Author: Wan Kerr

What’s going on in the Northland waters near Minnesota? Well, scientists and other experts aren’t quite sure – yet.

Not just one type but almost all kinds of fish, to include some of the most popular gaming fish like bass and walleye, are changing.

What – wait. Changing? Yes, and at least one local news team has been documenting these changes since 2002, when concerns were first emerging. A decade later, “scientists are beginning to call it a significant threat,” the Northlands Newscenter reported in February.

“Walleye cakes, walleye bites, walleye sandwich…it’s a popular delicacy in restaurants around the northland,” the Newscenter said. “It’s also a multi-million dollar industry, attracting hundreds of thousands of anglers to the Northland’s beautiful lakes year round.”

Feminization of male fish

While many area residents and not a few visitors to the area take the industry for granted in believing that the waters can be fished forever, scientists have discovered a major threat to the abilities of many kinds of fish to reproduce.

“Changes in, for example, the external characteristics of males where they start to resemble females,” Dr. Gary Ankley of the U.S. EPA Lab in Duluth, Minn., told the Newscenter.

Dr. Pat Schoff added, of the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota-Duluth: “The small mouth bass and large mouth are sensitive to fish feminization. We’re seeing lots of symptoms in these species.”

How can fish actually change genders? Scientists aren’t sure but they do know that it is a frightening phenomenon that is happening all over the world. Studies show thus far that a feminized male fish can suffer a reproductive disability of at least 76 percent and more; the more researchers look into this, the more they are finding fish that cannot reproduce at all.

The phenomenon has “actually caused some fish populations to go extinct,” said Ankley.

Some of the leading scientific research examining the problem is taking place in Duluth, at UMD’s NRRI, and also at an Environmental Protection Agency lab there. Scientists believe chemicals are behind the fish gender transformation.

“There’s only a few labs in the world that can do this very effectively when we deal with these very potent chemicals,” Ankley said. “There’s a number of chemicals that can act as what we call estrogens.”

Scientists and environmentalists note that there are literally thousands of chemicals that make it into the nation’s streams, rivers and other waterways every day. They include medications, agricultural run-off and other substances that carry very powerful estrogens scientists believe may be altering fish genders.

“We can see everything from testicular tissue that is growing like an ovary. Or some fish have one teste and one ovary,” said Schoff.

“The male testes actually has eggs in it,” Ankley added.

5,000-8,000 different medications could be altering environment

Researchers know when they expose fish in the lab to such powerful estrogen compounds they will see nearly complete transformations from one gender to another, and that such transformation is dramatically harming fish populations.

“There’s lower rates of reproduction or even no reproduction,” Dr. Schoff said.

Scientists say they aren’t sure what other substances and chemicals, besides estrogen, might be contributing to the gender transformations in nature.

“It turns out there are chemicals that can mimic natural estrogens and when you expose males to these chemicals they can start to achieve these female characteristics,” Ankley said. “There’s probably 5,000 to 8,000 different medications that are used and could enter the environment.”

They say even substances as common as Ibuprofen might be contributing to the problem as well.

Republised from: http://www.naturalnews.com/039573_fish_gender_bender_chemicals.html

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6160974
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112888785

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Local community organisation Micah Projects, with the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre (BHSC), is inviting anyone concerned about Indigenous disadvantage to take part in Australia’s largest ever Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health campaign!

The Close the Gap Day event is at the BHSC Forecourt, 62 Peel Street, South Brisbane on Thursday 21st March between 11am and 2pm.

There’ll be a Welcome to Country by local Elder Uncle Des Sandy, a sausage sizzle, entertainment, lots of information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health issues, and special activities where you can show your commitment to Closing the Gap.

Guest speaker will be Colleen Lavelle, a Project Officer with Greater Metro South Brisbane Medicare Local, who will talk about her organisation’s experience in dealing with the reality of Indigenous Health in our city.

The BSHC recognizes the impact homelessness can have on a person’s health and well being. In the last 12 months, almost 25% of people presenting at BHSC identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island. Micah Projects and the BHSC are committed to closing the gap.

Since 2006, the Close the Gap campaign has gone from strength to strength. This has only happened with community support. In 2012 alone, more than 130,000 Australians joined National Close the Gap Day to show their support, to talk about, to spread the word, and to take action to improve, Indigenous health.

According to Oxfam Australia, organisers of the National Campaign, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People still die 10-17 years younger than other Australians. Closing this health gap cannot be done overnight, but needs a long-term commitment with adequate funding, and investment in real partnerships.

More info: https://www.oxfam.org.au/act/events/national-close-the-gap-day/

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In her twenty years at the Murri Ministry, Ravina Waldren has accompanied many families through times of sorrow and times of joy, has worked towards reconciliation and actively campaigned to prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody. For her important work in the local community, she is going to be honoured with a WILPF Peacewomen Award.

The award will be presented to Ravina and five other outstanding Queensland women on 19th April in an early evening cocktail celebration to be held at COTAH restaurant, South Brisbane.

The Peacewomen Awards were established by the Queensland branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) to honour women as peace builders and recognise the work they do. The awards have run successfully since 2010.

This year’s chosen theme is transformation and Ravina believes that this relates to her work at the Murri Ministry where “we are trying to bring people together and to create a greater understanding and a love and respect for everybody, of all different nationalities, all different backgrounds.”

Assisting people with marriages, baptisms and funerals, the Murri Ministry “provides for the Aboriginal community to be a voice within the Catholic Church,” Ravina said.

