The forum is entitled: Filling the Gaps with Leadership.
The forum will look at the challenges faced by leaders in public and private organisations, and how to develop leadership and language skills in key areas such as science and technology.
The venue of the conference will be the conference and meeting facilities of Unions ACT (the Canberra arm of the Australian Council of Trade Unions).
Discounts are available for early birds and groups.
The Discovery Group showcases the very best of the region''s natural assets.
The Discovery Group is top 2009 tour operator
By Rama Gaind
Being a part of the travel industry has many challenges, but there’s one tour operator – The Discovery Group, in Noosa – which continues to win against all odds.
For the second successive year, the group’s enthusiasm could not be contained after being named the ‘Tour Operator of the Year’ at the 2009 Queensland Tourism Awards last month.
The Noosa-based eco-tourism operator The Discovery Group claimed the best tour and/or transport category – one of the most prestigious and highly contested awards.
Naturally, the group’s managing director Wade Batty, is delighted and overwhelmed at his company’s success – in the face of a very challenging 12 months.
“It has been an extremely difficult 12 months for The Discovery Group,” Mr Batty said.
“2009 has seen a complete revitalisation of the business structure in order to ensure its on-going sustainability,” he said.
“We’ve implemented new business systems and procedures, introduced two new t20-seater Mitsubishi 4WD vehicles affectionately known as ‘The Warrior’ and ‘Xena’, three new touring packages and also a totally revamped website – all this through a global economic downturn, a cyclone, an oil spill and two 1-in-100 year floods.”
The Discovery Group has flourished over six years and today comprises of Fraser Island Discovery and Noosa Everglades Discovery brands.
Proprietors Wade and Kelly Batty relocated from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast in 2003 leaving behind their respective careers in the construction and beauty industries to pursue their dream – which is slowly being overwhelmingly realised.
The Discovery Group’s passion for the Noosa Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Listed Fraser Island, coupled with a strong desire to showcase the very best of the region’s natural and cultural assets to visitors from around the world, has paved the way to their resounding success.
Winning the Queensland and Australian Tourism Awards in 2008 for Tour and/or Transport Operator inspired Wade and Kelly to maintain their focus on excellence and continuous improvement in spite of a difficult 12 months.
More than 17,000 people have travelled with The Discovery Group over the past 12 months, including about 7,650 guests from overseas primarily arriving from Germany, UK, North America and New Zealand.
Mr Batty is justifiably proud when he says: “This award is a true reflection of our amazing team who continue to deliver tourism excellence and offer our guests uniquely Australian experiences through some of the most magnificent landscapes and waterways in Australia”.
Robert Connelly''s ''Balibo'' was a winner at the AFI Awards.
Australian films take top AFI awards
by Rama Gaind
Two Australian films – Samson & Delilah and Balibo – took out top awards at the AFI Awards last Saturday.
Seven awards were won by Samson & Delilah, with four going to Balibo.
In fact, it was the Madman Iconic Aussie Films range of releases which garnered a major sweep of awards at the 2009 Samsung Mobile AFI Industry and Ceremony Awards.
The talk of the Australian Film Industry in 2009, Samson & Delilah took out Best Film, Best Direction (Warwick Thornton), Best Original Screenplay and a shared AFI Young Actor Award for Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson the ceremony, as well as Industry Awards for Best Cinematography (Warwick Thornton), Best Sound and the AFI Member’s Choice Award.
Making major headlines at home and abroad, and recently controversially banned in Indonesia, Robert Connelly’s Balibo also picked up a number of major awards, including Best Lead Actor (Anthony LaPaglia), Best Adapted Screenplay (David Williamson, Robert Connolly), Best Supporting Actor (Oscar Isaac), and an AFI Industry Award for Best Editing (Nick Meyers ASE).
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts – Scott Hicks’ study of internationally acclaimed composer, Philip Glass, also picked up a 2009 ceremony award for Best Feature Length Documentary.
SBS DVD series’ take top AFI Awards
SBS DVD series’ have picked up several major awards in the television and documentary categories at the 2009 Samsung Mobile AFI Industry and Ceremony Awards.
The second season of Sydney-based multicultural crime drama East West 101 (starring Don Hany and Susie Porter) scored three key 2009 AFI Awards with Best Television Drama, Best Direction in Television (Episode 13, Peter Andrikidis) and Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama (Susie Porter).
In the documentary category, SBS series Cracking the Colour Code won for Best Cinematography in a Documentary (Episode 2, ‘Making the Colours’), whilst breakthrough historical series First Australians was recognised with the award for Best Documentary Series.
Nominations for SBS series’ were abundant in several other categories, including East West 101, Season 2, Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama (Don Hany) and Best Screenplay in Television (Episode 13, ‘Atonement’), Cracking the Colour Code, Best Editing in a Documentary (Episode 2, ‘Making the Colours’), First Australians Best Direction in a Documentary (Episode 4, ‘There Is No Other Law’) and Death of the Megabeasts for the AFI Visual Effects Award.
There are three destinations in Queensland – Hervey Bay, Noosa and Fraser Island – that have a captivating charm which is hard to ignore. The infectious ambience will attract like a magnet.
Finding these ‘treasures’ – and an Indian connection – made the visit a more rewarding one!
Hervey Bay is the ‘whale watching capital of the world’ where the annual one million visitors get a chance to sample the relaxing lifestyle.
No surprises at finding three Indian restaurants overlooking the bay: Tandoori Taste is one of them.
In the 12 months that owner Nadeem Qadri has had the restaurant, he has been heartened at the response by patrons to Indian cuisine. Nadeem is now preparing in earnest for a busy festive season.
For luxurious accommodation in the Hervey Bay Marina precinct, stay at the newly-opened $20 million, five-star Ramada hotel and resort. It has splendid studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom suites with the flexibility of dual-key configuration. All rooms are beautifully appointed with full kitchen facilities, the latest appliances and stone benchtops.
All rooms have balconies which overlook the landscaped swimming pool. Privacy and security is assured, along with high-speed Internet connection, spas and king-size beds.
While there, dine at Herveys at Ramada Bar and Café and let head chef Jason Dickfos showcase local produce with simple, tasty dishes.
Make your way to Noosa which is a gem in the crown of the Sunshine Coast with its warm climate, natural wonders found in the Noosa National Park, main beach and the enticing haunts of Hastings Street.
Regarded as a summer playground, Noosa has developed from a small fishing hamlet to a world-standard holiday destination where tourism provides the foundation to the local economy which flourishes with more than 250,000 holidaymakers a year.
Indian chef Mohan Singh Manrah, while working at the Incredible India Restaurant in Hastings Streeet, has added to the population to approximately 40,000. Mohan said the restaurant had proved to be very popular in the past 14 months.
Enjoy the novel attributes of the Noosa River through daily Noosa Ferry Cruise services from the Sheraton Resort jetty which take you up and down the river between Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, Noosaville and Tewantin. Take in the sights from the water instead of meandering through traffic on the roads!
Relax as you see people having picnics and barbecues on the river bank, walking, swimming, fishing, sailing and diners enjoying the ambience of one of the many dining establishments on the riverfront.
Let Ricardo’s gondola take you to Ricky’s river bar and restaurant at the Noosa Wharf where, while enjoying great views you partake of a modern menu built around fresh, local produce.
Take pleasure in dining at Trios on the River which has been run by David Stellon and Geoff Cohen for 12 years. Bathe in the river atmosphere and delight in the menu choices featuring seafood, meat and vegetarian choices.
Get a stunning perception of the Noosa River, the wetlands and the lakes and their importance to the region by going on a Noosa Everglades Discovery river cruise.
