The Queensland government is actually aware of the word “Referendum!”

Surprise, surprise! The Queensland government has actually the word “Referendum” in their political vocabulary, but they will use it only when it suits them. They can’t support Peter Wellington’s bill without a referendum, but they conveniently mandated fluoridation without a referendum. How hypocritical, two-faced and undemocratic was this? - Werner

REFERENDUM - "THE VERY HEART OF DEMOCRACY" - DEP. PREMIER, PAUL LUCAS MP.

Below are extracts from State Parliament, made by Deputy Premier & Health Minister, Paul Lucas MP, a few weeks ago. It appears that he believes that the citizens have some rights after all, but maybe he said these things just to score political points!!!! - (Thank to State President, Merilyn Haines for this information).

Might be worth an e-mail to Paul Lucas to ask if he believes in "democracy" for people who don't want to drink and bathe in fluoridated water.

Cheers, Bill Kilvert, FNQ Coordinator

HANSARD page 2373 CONSTITUTION (FIXED-TERM PARLIAMENT) AMENDMENT BILL
Second Reading 16th September 2009

Resumed from 17 June (see p. 965), on motion of Mr. Wellington -That the bill be now read a second time

Hon. PT LUCAS (Lytton—ALP) (Deputy Premier and Minister for Health) (7.40 pm): I rise to speak to the Constitution (Fixed-Term Parliament) Amendment Bill introduced by the member for Nicklin and advise the House that the government will not be supporting this bill. The government supports the principle of fixed terms.

However, we believe this issue should be put to the people of Queensland in a referendum. We are on the record supporting a referendum on fixed four-year terms for the Queensland parliament. The length of parliamentary terms, whether they are fixed or not, are issues that the people of Queensland should determine and not the parliament by itself.

This bill seeks to fix the term of the Queensland Legislative Assembly at three years, with elections to be held on the second Saturday in March every third year. We believe that any change of this magnitude to our electoral system should not be made unless the people of Queensland ask for it. It is not for members of parliament to set our own terms without asking our electors to vote on it in a referendum, even if it is technically possible to avoid one.

For example, even if we found a loophole to allow us to legislate for four-year fixed terms without a referendum, we should not cut the people out of that decision. These are matters that go to the very heart of our democracy, that is, the way in which the people of Queensland choose their representatives.

I have no issue with the member for Nicklin’s approach to this matter. He is representing the views that he believes his constituents hold strongly. However, the government has a broader obligation to take into account the views of all Queenslanders. For example, hypothetically tomorrow we could legislate to bring in daylight saving without holding a referendum, but it would be the wrong thing to do. In Australia we see a wide variety of electoral systems operating, with significant differences……..

And here is a letter to the editor sent to the Cairns Post.

I could not believe my eyes when I read the label on the multi dose swine flu vial, that Dr Uri Scelwyn was holding when his photo was in the Cairns Post on Wednesday 30th September.

Written on the label were the words, "0.01% Thiomersal". - This is the mercury based preservative that has caused the explosion of autism around the world. No wonder the Health Department does not want to give this vaccination to children. This is supposedly banned from all vaccination. Mercury is so lethal, that it is not allowed even at one part per billion.

This is on top of the Health Department forcing Queenslanders to drink the dangerous silicofluorides in our water supplies. This poisonous chemical concoction, also contains traces of mercury, as well as other heavy metals.

What other poisons is the Health Department prescribing? A Royal Commission is needed to get to the bottom of this.

Yours sincerely,

Bill Kilvert

And so say all of us! - Werner

The Queensland "Blight"

By reading the letters to the editor in major Queensland newspapers, talking to people in the street or shopping centres it becomes abundantly clear that the majority of Queenslanders are far from happy with the Bligh government for a variety of reasons. What do you think? - Werner

Following is an article by Mike O’Connor, published in the Courier Mail 21.9.09.

Only the truth will save Bligh.

