My Dear Friend - The Late Keith Wong PART 2

The Capital Theatre in Campbell Street, Sydney is just over hundred meters down the road from the Mandarin Club and Chequres Night Club.  In the mid 1960's I worked as an usher at nights and on the weekends whilst attending Hurstville Boys High School.  On some occasions I was asked to be an usher in the Royal Theatre in Quay Street.  On my way from Central Railway Station I often passed through the Mandarin Club.  I remembered well the name Keith Wong as the owner of the Mandarin Club and Chequres Night Club, a highly respected businessman.  Little did I know that I was destined to meet Keith Wong and for us to become the closest of  friends.

As a practicing barrister in 1996 I accepted brief to represent Keith Wong.  Keith had been charged with breaching various clauses of the NSW Company Laws (now the Corporations Act).  The charges totaled 33 in number and related to number of companies under the umbrella of Trans World which Keith Wong had established.  Trans World imported wide ranging variety of goods and products from China and was the first Australian group of companies to do so. A number of directors and company secretaries were also charged. Some faced trials,were convicted and served custodial sentences. 

My brief consisted of six boxes of documents which were couriered to my Chamber.  After reading the documents and familiarizing myself with the legal issue,s I prepared 'No Bill' application.  The application consisted of some 40 plus pages and covered each of the 33 charges.  I was informed that since 1982 Keith Wong had been living in Taipai Taiwan.  Soon Keith and I started to communicate by phone almost on a weekly basis and I kept him updated of progress of the application.  After pressing for a decision on the application in late 1997 the Director of Public Prosecution contacted me and said that no decision will be made regarding the No Bill until Keith Wong returns to jurisdiction.  However, from my contacts in the DPP I became aware that the prosecutor allocated to review the application considered it highly meritorious.  In mid 1998 Keith Wong did return to Australia.
To ensure that there were no hiccups on his arrival I waited for him at Kingsford Smith Airport. Everything went smoothly and I met him for the first time face to face when he came out of Customs pushing a trolly.

Between 1998 until a month before his death Keith Wong was my closest friend.
In August 2000 he invited me to a tour of China for 3 weeks.  It was the most memorable trip that I ever had.  In Sydney we saw each other almost every week.  Keith loved lunches he would call me and ask my availability to have lunch with him and some of his friends.  Initially those lunches were in the private room at the Mandarin Club.  Some of the people that Keith invited to those lunches included former Federal Government Ministers, State Ministers, the Heads of Australia's top corporations including Ampol, and BHP.  All those people had fond memories and recalled the days when Kerry Packer and Rubert Murdoch used to attend the Mandarin Club and play cards.

After the Mandarin Club, our lunches covered a full circle of well known Chinese restaurants and in later years, Skygarden, Imperial Peking, and Yum Cha  at the Marigold Restaurant.

Some fours years ago, Keith asked me to accompany him to Chatswood Road and Traffic Authority as he needed to renew his drivers licence.  Keith had the required medical certificate about his health.  He needed to pass a driving test.  After taking number and waiting Keith asked me to have a word with the officer who will be testing his driving.  I walked to the counter and asked.  They pointed me the officer who will be testing Keith.  I introduced myself to the officer and said
'do you see that elderly gentleman sitting there?'
the officer nodded his head. I said 'he is my dearest friend please do your best to ensure we will walk out of here smiling'.
Much to the chagrin of Keith's daughter who drove us to Chatswood we did get out of Chatswood RTA with big smile.    

I last had lunch with Keith a month before he passed away.  Prior to going to lunch on that day we went to the Art Gallery of NSW.  Keith had a painting that he brought from China in 1960 and wanted to check its authenticity.  I held Keith's hand and helped him down the 23 steps from the ground floor to the lower ground floor and some 40 minutes later again on the way up.  I could feel that Keith was very frail and had dry cough.  I was concerned about him.  That day we went to the Marigold and had delicious Yum Cha lunch with a vintage bottle of red wine which Keith asked me to select.

Ironically, on the day I intended to call to ask about him his daughter called me and told me about his passing away.  She asked me as the only non family member to say few words at the funeral service.  I told her it would be an honour and thanked her for asking me.
 My deepest condolences to each of Keith's seven daughters and to his son Jefferey. 

May He Rest In Peace. 
I will always have fond memories of Keith and will miss him greatly as the closest friend I had.  