Stay at the comfortable Hotel Laguna, in the heart of colourful Hastings Street, which has some stylish studios and suites boasting river views.
Your next stop has to be the World Heritage-listed Fraser Island with the Discovery Group. This is the largest sand island in the world stretching 123km long and covering an area of 166,038ha.
The island’s untamed wilderness and rugged, natural charm entices, but you will be delighted with what the eco-friendly Kingfisher Bay Resort has to offer.
Seabelle Restaurant manager Nitin Menon loved the isolation of the resort which had shades of his hometown “Mumbai climate”. He’s looking to enjoy it for another three years.
Why not start planning your Queensland holiday experience now?
I sincerely hope that after all Australians do their own independent and conflict of interests-free research that you will all call for a halt to "water fluoridation" permanently and irrevocably for all time, when you gain access to the real truth of silicofluoride poisons sourced from industries’ toxic waste.
I remain in utter despair that the powers that be, still deny/suppress/cover-up the cumulative evidence of harm of silicofluoride poisoning of our water supplies and keep bleating that it is safe and effective; nothing could be further from the truth. Any people, groups, organizations and Governments who continue to ignore/suppress/cover-up the cumulative evidence of harm from such silicofluorides used in "water fluoridation schemes" and continue to force this on the population is in my view allegedly, extreme negligence and a criminal act.
Nationally, bad and inappropriate behavior, criminality and violence is almost out of control, kidney disease is rising in Australia at a terrifying rate (no wonder with the populations’ kidneys being used as toxic waste filtration); bone diseases, cancers, alzheimers epidemic also estimated growing at 1,300 each week, depressive illnesses and other neurological disorders and syndromes, thyroid disease et al; and I say with so much evidence of harm from the cumulative effects of silicofluoride poisons from highly credible experts all over the world, why has the Precautionary Principle never been applied? Why do the Dental Associations and their interests allegedly have so much power, clout and pull that they can allegedly “pressure” Governments to mass slow poison the people with “fluoride” poisons.
Please See Diana Buckland www.dianabuckland.webs.com Violence & Criminality Report – which includes Kidney Disease, Tooth Decay in “fluoridated areas” etc., and of course the work of Prof. Roger Masters and Mary Sparrowdancer on fluoride & aggression, violence and criminality including Report from FLUORIDE RESEARCH on Water Fluoridation & Crime in the United States of America http://www.fluorideresearch.org/381/files/38111-22.pdf Extract: “Crime is a measure of social dysfunction, and a barometer for socio-economic dislocation and change.
Its causes are infinitely varied in their particulars, nebulous in their totality, and they vary historically from one era to the next. The historical context at any given time, moreover, cannot be duplicated experimentally, challenging the use of scientific methods; and the data that are available to us tend to be colored to some extent by the preoccupations and motives of the era and the people that produced it. There is thus an evident need for an interdisciplinary approach to crime, and for a paradigm which integrates chemistry, statistics, sociology, and history, at a minimum.
The post-Civil War era, for example, saw a significant rise in American crime rates.20 The war may have inured the population to violence; the post-war westward expansion may have created a less-well-ordered frontier society; or those frontiers may have included numerous areas with high fluoride levels in the groundwater—three competing explanations which would doubtless challenge the available data. And while the data in this study focus on the United States during the 1990’s, there are nearby anomalies such as unfluoridated Vancouver, British Columbia., which has experienced high crime rates associated with gangs, drugs, immigration, and ethnic conflict. Immigration, migration, and relocation
create difficulties in tracking exposure to fluorides. In the United States, the Clean Air Act (1970) did not address airborne fluorides at all, so we have virtually no data for evaluating exposures from this source.
The senseless multiple shooting became the signature crime of the 1990’s in the United States. Fluoride exposures in many areas may have passed a threshold beyond which “fluoride-related crime” became common. Saturation of Americans with fluorides, via public water supplies, continues to expand. I think we can currently discern the resultant crime effects due to their locational variations. If water fluoridation were ended, it might take a generation for the effects to recede. If it continues to expand, the “signal” identified in this study may get lost in the “noise” of endemic violence.” *end Extract Fluoride Research.
Also referring to www.dianabuckland.webs.com In my 351 page Report as a Layperson, in the beginning I showed just some of the violence and criminality in the “fluoridated” capital cities which I feel is important to Australia’s almost out of control bad behavior, criminality & violence – also see the work of Professor Roger Masters and Mary Sparrowdancer as well as the Water Fluoridaton and Crime in the United States of America as above – Refer to page 297 of my above report did Australians know that:
AUSTRALIAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION STATES THAT GOVERNMENTS MUST ADOPT WATER FLUORIDATION AS PART OF HEALTH POLICY AND ACTIVELY PROMOTE ITS INTRODUCTION, WHERE IT IS FEASIBLE, AS A PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURE. http://www.ada.org.au/app cmslib/media/lib/0703/m51011 v1 fluorideuse2.pdf
About tooth decay from about page 298 (Reports from Glen Walker ) and then continuing on to more data on fluoridated areas and tooth decay and high demand for dentists. See page 335 REALITY BITES – the nations crumbling teeth August, 14, 2003 (Australia). See particularly Tasmania information, they have the worst dental health in the nation and have been “fluoridated” for 45 years, Beaconsfield, Tasmania was first “fluoridated” in 1953. Please also see a lot of info on other tooth decay/dental crises in other states of Australia and USA, including:-
PORTLAND, OREGON:
Water Status: Never fluoridated
2008 Population: 550,396 (US Census Bureau Pop. Fact Finder)
Number of Dentists: 629 (AnyWho Yellow Pages, current listing)
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
Water Status: Fluoridated since 1945 (first in US and world)
2008 Population: 193,627 (US Census Bureau Pop. Fact Finder)
Number of Dentists: 924 (Any Who Yellow Pages, current listing)
And other extensive information in this report accessed on www.dianabuckland.webs.com in my 351 page Violence & Criminality Report.
See also about kidney disease page 313 = a lot of info including The cost of dialysis back in 2006 was estimated to be $646.6 million ! On 2005 figures the cumulative cost of dialysis from 2004 to 2010 is expected to be $4.5 billion. See kidney disease & “water fluoridation” .
WHAT AUSTRALIANS (AND OTHER COUNTRIES) HAVE ALWAYS NEEDED AND NEED MORE THAN EVER, IS ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE DENTISTRY AS THE COST OF DENTAL SERVICES IS PROHIBITIVE TO AN INCREASING
PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION.
In addition in hotter climates people drink much more water so the dose of “poison silicofluorides” is much higher also the rate of absorption of silicofluorides through the skin from extra bathing and or swimming in “fluoridated water”.
I also present the information websites hereunder as the people of Australia need access to the truth of silicofluorides and not the “laundered version” they receive from those with massive interests to push this POISON ON TAP onto an unsuspecting, gullible and trusting population.
The wool has been pulled over the eyes of many Australians and many citizens in "fluoridated areas" of the world and I am astonished that many people are still not aware of the true facts and continue to believe what they have been told by those with massive interests in the instigation, promotion and forcing of this toxic chemical waste sourced from industries, onto a gullible and trusting populations’ water supplies, and of course every other food and beverage et al which contains "water" also is contaminated with silicofluoride poisons. These same people never seem to look at the long term cumulative effects especially! from silicofluoride poisoned water supplies from which there is absolutely NO escape! In addition there is the cumulative effects of “fluoride/fluorine” from other sources apart from water, beverages, foods, some of those other sources being prescribed medications/pharmaceuticals, toothpastes and other dental products, dental procedures, anaesthetics, industrial emissions et al.
