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YourProfile
Name: Riana Papé
Birthday: 12 April
Star sign: Aries
Occupation: Theater Sister & Lions Klerksdorp President
When I look into the mirror every morning I think: Don't spend
too much time here; there is work to be done.
My favourite people in the world are: Positive thinking people
who really care about others.
My favourite quote is: Do to others what you would like them to
do to you.
Good, clean jokes and people who think they are the best thing
that has hit earth but are actually pathetic in their arrogance
make me laugh.
The greatest lesson life has taught me so far is: There is
always someone who has a worse life than I have. There is always
a way out, eventually.
I'll do almost anything for: Koeksisters!
When I get stressed I am most likely to throw nightmares out a
window. I don't really throw, I sulk.
I want my tombstone to read: She LIVED THE LINE between her
birth date and her death date.
I wouldn't mind being stuck in an elevator with: A few good
books and a variety of snacks.
In three words I am: Fit, fat and friendly.
If I had a million rand to spare I would: Possibly keep ¾ and
spend the rest on service projects to the community.
I live in Klerksdorp because: I tasted the water of Klerksdorp
many moons ago and I was born here.
The first thing I would save from a house fire is: My photo
albums of the children and our wedding.
My nickname is: “Cuddles”, but only to my husband
I love my job because: Its daring, caring, scary,innovative and
I often have to improvise.
LIFE AND TIMES WITH
COLLIN
Leadership
A few months ago our Rotary Club received feedback on a R.Y.L.A.
camp. R.Y.L.A. is the acronym for Rotary Youth Leadership
Awards. R.Y.L.A. is aimed at youngsters mainly in high schools.
The camps are held annually, usually over a weekend, in an
environment that the attendees will find unfamiliar. The purpose
of R.Y.L.A. is to develop a sense of leadership in students and
to better equip them for future leadership roles eg. being a
prefect, a captain of a team, or a youth leader at a church.
Young Louis Philip Shahim from St Conrad's College was one of
the students that our Rotary Club sent to R.Y.L.A. this year.
Part of the deal is that we expect feedback on the camp, 'what
did the participant learn?; did the camp add value?, and do you
think you are in a better position to lead others?'
Our club has been involved with R.Y.L.A. for many years and so I
expected the usual feedback that one gets from young adults.
When I say usual, I am not being disparaging. We do not expect
youngsters to come back after a weekend away and to be able to
deliver a stirring Obama-like speech. That speech-making skill
takes years to develop and hone. But we do expect that the seeds
for future leadership development be sown.
Louis Philip gave a good account of what he had learnt. But he
mentioned something about leadership that I had not heard
before. I committed it to memory and find myself thinking about
it ever so often. He said, 'Leadership is about getting people
to move from point A to point B. Inspired leadership, on the
other hand, is about getting people to want to move from point A
to point B by themselves'. I liked it because it was punchy and
spoke to a whole host of issues.
As a generalization I would suggest that leadership today is in
a vastly different place today that where it was in days gone
by. Whether from the podium or the pulpit, there now tends to be
a message of appeasement. Ministers and pastors tend to go soft
on issues. Sin gets sugarcoated in a way that makes it more
palatable for the congregation. Why? because if the message is
too harsh or touches a nerve, the pews will be somewhat emptier
next Sunday. 'We will not be going back to that church again, I
felt as if he was talking directly to me”.
The same with politics. Politicians can't afford to be too
hard-hitting with the facts. They need votes. And people like
you and me vote with our feet.
We, because of our human nature, and no doubt because of the
times we live in, want to hear things that are agreeable to us.
As soon as an issue is controversial we tend to want to walk
away from it or pretend that it is not there do the ostrich
thing, so to speak. Or better still, let someone else deal with
it. 'It's not my problem.'
Have we not in a way, because of our attitude, betrayed our
sense of community and social capital?
