Our local attendance may not always be the best – many members have a very busy professional life. But we are blessed by the many visitors coming from all over the world. And we have a range of speakers from many different countries, often Beijing residents.

On 8 May Mr. Arne Gooss (from Germany), director of KFW Beijing gave us an insight on the many activities of KFW in China. The German bank specializes in special cooperation projects. I know quite a bit of this sector but was surprised by the vast amount of projects the bank has in China, mostly connected with the environment.

Here we had, on 22 May, Mr. Yiannis Exarchos, the Senior Executive Officer of the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Company. Our Greek friend gave a nice introduction on his job and the big challenges to broadcast the 2008 Olympics to the world. He is a nice guy, though a long-term IOC person he is not sitting in his ivory tower.

On 5 June I had the unexpected pleasure to meet with many Rotarians from Brazil and to be able to speak my other “native language”. Indeed I could say I left a BIG piece of my heart in Brazil… Que saudades.. Past President Carl and myself happily received a Rotary cap from, guess where… Recife, the city I still call my “home town” (Sou Nordestino!). Bem, só faltava a caipirinha.