From: Diana Buckland, Kallangur, Queensland, Australia
Professor of Chemistry Joel Kauffman University of Philadelpha
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no2/kauffman.pdf
Mary Sparrowdancer Battle of Darkness & Light
http://www.rense.com/general45/bll.htm
another Dentist speaking out about the absolute dangers of “fluorides”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x2aR6yq5Mg
Fluoride compounds – 3 of the 6 worst air pollutants
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fluoride/2009%20Final%20Website%20Files/Aqua%20Pura%20Jan-March%202009.pdf
The story of a simple haunted house in San Diego, California, yields 90 minutes of unrelenting suspense in Paranormal Activity. It uses low-budget effects and a mockumentary method to great outcomes. In this tale of supernatural horror, this house does not hide that fact that it’s not pleased with its new tenants. Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherson) are a young couple who move into their new home. Katie has a curiousity about the paranormal and feels that malevolent spirits have been following her since childhood. Not believing her at first, Micah soon agrees that a ghost may have followed them into the house after experiencing several nights strange happenings and loud noises. What follows when video cameras are set up to ‘capture’ the spirits leads to some frightening experiences. Paranormal Activity is writer-director Oren Peli’s first feature film which stars Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong, Ashley Palmer Big opening Paranormal Activity has scared up a huge opening weekend result, the biggest for any horror film since The Blair Witch Project, back in 1999. As its local box office exceeds $2.7 million, Paranormal Activity also holds the record for the second biggest horror film opening of all time in Australia. Leaving other horror films such as Scream 2 and Saw 3 in its wake, Paranormal Activity is the little film that could. Made on a shoestring budget of $15,000, the indie horror has become a worldwide success, smashing box office records and grossing more than $114 million. Paranormal Activity follows the movements of a young, middle class couple who become increasingly disturbed by a presence in their seemingly typical suburban house. The presence may or may not be demonic, but it is most active at night, when the couple attempt to sleep. Experience the Paranormal Activity for yourself – if you dare.
Santa Claus is derived from St Nicholas, fourth-century Archbishop of Myra
While the big shops put up enormous wreaths and the little shops spray on the Santa-Sno window stencils, churches iron out the creases on the Put Christ Back Into Christmas posters for the glass cases on the street front.
Their struggle is not new. In Britain, the Church, or at least Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Commonwealth, tried to stamp out Christmas, all feast days and anything fun more than three centuries ago. A tract author with the central casting-Puritan name of Hezekiah Woodward wrote, in 1656:
"The old heathens’ Feasting Day, in honour of Saturn, their Idol-God, the Papists’ Massing Day, the Profane Man’s Ranting Day, the Superstitious Man’s Idol Day, the Multitudes’ Idle Day, Satan’s – that Adversary’s – Working Day, the True Christian Man’s Fasting Day …"
Picture that on the notice board outside St Chad’s.
The fact is, old Hezekiah Woodward, in part, made a pretty fair point. Christmas was, indeed, in its origins a heathen day of feasting for Saturn. And Baal. And Mithras.
Christmas, ironically, antedates the Nativity of Jesus Christ, and December 25 is a fudge. In the third century, the Church fathers chose that day as Jesus Christ’s birthday, with good reason. It happens to fall approximately on the Northern Hemisphere’s Winter Solstice, and December 25 (Midwinter’s Day/Winter Solstice/Yule) has been from time immemorial a day sacred to the rebirth of the light of the sun in the depths of winter.
This day was the Festival of Natalis Sol Invictus (the Birth of the Undefeated Sun) in ancient Rome. Ancient peoples also commemorated the Babylonian Queen of Heaven, Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus, Helios, Adonis, the Celtic horned god Cernunnos, the Syrian Baal, Attis, Mithras, Balder and the Norse god Frey – all celebrated on the ancient Winter Solstice, and mostly solar saviours and dying gods. Most of these deities were given similar titles: the Light of the World, Sun of Righteousness, and Saviour.
Origins of customs
The Roman Empire gave the world the tradition of gift-giving in late December, with its citizens giving clay dolls (sigillaria) at the festival of the Saturnalia. Like modern revellers, too, they ate their fill of fruits, nuts, breads, pies and star-shaped cakes. They gave us decorations as well, decorating their temples with greenery for the festive Saturnalia celebrations at this time of year. Later, the Saxons at Winter Solstice time decorated their homes with two of the scarce bits of natural colour in the winter snowscape, the red-berried holly and the evergreen ivy.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Druids gathered mistletoe, a parasitic plant that grows on trees. On the sixth day of the new moon a fasting, white-clad Druidic priest cut the holy parasite from an oak tree with a sacred golden sickle held in his left hand. A virgin had to catch the falling plant, for it was not allowed to touch the ground. Mistletoe was believed by these ancient Britons, and other Europeans, to promote fertility and ward off evil. Today, of course, the fertility connections are clearly seen when a kiss is snatched under the mistletoe; the modern quest is to find a virgin to catch it should it fall. Mistletoe figured prominently in Celtic and Norse mythology – the Viking god Baldur was killed with a weapon made of mistletoe.
Unable to stamp out the widespread pagan ‘Yule’ (Midwinter) customs, early Church leaders pragmatically put a Christian spin on them. Throughout Europe, the celebration of Christ’s birth grew in stature and became, with Easter, one of the two great festivals of the calendar. Gradually, traditions grew up, growing and changing over the centuries, even until today, layer upon layer like sedimentary levels in an archaeological dig.
Yule drool
For example, for about 300 years in Britain it was customary to eat a goose at Christmas, though eventually the turkey took that honour – Henry VIII is the first person on record to have had a turkey Christmas dinner. Today, the steaming turkey in Australia is still a hot property, but because of the climate, Australians are increasingly turning to mixed cold meats as well as fish and vegetarian main courses for Christmas luncheon. The plum pudding (introduced to England in the seventeenth century by George I, it is said), still appears on Australian tables as a matter of course, though few families still have silver pre-decimal coins to bake in them.
In early Christian Rome, sweetmeats were presented to the fathers at the Vatican on Christmas Eve; no doubt from that custom we derive such seasonal standards as plum puddings and mince pies. (The latter were once called shrid pies and were coffin shaped, to represent the manger of Jesus.) In olden days the hackin, a large sausage, had to be baked by dawn on Christmas day, or else two young men would frogmarch the cook around the marketplace to shame her for her idleness.
Today’s yule log in Australia is generally a pastry or ice cream concoction, or else a chintzy plastic thing with a little Santa sleighing along the top on the end of a cord, to the tinny tune of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. The original, ancient, Celtic version was a large log brought indoors symbolising the purifying radiance of the sun god and bringing his blessing into the home. Centuries later, in medieval times, the custom was still to light this year’s log with a piece of last year’s. In Cornwall they chalked a man on the log, perhaps a forgotten reference to the human sacrifices that took place on the old bonfires (bone-fires) of the Solstice. The yule candle had a similar role to the log, and we see it everywhere today on Christmas cards and decorations.
Deck the halls and other culture
The old Saturnalian greening of the temple soon led to church decorations at Christmas (in old church calendars, Christmas eve is marked ‘Templa exornantur’: churches are decked) and eventually the Christmas wreath and tree emerged. The latter had an interesting path down the centuries to modern homes. Tradition has it that St Boniface in the eighth century substituted a fir tree for the pagan oak, as a symbol of the faith. While Church reformers often turned their zeal and malice towards ‘idolatrous’ practices, Martin Luther fostered the ancient Christmas tree cult by using a candlelit tree as a representation of Christ’s home, the starlit heavens. Fir trees decorated with candles, apples, fruits and paper flowers were introduced by German immigrants into Britain, and popularized later in the nineteenth century by Prince Albert, the German-born consort of Queen Victoria.
