Today I am off to Cairns to be part of World Peace week celbrations… The Cairns City Mayor, Val Sheers will introduce me as todays first speaker…. I have been a little nervous – I hate making a dick out of myself in public – and I am soooo good at that. Any way I thought as I am pleased with the little speech I have written (and managed to tie it in with a recent book I have published) I thought I would put my speech here for your viewing -wish me luck!

World Peace Week 2009

Thankyou Val Sheers, and thankyou to Letizia De Rosa for your unwavering dedication to Book Creators Circle and for coordinating today’s event.

For those of us who have never personally experienced war time, racism or violence, the concept of Peace isn’t something often thought about, it is taken for granted. Of course it is desired for others, those seen on television, that seem so far away. “I want world Peace” is an overused statement heard from beauty queens around the world. No doubt they want it, but have they really thought about it?

Peace is a term that most commonly refers to an absence of aggression, violence or hostility, but which also represents a larger concept where in there are healthy relationships, acknowledgement of equality and fairness in political and world matters.

In many languages the word for peace is used as a greeting or farewell, for example the Hawaiian word aloha.

Peace is a state of balance and understanding where respect is gained by the acceptance of differences. Tolerance persists, conflicts are resolved through dialogue and people’s rights are respected and their voices heard.

The book “Tapestry of War” is a collection of short stories and poetry written and compiled by WINQ, a writers group in Innisfail. It is these stories and poems that illustrate why the people of MY generation are the lucky generation.

It is our obligation, we thinking people of this planet to contemplate a life without co-existence, to ponder at the underlying causes of todays conflicts, to encourage efforts aimed at addressing these issues and promote similar thoughtful consideration by others.

Writer Agatha Christie once said “One is left with the horrible feeling that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one!” and I guess Jimmy Hendrix had it right , he said “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”

I leave you with these simple words – Contemplate, participate and contribute – one person can make a difference.

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Good morning, good morning, good morning. Last night the family and I went to the movies at Babinda (a small town about 45km’s away). Babinda cinema is the closest to where we live and for most people in Australia would be a bit of a treat. You see the cinema has only one screen – the biggest in the southern hemisphere – it only has one movie a week, and will set you back $6 a person. The seats are the old canvas slings, the floor bare concrete and the popcorn machine is just inside the door. Mr Lizzio, the owner will be collecting the tickets young Zac or his sister Tamara sold you and Mr Lizzio will also be selling the popcorn.

Last week we saw ‘Ink Heart’, the week before ‘Night at the Museum 2′ and last night we saw ‘Hannah Montana’. I enjoy all kinds of movies – except maybe horror and porn – there’s nothing better than a bit of suspense mixed with mystery. Now back to last night… I confess… I watch Hannah Montana on saturdays mornings while I do some work around the house. I find the show amusing and kind of sweet – o.k and a bit mindless… yes, yes it’s easy to watch. The movie last night was a bit of a disapointment… not because it was no good (it is actually made for young girls not their parents) I was disapointed because Miley Cyrus wasn’t the sweet – just accept me for who I am little girl – she was an actress, a fake, not real.

I have always liked Miley Curus because she seemed to be such a natural, she also could make fun of herself, get down and dirty and shared screen time equally with her young co stars. Not in this movie. Although quite a lot of the comedy was still the slap stick kind found in her sitcom, she seemed protected from the ‘dirt’ and other things that could make her look less than pretty. She also has had some work done on her already beautiful teeth, they no longer fit in her mouth well… and possibly it was done very recently because her jaw seemed swollen/fat/too big for the rest of her face and slender figure. Perhaps I couldn’t properly enjoy the film because I kept looking at her mouth wonder WHY, why, why would she do something unnessesary to her mouth – just before making a film?

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Whew, time flies when you’re having fun. My days seem to melt into one another at the moment… mind you I think the weather has been too cold for anything to actually melt.
This week I was contacted by ‘Macca’, Ian Mac Namarra, he has a national radio programme every Sunday morning on the ABC. He interviewed me just after the cyclone (Larry) three years ago. He was wanting to catch up this week when he came back to town. Thursday was the day, our interview was taped for the Sunday show and we had a lovely lunch as well. I really enjoyed our conversation, he knows so much about the Australian people and how we cope with our various situations. I asked for his advice when we discussed my next book project ‘It Won’t Happen To Me – And What To Do When It Does’, a book of interviews with Australian people who have been adversly affected by mother nature and come out the other side.
I was wondering if he thought it too soon to interview any of the VIC bushfire victims… he thought I should just go and see them. Maybe a road trip is in order.