Social capital is a term I use to describe our collective
well-being or human brand. Each time we do something positive
for our social capital, we enhance the brand. And each time we
harm our social capital, we detract from the brand and make
ourselves that much weaker and poorer off.
Here I am speaking, not of leadership in the broader sense of
the word, where for example generals are expected to lead armies
in times of war. Rather I am speaking about the leadership
quality that is within each one of us. Where we take ownership
of and for our community and lead by example. If each one of us
just made sure that we did not litter the place plastic
containers being thrown out of cars; refuse left on the side of
the road, would that not add to our social capital? It's not the
function of the local municipality to go around picking up after
us. Their job, and we pay for it, is to collect our refuse bags
on a weekly basis, outside our homes. The wanton spoiling of our
neighbourhoods is our doing and speaks to what psychologists and
sociologists call our lack of emotional intelligence.
Perhaps one of the best pieces of political advice (challenge),
to my mind comes from the late Pres. J.F. Kennedy. In literary
terms it is referred to as chiasmus. During a televised address
he said: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you
can do for your country'. Other than sovereign borders, we (the
people) are the country. We together with government, whether
local or at a national level are responsible for effective and
efficient societal functioning. To expect otherwise is like the
toe saying to the eye, 'because you don't walk, I have no need
of you'. A short while later the broken toe has a re-think.
The eye winks at the toe there is, at once, an understanding of
what cooperation is. The irony is that most of us know and
realize that what we do is possibly harmful to others. But
because we know that we won't get caught, it's okay to
perpetuate our reprobate behaviour. We are safe in the
realization that no finger of wrath is going to burst forth from
heaven and strike us down when a cigarette butt is thrown from a
car. Nor, I suppose is anything going to happen because of the
rubber byproducts left lying around after a steamy 'last night'.
(Now that I am jogging quite a bit, I tend to see quite a bit.)
In the end I guess it's about the quality of the legacy we leave
behind. The majority of us are not going to leave a 'I have a
dream' type legacy behind. But as individuals we can make a
difference to those who come after us. By showing respect to
each other today, are we not ensuring a better and brighter
tomorrow for others? By showing respect to each other, will
people not be willing to move from point A to point B because
they want to?
Chat again next week.
Unique laboratory opened for research on frogs
A special laboratory for doing research on endangered frog
species, amongst others from Madagascar, has just been opened on
the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University.
Dr. Ché Weldon, senior lecturer at the NWU Puk and member of the
Africa Amphibian Conservation Research Group (AACRG), says the
bio-secure wet laboratory is built to focus on several
endangered species identified last year in May during a specie
priority workshop.
He says they are currently busy exposing frogs from Madagascar
to a deadly fungus that is threatening species from across the
world. They test the frogs' susceptibility to the disease.
“Madagascar has 400 frog species of which all except one occur
nowhere else in the world.”
Weldon says it is essential to establish what danger the fungus
holds for these frogs to then introduce conservation measures
that can prevent and control the outbreak of the
disease.“Research objectives and methodology is being designed
to study uncertainties regarding the biology and ecology of
endangered frogs as well as to attempt combat threats.”
In sketching the background, Weldon said four years ago the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
recommended that the breeding and captivity of amphibians
outside their natural habitat (ex situ) forms part of the action
plan for conserving amphibians.
An important outcome of a workshop held in 2006 on the ex situ
conservation of amphibians was that amphibians in captivity can
be divided into three categories, namely education, conservation
research and conservation breeding programmes. Amphibian Ark was
established in 2007 by the IUCN, which amongst other things,
provide expert advice on designing and install laboratories for
ex situ research on amphibians.
Weldon says AACRG has decided to establish a captivity facility
on the Campus that complies with the necessary bio-security and
with the standards for animal captivity for conservation
research.
The laboratory was built with the help of the NWU Puk and is
equipped with temperature, humidity and light control, as well
as a variety of borehole, filtered or municipal water.
Weldon says other measures are a double-door system, light
filters, sterilisation baths for human traffic, sterilisation of
all waste water and solids.
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