Another Victorian addition to Christmas which is now an indispensable part of the cult, is the Christmas card. Englishman WCT Dobson is usually regarded as the blameworthy one for sending the first such greeting, and in 1846 Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum produced the first commercial Christmas cards. They initially flopped but by the end of the century the Postmaster was already urging the good folk of Britain to "Post Early for Christmas".
Carols
Christmas carols also endure as integral parts of Yuletide. We hear them in shops and lifts, in commercials and on the radio. For a few weeks each year they are a ubiquitous feature of the Christmas landscape. The reason is simple: millions of people love them. Carols are touchstones of our lives, unchanging reminders of who we are and where we have been. The carol we hear today is the same as the one many Australians sang in childhood, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty years ago. And we can be reasonably sure they were sung centuries ago by those ancient folk whose blood still runs in the veins of many Australians. They, however, were fortunate in not having to hear them endlessly from a million public address systems.
English carols go back to early medieval times, but the first printed collection of carols in English was published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521. Not all of the inhabitants of the British Isles enjoyed carols with equal fervour – until recently the custom was virtually unknown in Scotland where religious feasts were discouraged by the austere sixteenth century reformer John Knox. Throughout much of the Western world, however, carols are an ineradicable part of Christmas. Even Oliver Cromwell in his Puritan fervour to ban Christmas and carols, did not succeed for long, though many carols were lost for centuries until rediscovered by Victorian antiquaries (‘The Holly and the Ivy’ and ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ are examples).
We keep adding to the ancient song list: ‘Silent Night’ was first performed in Austria on Christmas Eve, 1818; ‘Jingle Bells’ was written by JF Pierpont in 1857 for his Sunday School class; ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ appeared in 1939; Irving Berlin gave us ‘White Christmas’ in 1942, and John and Yoko’s ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over)’ (1971), is now almost an old standard.
Unfortunately, like the excellent animated tableaux in department store windows that delighted children a generation ago, carol singing from door to door seems to have been lost to ‘progress’. If only Carols by Candlelight organizers could let their imaginations loose a little, and reintroduce the strolling group. In Igls, an Austrian village, about 250 children parade by lamplight every December 23 in a tradition loved by villagers and tourists alike.
Christmas reflects change. Today all over the planet the Christmas theme of redemption is often subordinated to commercial and secular themes, and the baby Jesus is lost behind the jolly fat man in red (it might only be an urban myth that a Japanese department store put a crucified Santa in the window). I have noticed that in Australia, there are many, many more kitsch tableaux of Christmas carolling scenes in people’s front yards than there are actual carollers. Similarly, department stores and bargain centres sell models of carollers by the millions, it seems, quite possibly to people who, for the most part, have never had a visit from a group of house-to-house carollers, as was relatively common in Australia until about the 1970s.
Saint Nick
Santa Claus is derived from St Nicholas, fourth-century Archbishop of Myra, one of Christendom’s most popular saints. Secretly at night he gave bags of gold to the three daughters of a poor man so they would not have to sell their bodies: this deed eventually gave pawnbrokers their ‘three gold balls’ guild sign and ‘Santa Claus’ the reputation as a gift-giver.
Pagan attributes from the Norse god, Woden, who rides through the sky with reindeer and forty-two ghostly huntsmen, blended with the saint. He became one, as it were, with the old Yuletide Father Christmas during the Reformation, and was given a nudge along by Clement C Moore’s famous 1822 poem, ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’ (‘Twas the night before Christmas…’). Moore, however, had a gnome-like St Nick ‘dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot’. The Santa we know is a late-nineteenth century creation of Coca-Cola’s ad department.
Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas?
The modern Christmas owes as much to Charles Dickens as to Clement C Moore, the Church and all the pagan tribes combined. The English author published A Christmas Carol in 1843, idealizing and, some will say, sentimentalizing the festival. He used the theme in other stories and had a huge impact on the English-speaking world’s conception of Christmas. Dickens is one reason that our Christmas symbols today are so very often those of nineteenth-century London.
From ancient Rome and Celtic Europe, to Madison Avenue and the Chinese sweat shops that churn out our less expensive baubles, Christmas is an international affair that spreads like a mist, altering – and itself being changed by – all that it touches. It was ever thus. Perhaps mist is not the word. A spirit. Forever there have been changes to the ‘Christmas of old’ that have riled the conservative side of we humans. Every innovation to Yule, from the Christ-child himself to the plastic Christmas tree, has brought disturbance and discomfort. This, surely, is how culture happens and how traditions, bless ‘em, are made. There are middle-aged people now who look back as nostalgically upon plastic trees and the Australian Christmassy smell of mangoes as their forefathers did upon sleigh rides, and as their forefathers did upon a jolly good human sacrifice. And there are those who will brook no talk at all of Christmas in our times.
Happy New Year
‘Merry Christmas’, of course, goes with ‘Happy New Year’, like ‘hollyberry’ goes with ‘jollymerry’. These days, on January 1, New Year’s celebrations take place in the great majority of places in the world. Even places like Japan have dropped their lunar calendar and accepted the West’s, helping to make commemorations like New Year a part of world culture.
The Japanese like to see the New Year in with a good blast from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, while on Rio’s Copacabana Beach on New Year’s Eve, one might chance to see locals surging into the ocean bearing flowers and gifts for the goddess Yemanja. The Danes love to make a racket, even more than most nationalities do, and they might be found smashing pottery and bashing on front doors.
All over the world, people love to make a noise on the last midnight of the year. Church bells ring out in England (fitted with muffles until midnight, then allowed their full voice), and in Thailand the temple bells peal at midnight as people call out Kwam Suk Pee Mai! (Happy New Year!).
An old Icelandic custom has it that if the pantry window is left open on New Year’s Eve, the pantry drift (a frost which is fine-grained and sweet to the taste), will come in and, when gathered and saved in a pot marked with a cross, will bring prosperity to the home. Icelanders used to believe that elves moved house on this night, and could be coerced into giving treasure to those who intercepted them at crossroads.
The People of Nigeria allowed their Ndok ceremony, held biennially in December, to merge with Western New Year customs, as Ndok was a rite of renewal. Only the men engage in Ndok, which sees, as everywhere on New Year’s Eve, much noisy, rowdy behaviour and, as in Iceland, people meeting at crossroads, which are believed to be places of assembly for spirits.
In Russia, Grandfather Frost (D’yed Moroz), who looks suspiciously like Santa Claus, and his assistant, the Snow Maiden (Snegourka), will pay a New Year’s visit to children, bringing with them gifts. In Greece, however, children will have left out sweets, cakes and drink for St Basil, another Santa-like character, for it is his feast day. They’ll even put a log in the fireplace so he can step easily down the chimney. In Armenia, on December 31, goodies are lowered down the chimney on a rope.
New Year’s revelry, however, has been most shaped by the otherwise generally sensible Scots, who really know how to kick up their heels to say “good riddance!” to the old year and “welcome!” to the new. The singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, is, of course as Scotch as whisky, and was recorded from the oral tradition by the Scottish national poet, Robbie Burns. Now, all over the world, people mouth the words like football players pretending the national anthem before a game. Despite its difficult words, it is one of the world’s best known songs.
