Club speakers make impact!!
With the scheduled speaker presenting as a no show, three members of the club were quickly corralled into speaking about an important matter on their mind.
Jeff Lee recalled that the 21st of November would be the 50th anniversary of the arrival of his and his family’s arrival in New Zealand. In 1966, England had won the (Football) World Cup, something the English thought was important but have never achieved again. Also that year David Cameron and chef Gordon Ramsay had been born and 144 people – 116 of them school children - had been killed when a coal slag heap collapsed onto a primary school at Aberfan in Wales.
Geoff Smith also spoke about being recently retired but taking up a position in a social media and project management company and how he was now working ten hours a day, and was busier than ever before.
Duncan Holland told a very moral tale about an inquiry he had conducted on behalf of a Public Defence lawyer representing a victim of sexual abuse. The victim was one of six children from a tight knit, functioning, achieving family and the uncle was the person accused.
Turned out that the real abuser was the girl’s father, and her tale of getting an STD from a rugby playing boyfriend was also false. The boy was acquitted at trial.
The outcomes of the saga lasting over three years were that the family was traumatised, relationships had fractured, and achievement had fallen away. The family was now broken up and on welfare.
John Bishop
Club Reporter