet daily at a central location and will be divided into work crews.
Each crew will be under the direction of a local crew chief. The medical team (R.N.,M.D.,APRN) will be part of the St. Anna’s Mobile Medical Mission and will provide basic medical examinations and care. One person also is needed to be head cook. The remaining members of the team will assist in setting up and cleaning after meals.
Cost per person: air fare ($300+), food needed for meals (approx. $100) and rental vehicles and gas for ground transportation ($75). Lodging is free but a donation will be appreciated. More information is available at www.edola.org, click on “volunteer resources.” If interested, or if you need more information, please contact
(Ph 206-854-0612). The team will be limited to the first 25 people who apply.
Bellevue Rotary Forest Explorers Program
Lake Hills Elementary 2nd Graders
Peter Wang, Chairman, Community Grants Committee
Four classes of the 2nd Graders from Lake Hills Elementary School, BSD, attended the Forest Explorers program at the Woodland Park Zoo this fall, courtesy of Bellevue Rotary Community Grants. The Forest Explorers program presents the students an opportunity to experience first-hand the differences between tropic and temperate rain forests and the effect that they have on our environment.
The students and teachers from these classes have expressed their appreciation by sending us 79 original masterpieces of thank-you pictures and drawings. These wonderfully drawn thank you pictures are being displayed with Club Administrator for all to enjoy.
Here are some of the many wonderful comments from Mrs. McClanahan, Ms. Okawa, Ms. Tzucker’s classes and the fabulous writers of Room 111:
Amazing hands-on experience …
My favorite is a gorilla because the gorilla was picking it’s nose.
I saw a funny looking squirrel, a jaguar and a fat white owl …
I learned about the temperate rain fores t…
The live jaguar — that is our school mascot.
We learned the four layers of the forest …
Amazing … so cool … thank you …
Really appreciated that you let us go …
Great learning experience and appreciate your wonderful gift to us!
It was a real live jaguar! I love zoos.
And the penguins and peacock too.
I learned that the forest floor has bugs that eat the leaves and poop the soil out.
I love going to the zoo. I never been to zoo.
The bats make me scream, I jumped …
I learned about the monkeys, the ones with the beards.
Tales of O'Connor : Dubai Update
Another look at Dubai from former BRC member Nancy Pasternak
Scattered thoughts (in no particular order) and vignettes on our life in Dubai:
The world is being created outside our apartment window! I looked out to sea from our 16th floor apartment a couple of weeks ago and witnessed a new body of land that had been dredged up and filled in overnight. That is how lightning quick wildly imagined, eccentric, ideas become realities here in Dubai. You may know that “The World” is artificially created islands representing every country and continent and dropped in the middle of the Arabian Gulf to be invested in and built upon. Million dollar seafront properties will have killed coral, destroyed turtle nesting sites and upset marine ecology in the Western Gulf, thank you very much—as opposed to Oman where, escorted by protective guides, we saw person-sized green turtles laying eggs on the beach. We also found a never ending path of coral with a cornucopia of colorful, multi-sized, fish, turtles, tuna, barracuda and cuttle fish while scuba diving and snorkeling off the Oman coast.
Yesterday I visited my friend Stephenie who lives in the penthouse of our building (20th floor) at the American Hospital where she just had a nine pound baby boy. I pressed the elevator button, the door opened, and I was faced with five black hooded characters—black from head to toe. This should not have shocked me as it did, because Emirati women walk around in abayas and head scarves everywhere. However, they usually have, at the very least, their eyes showing! I looked over while driving today and saw a driving instructor veiled with only slits for her eyes. Most non European, non American expats must take 20 hours of driving lessons before they can obtain a license here. Some roads are clogged with “lesson vehicles” wending their way very meticulously and slowly.
Lavishness is the rule of the land. In the hallway outside Stephenie’s hospital room fountains of flowers and balloons (one reached almost to the ceiling) bedecked the doorways of each new mother’s room, except Stephenie’s, the American.
Emiratis are private people. You would also hide behind your motherland’s skirts if you were bombarded by expatriates and technology running roughshod over your local culture. The girls must marry a Muslim, and are “encouraged,” not forced, to marry an Emirati, so why should they get involved with outsiders. Both men and women protect their identity by robing themselves in Emirati dress code. Derick, Ken, Aniko and I saw the emphatic comparison between the U.A.E. and Oman during a nine-day journey over the holidays in Oman where tribal chiefs and Omanis everywhere were inviting us into their palm frond “tents” to take coffee and dates with them. Derick was mortified when he, after the fact, realized he had taken a date with his left hand at the chiefs floor-mat “table.” Using the left hand for anything is a no no since toilet paper is nearly non-existent outside of hotels—you know the rest. In Dubai, due to this privacy among Emiratis, it has been frustrating for me to be squelched in my normal pursuit to get to know the people of a country where I live. Not going to happen.
