Muslims and Multiculturalism not a happy mix in some countries.

The contentious issue about Muslims is in the spotlight in Canada & Holland. First some excerpts from an excellent article from the Calgary Herald Canada. This is followed by an article from Holland. I'm actually surprised that the “Calgary Herald” had the courage to publish this, but the truth has to be told. Wake up Australia! This is a must read for all Australians; especially our federal Politicians!

It is a well known fact that many European countries have an issue with the Muslim population they once readily welcomed to their country. They all discovered that Muslims do not integrate or assimilate into their respective countries, and produce abundantly more children than the native population of the host country. In time the Muslim population will be in a majority, and they all know what that means and, are extremely worried about it. I’m told that the Muslims are a drain on the host country’s welfare system. Well, they have learnt that hindsight is an edifying tool, but an egg cannot be unscrambled.

Here is what German Chancellor Merkel said: "German attempt at multiculturalism has 'utterly failed;' she wants immigrants to learn German." Read more.

Theodore Roosevelt said: “There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 % Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.” (That should apply for every country including Australia.- Werner)

I didn’t get permission to publish the full “Calgary Herald” article, only excerpts and the link to the full article. - Werner

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Time to Change Tune on Official Multiculturalism.

By Licia Corbella, page editor, “Calgary Herald” - February 12, 2011 

About one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are demanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their children from music and co-ed physical education programs for religious reasons. The families believe music is un-Islamic ~ just like the Taliban believe . . . .

The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way – that is, bending itself into a trombone to try to accommodate these demands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country, music and phys-ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum.

 Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has a better idea. "I'd tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach music and physical education in our schools. If you don't like it, leave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law," said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

"Immigrants to Canada should adjust to Canada, not the other way around," he argues. To read the full article, click on this link.
 

Now to Holland; here is what they are doing.

A new integration bill, which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads:"The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system,the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change,  the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society."

The letter continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands..."

The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants who ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law. (Hear, hear! Australian politicians take notice of this.-Werner)

The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, "it is not the government's job to integrate immigrants." The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.

Holland has done that whole liberal thing, and realised - maybe too late - that creating a nation of tribes will kill the nation itself. (Australia's future may well be read here. -Werner)

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My thought for today. – Werner
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. Konrad Adenauer

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Please note! If you want to comment on this or any other postings and select “Anonymous;” as the sender; it will not be published. The blogger.

China’s toxic industrial waste is disposed of through Australia’s drinking water.

So what can we say to the Queensland Premier? Only one simple sentence: "Shame on you Anna Bligh!" The following (see below) was sent to all politicians in Queensland, by Colin Bishop, who is a resident of Mundubbera, Qld. (Click on picture to enlarge.) 

Please send this on to your friends; they need to know the truth before the next state election. Colin has a Diploma in Biochemic Medicine and is ardently against compulsory water fluoridation. Whether the politicians will read it and take notice is another matter.  Let’s hope that prior to the next election they will take their blinkers off and their ear plugs out. This is of course wishful thinking on my part.  However, we will continue in the meantime to elucidate the fluoride deception for the Australian people.

It is unmistakably and visibly clear that our politicians, government health bureaucrats and most of our dentists take their ethics from the work manual of the Nazis, which is: tell the population only what you want them to know, treat them like mushrooms and feed them BS. – Werner

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I quote, Colin Bishop.

You still insist on poisoning my water with silicofluoride? Watch these four videos and then ask yourself “is water fluoridation a wise decision?” If you believe that it is wise then I would ask you “who is telling you” and what material are they showing you? Are you sure that it “will do no harm” – to anyone or anything!

Also take into account that this is a cumulative poison – it builds up! The only way to excrete this poison from your body is through the kidneys – it should be worrying you as 1 in 3 Australians are at risk of developing a kidney disease and the rate of diabetes is growing as fast as cancer!