The Scots call this season the ‘daft days’, or Hogmanay, a word which might derive from practically anything if you listen to the experts, such as the Greek for ‘holy month’ and the French for ‘man is born’.
While some New Year’s customs go back to ancient Europe and even the Middle East – we know, for example, that 4,000 years ago the Babylonians made New Year’s resolutions – the Scots put their stamp on it, for they always thought it was a bigger deal than Christmas. They have yet to convince the rest of the world, however, to indulge in the Hogmanay sport of ‘first-footing’, in which it is thought to be good luck if the first person over one’s threshold in the New Year comes in the front door, is male, without eye trouble, not splay- or flat-footed, fair haired, carrying a lump of coal and a bottle of Scotch, and leaves by the back door. (In 1966, 19-year-old first-footer, Alex Cleghorn, was walking on Govan Rd, Glasgow with his two brothers, when suddenly he disappeared and was not seen again. Or, so it is said. Daft days indeed!) According to one source, "It was traditional for men to dress in animal skins, wear horns or antlers, and smoke sticks called Hogmanays to ward off evil spirits". Over on the Greek island of Carpathos it is a white dog they have to rush inside at the stroke of midnight.
Australians, with their keen sense of culture and modernity, tend not to bother with the lumps of coal, white dogs, elves and crossroads, tending instead to get blithering drunk (like the wassailers of old England, the door-to-door drinkers whose name came from the cry, "Wass hael!", which approximates to “Cheers!”) and to pretend to have a fantastic time. A few, however, will see the New Year in at Watch Night services in churches, a custom started by the abstemious John Wesley.
Perhaps this year we could all spare a thought for poor young Alex Cleghorn as well as all the victims of alcoholic poisoning and Watch Night services. And while we’re at it, for all the one-eyed, red-headed, splay-footed females of Scotland – if only for this one special night of the year.
The Santa we know is a late-nineteenth century creation of Coca-Cola''s ad department.
While the big shops put up enormous wreaths and the little shops spray on the Santa-Sno window stencils, churches iron out the creases on the Put Christ Back Into Christmas posters for the glass cases on the street front.
Their struggle is not new. In Britain, the Church, or at least Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Commonwealth, tried to stamp out Christmas, all feast days and anything fun more than three centuries ago. A tract author with the central casting-Puritan name of Hezekiah Woodward wrote, in 1656:
“The old heathens’ Feasting Day, in honour of Saturn, their Idol-God, the Papists’ Massing Day, the Profane Man’s Ranting Day, the Superstitious Man’s Idol Day, the Multitudes’ Idle Day, Satan’s – that Adversary’s – Working Day, the True Christian Man’s Fasting Day …”
Picture that on the notice board outside St Chad’s.
The fact is, old Hezekiah Woodward, in part, made a pretty fair point. Christmas was, indeed, in its origins a heathen day of feasting for Saturn. And Baal. And Mithras.
Christmas, ironically, antedates the Nativity of Jesus Christ, and December 25 is a fudge. In the third century, the Church fathers chose that day as Jesus Christ’s birthday, with good reason. It happens to fall approximately on the Northern Hemisphere’s Winter Solstice, and December 25 (Midwinter’s Day/Winter Solstice/Yule) has been from time immemorial a day sacred to the rebirth of the light of the sun in the depths of winter.
This day was the Festival of Natalis Sol Invictus (the Birth of the Undefeated Sun) in ancient Rome. Ancient peoples also commemorated the Babylonian Queen of Heaven, Osiris in Egypt, Dionysus, Helios, Adonis, the Celtic horned god Cernunnos, the Syrian Baal, Attis, Mithras, Balder and the Norse god Frey – all celebrated on the ancient Winter Solstice, and mostly solar saviours and dying gods. Most of these deities were given similar titles: the Light of the World, Sun of Righteousness, and Saviour.
Origins of customs Roman Empire gave the world the tradition of gift-giving in late December, with its citizens giving clay dolls (sigillaria) at the festival of the Saturnalia. Like modern revellers, too, they ate their fill of fruits, nuts, breads, pies and star-shaped cakes. They gave us decorations as well, decorating their temples with greenery for the festive Saturnalia celebrations at this time of year. Later, the Saxons at Winter Solstice time decorated their homes with two of the scarce bits of natural colour in the winter snowscape, the red-berried holly and the evergreen ivy.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Druids gathered mistletoe, a parasitic plant that grows on trees. On the sixth day of the new moon a fasting, white-clad Druidic priest cut the holy parasite from an oak tree with a sacred golden sickle held in his left hand. A virgin had to catch the falling plant, for it was not allowed to touch the ground. Mistletoe was believed by these ancient Britons, and other Europeans, to promote fertility and ward off evil. Today, of course, the fertility connections are clearly seen when a kiss is snatched under the mistletoe; the modern quest is to find a virgin to catch it should it fall. Mistletoe figured prominently in Celtic and Norse mythology – the Viking god Baldur was killed with a weapon made of mistletoe.
Unable to stamp out the widespread pagan ‘Yule’ (Midwinter) customs, early Church leaders pragmatically put a Christian spin on them. Throughout Europe, the celebration of Christ’s birth grew in stature and became, with Easter, one of the two great festivals of the calendar. Gradually, traditions grew up, growing and changing over the centuries, even until today, layer upon layer like sedimentary levels in an archaeological dig.
The
Yule drool
For example, for about 300 years in Britain it was customary to eat a goose at Christmas, though eventually the turkey took that honour – Henry VIII is the first person on record to have had a turkey Christmas dinner. Today, the steaming turkey in Australia is still a hot property, but because of the climate, Australians are increasingly turning to mixed cold meats as well as fish and vegetarian main courses for Christmas luncheon. The plum pudding (introduced to England in the seventeenth century by George I, it is said), still appears on Australian tables as a matter of course, though few families still have silver pre-decimal coins to bake in them.
In early Christian Rome, sweetmeats were presented to the fathers at the Vatican on Christmas Eve; no doubt from that custom we derive such seasonal standards as plum puddings and mince pies. (The latter were once called shrid pies and were coffin shaped, to represent the manger of Jesus.) In olden days the hackin, a large sausage, had to be baked by dawn on Christmas day, or else two young men would frogmarch the cook around the marketplace to shame her for her idleness.
Today’s yule log in Australia is generally a pastry or ice cream concoction, or else a chintzy plastic thing with a little Santa sleighing along the top on the end of a cord, to the tinny tune of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. The original, ancient, Celtic version was a large log brought indoors symbolising the purifying radiance of the sun god and bringing his blessing into the home. Centuries later, in medieval times, the custom was still to light this year’s log with a piece of last year’s. In Cornwall they chalked a man on the log, perhaps a forgotten reference to the human sacrifices that took place on the old bonfires (bone-fires) of the Solstice. The yule candle had a similar role to the log, and we see it everywhere today on Christmas cards and decorations.
Deck the halls and other cultureBritain, and popularized later in the nineteenth century by Prince Albert, the German-born consort of Queen Victoria.
Another Victorian addition to Christmas which is now an indispensable part of the cult, is the Christmas card. Englishman WCT Dobson is usually regarded as the blameworthy one for sending the first such greeting, and in 1846 Henry Cole, the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum produced the first commercial Christmas cards. They initially flopped but by the end of the century the Postmaster was already urging the good folk of Britain to "Post Early for Christmas".
CarolsBritish Isles enjoyed carols with equal fervour – until recently the custom was virtually unknown in Scotland where religious feasts were discouraged by the austere sixteenth century reformer John Knox. Throughout much of the Western world, however, carols are an ineradicable part of Christmas. Even Oliver Cromwell in his Puritan fervour to ban Christmas and carols, did not succeed for long, though many carols were lost for centuries until rediscovered by Victorian antiquaries (‘The Holly and the Ivy’ and ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ are examples).
