Our President writes...

Dear fellow Rotarians and Friends.

Our major fundraiser this year! Under the stewardship of PE Lalitha Warren and the help of many a member, the club has put together a “Mega-Raffle” with some amazing prizes. Tickets at $5 each will be sold to the public on weekends as of 3 October, 2020 up to 12 December. On every Saturday and Sunday, four members and volunteers are required to sell tickets from either The Canopy or Woolworths locations up to 12 December. If you can assist, please contact Rotarian Craig Brodey who is in charge of the roster Tel 0488 904 744, email: craigbrodey@gmail.com

THE DIAMOND DAKOTA MYSTERY...
 is the title of a book whose author Juliet Wills gave a fascinating talk on 15 September. It is about the true story of tragedy and missing treasure on the west coast of Australia. In March 1942 a DC-3 aircraft ferrying Dutch refugees and military personnel from Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) is intercepted and shot down by Japanese aircraft near Broome, WA. Onboard the aircraft was also a secret parcel that had to be collected the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. When the plane glided and crashed into the remote beach at Carnot Bay north of Broome Not everyone survived. Also lost in the surf was the parcel they were carrying which contained millions of dollars’ worth of cut diamonds. Officials failed to find them but cut diamonds started appearing around the Kimberley area. It is said you can still find diamonds on the beach of Carnot Bay today if you try hard enough. DGE Lindsay May OAM thank Juliet on behalf of the members. 

CONGRATULATIONS...
to Past President Stephen Miller on receiving the Platinum Rotary Presidential Citation on behalf of our club. Past District Governor Kalma McLellan presented PP Stephen Miller with the award for outstanding achievements by the club during his presidential year of 2019/2020. Goals have been achieved in areas of strengthening Rotary, developing sustainable service projects, building Rotary awareness in the community, supporting The Rotary Foundation and in many other core areas of Rotary. Congratulations to Stephen and all members of the club.

FROM STATELESS TO SYDNEY 
Fadi Chalouhy, a young man born in Lebanon in 1991 without being registered at birth and consequently ‘stateless ‘was our speaker on Zoom on 22 September. Not being registered at birth meant that Fadi was not a citizen of Lebanon. He wasn’t able to do what every normal citizen can do as in applying for a driver’s licence, a passport, a credit card etc. He ended up in this legal limbo where no country on Earth recognised him as a citizen for most of his life. Fadi who has a ‘never give up’ attitude, eventually gained a Masters of Finance from the University of Beirut. His next aim in life is to become a citizen of a country. He applied to every NGO organization in the world and after thousands of applications found help by ‘Talent Beyond Boundaries’ who link talented refugees with international employers. Fadi since early 2019 has been living and working in Sydney with global consulting firm Accenture under a temporary resident visa. His next step is to become a permanent resident followed by becoming an Australian Citizen, which he hopes to achieve in the coming few years. Rotarian Craig Brodey thanked Fadi on behalf of the members for his extraordinary story and wished him well on his journey to fulfil his dreams.

Silvio Gmur
President 2020/21, Lane Cove Rotary Club

How secure are your passwords?

I say 'passwords' plural as one thing you should never do is use the same password for more than one login. Not so long ago it was fine to use the name of your dog to log-in to something and perhaps, for added security, maybe even add 123 on the end. These days, however 'monte123' just doesn't cut it and really you may as well use the word 'password' – as incredibly some people still do! To be really secure you should be using either a long string of gobbledygook such as ',)$2vv\M0~kC,%X;=np)5KfjKFT+s!ii' or a 'pronounceable password' which while also gobbledygook, can perhaps be remembered such as 'arty-slim-predator-oracle-reclining-three'. As you can see from the table above it doesn't take password cracking software long to discover short passwords so they really must be more than10 characters long these days. Thankfully there is a solution that not only creates hard to crack passwords but also securely manages them for you – meaning you don't need to remember them. Password managers have been a thing for a number of years now and there are many to choose from. Once installed, as you arrive at a web page login, a simple click of the password applications extension installed in your browser automatically fills the username and long password for you. Browsers can remember passwords too but using a password manager is much more secure and a better way to manage them. I personally use Enpass which is free to use on a desktop/laptop Mac. You then pay an annual subscription to access all your passwords and credit cards on your mobile devices. Your encrypted data is synced via cloud storage of your choice such as Dropbox, One Drive or Google Drive. Enpass is currently half-price for the first year at the App Store which certainly makes it the best value for money password manager – but do check out the rest too.

Some worrying statistics from 2019

• 53% of people rely on their memory to manage passwords.
• 51% of people use the same passwords for both work and personal accounts.
• 57% of people who have already been scammed in phishing attacks still haven’t changed their passwords.
• 71% of accounts are protected by passwords used on multiple websites.
• 29% of internet users have more password-protected accounts than they can keep track of.
• 90% of internet users are worried about getting their passwords hacked.
• The password “123456” is still used by 23 million account holders.

The author has no affiliation with Enpass and the views expressed here are his own

Congratulations to Dr Funsho

Dr Tunji Funsho, Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Chair has just been named one of Time Magazine's “100 Most Influential People in the World”. He's been included in the list for his critical leadership in working with Rotary members and our partners to achieve a wild polio-free Nigeria and eradicate the wild poliovirus in the African region. He is the first Rotary member to receive this honour for our work to eradicate polio.

Dr Funsho is a member of the Rotary Club of Lekki in Lagos, Nigeria and is Past District Governor of District 9110 and member of the International PolioPlus Committee. Dr Funsho is a cardiologist with a lifelong commitment to building a healthier world. As Nigeria National PolioPlus Chair since 2013, he has built on the work of his predecessors by leading PolioPlus efforts in Nigeria. Working alongside his fellow Rotarians, Dr Funsho has built awareness for the importance of polio immunization, encouraged governments and public figures to support polio eradication, and served as a vocal leader and advocate for Rotary and our fight to end polio.

You can view Dr. Funsho’s profile on the TIME website here

Bushcare volunteers wanted

The council have confirmed the next two dates of their bushcare sessions with the Cub Scouts at Blackman Park will be on Saturday 31 October, and Sunday 8 November, both between 1:00pm - 3:00pm. They have advised it would be great to see any Rotary members that can make it also come along and assist with this important work. For further information contact Jenny May.

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