WHEN you find yourself in a hole, accepted wisdom dictates that you stop digging; unless you are a politician, in which case years of conditioning urges you to shovel evermore frantically.

No further evidence of this Pavlovian response is needed than the reaction of Premier Anna Bligh to the release of opinion polls which showed her standing in the eyes of voters sinking faster than an Ipswich house built on a disused coal mine.

Rather than wonder at the cause of her unpopularity, the Premier and her minders decided that what was needed was a public relations campaign that would, at considerable expense, explain to Queenslanders how mistaken they were in believing that she was an unsuitable person to occupy the high office.

It did not occur to this intellectual powerhouse that the reason the Premier is held in low esteem is because people have had a gutful of public relations campaigns and are hoping against desperate hope that, for once, someone will tell them God's honest truth.

Indulging in yet another exercise in misrepresentation can only further infuriate and alienate them.

Australians put up with a lot from their politicians. They expect them to be economical with the truth and to put their own interests first and second, with the electorate trailing a distant third. But there is a limit to this tolerance and the Bligh Government has reached it.

People didn't like it when, as an opening gambit, she rewarded her predecessor Peter Beattie with a $300,000-a-year job in Los Angeles after he had declared he would not accept a government position.

No degree of public relations manipulation that claimed he was the best person for the job and Queensland desperately needed a trade representative there was going to convince people otherwise. She was not being honest and it showed.

Giving her husband a comfortable $180,000-a-year government job was another blunder. The public relations strategy was to proclaim that, once again, he was the best person for the job.

Perhaps, conveniently, he was but it looked like she had simply created a nice job for her partner and pumped another $180,000 a year into the Bligh household budget.

The public nodded and filed the information away. Taking a free holiday in the Sydney harbour side mansion of a person closely connected with a company that won millions of dollars in state government work was a mistake. The public relations campaign to justify this, swung into action - the person in question was a friend of the Premier. There was no conflict of interest.

Like her husband's appointment, it was a matter of perception. It looked bad and the people looked at each other and nodded and filed it away. An admission of misjudgement would have been accepted and forgiven by voters as proof of human frailty, but none was forthcoming.

Truth has become a casualty of an obsession with public relations. Bligh wants to build the Traveston Dam and goes on the public relations offensive, suggesting we'll all die of thirst if it isn't built.

"The State Government has given the green light to Traveston Dam," she said, adding that the final decision now rested with Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

This was not true. Her own Coordinator-General, Colin Jensen, had said there needed to be a lengthy process involving thousands of conditions, which needed to be met before he could give his approval.

The dam is a long way from being given the "green light", so why attempt to mislead people? The truth would have served her better.

Last week, a government public relations exercise announced that Professor Geoff Masters, of the Australian Council for Educational Research, said the Government's proposed "flying squads" of teachers had the potential to lift achievement levels in state schools.

Masters, in fact, had said no such thing and was surprised when he found the remarks attributed to him. On the contrary, he said that such squads could be a superficial response to the problem of numeracy and literacy and likened them to "putting on a fresh coat of paint".

Once more, truth was cast aside in favour of the public relations strategy.
There was another flurry of public relations activity when it was revealed Bligh was to appear on the television program, Master Chef.

She said she had accepted because she wanted to use the program to promote Queensland produce.

There isn't a man or woman in the state who believes this. They think she is hoping that by appearing on a popular TV show, she will somehow improve her political stocks.

The truth, once more, was denied. It's not only the big ticket deceptions like asset sales that are eating away at her standing, but the succession of smaller deceptions, which point to an inability to tell the truth.

It's not too late for Bligh to substitute honesty for public relations in her dealings with the people - but it soon will be. oconnorm@qnp.newsltd.com.au

* * * * * *

Lemon picker.

A Queensland woman applying for a job picking lemons in Tasmania seemed to be far too qualified for the job.

The foreman frowned and said, "Look, I have to ask you this; have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I have!" she replied, "I've been divorced three times and I voted for Anna Bligh."