  

My Friend Keith Wong - PART 1

Link to article in Sydney Morning Herald : http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/club-owner-created-starstudded-spots-20110824-1ja2v.html 

Below is the article on Keith Wong as appears in Sydney Morning Herald

Club owner created star-studded spots

August 25, 2011

Keith Wong, 1916-2011

When Keith Wong and his brother Denis opened Chequers nightclub in 1959, a rival nightclub owner, Joe Taylor, laid odds ''2-1 on'' that the nightclub wouldn't last three months, mainly ''because they are Chinese''. How wrong Taylor was.

With its glitz and glitter, and stream of international celebrities, Chequers was to be listed by Variety magazine as one of the top-10 nightclubs in the world. Wong, who was granted citizenship in 1957, showed that Chinese migrants could not only integrate with the Australian community but could make their own culture part of it.

Principally associated with Chequers and the Mandarin Club, Wong busied himself with horse racing, entrepreneurship, cultural events within Sydney's Chinese community and fostering a closer relationship between Australia and China.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Entrepreneur ... Keith Wong co-founded several entertainment hubs.

The limelight he enjoyed did attract some unsavoury characters. Towards the end of his life, Wong himself had some questions to answer, but nothing came of it.

Keith Wong was born Jup Kee Wong on December 4, 1916, in a village in Zhongshan, Guangdong province in China, one of nine siblings. The family moved to Hong Kong in 1930. Wong migrated to Australia in 1938, unable to speak English, and settled in Brisbane, where he studied accountancy. In 1941, Wong became a part-owner and cook at a Chinese restaurant. In 1945, he married Ruby Musung. He also started a business in Hong Kong, exporting to China. The same year, he moved to Sydney and became a partner in a restaurant, the Cathay, in Castlereagh Street.

In 1952, Wong opened the Transworld Importing Agency, which was arguably the first company in Australia to import Chinese products on a large scale. He expanded his chain of restaurants. To strengthen his ties with China, he hosted Chinese government delegations, which included the governor of Guangzhou. In the mid-1950s, Gough Whitlam became one of their regular diners. Then, with Denis, Keith founded Chequers.

In 1963, he and Denis formed a partnership with entrepreneur Harry M. Miller and founded Pan-Pacific Promotions to bring out international acts. In partnership with the manager of Billy Thorpe, John Harrigan, they opened the Whisky au Go Go, Bull and Bush, and Stagecoach nightclubs. In 1964, the Wongs opened the 24-hour Mandarin Club, which became the place for performers after they had finished their shows.

With Chequers the venue for performers such as Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Liza Minnelli, Bobby Darin, Dionne Warwick and Sammy Davis jnr, and the guest list including Cliff Richard, the Rolling Stones, the Bee Gees and the Beatles, among others, the club became an entertainment hub. Wong's friends included the premier Sir Robert Askin, Frank Packer, the police commissioner Norm Allan and occasionally Rupert Murdoch. One night, the prime minister John Gorton created a sensation by disappearing backstage with Liza Minnelli.

The total workforce across the businesses exceeded 500 people. Wong helped hundreds of Chinese people to come to Australia to start new lives. His lawyer, Anthony Jackson, said: ''Keith was a guy with a lot of principles and standards. He did not take nonsense from anybody.''

Inevitably, the nightclub also attracted some less savoury individuals. In February, 1969, the club hosted a party held in honour of visiting Chicago mobster Joseph Dan Testa. Present were such notorious individuals as Lenny McPherson, George Freeman and Milan ''Iron Bar Miller'' Petricevic.

In 1980, the Wongs organised the first Guangdong Exhibition, at Centrepoint. Wong also went into property development.

But some dark clouds were forming. In 1982, he was called to give evidence to the NSW Police Tribunal about his dealings with the deputy police commissioner, Bill Allen. Transworld had organised Allen's trip to Hong Kong in 1981 and he had travelled on an account made out to Wong.

In 1982, Trans World Agency, the centrepiece of the Transworld group, collapsed owing $37 million, attracting the interest of the Corporate Affairs Commission. In July 1984, Wong was accused of defrauding various banks and other agencies of more than $4 million. He left for Taiwan. Wong returned in 1998 after 14 years abroad and the charges against him were not pursued.

The Mandarin Club, affected by Star City Casino, closed in 2008. It reopened in Chinatown, but unsuccessfully. In 2008, Ruby died, followed by Denis in 2009. Keith Wong died on July 26. He is survived by his eight children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Malcolm Brown

 http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/club-owner-created-starstudded-spots-20110824-1ja2v.html

A-list ... many celebrities visited Chequers, including Bob Hope (centre).