We keep adding to the ancient song list: ‘Silent Night’ was first performed in Austria on Christmas Eve, 1818; ‘Jingle Bells’ was written by JF Pierpont in 1857 for his Sunday School class; ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ appeared in 1939; Irving Berlin gave us ‘White Christmas’ in 1942, and John and Yoko’s ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over)’ (1971), is now almost an old standard.
Unfortunately, like the excellent animated tableaux in department store windows that delighted children a generation ago, carol singing from door to door seems to have been lost to ‘progress’. If only Carols by Candlelight organizers could let their imaginations loose a little, and reintroduce the strolling group. In Igls, an Austrian village, about 250 children parade by lamplight every December 23 in a tradition loved by villagers and tourists alike.
Christmas reflects change. Today all over the planet the Christmas theme of redemption is often subordinated to commercial and secular themes, and the baby Jesus is lost behind the jolly fat man in red (it might only be an urban myth that a Japanese department store put a crucified Santa in the window). I have noticed that in Australia, there are many, many more kitsch tableaux of Christmas carolling scenes in people’s front yards than there are actual carollers. Similarly, department stores and bargain centres sell models of carollers by the millions, it seems, quite possibly to people who, for the most part, have never had a visit from a group of house-to-house carollers, as was relatively common in Australia until about the 1970s.
Saint Nick Moore, however, had a gnome-like St Nick ‘dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot’. The Santa we know is a late-nineteenth century creation of Coca-Cola’s ad department.
Santa Claus is derived from St Nicholas, fourth-century Archbishop of Myra, one of Christendom’s most popular saints. Secretly at night he gave bags of gold to the three daughters of a poor man so they would not have to sell their bodies: this deed eventually gave pawnbrokers their ‘three gold balls’ guild sign and ‘Santa Claus’ the reputation as a gift-giver.
Pagan attributes from the Norse god, Woden, who rides through the sky with reindeer and forty-two ghostly huntsmen, blended with the saint. He became one, as it were, with the old Yuletide Father Christmas during the Reformation, and was given a nudge along by Clement C Moore’s famous 1822 poem, ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’ (‘Twas the night before Christmas…’).
Christmas carols also endure as integral parts of Yuletide. We hear them in shops and lifts, in commercials and on the radio. For a few weeks each year they are a ubiquitous feature of the Christmas landscape. The reason is simple: millions of people love them. Carols are touchstones of our lives, unchanging reminders of who we are and where we have been. The carol we hear today is the same as the one many Australians sang in childhood, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty years ago. And we can be reasonably sure they were sung centuries ago by those ancient folk whose blood still runs in the veins of many Australians. They, however, were fortunate in not having to hear them endlessly from a million public address systems.
English carols go back to early medieval times, but the first printed collection of carols in English was published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521. Not all of the inhabitants of the
The old Saturnalian greening of the temple soon led to church decorations at Christmas (in old church calendars, Christmas eve is marked ‘Templa exornantur’: churches are decked) and eventually the Christmas wreath and tree emerged. The latter had an interesting path down the centuries to modern homes. Tradition has it that St Boniface in the eighth century substituted a fir tree for the pagan oak, as a symbol of the faith. While Church reformers often turned their zeal and malice towards ‘idolatrous’ practices, Martin Luther fostered the ancient Christmas tree cult by using a candlelit tree as a representation of Christ’s home, the starlit heavens. Fir trees decorated with candles, apples, fruits and paper flowers were introduced by German immigrants into
Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas?
The modern Christmas owes as much to Charles Dickens as to Clement C Moore, the Church and all the pagan tribes combined. The English author published A Christmas CarolLondon.
From ancient Rome and Celtic Europe, to Madison Avenue and the Chinese sweat shops that churn out our less expensive baubles, Christmas is an international affair that spreads like a mist, altering – and itself being changed by – all that it touches. It was ever thus. Perhaps mist is not the word. A spirit. Forever there have been changes to the ‘Christmas of old’ that have riled the conservative side of we humans. Every innovation to Yule, from the Christ-child himself to the plastic Christmas tree, has brought disturbance and discomfort. This, surely, is how culture happens and how traditions, bless ‘em, are made. There are middle-aged people now who look back as nostalgically upon plastic trees and the Australian Christmassy smell of mangoes as their forefathers did upon sleigh rides, and as their forefathers did upon a jolly good human sacrifice. And there are those who will brook no talk at all of Christmas in our times.
Happy New Year Japan have dropped their lunar calendar and accepted the West’s, helping to make commemorations like New Year a part of world culture.
The Japanese like to see the New Year in with a good blast from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphonymidnight of the year. Church bells ring out in England (fitted with muffles until midnight, then allowed their full voice), and in Thailand the temple bells peal at midnight as people call out Kwam Suk Pee Mai (Happy New Year!).
An old Icelandic custom has it that if the pantry window is left open on New Year’s Eve, the pantry drift (a frost which is fine-grained and sweet to the taste), will come in and, when gathered and saved in a pot marked with a cross, will bring prosperity to the home. Icelanders used to believe that elves moved house on this night, and could be coerced into giving treasure to those who intercepted them at crossroads.
The People of Nigeria allowed their Ndok ceremony, held biennially in December, to merge with Western New Year customs, as Ndok was a rite of renewal. Only the men engage in Ndok, which sees, as everywhere on New Year’s Eve, much noisy, rowdy behaviour and, as in Iceland, people meeting at crossroads, which are believed to be places of assembly for spirits.
In Russia, Grandfather Frost (D’yed Moroz), who looks suspiciously like Santa Claus, and his assistant, the Snow Maiden (Snegourka), will pay a New Year’s visit to children, bringing with them gifts. In Greece, however, children will have left out sweets, cakes and drink for St Basil, another Santa-like character, for it is his feast day. They’ll even put a log in the fireplace so he can step easily down the chimney. In Armenia, on December 31, goodies are lowered down the chimney on a rope.
New Year’s revelry, however, has been most shaped by the otherwise generally sensible Scots, who really know how to kick up their heels to say “good riddance!” to the old year and “welcome!” to the new. The singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, is, of course as Scotch as whisky, and was recorded from the oral tradition by the Scottish national poet, Robbie Burns. Now, all over the world, people mouth the words like football players pretending the national anthem before a game. Despite its difficult words, it is one of the world’s best known songs.
The Scots call this season the ‘daft days’, or Hogmanay, a word which might derive from practically anything if you listen to the experts, such as the Greek for ‘holy month’ and the French for ‘man is born’.
While some New Year’s customs go back to ancient Europe and even the Middle East – we know, for example, that 4,000 years ago the Babylonians made New Year’s resolutions – the Scots put their stamp on it, for they always thought it was a bigger deal than Christmas. They have yet to convince the rest of the world, however, to indulge in the Hogmanay sport of ‘first-footing’, in which it is thought to be good luck if the first person over one’s threshold in the New Year comes in the front door, is male, without eye trouble, not splay- or flat-footed, fair haired, carrying a lump of coal and a bottle of Scotch, and leaves by the back door. (In 1966, 19-year-old first-footer, Alex Cleghorn, was walking on Govan Rd, Glasgow with his two brothers, when suddenly he disappeared and was not seen again. Or, so it is said. Daft days indeed!) According to one source, "It was traditional for men to dress in animal skins, wear horns or antlers, and smoke sticks called Hogmanays to ward off evil spirits". Over on the Greek island of Carpathos it is a white dog they have to rush inside at the stroke of midnight.