VIDEO:
FLUORIDE --- YESTERDAYS MEDICINE

Professional Perspectives: Fluoride in Tap Water

Australia's Industrial Fluoridation Disgrace, an Australian documentary.

http://www.firewaterfilm.com/watchfilm.htm

This could be your last wake-up call before the next election – stick with Bligh and Jeannette Young at your peril! This wakeup call could be your last before the Fluoridegate starts to look for those responsible. There is no law that can protect you from litigation if you have acted negligently, you must consider both side of fluoride issue not just what the government want you to vote for.

Ask yourself why just about everyone in the Queensland parliament voted against the compulsory introduction of fluoride back in 2004 – and then would you consider why the whole of the government changed their minds? Most speakers in 2004 pointed out that it was wrong and unethical to mass medicate public water supplies, and the LGAQ still maintain this perspective, so what information were you given that made you vote for it in 2008??

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Incredible Documentation Indicating Suppression of Safety Information – hiding the truth.

According to the Fluoride Action Network:

"Law firms are now reviewing old and new documents believed to highlight a pattern of attempts to curtail discussions on fluoride toxicity and downplay the importance of professionals personally reviewing scientific reports about fluorides… One such document is an explosive transcript of a 1951 meeting of state dental directors on file at the Library of Congress."

In this meeting, state dental leaders were told:

"The question of toxicity is on the same order. Lay off it altogether. Just pass it over. 'We know there is absolutely no effect other than reducing tooth decay,' you say, and go on. If it becomes an issue, then you will have to take it over, but don't bring it up yourself."

Additionally, a white paper issued by the American Dental Association in 1979 states:

"Individual dentists must be convinced that they need not be familiar with scientific reports of laboratory and field investigations on fluoridation to be effective participants in the promotion program and that nonparticipation is an overt neglect of professional responsibility."

Fluoride Action Network quotes Daniel G. Stockin, a career public health professional opposed to water fluoridation:

"I think it's pretty clear that the public, the media, and health providers were given soothing talking points about fluoridation, and in many cases dissuaded from personally looking at toxicity data.

How can CDC oral health professionals in a department that has promoted fluoridation for decades be objective, let alone competent to assess research and draw conclusions about the toxicity of fluorides on thyroid glands, kidneys, and the pineal gland?

There is a reason we're seeing calls for Fluoridegate investigations. The legal community and the media are waking up to this. I believe jurors will see a clear pattern of disinformation, half-truths, misdirection, and omission of critical material facts concerning harm from fluoridated drinking water."

I can’t see how the premier can give you any indemnity if you have been lying? Can you? Colin Bishop. Unquote.

My thought for today. – Werner

"WE the people are putting our elected leaders on notice... if you abuse your power and do not govern "for the people, by the people and accountable to the people"  WE will elect honourable leaders who will!" - Colin Bishop

Who is the world's biggest polluter on this planet?

The Answer is: The USA Defence force, but they are not subject to a carbon tax. (Read more about it below) Australia is a small fish in a big pool of polluters, yet we are lumbered with a carbon tax and the big fish keep on polluting without such an impost. Imposing a carbon tax on Australian industry will have as little effect on the climate as revenue raising by the police for speeding will have on crime, which is zero.

The majority of Australians are totally opposed to this tax impost.  The strong feeling against the Gillard government is widespread and is expressed in opinion polls, in newspaper articles and in letters to the editor. Bill Schutz, of Mt Sheridan/Cairns wrote the following letter in today’s “The Cairns Post,” his opinion would also be the majority view of Australians. I quote:

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Carbon plan just another debacle.

I DOUBT this mighty country has ever had such an incompetent Federal Government as it has right now. The bungling of nearly every situation that has come across the PM's desk is simply mind boggling.

Whether it be the East Timor solution, the Malaysian solution, the Building the Education Revolution, pink batts, the live cattle trade debacle, the list is simply endless. And now for the big one, the carbon tax, the tax we were never going to have under a government she led.

