Joc2 is damaging Rotary image

When I was in high school some 40 years ago, I was among the first to be recruited in the nation’s first Interact Clubs being organized by Manila Rotary. It was a good experience in leadership training and civic consciousness. Maybe if I were more sociable, had more time on my hands and less confidence in myself, I would have joined the Rotary Club as an adult. Looking back, my not having joined does not now seem like a great mistake in my life.

I have attended enough Rotary meetings to get the feeling that all the hoopla about community service and the four-way test seem empty. That feeling is now confirmed every time the lawyer of Joc Joc Bolante uses Rotary International as the excuse why his client can’t find the time to clear his name in the fertilizer mess. For all we know Joc Joc has a good explanation, but until we hear it, how can we be convinced?

What really boggles me is why the local and international Rotary movement is allowing him to escape facing up to the very serious ethical and moral questions on how he handled a large amount of public funds. I personally know many good Rotarians who are the embodiment of the lofty ideals of the Rotary movement and I wonder why they are keeping silent while one of them is facing ethical questions and worse, using Rotary as the excuse not to clear things up.

Did Joc Joc take the four way test when he handled the fertilizer fund? Did he take the four way test when he boarded the plane to America rather than honor a Senate subpoena? Until he explains, it would be fair to question the Rotarian motto, he profits most who serves best. While the profit part is easily understood, the question is, who did Joc Joc serve best?

I think it is the responsibility of his fellow Rotarians to exert pressure on him to clear this question. I am not even sure if Joc Joc is doing Rotary and the Filipino‚s reputation any favors as the international treasurer of Rotary International unless he quickly clears his name.

How the Rotarians handle Joc Joc is a test of what the organization really is all about. Otherwise, it would be fair to think that Rotary is just one social networking club someone joined for business connections and protection when one gets in trouble. Joining Rotary is what one did to become a batang klub, rather than for community service. At a time when the credibility of many of our institutions has fallen, Rotary must stand up and prove it has not become the civilian version of the mistah culture of the Philippine Military Academy where the solidarity of a clique is more important than the welfare of the whole nation.

Nurses

Here’s good news for local nurses hoping to land a job in America. According to The Los Angeles Times, the search for nurses in California is now feverish. "The pay is high and the come-ons are extreme as hospitals face a new staffing requirement. Competition to hire nurses in California is so intense that some headhunters routinely make cold calls to nursing stations at rival hospitals, desperate for recruits. Even the recruiters are getting recruited."

The need for nurses was already acute even before a law was passed by the state legislature mandating one nurse for every five patients in most wards starting this year. Now, "it’s a free-for-all in the nursing market." No wonder the recruiters have

In an extreme example of creative recruiting, the Times reported, one hospital staffing agency has turned to reality TV. It invited six nurses from around the country to work in local hospitals for 13 weeks while living in a mansion not far from the scene of MTV’s hit reality show "Laguna Beach." The result is a show designed to tantalize nurses around the country with the joys of nursing in Southern California.

The show, called "13 Weeks," follows the four women and two men as they go about their jobs and get to know one another in the leased mansion. Access Nurses, the San Diego-based company that created the show, plans to show the episodes on the Web at http://www.nursetv.com and hopes to get them on television. The idea for the show was inspired by the hit series LA Law, which caused a rush of enrolment in law schools some years ago. It is hoped that the TV series on nurses would do the same for the nursing profession.

Each of the 13 half-hour episodes also features the nurses in their free time pursuing dramatic and daring activities, including kayaking, hot-air ballooning, skydiving and go-cart racing. Alan Braynin, chief executive of Access Nurses describes the show simply: "You see people delivering babies. You see people learning new things, pushing themselves to the limit. You see people enjoying Southern California."

According to the Times, "nurse wages in California are the highest in the nation, up 23 percent over the last seven years to an average of more than $33 an hour. In competitive areas, such as Orange County, nurses can earn $30 an hour right out of school."

The Times reports "the nursing shortage is expected to worsen as nurses – whose average age is nearing 50 – retire in waves. Those retirements will be in full swing just as the oldest baby boomers are reaching their 70s, a milestone that is expected to put a crushing demand on hospitals." And although nursing schools have succeeded in attracting students, a new problem has emerged: a nationwide shortage of nursing teachers. Today, a nurse with the experience and advanced degree necessary to teach can make two or three times as much as a hospital nurse manager.

Expect our own nursing shortage to worsen. That’s market economics at work. If we want our nurses to stay, we have to find a way to compete with California and "13 weeks." Maybe have some nurses stay at Big Brother house?

Shanghai

RJ, a Pinoy expat in Shanghai, follows up a previous e-mail he wrote reacting to my columns on the city.

When I arrived here 10 years ago, Makati business district was 10 years ahead of Shanghai. Now, 10 years later, Makati business district is 10 years behind Shanghai. Government is not perfect, there is graft here too, but the punishment is severe if you "SHOW IT OFF" too much.

Talk to somebody in the street, typical professional or student and they do not care as long as they have a clean, modern and safe city. This is a very expensive city though, and it gets more expensive every year. I sometimes wonder how the Chinese can survive with the average salary they get in Shanghai.

As for Filipino teachers… there are a handful of them here, but normally handling toddlers, lower primary grades. I still have to see one really teaching English in High School or ESL establishments.

On waiters, you are right. Filipino waiters who work here are college educated. No college educated Shanghainese will take this job. I just feel sorry seeing this, Filipino college graduates working as waiters because they can not get a job in Manila.

Al Jazeera

Those of you who have been asking whatever happened to Rica Pedrosa, who has been absent from the set of CNN’s Hong Kong based show World News Asia, will have to wait a little while longer. There are rumors that she would materialize in a few weeks as the anchor of Al Jazeera‚s new English language news program out of Kuala Lumpur.

Yes, that’s the Arab satellite news channel out of Qatar that President Bush reportedly wanted to bomb. The Qatari government has hired some of the best international reporters around the world to run the English news channel and give CNN and BBC a run for their money and their best talents.

Nervous

Gilbert Jose asks, How will one describe a nervous man?

Answer: He is one who has: a wife, two girlfriends and a loan.

All are 3 months over due!!!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]