Laughter is the best medicine!

My last two postings were bad news about Queensland’s state affairs, which possibly put some people in a gloomy frame of mind. Hopefully, the following story will uplift your spirits and remove the feeling of melancholy apprehension. Just picture yourself in such a situation as the lady was in – then it would not have been a laughing matter.

Laughter and humor are two emotions that are commonly over looked. Laughter is therapeutic for the soul and laughing is so healthy - it's like jogging on the inside. - Werner

A hearty laugh gives one a dry cleaning, while a good cry is a wet wash. Puzant Kevork Thomajan

HOW DID YOU BREAK YOUR ARM?? (A hilarious must read story – Werner)

Even if you aren't a skier, you'll be able to appreciate the humour of the slopes as written by a New Orleans paper: A friend just got back from a holiday skiing trip to Utah with the kind of story that warms the cockles of anybody's heart. Conditions were perfect...12 below, no feeling in the toes, basic numbness all over, telling me when we're having a fun kind of day.

One of the women in the group complained to her husband that she was in dire need of a rest room. He told her not to worry, that he was sure there was relief waiting at the top of the lift in the form of a powder room for female skiers in distress. He was wrong, of course and the pain did not go away.

If you've ever had nature hit its panic button in you, then you know that a temperature of 12 below doesn't help matters.

With time running out, the woman weighed her options. Her husband, picking up on the intensity of the pain, suggested that since she was wearing an all-white ski outfit, she should go off in the woods and no one would even notice. He assured her, "The white will provide more than adequate camouflage." So she headed for the tree line, began lowering her ski pants and proceeded to do her thing.

If you've ever parked on the side of a slope, then you know there is a right way and wrong way to set your skis so you don't move. Yup, you got it!!! She had them positioned the wrong way.

Steep slopes are not forgiving...even during the most embarrassing moments. Without warning, the woman found herself skiing backward, out-of-control, racing through the trees somehow missing all of them and onto another slope. Her derriere and the reverse side were still bare, her pants down around her knees, and she was picking up speed all the while. She continued backwards, totally out-of-control, creating an unusual vista for the other skiers. The woman skied back under the lift and finally collided violently with a pylon.

The bad news was that she broke her arm and was unable to pull up her ski pants. At long last her husband arrived, putting an end to her nudie show, and then summoned the ski patrol. They transported her to a hospital. While in the emergency room, a man with an obviously broken leg was put in the bed next to hers.

"So, how'd you break your leg?" she asked, making small talk. "It was the stupidest thing you ever saw," he said. "I was riding up this ski lift and suddenly, I couldn't believe my eyes! There was this crazy woman skiing backward, out-of control, down the mountain, with her bare bottom hanging out of her pants. I leaned over to get a better look and fell out of the lift."

"So, how'd you break your arm??

The Queensland government is on the nose – big time.

Most people of Queensland are starting to realise that they committed a grave folly when they re-elected this Labor government in March 2009. Most either didn’t see their dictatorial tendencies or had the wool pulled over their eyes, and now we collectively pay the price. Selling our State assets, mandating fluoridation and saddling Queenslanders with a horrific debt burden are just a few things that raise the bristles of the population.

The introduction of fluoride into Far North Queensland is expected to cost $5 million, while rate payers will fork out $500.000 a year to keep the system running. If you multiply this with all the Regional Councils in Queensland you get a princely sum.

I can’t help reiterating the sad tale of Tasmanian fluoridation, which clearly shows the futility of this practice and the waste of money this Labor government is “flushing down the drain.” Pun intended.

Quote: Tasmania has been fluoridated for about 50 years and has one of the most intensive fluoridation schemes. Currently it has 41 fluoridation plants for nearly half a million people, is 83% fluoridated at 1.1ppm with Fluorosilicic Acid and Sodium Fluoride.

A report released 17th Dec 2007 from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare stated: “The highest levels of permanent decay experience were found in Tasmania.”

A Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Medicare by ANGLICARE TASMANIA in July 2003, stated: “Tasmanian adults have the worst dental health in the nation with the highest percentage of edentulous adults per capita with 15.3% of the adult population, compared to the national average of 9.7%.

The State also has the highest percentage of persons wearing a denture in the nation, with 11.2% in the 25 – 44 year category, which is almost double the national average.” Stated also in this report: “Tasmania has had some of the worst health indicators in the nation.” Unquote.

And the latter may well come from the build up of fluoride in their bodies.

Werner Schmidlin

The Queensland railway workers, traditionally Labor voters, are not happy at all with the Queensland Government. They have erected a large sign on Brimsmead Road Cairns. Click on picture to enlarge!

And here is what eminent Babinda identity, Errol Wiles, sent to me: I Quote:

“The ship on which we are travelling (HMAS Queensland) is under the command of captain Blight. She spends her time messing about in the galley (maybe she's looking to the future to be a shearers' cook) while her command with first mate Fraser at the helm is heading straight for the reef.

Her criminally incompetent crew under bosun Nuttal (now in the brig) is running around like headless chooks laying the blame for the impending shipwreck on everything but their own stupidity.

The crew tell captain Blight about the danger and her only solution is to throw our lifeboats overboard (sell our, note our assets). The school teachers are up in arms, the QR unions accuse the clowns of selling them out, the farmers are being bashed again and Beattie says he didn't know anything about it.

Consider, my people, how stupid we are (the electors) for putting these idiots in command and how masochistic we are if we keep them there.

Friday's Cairns Post on its front page asks "Rudd, Blight, Where the bloody hell are you----12.5% unemployment." I ask: Fletcher Christian, please save us again.

Our Babinda health situation is not less than in a state of crisis. To meet the crisis, a packed-hall meeting was held in the Spirit of Babinda hall on the night of 22Sep09 The best the state government and a series of Qld health professionals could do is urge us to WORK TOGETHER ! Oh yes? Suppose an invader were approaching Cairns in his ships. Do you think the Defence professionals would be up here in numbers urging us to WORK TOGETHER to repel the invader?

Queensland Health KNOWS what we need. They KNOW what is required. They KNOW what doctors reasonably require before becoming established in Babinda. What the hell are we the people expected to contribute? Do we know more than the professionals? We can CONSULT and WORK TOGETHER ad nauseam, to what effect? If we haven't yet had enough of this government's consultation, smoke-and-mirrors and plain bullshit we are masochists.

This is a not-to-be-avoided state government responsibility. Full stop! If the dollars were there we would have no problem. The dollars, 40 millions of them, are more appropriately applied employing rangers on Cape York Peninsula. From this we can see where Babinda stands on this government's priority list. It has to be a matter of "Dollars up mate, or pack your bag."
Errol Wiles Babinda

My thought for the day.

I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think. - Socrates

Fluoride: European Court ruling starts to bite.

This is an update from Doug Cross, the man behind the UK website. - Werner

“Section 130 defines ‘medicinal product’ and I am satisfied that fluoride in whatever form it is ultimately purchased by the respondents falls within that definition.” *

The potential impact of the European Court of Justice ruling that functional drinks must be regulated as medicines is starting to alarm exporters of processed foods to the EC. Inevitably, fluoridation apologists are trying to dismiss the warning - but once the legal challenges start to reach the Courts they will force the fluoride supporters to accept that their quack remedy must not be used to prepare food for human consumption.

* Lord Jauncy, 1983, on the application of the Medicines Act 1968 to fluoridated water.
The full implications of my article outlining the implications of the Warenvertriebs and Orthica case ruling by the European Court of Justice, that I published here in May, are beginning to bite!

With over 6000 downloads already, especially from readers in overseas fluoridated countries, the Australian Trade Commission, Austrade, is urgently seeking clarification about the possibility that the ruling could mean a trade embargo on the export of a wide range of processed foods to the European Community.

