HuntFest deserves full backing
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Memo to all the hypocritical opponents of Narooma’s HuntFest.
If you think those lovely trays of juicy loin chops, plump legs of prime pork and those seemingly bottomless bins of marinated chicken wings, actually assemble themselves neatly on the shelves of your local supermarket without some form of pain and suffering to the animal in question you are either hopelessly delusional or living in Pixieland.
Alternately, if you kill a common house fly with a squirt of Mortein, or put to rest a giant gulf country water buffalo with a perfectly placed shot from a high powered Whetherby .375 rifle, the end result is ultimately the same, a dead animal.
So whether you choose to harvest your own meat, or you feel more warm and fuzzy inside by getting your friendly family butcher to do your dirty work for you, there is no question, that when any animal dies at the hands of humans , there is some form of suffering endured by that animal.
I therefore think it is fortunate we have groups like the South Coast Hunters Club, who have introduced HuntFest to our area to help enhance hunters’ knowledge about the safe use of firearms and their storage, bush etiquette, camping skills, and the safe butchering and field dressing of their chosen quarry.
By the large number of attendants, men women and children, at previous HuntFests, it is obvious that the community wants the event to expand and prosper and I, along with many others wish the organizers all the best with their ongoing endeavours and hope the local council gives them their full backing.
Footnote: From the atrocities I’ve seen committed, on national TV news bulletins, over the last few months with a man brandishing a common kitchen carving knife, l would suggest that HuntFest detractors would do better to focus their attentions elsewhere on the world stage.
Nev Brady
Bermagui
Heavy lifting beyond the elastic limits
Australian tax payer requires additional heavy lifting to tune of $500 million per year due to our humanitarian aid program that the Super Hornets are delivering in Iraq on our behalf.
The heavy lifting chains stretch beyond their elastic limits with lies, more lies and video tapes, but the show must go on, we follow the USA to the gates of hell without a second thought.
On this occasion we are not searching weapons of mass destruction, but something much more sinister, we are searching for the mother of all terror, a new Islamic State within borders of Iraq.
Our Super Hornets are delivering sidewinder missiles onto targets chosen by the US military, while real terror ravages the African continent in a form of Ebola virus, I doubt that the Sidewinders attached to Super Hornets are going to stop the real threat to nations across the globe from Ebola, it requires rational thinking by rational leaders.
Then again Ebola doesn't differentiate between Burqa or Mini worn by fashionable ladies, nor does it stop its deadly march in invading the borders of nations, it doesn't require or apply for a visa when it comes visiting.
Funding to bomb in Iraq, no new war taxes or even levies according to Prime Minister, perhaps the funds will come from allocated funding for education or health or perhaps the funding contribution will come from the Free Enterprise Foundation as they are very good at large scale distribution of funds to liberal causes of grand scale.
There is no end to the constant scare campaign by the Prime Minister Abbott and his cabinet over Iraq and the thread Islamic State present to us and our way of life, it is used as an excuse to intrude into our daily lives over the electronic media, journalist are threatened with a 10 year jail sentence for providing information that is regarded as our free journalistic right to expression of information as a public interest.
Australia has provided 18 million dollars to fight against Ebola and we are providing half a billion dollars a year in fighting the spread of Islamic terror that is concentrated in Iraq and Syria, in 2008 when we withdraw our forces from Iraq, we were told that the Iraqi army is capable of looking after their own security from now on, that was bipartisan agreement between Libs and Labs at the time, lies, more lies and video tapes from our Capital Hill and Washington, how much more, only the buckets are getting larger.
Mark Ikonen
Dalmeny
Blues Fest coverage
Just a short one to thank you for informative, balanced and factual coverage of the Narooma Blues Festival.
I rushed down early and picked up the paper that services Moruya (my home town) and failed to find even a mention of a Blues Festival…further investigation discovered a Narooma News at the newsagents and it eased the worry that I had imagined the whole wonderful weekend of music, friends and good vibes…the full pages of pics have meant I have received requests from all over to send copies to the photographic subjects…your online coverage was excellent too…well done!
Tony Jaggers
Moruya
Mayor’s say… Supporting a vibrant community life
The tremendous interest in last week’s opening of the Basil Sellers Art Prize in Moruya is a testament to how important arts and culture are to our residents. Speaking with some of the more than 200 people who attended brought home to me how well we are travelling along the arts journey in Eurobodalla.
There is no doubt I was a very proud Mayor on the evening as a number of people took the time to thank me personally, and our council for the part we play in supporting, promoting and connecting the arts in Eurobodalla.
In my time as Mayor I have tried to attend and support as many local arts and cultural events as I can from school works and performances through to the high end of arts such as the current Basil Sellers exhibition.
From this experience, I have vastly improved my understanding of the creative industries and while I will happily leave any discussion of the creative side of this to the experts, the one thing I believe and feel strongly about is that art and culture is important, and it matters.
I have seen that participation in arts and cultural activities can reflect the health and vibrancy of a community and make us more connected and resilient. In Eurobodalla, attendance at our regular art exhibitions and artists floor talks at our libraries is increasing every month. Attendance at many open studios, galleries, exhibitions, performances and festivals is also on the rise and seems to be made up of people from all ages and parts of our communities. Our creative community is thriving.
A strong creative industry also helps to support and grow tourism and our economy as people who visit Eurobodalla for the first time visit to attend an event are highly likely to return again, and as the arts offer an all year round experience for our visitors.
I have witnessed visitors buying art depicting local scenes to take home and hang on their walls and in their offices and this is a strong and powerful promotion for our region.
There has been an influx of both people and activity in our creative industry and as more and more writers, performers, visual artists choose to live and develop their creative talent in Eurobodalla, they in turn will attract a following of people interested in their work and their choice of destination.