Australians, with their keen sense of culture and modernity, tend not to bother with the lumps of coal, white dogs, elves and crossroads, tending instead to get blithering drunk (like the wassailers of old England, the door-to-door drinkers whose name came from the cry, "Wass hael!", which approximates to “Cheers!”) and to pretend to have a fantastic time. A few, however, will see the New Year in at Watch Night services in churches, a custom started by the abstemious John Wesley.
Perhaps this year we could all spare a thought for poor young Alex Cleghorn as well as all the victims of alcoholic poisoning and Watch Night services. And while we’re at it, for all the one-eyed, red-headed, splay-footed females of Scotland – if only for this one special night of the year.
, while on Rio’s Copacabana Beach on New Year’s Eve, one might chance to see locals surging into the ocean bearing flowers and gifts for the goddess Yemanja. The Danes love to make a racket, even more than most nationalities do, and they might be found smashing pottery and bashing on front doors.
All over the world, people love to make a noise on the last
‘Merry Christmas’, of course, goes with ‘Happy New Year’, like ‘hollyberry’ goes with ‘jollymerry’. These days, on January 1, New Year’s celebrations take place in the great majority of places in the world. Even places like in 1843, idealizing and, some will say, sentimentalizing the festival. He used the theme in other stories and had a huge impact on the English-speaking world’s conception of Christmas. Dickens is one reason that our Christmas symbols today are so very often those of nineteenth-century
The Anti-Fluoridation Association of Mildura, along with other Victorian safe water groups, and a number of health and scientific professionals, are calling for theresignation of Dr. John Carnie, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer.The call comes as community discontent with the Government’s mandatoryfluoridation policy grows.
Today, the following letter was sent to Victoria’s Health Minister Daniel Andrews.
Dear Minister Andrews,
We are outraged by your government’s continued efforts to force fluoridation on communities without giving citizens a chance to vote on the matter. In this matter the behaviour of Dr. John Carnie has gone beyond anything one would expect or should tolerate from a civil servant. Let us explain.
Most recently Dr. Carnie’s refusal to respond to the basic questions put to him by anumber of Australian and international health and scientific professionals,in line with his “no debate policy,” has outraged many in Mildura and aroundthe world.
While Dr. Carnie may truly and honestly believe that fluoridation is safe and effective, public health policy needs to be more than a belief system. It needs to be supported by honest and accurate science that can be defended when challenged. Dr. Carnie has:
a) made statements to the public which are inaccurate as well as others which are biased and misleading (see attachment 1)
b) refused to defend his beliefs in public debate (see attachment 2)
c) failed to answer direct questions addressed to him by Australian and international experts (see attachment 3).
Despite this he is still prepared to force this measure on communities, even when a sizeable number of people in those communities, who have researched this issue for themselves, have made it clear that they do not want to be forced to drink fluoridated water. The only way to determine whether such resistance to this measure is coming from a minority of the population or a majority is to give the electorate of each community the chance to vote on the matter. But this opportunity has again been denied to them by Dr. Carnie. This is a blatant example of the "arrogance of power."
When politicians behave in this way, at least the electorate has a chance to make their feelings known at the next election, but Dr. Carnie is not a politician but a civil servant making his arrogance immune from normal democratic processes.
The only alternative for those who believe that Dr. Carnie is failing in his job to protect the health of the people, as exemplified by his unwillingness to answer basic questions on a practice he is prepared to force on them, is to seek his resignation. What other recourse do citizens have when their democratic rights are denied?
Thus, we call upon the Minister to set in motion proceedings which will examine this complaint and if he feels that it has merits to remove Dr. Carnie from his position forthwith.
We would add that this issue goes well beyond the dangers posed by fluoridation. If it becomes clear – as it has in this case – that public health policies are not based on sound science that can be defended in public and in writing -it will erode the public’s trust in the institutions set up – at their expense – to protect their health and the environment. The loss of that trust threatens our society in many ways and should not be taken lightly by the politicians running Victoria.
As you will note from the signatures below, this issue is receiving attention well beyond Victoria and the shores of Australia. We expect the worldwide attention to grow as the shocking behaviour of Dr. Carnie is revealed to a larger audience. As Martin Luther King Jr once said, “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.”
We look forward to hearing your swift response to this complaint.
Sincerely,
James S. Beck, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Medical Biophysics, University of Calgary, Canada
Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network, USA
Doug Everingham, MB, BS,Federal Minister for Health 1972-75
Andrew Harms, BDS, former President, Australian Dental Association (SA branch)
Bruce Jager, Chairman, Anti-Fluoridation Association of Victoria
Hardy Limeback, DDS, PhD, former President of the Canadian Association for Dental Research and panel member for the National Research Council Report Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards (NRC, 2006), Toronto, Canada
David McRae, BSc(Hons), Vice-president, Barwon Freedom from Fluoridation, Geelong
Bill Osmunson, DDS, MPH, Dental Clinician, Author, Educator, and Public Health Nutritionist, Oregon, US
Gilles Parent, ND.A.,coauthor of «La fluoration: autopsie d’une erreur scientifique»,Quebec, Canada
Philip Robertson, BHSc, ND, Carmoora Clinic, Geelong
John Ryan, MBBS, MSc, FRACGP, DCH, FAMAC, FACNEM, FICAN, Brisbane
Jean Ryan, BHSc, Brisbane
Bruce Spittle, MB, ChB, DPM, FRANZCP, author of Fluoride Fatigue (2008)
Daniel G. Stockin, MPH, Senior Operations Officer, The Lillie Center Inc.
Peter Sycopoulis, Spokesperson, Victorian Fluoride Action Group
Kathleen M. Thiessen, PhD, risk assessment professional and panel member for the National Research Council report Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards (NRC 2006), Oak Ridge TN, USA.
Daniel Zalec, BA, MA, Chief Writer, Anti-Fluoridation Association of Mildura
The ACT launch and personal book signing in Canberra will be held at The Healthy Life Store at The Canberra Centre in Civic on Saturday, 12th December, 2009 from 11.30am following this week’s great 1000 word article in “The Catholic Voice” newspaper.
Our book, “Oesophageal Cancer – The Next Epidemic” has now been available for almost 2 months, since its release in Wagga Wagga in early October, 2009.
The book has been well received across the communities of Araluen, Lockhart, Wagga, Cowra, Braidwood and Merimbula where I have personally promoted the book.
The reports and feedback we have received say the book is “a good read” and “not a tissue box job.”
Our aim of helping others along their journey and to raise the awareness of the prevalence of Oesophageal Cancer is succeeding. Many medical professionals have expressed their support for the book towards this objective. Lives have now been saved as readers and/or their families have taken action to get medically diagnosed if they suffer from reflux on a regular basis. I thank the people who have contacted us with their stories following the launch of the book.
My thanks to WIN TV Wagga, Prime TV Wagga, The Daily Advertiser – Wagga, 2WG Wagga, The Catholic Voice – ACT, and The Cowra Guardian Newspaper for their support.
Thanks to Charles Sturt University – Wagga and The Cowra Rotary Club for making us feel so welcome and to the many outlets which have accepted the book and are supplying it to the public, most at no additional cost, so that profits from the sale of the book can be directed to voluntary organisations and cancer research. Thanks goes to David Foster, my printer from “Active Print” Wagga for the $1,000 donated from his profits to CanAssist. More guest speaking engagements are already booked or in the process of date selection at various service club venues in Forbes, Grenfell, Canowindra, Temora, Merimbula, Braidwood, Lockhart and Wagga. Please ring us if you wish us to visit your group.