Inevitably, there are determined efforts by the dental and public health sector advocates of fluoridation to dismiss my conclusions as the ramblings of an 'anti-fluoride activist'. Well, that takes care of the legal argument, then! I guess fifty years as a jobbing scientist and para-legal don't count when you're dealing with real professional dentists.

We 'Activists', of course, do take an active role in looking at the issues that emerge from policies that we find irrational. Does that make us inferior to the fluoride protagonists, who find it easier to play a passive role and accept the relentless propaganda pouring from the scientifically illiterate dental sector? So let's ignore the infantile inuendos and slurs against our personal characters for a moment, and concentrate on facts.

Under EC Law, any product promoted as having medicinal properties MUST be classified, regulated and licensed as a medicine. This applies 'even if the product is generally regarded as a food . . and even if it has no known therapeutic properties under the present state of scientific knowledge'.

And in Scotland, Lord Jauncy made it quite clear back in 1983 that he interpreted the UK law on medicines as applying to any form of fluoride purchased by the consumer.

A product does not need to have pharmacological properties (i.e. to be 'medicinal by function') to be classed as a medicine - simply claiming that fluoridated water prevents tooth decay is enough to render it subject to medicinal law. So fluoridated water is indeed a 'functional drink' - it DOES come under EC medicinal law, and MUST therefore be regarded as a medicine. Everything else I have said in my analysis follows.

All that is needed now is direct legal confirmation that the ruling applies to fluoridated water - either a case before the European Court or a Judicial Review in national law will do. And then of course, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's forlorn argument that 'EC law does not apply in Australia' (or elsewhere) becomes irrelevant.

Click to enlarge!

Poisoned Queensland Water!

One Click will enlarge the image! Send my blog address to your family and fiends so that they can view this message. - Werner
http://www.wernercairns.com/

The cost for adulterating our drinking water.

Below is a report, courtesy of Cr Linda Cooper Cairns City Council that will raise your bristles.

Here is what Cr Linda Cooper wrote, I quote: Thought I’d be the bearer of bad news and go through the details I extracted from the Capital Works (Water & Waste) 1st Budget Review and associated ongoing costs with the provision of chemicals, maintenance etc.

Previously Council were following a budgeted implementation program at a cost of $365,000. The actual cost that has now been allocated for the design, consultancy and construction of fluoride implementation facilities at Tunnel Hill and Behana Creek is $2 million. The fact that this figure is completely funded by State Government is irrelevant. Of further concern is that three more reservoirs (Mossman, Babinda and Whyanbeel) will need to be funded by December 2010.

During today’s Water and Waste meeting, GM Mr Bruce Gardiner provided me with ongoing costs, which will have to be borne by this Council. The annual cost of providing chemicals and maintenance for Tunnel Hill, will be approximately $150,000 and for Behana Creek $137,000 (a total annual cost of $287,000). I asked the GM if it was fair to assume that when the other three reservoirs come online that Cairns Regional Council will have an annual upkeep cost of approximately half a million dollars. His answer was yes. Unquote

What a forced and flagrant impost on the Cairns city Council and what a reprehensible waste of money, for poisoning our water supply that is totally unnecessary and futile in combating tooth decay. If you multiply this with all the other councils across Queensland you will get a princely sum of dollars that the government has to borrow and, money that could be spend on schools and hospital just to name a few. This totalitarian government with its wannabe ’master chef” just keeps on dishing out whatever they want; whether we like it or not, how can we stop this blatant arrogance? – Werner Schmidlin

Double click on the picture to enlarge it.

Fluoride free drinking water.

This is a machine that collects water from the air and filters it and then one filter adds minerals to the water, this machine supplies cold and hot drinking water free of fluoride. We have this machine for a week to trial. This machine costs $2.400, which is unfortunately forced upon people to buy who don’t want to drink fluoridated water for a variety of health reasons.