Australia is 1.4 per cent of total world CO2 output, in an environment where only 0.0384 per cent of total atmosphere is made up of CO2. The miniscule amount of difference Australia would make is negligible and not worth the pain of this huge tax impost on to our society.The biggest change to Australian business in our history is about to be pushed on to us and we did not even have a chance to vote on it. This is a disgrace and the ALP should hang their heads in shame at the damage they have inflicted on us hard working Australians. God help Australia because nothing can help this ALP Government win the next election. Unquote

Following are some excerpts from an interesting exposé of the US Department of Defence; accused of being the worst polluter on the planet. Yet the Gillard government and its motley crew of greens and independents want to penalise us for the minute amount we produce in Australia. To read the full exposé, click here. - Werner

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The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. This impact includes uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil.

The extensive global operations of the US military (wars, interventions, and secret operations on over one thousand bases around the world and six thousand facilities in the United States) are not counted against US greenhouse gas limits. Sara Flounders writes, “By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate agreements.”

While official accounts put US military usage at 320,000 barrels of oil a day, that does not include fuel consumed by contractors, in leased or private facilities, or in the production of weapons. The US military is a major contributor of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most scientists believe is to blame for climate change. Steve Kretzmann, director of Oil Change International, reports, “The Iraq war was responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) from March 2003 through December 2007. . . . That war emits more than 60 percent that of all countries. . . . This information is not readily available . . . because military emissions abroad are exempt from national reporting requirements under US law and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

According to Barry Sanders, author of The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, “the greatest single assault on the environment, on all of us around the globe, comes from one agency . . . the Armed Forces of the United States.”

Throughout the long history of military preparations, actions, and wars, the US military has not been held responsible for the effects of its activities upon environments, peoples, or animals. During the Kyoto Accords negotiations in December 1997, the US demanded as a provision of signing that any and all of its military operations worldwide, including operations in participation with the UN and NATO, be exempted from measurement or reductions.

After attaining this concession, the Bush administration then refused to sign the accords and the US Congress passed an explicit provision guaranteeing the US military exemption from any energy reduction or measurement.

Environmental journalist Johanna Peace reports that military activities will continue to be exempt based on an executive order signed by President Barack Obama that calls for other federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Peace states, “The military accounts for a full 80 percent of the federal government’s energy demand.” 
As it stands, the Department of Defence is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US chemical companies combined. Depleted uranium, petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and lead, along with vast amounts of radiation from weaponry produced, tested, and used, are just some of the pollutants with which the US military is contaminating the environment.

- Depleted uranium: Tens of thousands of pounds of micro particles of radioactive and highly toxic waste contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Balkans.
- US-made land mines and cluster bombs spread over wide areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East continue to spread death and destruction even after wars have ceased.

- Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, dioxin contamination is three hundred to four hundred times higher than “safe” levels, resulting in severe birth defects and cancers into the third generation of those affected.

- US military policies and wars in Iraq have created severe desertification of 90 percent of the land, changing Iraq from a food exporter into a country that imports 80 percent of its food. 

The source: Project Censored, media democracy in action. To read the full article, click here.

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My thought for today. - Werner

Money talks - but credit has an echo. Bob Thaves

To have a flu shot or not, that is the question.

Whether to have a flu injection is of course the choice of the individual. The federal government has spent millions of dollars on the vaccine, which has a use by date, and consequently uses the doctors to encourage you to get immunized. However, before you decide; read the following article by Tony Isaacs.

My wife and I have now refused to have a flu injection for three consecutive years, on the basis of what we have read from trustworthy and honest sources and – we didn’t get the flu. However our last flu shot made us very sick.
Also see:
1. "How to Beat and Avoid the Flu." Click here.

2."Build a Good Natural Foundation for the Best Health and Longevity. Click here."

3. Vitamin D more effective than vaccines at preventing flu infections. Click here.

You will learn more about the author at the end of his article. - Werner

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Swine Flu Scam Continues for 2011, Exposing Elderly and Others to Needless Risks. By Tony Isaacs.