Overseas Trained Doctors - A Tale

At any one time there are something like 1,500 to 2,000 overseas trained doctors who have migrated and settled in Australia. Some came as refugees escaping persecution from number of countries and in recent times, from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Egypt. Others arrived from South Africa or number of Eastern European countries as well as Western Europe; including the United Kingdom.

Regardless of one's experience and expertise as a doctor, to become registered and have qualifications recognised in Australia, overseas doctor's have to sit and pass a specially designed exam and pass a language exam.  The success rate of passing this exam is historically low and in recent years had only slightly improved.

This slight improvement is been due to individual initiatives taken by overseas trained doctors which included liasing with hospitals in order to allow them to attend and go on rounds with medical students and observe patients and take their own notes.

This blog Dear Readers, is about one such overseas trained doctor who came to Australia from Czechoslovakia (now the Czeck Republic) in1960.  His name was Frant.  For the first few years after his arrival Frant rented a room in a house and worked as a labourer in a shoe factory.  To the astonishement of other workers in the factory he told them that he was a heart specialist in Czechoslovakia and he wanted to sit for an exam and start practiciing as a doctor. At that time, in order to pass and practice as a doctor, a committee of doctors from various specialities appointed by the Royal College grilled you for as long as they saw fit.  They need not give you any reason or reasons why they failed you and told you where to go. 

Two different committees of doctors grilled Frant on two separate occasions for hours.  Neither committee could make up its mind and Frant was not told whether he passed or failed.  A 'super' committee of hand picked doctors, the best in their specialities, hand picked by the various Royal Colleges, examined Frant.  During the examination Frant put his hand up and asked the cardiologist who was interested in his replies a question.

'Could you please tell me the name of the author of the book to which you referred?'

All his examiners looked at him with a stare  and awe.  Frant said nothing.  He folded his arms and waited for a reply. The cardiology book from which Frant had been examined was the English translation of his book written in German!

I know that there are currently taxi drivers in Sydney (and undoubtedly in other Australian States) and others, working in shops, who had been doctors with years of experience and in some cases specialists in various disciplines in their countries - even directors of emergencies and trauma medicine in major hospitals in Europe who had failed the current exams in Australia on few occasions.

One can ask how is this possible? The answer is either blowing in the wind or may be in the spirit of Frant.  

     

Did you Know?

Did you Know that:

1. That if you have a coin or a note that you think is damaged or for whatever reason or reasons you are not happy with the coin or note you can go to the front counter of the Reserve Bank of Australia in Martin Place and ask for its replacement with new coin or note. That is your legal right.
2. That the first Book of Enoch is revered as Scripture in the Ethiopian church and the text only in Ethiopic language and that Enoch is the seventh descendant of Adam.
3. That Switzerland has the only flag that resembles the vestement of the Knight Templers. Is there a connection that could be considered not far fetched?
4. That for whatever reason you find yourself stranded in the middle of the sea in Thailand, do not make the mistake of telling your rescuer that you will pay them by Australian dollar. The chances are they will leave you in the middle of the sea. Simply say AMERICAN DOLLAR. Yes American - despite the fact its value is lower than the Aussie dollar. A doctor friend of mine had that very experience. His jetski failed in the middle of the sea some 20 kilometers from the closes land. He took his pants off and waived it to a passing ferry. 'One thousand Australian dollars if you come and take me to your ferry' he said. The reply: 'No we only take American dollars'. 'Yes for heaven sake American bloody dollars make two thousand' said my doctor friend. 'OK you have cash we don't accept credit cards' came back the voice from the ferry. 'Cash, Cash Cash' said my doctor friend. The ferry that was conveying passengers between islands turned around and picked him up. After feeling secured he asked whether there were any passengers that were feeling unwell on the ferry. There were non. He had no options but to pay the two thousand dollars. When the manager of the  jetski hire asked him to pay for the lost jetski he told him where to go and took the next available flight back to Sydney.
5. The the famous Roselyn Chapel was built by the Knight Templers and despite the fact that it is a chapel, it had never seen any official mass service, christian or otherwise. If you want to know why you may care to urge me in you own individaul way to tell you what I think is the reason.
6. That the Church of the Holy Seplucher was destroyed by the sixth Fatimid (Hakim fi amr Allah) and that was the primary reason for the first Crusade.
7. That the Islamic calender is luner and it is eleven days less than the Justinian calender in use so roughly every 33 years there Ramadan repeats itself, ie starts on the same date.