Because the Queensland government mandated water fluoridation without any consultation of the people of Queensland this is now an expensive option for people with kidney problems, asthma and thyroid problem to name a few, who do not want to drink fluoridated water. Since we had no choice whether or not we wanted fluoride in the water, I strongly believe that the government should compensate the people who have to buy this machine. What do you think?

Following is a letter sent to the Premier in this regard. – Werner Schmidlin


The Cairns agent for the “Konica Water purifier” is:
Andy Cowie, Phone: 0407 657 808

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

To:
The Queensland Premier
The Hon. Anna Bligh MP
Brisbane Qld.

Dear Premier,

The day is getting near when you force us to drink fluoridated water, which we don’t want to drink, nor need and we would like a choice, like it should be in a democratic country.

However, let me tell you something, why my wife should not drink it. And before I get any further, please answer to this e-mail personally; I do not want to get a pre-prepared letter from one of your staff, without you even seeing my letter, which seems to be the normal procedure. You politicians only listen to us at election time and after you do what you want and ignore us till the next election is looming.

My wife needs blood transfusions every three weeks, but blood transfusions build up iron in the body, which the body cannot get rid off. High iron content in the body poses a very great health risk so she has to take chemicals to get rid of the excess iron. This in turn causes a lot of side effects and puts a big strain on her kidneys and she has been advised not to drink fluoridated water. Why do you make us buy bottled water, which may not be clear of fluoride and would be too expensive for us pensioners? Why are you doing this to us, Premier?

We have at present a machine on trial, which collects the water from the air and filters it, and another filter adds minerals to the water.

Now, Premier Bligh, since you force fluoridated water on us, which we don’t want nor need, will your government compensate us for this machine which costs $2.400?

Furthermore, why on earth would a government want to fluoridate all of our pristine water when a person, according to World Vision, uses 282 litres of water a day and is supposed to drink 2 litres of water per day, and many don’t drink that amount? So most of the 282 litres of fluoridated water that we use for the shower, flushing the toilet, washing the dishes, washing our clothes etc goes down the drain and finishes up in the ocean and our reef. To a normal person this doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps the government thinks that we are not normal and Fluoride in our water makes us docile and dulls our collective brains so we easily take whatever the government dishes out.

Your government has accumulated a tremendous debt for Queensland. By stopping this nonsense of fluoridating our water you would save money.

If you look at the record of Tasmania it should clearly show you that fluoridation does not reduce tooth decay one bit – so why are you persisting with it?
Tasmania has been fluoridated for about 50 years and has one of the most intensive fluoridation schemes. Currently it has 41 fluoridation plants for nearly half a million people, is 83% fluoridated at 1.1ppm with Fluorosilicic Acid and Sodium Fluoride.
A report released 17th Dec 2007 from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare stated: “The highest levels of permanent decay experience were found in Tasmania.”

A Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Medicare by ANGLICARE TASMANIA in July 2003, stated: “Tasmanian adults have the worst dental health in the nation with the highest percentage of edentulous adults per capita with 15.3% of the adult population, compared to the national average of 9.7%.

The State also has the highest percentage of persons wearing a denture in the nation, with 11.2% in the 25 – 44 year category, which is almost double the national average.”

Stated also in this report: “Tasmania has had some of the worst health indicators in the nation.” And the latter may well be caused by the build up of fluoride in their bodies.

And please, don’t tell me again how difficult a decision it was for your government to fluoridate the water; after all, your predecessor Peter Beattie wouldn’t have a bar of this.

We admit that fluoride has its use and this is topical application by dentists to the young non water dinking population. Most people also know, but apparently not your government that what we need for good teeth is calcium fluoride and not that waste product from the aluminium and fertiliser industry that you force us to drink. Also, tea contains up to 4 mg of calcium fluoride per cup so a tea drinker gets a double dose of fluoride. Would it not be much cheaper for the government to hand out tea instead the poisonous stuff you put into our water?