Happenings in our local creative industry are talked and written about and shared in media both in Australia and internationally.
We should all be very proud of our creative industry and I encourage you to support it wherever you can by being part of the action and encouraging your visiting family and friends to experience what’s on offer too.
Eurobodalla’s art and culture is important, and it matters.
Please let me know if there is any issue you feel Eurobodalla Shire Council may be able to help you with. You can email me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone me on 0418 279 215.
Clr Lindsay Brown
Mayor of Eurobodalla Shire
Denialists cherry pick
I read with interest Frank O'Brien's assertion that climate science is alarmism based upon computer-generated projections which have no basis in reality.
Before we completely trash the idea of statistical forecasting based upon empirical observations, we should remember that it was this method of inquiry which led philosophers to believe in the possibility that the earth might be round and in the heretical view that the earth might rotate about the sun.
These were both dangerous ideas which ran contrary to the assumed realities of the time. Today, the high tide for Loader Beach was predicted to be at 09.31.
I'm sure that if I stuck a stick in the sand precisely at that time, some waves would fall short of the mark and others exceed it.
It is interesting to note that the predictions of high tide are not listed as "between 09.15 and 09.45" or as "approximately 09.30" - both of which might reflect the reality of high tides more accurately. Instead we accept the precision of 09.31 because it is a statistical reality, being the mean of all the calculations available to us.
One common technique in science is to have a control group where characteristics of interest are measured against a situation in which they are absent.
To observe this reality in terms of climate change is clearly impossible because we would need an identical planet where all the conditions are the same except there are no humans living there.
In the absence of this luxury, we have to rely on observations and statistical deductions arising from the data in order to make sense of the world in which we live.
Recent studies examining the efficacy of articles on climate change in scientific journals subject to peer review, suggest that between 87% and 92 per cent of those publications have withstood the rigour of scientific scrutiny.
It seems ironic to me that in supporting his assertions of alarmism, Mr O'Brien relies upon data which seems to have been cherry picked by various groups who might stand to benefit from promoting a denialist viewpoint.
John Oakley
Mystery Bay
Sense of community
Firstly, I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to everyone involved in the weekends MND Charity Surf Day.
Special thanks to Anna Rogerson and her committee of helpers for putting together a great fun day.
I would also like to give a heartfelt thanks to Rotary for organising and hosting the ice bucket challenge at the Rotary Markets on September 29.
This is on top of the fantastic effort of the Year 12's at the high school earlier in September.
I am truly humbled and invigorated by such genuine concern for me and my condition and the well-being of my family.
Thank you to all and I only hope that this extraordinary sense of community endures long after I am gone.
Matt Ratcliffe
Narooma
Some hunting research proves interesting
I have been reading with interest the letters by Ms Thackray and Ms Cruttenden in their concerted opposition to the “Huntfest” over the last couple of weeks.
I am sure these ladies are doing so with the best of intentions, however the best of intentions do not always produce good outcomes. I remember when I was first posted to Tumbarumba as a teacher.
I earned more money from shooting foxes for the fur trade than from teaching, until PETA became involved and wearing fur, even feral fur from Australia, became unacceptable, with the loss of jobs in rural areas and the ongoing reduction of a terrible feral pest.
In regard to Japan’s gun laws. It is really difficult to obtain a gun license in Japan, but it is also really hard to get a driver’s license, a degree to teach, everything is harder to get in Japan.
I wondered why anyone would want to get a gun license in Japan though, what is there to hunt besides dolphins?
As it turns out heaps! Deer, of several species, wild pigs, in fact there are 29 species of birds and 20 species of other animals.
I also found articles that gave reasons for the lack of gun violence in Japan and the basic conclusion by all writers seems to be that the Japanese are too polite to each other and they are too afraid of the Law Enforcement agencies, mainly because if they arrest you, you are guilty, end of story.
There also seemed to be a link with strong families, a rejection of violence and a very low crime and drug culture. I did, however, find their suicide rate something that scares me.
That was interesting. Then I looked up the statistics mentioned in last week’s letters. I went to the Australian Bureau of Stats and found that most homicides involved sharp objects, that is, knives.
While 11.5 per cent of homicides in Australia involved guns it was 39.5 per cent in Belgium.
Also, while the US has by far more guns per head of population, something like 88 per 100 people, it does not have the highest murder rate by firearms, that goes to El Salvador, Honduras and Jamaica and they only have 8.1 guns per 100 people. It seems that the number of guns is not the major problem but the crime and unemployment rate.
A journalist who wrote an article titled “Is Australia looking down the barrel of the Gun”, wrote, and I bet he did more careful research than me, that all the gun buy backs and amnesties have done nothing to reduce gun violence, and that the shootings in places like Sydney, have more to do with young men of Middle Eastern background using guns to settle Honour Disputes.
I guess that is not a popular thought in these troubled times.
As for Narooma becoming a “Hunting” town, I thought it was. Just that we do it with hooks, bait and lines.
Which I guess makes Ms Thackray, a retired hunting guide, since she owned a fishing charter business.
Perhaps we would be better off having HuntFest, and letting the people involved bringing people to Narooma and allow them to continue to donate money to organisations like the VRA.
Jon Sloan
Narooma
Onward and upward
Well, another winter hibernation trading period negotiated carefully , especially by all operating service and hospitality businesses around town.
And like most around town I certainly look forward to the October long weekend , bit of warmer weather and of course the Blues festival.
For a pretty small town off the beaten track a little we are lucky to have an event of that scale here and the extra visitors and their trade that results
To say they would come anyway, festival or not, is a pretty naïve statement, as several thousand satisfied punters visiting our town and spreading the word are an invaluable ongoing promotional marketing tool in themselves.
More power to it and needs to be supported by us all.
Chef Michael Stokes
Narooma