Last week I sat down with a calendar and marked off all of my commitments for the next few months – I even put in warnings, e.g. next week …. is due – man do I have a full calendar. The Innisfail Biennial Art Exhibition I am coordinating is to be held the first week in October and I have acquired a fantastic amount of prize money, two fabulous workshops are booked in (one is making ‘Artist Books’ and the other is ‘portraiture’painting). The judge is booked and coming up from Sydney. So far so good. Now all I need to do is apply for a couple of grants to pay for the actual exhibition, airfares etc and advertising. I was successful with an application for a grant to have stands made for the exhibition, these stands are yet to be built but I have no worries there.

The library Issue is ongoing, howeversome positive things have been happening. Three people have approached the council with three different offers of building a library for them at no cost to council – how could they refuse?
Well I must go now and see what my family are up to… I just saw the bobcat reversing through the back yard towing an old car being driven by my eleven year old… perhaps I should just check.

PS If any one knows of any Australian people who have been affected by Mother Nature – Cyclone, Bushfire, Flood, Tsunami, Earthquake etc and think they would like to be interviewed and in my book please put them in contact with me.

Jacque

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Howdy,
Today I launched my new book at the Innisfail Show, it went well enough… But that’s not what I want to tell you about tonight.
I live in far north Queensland, Australia, in an area that is called the wet tropics. So we have hot humid weather most of the year, at the moment it is winter and being where we are our winters are quite mild averaging 26 degrees celcius during the day and 8-6 degrees at the coldest at night – I still wear a jumper, I am a sook.
Anyway, tonight after leaving the show at about 10.30pm I drove home through a blanket of fog. Sugar Cane is currently being harvested and they work 24/7. As the car goes around each bend in the road you don’t know if you will come across a monster in the fog… a cane train crossing the road. The locos are lit with very wild lights, like a dragon’s eyes, they push and pull the cane bins so you are unaware which way they are travelling. The cane bins have reflectors but those are covered in dust so can be invisible at night. In the heavy fog… you can come across these beasts without warning as they zig zag across the roads.
One part of the road on the way home I drive through a ghost town, it used to be a bustling place with a picture theatre, barber, pub, general store and much more. The cane train line goes up the middle of the dimly lit road, ghostly eyes of empty windows watching. Tonight… driving through that empty, quiet town a mouse ran across from the empty general store and stopped in my headlights, he was followed by a cat who also stopped.
They both sat and looked at me, I had been going slow enough to be able to stop and I looked at them and wondered of their story. Maybe I should have disturbed their plan, the cat pounced on the poor mouse and continued across the dim road with his prisoner and I guess dinner.

I am amazed sometimes at the things I get to witness.

Good night I have a huge day at the show tomorrow -I just had to share.

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I feel like I’m at an AA Meeting… It’s been 13 days since I last blogged. Gosh that means 13 days since Michael Jackson died. I love all the old footage of him that is all over TV. What an incredibly talented man/boy.

I HAVE FINISHED MY ILLUSTRATIONS… YAY……. I have been sooo busy these last two weeks, today I launch a new childrens book – ‘That’s not a Bulldozer!’ – what do I know about bulldozers you may ask… not much… the book is aimed at early readers and is about all types of heavy machinery, it tells a little about what each machine is and what it does. I had help with the technical stuff from my kids and husband, they know ALL there is to know about such things.
Having my early editions digitally printed is a great thing, I can work on the books till the eleventh hour (I really did that this time) and still get them printed in time for a publisised launch, also having a small print run I can gauge the public response without a huge outlay. P.S On the subject of this new book …. I am quite over drawing machinery, my yellow, orange and black pencils are now half sized.

Something else that I have been working on …. the Innisfail Library…. well I told you about the very successfull first meeting… we called a second meeting the following week and over half the people came to that one as well, with a couple of new faces. At this second meeting the new faces turned out to be and owners (CBD landowners) they have offered their land and a purpose built building – at no cost to the council – to become the new library. These people are the third to come forward with the same offer. I looks as though the whole community is pulling together on this one.
The Mayor is still being quoted in the local media as saying ‘At least they have one’ and he’s right, we do have a library… it’s a temporary shoebox that is still concidered cyclone damage and really isn’t usable in the way it should be. I think, with the support that has been given so far and the fact the Federal Government is now giving money for such things, I can’t see that a new library should still be on the councils ‘never, never’ plan.
At the Innisfail Show which starts today, there is going to be an extra display. The Bigger Innisfail Library Group is putting up a display all about our library – so if you are in Innisfail in the next two days – yes our local show is Thursday/Friday, and yes we think that’s silly too – come for a look.

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