Caught in Cashless Transport

Dear Readers,

Have you ever heard or shared the experience of being unable to board a bus because you are not in possession of a pre paid plastic card or a ticket which you can only buy from certain newsagencies? Well let me share with you a personal experience of getting on a bus at a bus stop in George Street, Sydney some two months ago. 

I wanted to go to Sydney University some three kilomteres away just at the junction where Broadway becomes Parramatta Road. I took the step from the kerb to the bus looked the driver in the eys and attempted to hand him $5 note and expecting a change. The driver shook his head and looked at me as though I was some sort of a moron. I said: 'what, you think this is a fake $5 note or I need to give you more money, I only wanted to go to Sydney University'. The driver shook his head again and looked at me as if I was a moron or smelled. At the time I was wearing suit that had some come out of the dry cleaners and an expensive tie. I was lost for words and waited for the driver to speak. He took a deep sigh and spoke: 'mate this is a cashless bus can't you read'. I said: 'I am not here to rob you I am giving you money'. 'Funny' said the driver with a sarcastic smile. I could see people on the bus watching and listening to the conversation. I said: 'with respect to you I don't think you can refuse taking my money the $5 note is a legal tender and I an tendering to you legally for my fare to Sydney University'. Someone shouted from the middle of bus 'yeh bloody oath tell him mate'. The driver appeared lost for words as other busses starting to que behind the bus. the driver finally said: 'bloody lawyers or smarty pants. Get in mate you don't have to pay'. I said: 'I don't want yiur charity or free journey keep the $5 and give it to whoever you think should receive it'. I walked inside the bus and took a seat next to a middle aged lady who appeared to have been distressed by my conversation with driver. On the second stop the lady finally said to me there is a sign on the front of the bus that says 'Pre Paid Only'. 'Ah I said I thought that was an advertisment'. When I pressed the button to get off at the next stop I made sure that I exited through the back door. Going back to the city that afternoon I made sure that the bus I casught did not have the 'Pre Paid Only' sign. 

For the rest of the day I wondered whether the trend toward cashless society had cirumvented and masde useless the Reserve Bank Act 1959, the Currency Act 1965 and Section 51(xii) of the Commonwealth Constitution giving the Federal Government the power to make laws.    

Sunset...

Is this majestic?

Taken on 1 May 2011 from the porch of the humble house in which I was born...Lebanon

ECG explained for no apparent reason

I just thought I'd brag about how smart I am ...

Hello Dear Readers,

Since I started my first blog by writing about the world most famous cardiologist, the Late Michael Dabaghy (by sheer coincidence I might add) I thought it would be appropriate if I were to continue my second blog by writing about the heart and attempt to explain the tracing of ECG (ElectroCardioGram) which is heavily relied upon by General Practitioners and cardiologists to diagnose arrythmia (abnormal rhythm), flutter (fast heart rate), fibrilation (beats from abnormal sources than SA Node), infarcts (heart muscle cells that had been damaged or died) both past and present.

The main leads of the ECG machine are placed on the body in the form of a triangle in which the heart is in the middle. The other leads that labelled V1 to V6 ar placed in different positions on the spaced of the ribs. The ideas being to observe the hear from different angles. Lead V4 provided important information useful to tell whether there had been damage to the muscle of the ventricles from previous infarcts (heart attacks). Some of the tracing from the V leads are inverted images of the main leads in which the heart is in the middle of the triangle.

In brief the heart is a pump that is split into two halfs. Each half has upped chamber and lower chamber. The upper is known as the auricle and the lower is known as the ventricle. The opening between the auricle and ventricle is controlled by one way valve. On the right hand side the valve is known as the mitral valve (from the Bishop collar) and on the left is the pulmonary valve which allow the passage of blood to the lungs. On the question of valves it is interesting to note that the mitral valve is damaged in childhood diseases such as rheumatic fever. Australia's former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who suffered rheumatic fever as a child had last week undergone surgery to replace the mitral valve and is now recovering in Queensland hospital. The right side of the heart receive cifrculating blood that had shed its oxygen content (not the full content). This blood is pumped to be oxygenated by the air we breath and is then pumped by the left side of the heart to nourish the body and return back after releasing its oxygen for bodily metabolism. The pumping by the left ventricle requres much greater energy than the pumping of the right ventricle. As a result the mucscle mass of the left ventricle is significantly greater than that of the right ventricle. Depending on their severity heart attacks (myocardial infarcts) normally leave damaged areas in the left venticle. This often show on lead V4 and the 'T' wave of the tracing in which the heart is at the centre of the triangle.