The great Swine Flu hoax marches on, once again putting our elderly and other vulnerable people at unnecessary risk for the sake of greed and profits. While the World Health Organization officially declared the end of the H1N1 pandemic-that-never-was, the untested H1N1 swine flu vaccine is being included in this year's annual flu jab the same as it was in 2010.

Flu shots usually have questionable benefits and the risk of potentially harmful side effects in the first place. The decision to include the H1N1 vaccine will result in even greater risks to large numbers of vulnerable people – including the elderly, those with heart disease and chest problems, and diabetics. The vaccine has never been properly tested and it continues to contain mercury (in the multi-dose vial versions). In 2009, key workers who were vaccinated against the supposed swine flu pandemic reported having headaches, sleeplessness and stomach cramps.

The ingredients in this year's flu shots:

• Egg proteins - including avian contaminant viruses
• Gelatin - known to cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin
• Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™) - can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis
• Formaldehyde - a known carcinogen
• Triton X100: a strong detergent
• Sucrose - table sugar
• Resin - known to cause allergic reactions
• Gentamycin - an antibiotic
• Thimerosal - mercury is still in multidose vials

Last year, a study in the September 8 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association suggested that the 2009 H1N1 flu virus had lower risk of most serious complications compared to recent seasonal flu strains. The study by Edward A. Belongia, M.D., of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, and colleagues found that the 2009 H1N1 flu did not cause more hospitalizations and pneumonia, which are the most common severe complications of influenza.

Some countries refused and/or denounced the H1N1 vaccine and a report in the British Medical Journal revealed that top scientists who convinced the WHO to declare the pandemic held close financial ties to the drug companies that profited from the sale of those vaccines. Already this year Australia has banned flu vaccines in children after reports of vomiting, fevers and seizure. Finland has also banned H1N1 flu vaccines and Sweden's Medical Products Agency (MPA) is investigating the H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix on the request of the European Commission after it has been linked to narcolepsy in children. In addition to Sweden and Finland, there have also been cases reported in France, Germany, and Norway.

The truth that mainstream medicine and the vaccine makers do not want the public to know is that there are much better and safer natural alternatives for preventing and beating the flu. Eating and living healthily to boost the body's natural first line of defense against the flu and other illnesses is a far better plan than relying on risky and marginally effective flu jabs.

Supplementing during flu season with Vitamin D and other natural immune enhancers, immune modulators and pathogen destroyers can provide even more vital protection against the flu. And, keeping potent anti-virals on hand in case one does catch the flu can help minimize the effects and quickly knock it out.

Superior immune boosters include:

*Oleander extract
*Echinacea (forget the flawed mainstream studies!)
*Pau d’arco
*Suma
*Astragalus
*Medicinal mushrooms
*Beta glucans
*Aloe vera

Superior natural anti-viral pathogen destroyers include:

*Colloidal Silver
*Garlic
*Olive leaf extract
*Oil of wild mountain oregano
*Grapefruit seed extract

Most of us have never been exposed to a Swine or Avian type flu, and thus our bodies have no natural antibodies for such flus. As a result, exposure to such flus runs the risk of causing the release of a cytokine storm which can literally eat up our lungs or drown us. In addition to anti-virals it would also be very wise to also take natural immune modulators to help prevent such a dangerous over- reaction. Notably, vitamin D3 is a strong immune modulator. Others include:

*Magnesium (which most of us are deficient in to begin with)
*Curcumin
*Blackseed oil (Nigella sativa)

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About the author.

Tony Isaacs is a natural health advocate and researcher and the author of books and articles about natural health including "Cancer's Natural Enemy". Mr. Isaacs articles are featured at Natural News, the Health Science Institute's Healthiertalk website, CureZone, the Crusador online, AlignLife, the Cancer Tutor, the American Chronicle and several other venues. Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. In addition, he hosts the Yahoo Oleandersoup Health group of over 2000 members and the CureZone "Ask Tony Isaacs - Featuring Luella May" forum.