I also wish to thank the hundreds of people who have taken the time to stop and discuss their experiences with us about cancer in general, reflux or the many medical or alternate remedies that they have found successful for themselves. I feel confident that the sequel, due to be published after March, 2012, will contain a multitude of revelations, helpful hints and positive comments from many of these wonderful people and will again provide another resource that is sorely needed across the country and indeed the world.
Can you help me help others by sharing this story?
Oesophageal Cancer is caused by reflux. If you have reflux, then you are prone to developing Barrett’s Oesophagus and then have a one in ten chance of contracting Oesophageal Cancer.
The book raises the awareness of Oesophageal Cancer across the country and indeed the world. Our story and the way we have written it is helping all patients, carers, families and friends, regardless of which cancer has struck their lives.
Read how Derek & Janice turned the negatives of what may have become a gravestone into milestones of achievement and survival.
Watercolour wash drawing by Howard Sedgemen - a member of Canberra Art Workshop
Canberra’s longest-running open-studio community art group is opening its doors to new members – offering a reduced, introductory fee from New Year’s Day.
“Canberra Art Workshop is now welcoming new members of all ages to join our work groups in our studio in the M16 Workspace in Mildura Street,” the workshop’s president, Rick Cochrane, has told The Word.
The work groups run weekly. They are subject-specific, including experimental painting, portraiture, life drawing, printmaking, pastel and watercolour, in a studio equipped with easels and art equipment.
“Our work groups operate in the studio day and night, seven days a week from January to December … they’re self-organised by artists of all ages, including students, retirees and working people,” Rick said.
Members of Canberra Art Workshop normally work without a teacher in their studio sessions. They share ideas freely and learn from each others’ experiments and successful artworks. As well, the workshop periodically runs tuition and workshops with professional teachers and noted artists.
The members range from emerging artists to beginners. Half-year membership of the workshop will be offered from New Year’s Day as a $50 introductory fee (normally an $80 annual fee). “This has to be the best possible Christmas gift anyone can give to a Canberra artist,” Rick said.
New member inquiries are now welcome. Contact: Rick Cochrane, President (0411 759 838)
BACKGROUND – Canberra Art Workshop Canberra Art Workshop is a lively, self-funded, not-for-profit, open-studio community art organisation with about 200 members.
It has helped shape Canberra’s contemporary art scene since it was formed by local artists more than 60 years ago – when it was called the Canberra Art Club.
It never had a permanent home, moving from one temporary studio to the next throughout its history – often only a step ahead of the bulldozers. In the 1950s the club’s studio was in disused fibro huts, where it hung 18 paintings from the prestigious Blake Prize, including now famous works by Donald Friend, Eric Smith, and Lawrence Daws. It also brought to Canberra teachers like John Coburn, Clifton Pugh, John Brack, Joshua Smith and Lloyd Rees.
The club was an active and successful driver both for a National Art Gallery and the Canberra School of Art (now part of the ANU).
A record field of 164 teams tackled the second race of the 2009/10 Paddy Pallin Adventure Race Series in Canberra over the weekend.
The opening leg of the classic course saw teams scatter amongst the rocks and tracks of Mt Taylor to collect a number of checkpoints adding to a total of 100 points in any order that they wished. It proved a hectic start and some interesting route choices as the leading teams looked to gain the upper hand early on.
Youth prevailed and the ‘YEAH’ men, aged only 15 and 16 years, came into TA1 first with a minute and a half gap. Their transition wasn’t a quick one though and the Newcastle-based Flash Barry’s Fan Club were onto their tails heading out onto the bike leg. One team that really enjoyed their time on Mt Taylor were adventure racing debutants, The Triple 0 on Speed Dial Crew, who decided to fully explore the area and were on foot for three hours. The enthusiasm and attitude they showed when exiting TA1, eager to keep going and experience all the race had to offer, is what adventure racing is all about!
BlackHeart/UltraFit Magazine looked to be strong on the bike and it proved correct as they moved through the field from fourth to arrive at TA2 in the lead, one minute ahead of BlackHeart/Salomon and Flash Barry’s Fan Club who were neck and neck. ‘YEAH’ men had lost some time and came through in fifth. Puzzle Partners were well onto the way to victory opening up a twenty minute lead by the time they were off the bike. This leg which ran through Oakey Hill, the corner of Deeks Forest and finished with the famous ‘Luge’ section of the Stromlo single track network. The smiles of the competitors coming into TA2 could be seen from a far distance!
The second of the run legs was up next and the leaders had no trouble navigating around the eastern flats of Mt Stromlo, extending their lead to seven minutes over Flash Barry’s Fan Club. The Pink Flamingos had a cracker run and got to within one minute of the leading female team, Puzzle Partners. Old Butt Slow, the third placed mixed team, opened up a gap on the fourth place team, Delerium and looked to consolidate on the next bike leg.
After enjoying one last section of single track the teams headed for the Lake and some cool relief on the water. Before reaching the kayaks teams navigated their way through the pines of Deek’s forest and past the Government House. As the heat began to take a toll the on the field the kayak leg was shortened for all but the top 12 teams who were able enjoy their view of the National Museum and swim from Spinnaker Island back to transition area. The leader board was shaken up slightly with BlackHeart/Salomon moving into second and Flash Barry’s Fan Club only holding a forty-three second gap to Pro Mac Lite in fourth place. Having regained a substantial lead on the bike Puzzle Partners were looking good to maintain it to the finish.
Enjoying a healthy lead allowed BlackHeart/UltraFit Magazine to cruise to the finish thirteen minutes ahead of BlackHeart/Salomon who won the mixed category. Pro Mac Lite leap frogged Flash Barry’s Fan Club into the last overall podium spot and second place in the male category. Lost and Confused were the second mixed team and Old Butt Slow the third. Puzzle Partners won the women’s category ahead of The Pink Flamingos and Run Like a Girl 1.
The Novice race saw teams begin on foot from the pavilion at Stromlo Forest Park. Much like the Classic start, runners took off in all directions in search of the optimum route amongst the creeks and scattered forest of the Holden’s Creek area. It was The Strugglers who were first back to transition ahead of Bearing Down and the leading women, Team JET.
The ensuing bike allowed many teams to regain time lost orienteering and the field was bunched when they reached the end of the longest leg of the race. The front five team were only separated by two minutes. Team JET rode strongly to pull away from the chasing pack in the women’s category whilst Bearing Down didn’t have the best of legs and dropped away from the pack.
Jumping into the kayaks The Incredible Hulks were holding off Eat My Dust and Crystal Approach. The pace was hot and the shoulders hurting as the time gaps allowed teams direct sight of each other and the charge to take the lead was on! The surges and mind games did little to break up the pack and it came down to the final leg and final check point of the race. The family team of Racing Rieses found the correct sign and answer the quickest giving them the opportunity to head for the finish first and take the win. Thirty-eight seconds later Crystal Approach crossed the line and The Incredible Hulks were only a further twelve seconds in arrears. Eat My Dust missed an overall podium place by a meagre four seconds but did take third in the mixed category. Team JET were eighth overall and the leading female team. Cycle Ed Chickadees took second and Pedal Pushers were third in the female.
A huge thank you to Canberra for hosting yet another cracker event and to our sponsors for providing prizes and support for this series: Paddy Pallin, Fitness First, icebreaker, World Expeditions, Salomon, Sea to Summit, UltraFit Magazine, Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine, GU and Red Bull.
For complete results and photos and to enter the next events of the series go to: www.arocsport.com.au