Instead I have struck on a gold mine of deliriously fun activities with the expats — all of us able to get entry to any sports open/championship event, wine tastings, fashion shows, spas, clubs, etc. It’s the glitzy side of Dubai that I’m learning to dispel my guilt by association over. I play tennis at two clubs of which I’m not a member. As a member of American Women’s Association and Expat Women I’m swamped with Meet the Chef (top hotel chef’s cooking lessons), book club, jewelry beading club and gourmet cooking club. I even get to play bridge. Often. Something I could never find available in Seattle. We have an infinitely larger group of friends now, after seven months, than we could have possibly imagined. You can tell I’m hating it here.
Actually I did feel that way in the first three months. I couldn’t see a way to be licensed to practice counseling. I couldn’t find a Russian teacher to continue learning it after Tajikistan’s sojourn. Even ferreting out a volunteer opportunity where I could use my expertise seemed out of the realm of possibility. Everyone I needed to get in contact with was out of town for the bloody summer. (lots of Brits here). Now I’ve got it all. I’ve become involved with the sort of undercover domestic violence services for victims--counseling, and raising awareness by speaking on the radio and publishing articles.
Someone clued us into the stealth traffic ticketing, not that we hadn’t read about it in the papers but couldn’t believe we could become victims. I looked up my traffic record online and freaked out when I saw seven violations--$250 worth! Here’s the deal. If you squeak by a yellow traffic light just before red, the camera goes off and your license plate tells it all. That’s just great when lunatic drivers are passing on the shoulder, cutting in and out of lanes at top speed and messing with ones sanity. Nothing seems wrong with that! No police patrol anywhere on the streets. Deportation is the Emirati solution toward expats who are caught doing anything that the U.A.E. decides is illegal. Saturday a taxi driver told me the police charge 2 to 3 thousand dirams (about $600-$900) for one of the yellow/red light violations.
You hear all kinds of things and know not what to believe. I was dying to treat our whole family to camel races in Dubai when they were here in December. I upended every stone to find a way to attend. “ Only Emiratis are allowed into the track,” I was finally told by the Dubai Camel Racing Association. Well Phhhht to them! In Oman we happened upon a pre-Eid county-fair-like celebration in the small village of our day guide where camels were galloping ten feet away from us, in races over and over. Riders in pairs held the screeching, groaning camels down in a kneeling position; then suddenly jumped on their backs as they rose into a mad race down a short stretch. It was beyond fascinating. And to boot, all the tribal people were there watching, buying cows and goats for Eid slaughter (which we saw later) and wandering the market place. It was a day from my dreams! We drove my little 4 x 4 (our guide having let a bit of air out of the tires) through the barren desert, visited Bedu (Beduoins) onclaves, and found ourselves riding upon their camels through the late day.
Emirati cuisine — dates. Derick and I did attend an Iftar (breaking of the Ramadan daily fast) at the cultural center at which they served a harish — chicken, flour and water beaten until gooey—and balls of yeast, flour and water fried with honey dribbled over them. Not dishes you would pant after the recipe for. The Lebanese have the market on “local foods” — hummus, mutabel, babaganoush, tabouli, falafel, and succulent lamb dishes. I have become friends with Latifah whom I met at the Iftar and who conducts the Jumeira Mosque tours. She is a Brit, married to an Emirati and a strongly converted Muslim wearing the abaya and able to tell me a great deal about Emirati life and practices. She says most are good Muslims, the men treating the women well out of fear of the Koranic repercussions if they don’t. One gal told me that the women feel seductive in their abayas and, in Saudi Arabia, wear their veils/head scarves very seductively. See the book, The Nine Parts of Desire.
Last Friday, Holy Day for Muslims and their weekend, I attended a small Christian church service in the Jordanian Social Club. Imagine that! Jordan is 95% Muslim. Tolerance in one sense is positive, as in the U.A.E. religious semi-freedom. Most of the churches are a far stretch from the city in a designated “free religion” area, Jebel Ali. Derick and I went to International Night out there. The highlight was when members of 34 countries recited the same verse in different languages.
The down side of tolerance is allowing employers to usurp the passports of workers (mainly in construction) so they can’t leave, to give them miserably overcrowded barracks housing, and essentially treat them as slaves. The article on Dubai in January’s edition of National Geographic describes the results of tolerance as “a late-night world of fleabag hotels, and prostitutes, Indian and Russian mobsters, money launderers, and smugglers of everything from guns and diamonds to human beings” (trafficking of young girls from China mostly).
I wouldn’t know about that, living several neighborhoods apart from that kind, but I do know what happened when I interviewed Dr. Abdulla Mahmood Ustadi, Consultant Physical (Infections Diseases) Head of Medical Department of the Government of Dubai, as his business card reads. I was foraging for a job in HIV prevention for our daughter Sarah, hoping to have her live in Dubai. HIV is a taboo subject; though I — like everyone who applies for a resident visa — had mandatory blood drawn to test me for the disease. The scary thing is that prostitutes don’t take out resident visas, expats go on leave, and HIV in early stages can’t be detected. Dr. Ustadi claimed to be as apprehensive as I was about a potential rampant epidemic and said the Department was launching a huge awareness campaign last November. I have yet to see a blessed word about it.