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My thought for today. – Werner
A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows public opinion. – Chinese proverb.

Dutch MP Geert Wilders acquitted in hate speech court case.

This was certainly a win for “Freedom of Speech” in the Dutch court. Although the Dutch court ruling was in Gert Wilders favour, the right to free speech is only very tenuous – so, one has to assume that his win was because of his position.

It would be a reasonable assumption that ordinary citizens would not have had the same outcome if they were charged with that offence.

Here in Australia we have a similar case; Herald Sun columnist, Andrew Bolt, and the Herald and Weekly Times are being sued by nine fair-skinned Aborigines under the Racial Discrimination Act.

The plaintiffs, including activist Pat Eatock, former ATSIC member Geoff Clark, artist Bindi Cole and academic Larissa Behrendt, claim Bolt implied in articles and blogs they were "professional Aborigines" who self-identified as such to gain financial and other benefits to the detriment of less-advantaged Aborigines.

One has to wonder if the Australian court will come to a similar finding as the court in Holland, or will we be muzzled in our country and denied the right to speak freely? Are we following America and becoming a litigious society? Let’s hope that common sense will prevail. – Werner

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Following is an article by Nina Shea. National Review Online. Nina Shea is director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Religious Freedom and co-author with Paul Marshall of the forthcoming Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedoms Worldwide.

Putting the Wilders Win in Context.

After being acquitted by a Dutch court of five criminal charges of hate speech against Muslims, parliamentarian Geert Wilders told reporters: "This is not so much a win for myself, but a victory for freedom of speech." While Wilders was understandably happy and relieved he is not going to be spending the next 16 months behind bars, the significance of his victory seems overstated.

As I wrote in the Corner on October 17, "The Wilders case demonstrates the continued willingness of authorities in Europe's most liberal countries to regulate the content of speech on Islam in order to placate Muslim blasphemy demands." Wilders' acquittal does not change that.

The presiding judge in the case determined that Wilders's remarks were sometimes "hurtful," "shocking," and "offensive." But the Court of Amsterdam reached its decision, as Reuters reported, by noting that "they were made in the context of a public debate about Muslim integration and multiculturalism, and therefore not a criminal act." Thus, this case was decided on the basis that Wilders's remarks were made in the proper context -- in an ongoing public debate on specifically legitimate issues. Using this subjective criterion, the court evaluated the content of Wilders' words to determine that they were lawful. In another context, or evaluated by another court, they might not be.

Wilders is not the first Dutch parliamentarian to have faced anti-Muslim hate-speech charges, and, based on today's decision, he may not even be the last. Before Wilders, Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali was accused of hate speech against Muslims. In 2003, Hirsi Ali, a women's rights activist born a Muslim in Somalia, was subject to a criminal investigation for hate speech for her statements linking Islam's Prophet Mohammed to abuses against women in Muslim communities. Click on picture to enlarge!

While that case was dropped, she was subsequently forced to stand trial in a civil action in the Netherlands for hate speech after announcing plans for a film on the treatment of homosexuals in Islam, a prospect the complainant -- Holland's main Muslim lobbying group -- found to both cause "a great deal of pain" and be "blasphemous." The court did not rule against the defendant but merely reprimanded the MP for having "sought the borders of the acceptable."

It would seem that the public comments of an influential parliamentarian, like Wilders and Hirsi Ali, would necessarily always be in the context of a public debate, even if his or her comments initiated that debate. Wilders essentially made that argument part of his defense, without avail. Proceedings against Wilders were in their third year, after several false starts with the prosecutors first refusing to prosecute this case, then a ruling that the initial three judges hearing the trial demonstrated possible bias against Wilders, with a new trial ordered last October, and most recently an investigation into witness tampering by the judge who initially ordered the prosecution that ultimately found no judicial wrongdoing. The dogged adjudication of the Wilders case over the past 29 months shows that Dutch courts remain all too willing to regulate speech on behalf of Islam, even when public officials are talking about matters of public interest, publicly.