You know, Premier that the young people drink very little if any water, so how good is your fluoride in the water for them? I witness this every day when I walk to pick up my paper in the morning; dozens of school children waiting for the school bus and what do the have in their hands? Not water, but coloured soft drinks and that is the cause for tooth decay, so why the futile mass medication by your government? I rest my case.

Sincerely yours,

Werner Schmidlin

Stifling Queensland Government Rules and Regulations.

The Queensland government has a penchant for making rules and regulations without any consultation of the Queensland people. You don’t know about them until it affects you personally.

A case in point is the Cairns Amateur races, the biggest event on the racing calendar in Cairns, which they have stuffed up big time with their rules and regulations.

I have just become acquainted with another of these incongruous rules and regulations that the government regularly “invents’ and stealthily inserts them into the system. Having such an absurd majority they can do whatever they like and the opposition may just as well stay home and read the book, “How to win an election and become a better government.”

Since my wife is a regular recipient of blood, we wanted to say thank you and show appreciation to the blood donors. So I made a timber freeform stand with beautiful North Queensland timber that is not available anymore. This item is conservatively valued at $600.00; it is a one off product and cannot be replicated. Double click to enlarge pictures!

Our idea was that every blood donor gets a ticket when donating blood, and after 5 or 6 months the winner would be drawn. The idea behind this was to encourage people to spend blood more often. However, I was told that the regulations do not allow this, and the Blood Bank would not be permitted to put a note in the Cairns Post to make blood donors aware of this; nor could it be raffled.

So, unfortunately we withdrew our donation. Karola just takes this opportunity to say thank you to the altruistic and wonderful Blood Donors; without them, she would not be alive.

I love you all, Karola

Masterchef or media tart?

Queenslanders don't like what Anna has cooked up so far.

Wet . . pardon me, what’s his name? You know the person that you seldom see, he has a string attached that Anna Bligh and the Labor caucus can pull and he then says “Yes.” He is the ineffective member for Barron River, OK that should give you an idea who I’m talking about and if you know his full name let me know.

Anyway, this fellow wants us to send Anna Bligh recipes that she can cook on “Celebrity Masterchef.” Chefs or cooks make their own recipes and if you come on to a show just to cook something from a recipe provided by somebody else you just do it for publicity. If Anna needs recipes it just shows that what she is doing is nothing more than a political stunt and all she wants is to outdo Peter Beattie’s record as media tart.

A lot of Queenslanders are sick of the sight of her and will not watch Masterchef with her on it.

I would suggest that she swims with the sharks, as Beattie did, which would be the perfect environment for her. What she has cooked up and dished out to Queensland so far is, apart from telling pre-election furphies, put our state into enormous debt, mandated fluoridation, sold the assets, taken away the fuel subsidy - just to name a few, which is totally unpalatable to the majority of Queenslanders.

Werner Schmidlin

What is a fanatic?

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change his stand.- Winston Churchill


(The Qld Premier Anna Bligh, who mandated waterfluoridation comes to mind.)

The Cannonball Tree. - By Werner Schmidlin

The population of Cairns has considerable increased since we first came to North Queensland in 1958 and not many people know about this interesting tree in the Freshwater Valley Cairns. Publishing this story on my blog may create enough interest for newcomers to our beautiful area to go and have a look at this unusual tree. To see a picture of the wonderful blossoms and the balls on the trunk, click on the “German section” on the right side on the top of the page.

* * * * * *

It is most likely that not too many people have ever heard about, and much less seen a Cannonball Tree. Firstly, the tree is a native to South America, and secondly, there are not many to be found in Australia, with the exception of Botanical Gardens perhaps. To my knowledge there are only two trees in the Cairns area, a young insignificant one in the Cairns Botanical and the one I’m writing about. The Botanical name of this tree is: Couroupita – The Cannonball Tree. Family, Lecythidaceae. However, its old name was: “Couroupita guianensis” referring to the Guianas, where this real curiosity grows wild. Cannonball Trees can be grown easily from seed in a warm climate. Just don’t plant one in your garden.