The above diagram shows normal ECG tracing taken from the three leads in which the heart is at the centre of the triangle. The letters are P, QRS, and T. Every cell of the heart could potentially fire a signal which could be picked up by ECG. However, in a normal heart the firing begins with the Sino Atrial Node (SA Node) located in the right atrium. This is a collections of cell with a firing threshold lower than the rest of the myocardial cells. When the SA node fires it gives the 'P" wave of the ECG. As this wave travels in the atrium it triggers the firing of cells that allows the left ventricle to fire giving the QRS wave of the ECG. As the heart comes back to rest the 'T' wave records the resting electrical activities of the myocardial cells. The 'T" wave is important in picking upand diagnosing prior heart attacks. Elevated blood potassioum level could also give you abnormal 'T' wave.

I realised that I may have written too much for a blog I will attempt to briefly summarise the essentials of what i have written:

If you listen to the heart you will hear the sound "Lubb" "Dubb", "Lubb" "Dubb" etc... The "Lubb" is the sound of the right side of the heart filling with blood coming from the body. The "Dubb" is the sound of the firing of the left ventricle pushing the oxygenated blood to the body. The 'P' wave is the firing of the SA Node. The distance between the 'P' wave and rthe 'QRS' wave is measured in milliseconds. If there is anorther wave that means some cell is firing on the pathway of the wave. A road block or a pump on the road. It could suggest damage or ectopic beat (arrythmia). The width and the height of the 'QRS' wave is important reflection of the state of the muscle cells of the left ventricle. The height of the 'T' wave is an indicator of prior damage to the heart muscle. The reading is normally confirmed by the V leads to which I referred earlier.

      

So dear Readers if you find what I have written about is interesting and you wish me to continue writing about the drugs that is norally prescribed to treat heart ailments you may care telling me.   I will be happy to write about drugs that doctors normally prescribe to treat either chronotropic conditions (rates and rythems) and ionotropic conditions (weakened heart muscles).

If you are mad I wasted your time with this information, please feel free to kick me in the nuts...

Cheers for now 

Welcome to My Blog

Hello readers... I'm new to blogging so bear with me till I master the art...

Hello Dear Readers,
Just a short note about the picture on the left.
This is a picture of me next to a statute which I was surprised to see whilst driving in the village of Marjuon in South Lebanon, not far from Lebanese/Israeli border, on 10 May 2011. The statute is that of the world most renowned cardiologist, Dr Michael Dabagy. Doctor Dabagy was born in Marjuon in 1916 and passed away in 2008. He graduated in medicine from the American University of Beirut, specialised in cardiology and left to live in the United States where he quickly established reputation as leading cardiologist. Medical students are told about Michael Dabagy in their clinical years. I had the pleasure of meeting him in 1982 at the Prince of Wales Hospital. I share with you one well known observation that all cardiologist know about Doctor Dabagy.
A New York train driver who complained of unexplained blackouts whilst driving the train was seen by number of doctors throughout the US. He was referred to number of cardiologist who did all sort of tests and could not explain or find out any reason for his blackouts. He was referred to Michael Dabagy. Michael observed that the train driver was wearing tie and the collar of his shirt appeared to be not much loose around his neck (not exactly tight). Michael asked him do you wear a tie whilst driving the train? The driver said yes I always wear a tie regardless of the weather. Michael then asked do you blackout when the train comes to a turn? The driver said yes that is when I blackout on turns. Michael said do not do the top button on your shirt and wear shirts with a one centimeter wider collar. That was the treatment.
Those of you dear readers who are not doctors should know that there is a nerve plexus at the point where the carotid artery passes through the neck. When the the train was turning the driver's collar was pressing on that nerve plexus which results in the drivers hear almost coming to a stop. Cardiologists often test patient by doing what is called the Valsalva manouver by rubbing on the nerve plexus. Wrestlers sometime have their 'sleeper hold'  by pressing on the neck and stimulating the plexus.
I was surprised the know that the Late Doctor Dabagy was born in Marjuoon.
I trust dear readers you find this little story of some interest. If you do you may care to letting me know. That way I will tell you more interesting stories.