Moreover, the offences of "group insult" and "incitement to hatred," set forth in articles 137 (c) and (d) of the Dutch penal code, remain on the books, and the Council of Europe and European Union require such laws in their member countries. These laws attempt to distinguish between speech against members of a religious minority, which is banned, and speech against the religion, itself, which is allowed. Wilders claimed his speech was the latter, while the court's deliberations show that the two are easily blurred. Not even Wilders argued against the basic jurisprudence behind these laws.

Whether the Wilders case sets any useful legal precedent for an ordinary Dutch citizen is particularly doubtful. That Wilders has substantial political clout and conducted an effective international campaign to warn that "lights were going out" in Europe with such prosecutions no doubt helped his case, as the national Dutch media pointed out. Average Dutch citizens are very much left in the dark about what they can or can't say about Islam with legal impunity. Then, there's the matter of violence to consider; Wilders will continue to require bodyguards against those who have threatened him with death for blasphemy against Islam.

Even without a conviction in the Wilders case, the chilling effect on free speech on and within Islam continues to widen in Europe.

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My quote for today. – Werner If the freedom of speech is taken away; then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. George Washington

The kohlrabi, an unusual looking vegetable.

Not many people in Australia know this vegetable. Kohlrabi is not a typically Australian garden vegetable. Its roots, so to speak, are very definitely in Europe. And the name is not a mixture of countries or religious cultures. Simply, it means "cabbage turnip". In German, "kohl" means cabbage and "rabi" means turnip. It was used in Europe a long time before it was introduced to the English, and much later the Americans.

Kohlrabi is an oxymoron in more ways than its name. Its turnip, but cabbage-like characteristics are part of the Brassica family that also contains cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Kohl, which is German for cabbage, aptly indicates which family this vegetable belongs to. This is a versatile vegetable; it can be eaten raw as a salad, cooked or steamed and added to vegetable soup for extra flavour.

I used to grow kohlrabi every year, till I discovered Les Olufson’s vegetable stand at Rusty’s veggie market in Cairns, where he sells his kohlrabies and other farm produce. Kohlrabi takes several months to grow and getting them from Les freed my garden plots for quicker growing vegetables. There are pale green and purple varieties. Kohlrabies are now available here in North Queensland. In other areas, ask your grocer for kohlrabi. Click on picture to enlarge.

A few years ago the "Cairns Post" (our daily newspaper) published a story in the “Weekend Gardener” section by garden expert Kim Morris. With the title: “Kim delves into the delicious sproutings of Werner Schmidlin's veggie patch.” Here is a picture with one of my Kohlrabies taken by the Cairns Post. Click on picture to enlarge.

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Click here and watch this interesting Australian animation and, learn more about Kohlrabi. Mr. Kohl Rabi will talk to you and explain a few things about himself.

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Kohlrabies are packed with nutrients; click here, to read more, below is an excerpt.

As a remarkable source of vitamin C, kohlrabi helps your body absorb iron. Iron improves oxygen levels in red blood cells, which increases energy. A half cup of kohlrabi offers 245 grams of potassium, 25 I.U. of vitamin A, 43.4 milligrams of vitamin C, 11.3 micrograms of folic acid, 16.8 mg of calcium and about 10 mg of choline. It’s a low fat vegetable with only 19 calories in a half cup serving that provides a healthy 23 mg of omega 3 fatty acids and 1.5 grams of protein.

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5 Health Benefits of Kohlrabi. Click on the link below. http://www.3fatchicks.com/5-health-benefits-of-kohlrabi/

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My thought for today. - Werner
Eat well, drink in moderation, and sleep sound, in these three good health abound. Anon.

