On 7th November 2019, I was at
Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club as Language Evaluator, my 112th club
visit on the 130th day of the Toastmaster year. Julie Ong, DTM, served as
Sergeant-at-Arms. Tony Tan served as
Toastmaster of the Day. Hendri Chandra served as Table Topics Master. Loy Hoo
Keong served as Timer.
The Speeches
Jhony Chandra spoke on managing his cell
group, a subject demanding the same quiet discipline as managing any team where
attendance is voluntary, and motivation cannot be mandated from above.
Junie Seow spoke on the psychology of
colour, drawing on her own research into how colour influences
perception and mood. Her presentation
matched its subject matter, colourful and informative in equal measure, a rare
instance of a speaker's visual delivery reinforcing the argument rather than
merely decorating it.
Varun Pant spoke on leaving a legacy,
citing the story of “Easy” Eddie, associated with the mobster Alphonse Gabriel “Al”
Capone. As Varun Pant told it, Easy
Eddie decided to set an example for his son and turned Capone in, and was shot
to death in return. He then segued into
a second story. During the Pacific
campaign of the Second World War, Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare
became the first naval aviator to earn the Medal of Honour, before going
missing in action after being shot down on 26th November 1943. Chicago’s O’Hare Airport carries his name, as
do several other sites and a naval vessel.
Lieutenant Commander O'Hare was the son of Easy Eddie, whose real name
was Edward Joseph O'Hare.
A brief correction is worth adding here,
in fairness to the historical record.
Edward Joseph O’Hare worked as Al Capone’s lawyer and business
associate, managing his racetrack and slot machine interests, rather than
serving as his accountant. He was shot
dead on 8th November 1939, a week before Capone’s release from
Alcatraz, and while the preponderance of evidence points to Capone’s
organisation ordering the killing in retaliation for O’Hare’s cooperation with
federal investigators, historians note that O’Hare’s decision to turn informant
likely owed as much to avoiding his own prosecution as to any sudden attack of
paternal conscience. None of this
weakens the speech’s point. A
legacy built through redemption, however mixed the original motive, still
produced a son who became the Navy’s first flying ace of the Second World
War. It simply means the version worth
repeating is the one closest to what happened, not the tidiest one.
The Evaluators and Results
Belinda Lee, Adeline Yeo, Julie Ong, DTM,
and Tony Lim, DTM, served as Project Evaluators. Best Speaker went to Junie Seow. Best Evaluator went to Julie Ong, DTM. Best Table Topics Speaker went to Jennifer
Lim, DTM. A club producing a
speech on colour psychology, a reflection on cell group leadership, and a
legacy story precise enough to reward a second look at its sourcing has done
more with one evening than most clubs manage in a month.
Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters
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