Thank goodness Cannonball trees are not to be found in every garden! Dodging the head-size fruit as they come cannonading down the trunk in a rainstorm could become a real hazard, and the less is said about its decaying droppings (balls) the better. They are a sight to behold though, that every tree-lover would want to see at least once in a lifetime. What stunning botanical conversation piece! A 17 metre (50ft) tall tree which produces the flowers and the fruits (balls) on the trunk and not as usual high up on the branches. In season, the tree produces Hibiscus-sized flowers of a mixture of rich apricot pink, snow white and gold. They have a curious lop-sided mass of stamens and exude a strong fruity fragrance that can be smelt from afar.

The brown fruit hang in clusters from the top to the bottom of the tree trunk, suspended like balls on a string. They consist of a mass of seed, embedded in sickly greenish pulp, which to Westerners smells distinctly “off”. As the story goes, the South American natives, however, find the “inside” of the balls delicious, and squeeze a popular brew from it, which they drink from the hard empty outer shell.

Having introduced this interesting tree; let me tell you how I found it more than forty years ago. A friend of ours who knew that I love everything that is interesting, nice & beautiful, told me about a big unusual tree with ball-like fruit on the trunk. “It is right beside the road and close to the farmhouse of Lyon’s sugar cane farm, way back in the Redlynch Valley” (near Cairns N.Q.) he said. Being a natural stickybeak, I was dying to have a look at this tree at the first opportunity. Well, a nice sonny Sunday with blues skies presented that opportunity. “Let’s go for a drive,” I said to Karola (my wife) and the three young children. “Oh good,” was the emphatic reaction. “Where are we going?” they queried. “We’ll be going to the Redlynch Valley (about 30 kilometres away,) to see if we can find that tree, that’s where we are going,” I said.

We didn’t know exactly where Lyon’s sugar cane farm was, but the road into the Redlynch Valley was a long, but dead- end road so there was no danger of taking a wrong turn. So, we kept a good lookout on both sides of the road as we drove along. After about five Kilometres into the Redlynch Valley road, there was suddenly this towering tree on the left side in front of us, with the trunk laden with brown balls intermixed with beautiful Magnolia-size flowers. There was no doubt we had found the right tree. We stopped, went out of the car and looked with amazement at this fascinating tree in front of our eyes.

After we have had a long close look at the tree and its appendages from every angle, I walked the 20 meters to the farmhouse to ask what tree it was.
I reached the front door and with my curled index finger knocked on the door. I was ready to say, “excuse me, would you please tell me what tree that was,” but I didn’t get a chance to say that. Almost simultaneously as I knocked on the door, the door sprang open, halfway, a lady said, “it’s a Cannonball tree,” shut the door and left me standing there for a minute dumbfounded – I didn’t even have time to say thank you.

I could only assume, that this question had been asked hundreds of times, especially on a weekend, since this tree was not far from a popular swimming place, the Crystal Cascades. When I returned to the site a few weeks later to show the tree to a friend, a sign was placed nearby, saying: “This is a Cannonball Tree.”

Since that “fateful” day, when I first put eyes on this fascinating tree, I have taken countless tourists and friends to this tree – their first comments is always without exception, “absolutely amazing!” When I was active in the North Queensland Promotion in the 1970’s & 80’s, I made sure it was included in tourist literature. However, I noticed that in recent times the tree has gone missing in tourist literature, but I will continue to take every opportunity to tell people about the tree, or take them there. It gives me such a wonderful feeling to see the happy faces when they look at this tree with “open-mouthed” amazement.

PS. This story is also to be found on the internet, at “Tintota.com” and achieved, when first published in 2001 the number one spot on the search engine Yahoo from 65.000 hits for more than six months – a remarkable achievement I was told by my Web publisher. - Werner