Afghanistan - Australia’s own killing field.

Afghanistan is proving to be a millstone around our necks. One has to wonder how our Prime Minister Gillard and the leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, can sleep at night giving unqualified support to this insane war in order to please America. They seem to have no qualms sending our young soldiers into harms way to get maimed or killed – what on earth for? I have a great respect and admiration for the Australian Soldiers; they are the best; they should not be sacrificed in Afghanistan.

The number of Australian soldiers killed in this pointless Afghanistan war has now risen to 27. How long will our government allow this to happen, before they realise the futility of being in this country and bring our soldiers home, like many other nations have already done?

No matter what spin our government puts on this, saying how brave the fallen soldiers were and calling them heroes, this is not much of a consolation to their families when they are dead. And the question begs again and again, what for? We are propping up a corrupt government. This is an Islamic culture, which is controlled by war lords and tribal chiefs and it would be accurate to say that they all hate the West and us for being there. Whenever the time comes when the occupying forces leave Afghanistan everything will go back to the way it was before they arrived.

We are building schools for girls despite knowing quite well that their culture is against educating women. The “Men Know Best Culture” doesn’t want their women folk to be enlightened; knowledge could be a dangerous thing for them. Their women have to be servile and obedient.

Women are treated with total disrespect; and most of the population is uneducated and poor. We have no chance of changing this deeply rooted culture. The few women who made it to their parliament are ignored and threatened by their turban and pyjama-like garb wearing male counterparts.

1.Women under siege in Afghanistan.
Afghan female MP Shukria Barakzai has been receiving letters saying she may be targeted by a suicide bomber in the next six months. The cryptic government letter contains an intelligence warning that Ms Barakzai's life is under threat and she should be careful. She is one of six MPs getting such a letter these days. To read more click here.

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2. The plight of the Afghan women.
The vast majority of Afghanistan's population profess to be followers of Islam. Over 1400 years ago, Islam demanded that men and women be equal before God, and gave them various rights such the right to inheritance, the right to vote, the right to work, and even to choose their own partners in marriage. For centuries now in Afghanistan, women have been denied these rights either by official government decree or by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers. During the rule of the Taliban (1996 - 2001), women were treated worse than in any other time or by any other society. They were forbidden to work, leave the house without a male escort, not allowed to seek medical help from a male doctor, and forced to cover themselves from head to toe, even covering their eyes. Women who were doctors and teachers before, suddenly were forced to be beggars and even prostitutes in order to feed their families. To read the full story click here.

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3. Women Lawmakers Battle Warlords.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46028 Click on this link.

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4. Afghanistan passes 'barbaric' law diminishing women's rights.
The Afghan parliament is dominated by men who are former warlords or jihadists and they exclude the women from the decision-making process. Click here to read more.

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And we prop up a regime that treats women as second rate citizens, or worse. This is shameful!

When will we see the futility, like the Russians did when they pulled out of Afghanistan after eight years?

We have been there for 10 years without making any headway. We have only been causing destruction and creating widows in Afghanistan, in Australia and other countries.

There is no light at the end of the Afghan tunnel, but our tunnel visioned politicians haven’t come to grips with this.

The money we spend in Afghanistan would be better spent in flood and cyclone ravaged Queensland. It is absolutely shameful that after four months many Australians still have no place to live, while we spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact I heard on the radio that Australia has so far spent 6 billion dollars on this futile war. Just imagine the benefits, had this amount of money been spent on infrastructure in Australia.

A cynic would say that the reason we partake in wars is to keep the armament and ammunition factories working full steam ahead.

It is about time that the Australian people speak up and let the government know what they think about this futile war that is costly to Australia in resources and lives, and patently clear that there isn’t the faintest hope of winning.

I implore all Australians who agree with the above sentiment to talk to their federal members and tell them that sacrificing our young men has to stop. - Werner

My thought for today: - Werner
Conflict cannot survive without your participation. Wayne Dyer