Through her work, Ravina has been involved, for many years, in campaigns to prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody. Whenever there is a death in custody, the ministry is notified straight away and therefore able “to bring people together, to come here to this building, to sit down, gather and console each other and see what support is required for the family,” she said.

Every second Aboriginal person in Australia has been affected by a death in custody, Ravina said.

“Every time there is another death in custody it reopens wounds of the pain and the sorrow we carry from the previous death in custody.”

The numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody have risen since the Royal Commission more than twenty years ago and Ravina has been involved in campaigns raising awareness about this.

To attend the 2013 Peacewomen Awards ceremony, please contact Vikki Henry ph: 3369 4004 email: vicki4peace@yahoo.com or Norma Forrest ph: 3207 7929 email: wilpf.qld@wilpf.org.au by 12 April.

More about WILPF: http://www.wilpf.org.au/

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Opera Queensland’s forthcoming production of St Matthew Passion, J.S. Bach’s Oratorio, tells a tragic story about betrayal and forbearance, says Tobias Cole.

“You know I have a personal fascination with the mob. St Matthew Passion looks at mob mentality. You have a group of followers and a group of dissenters. It’s about how individuals belonging to either group deal with peer pressures. It’s how young men behave like dorks on a Saturday night then wake up wondering what on earth they did the night before and suffer the consequences on Facebook.

“It’s just that, the protagonist in this show, happens to be called Jesus”, says Cole.

Cole sings five arias and a duet with the much-feted soprano Sara Macliver in OQ’s staged version of St Matthew Passion later in the month.

“Jesus doesn’t play the group game but sticks to his guns. Some deny knowing him because of peer pressure and Bach writes amazing stuff for this denial, taking the music to a very spiritual level. There’s dance and flight in the score.”

The countertenor is an enthusiast with a soaring reputation. Friendly, informative, pragmatic and passionate about classical music, there’s not a shred of stuffy thinking, no airs or graces despite his international success as a soloist. He has performed all over Australia, in America and the UK. Queenslanders may have heard him sing the role of Nireno in OQ’s production of Julius Caesar.

And, his ideas about the interpretation of J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion are refreshing. It’s a work Cole knows inside and out because he has been a soloist in this Oratorio on numerous occasions when based in the UK.

“There are choral societies all over England. At Easter Time, there’s a proliferation of St Matthew Passions. This will be the first time I’ve ever sung it in Australia”, he says. It’s also the first time OQ has collaborated with Camerata of St John’s who will be on stage. According to Cole, the leader Brendan Joyce adores the music.

Brendan plays from his heart. The violin sits under his chin so he plays a beautiful legato (smooth) line yet he can really bite into the strings when necessary as in the duet Sara and I share when the chorus interject with jumpy exclamations. Leave him. Find Him Not”.

Lindy Hume’s staged production of St Matthew Passion has a contemporary look and vibe. First presented at Perth International Arts Festival to favourable reviews in 2005, I ask him, over the phone in a rehearsal break at OQ headquarters, whether he thinks purists can enjoy Hume’s production?

“I’m not really interested in people who merely hold onto an idea. An idea they’ve been told about and cling to without ever thinking about it. The performers are the ones with the experience and knowledge about how to present a work. Bach isn’t around anymore. In his day, St Matthew Passion had a purely religious context. What is authentic anyway? I’m so bored with it.”

“We should be taking people on a journey, lifting them out of their prejudice and make the experience uplifting, something transformative. Such reverence for the rules of the Gods of Classical Music makes people doubt that they should even go to a concert. It makes them question their behaviour, whether they can make a noise or clap in between movements. It stops them from coming”.

Apparently, Cole’s favourite is the mournful, challenging aria “Erbame Dich, Mein Gott.

“Harmonically, Bach takes you on a journey away from the home key. You have to be clear about the direction and the underlying harmonies in outlining the tune. Whatever he does is for a reason and will have something to do with the text. But, it mustn’t sound as if its programmed into the computer, it’s about timing. Sometimes, Bach hangs around in the same key. There’ll be a reason for that too.

“Bach’s music is emotional. He deploys a descending phrase for the lament, creates dissonance to express pain and there are sudden harmonic surprises like a fantastic jazz chord. Baroque used to write melismas, singing more than one note on key words, which sum up the piece. Bach gives melismas to “my tears” and “weep”. Melismas are heard a great deal in pop music nowadays. Guy Sebastian and others use melismas frequently in their singing to stress key words.

“One of the conductor Graeme Abbott’s specialisms is Baroque repertoire. Graeme and Lindy have worked together a lot and make a great team. It’s a strong cast. Leif Aruhn-Solen sings the role of the Evangelist who is the narrator and Paul Whelan is Jesus. Andrew Collis sings bass.”

“I think it was Neil Armfield who said that when people come to a show they come in as individuals and leave as an audience because they’ve experienced something fantastic together. And that’s the goal driving this show”.

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St Matthew Passion
21, 22 & 23 March 2013
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Qtix: 136 246

Photo credit: Bridget Elliot

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Fifteen people died in the firebomb attack on Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub on March 8, 1973, in one of the biggest mass murder in Australia at that time. Three days later John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch were arrested and later convicted for murder, after what is now believed to be manufactured evidence and a concocted confession by Finch.

Family, friends and those who wanted to pay tribute to those affected by the death of the fifteen killed at Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub gathered on the corner of Amelia St and St Paul’s Terrace in Fortitude Valley.

Rev Len Donaldson had sent out an invite for the memorial service where he warmly welcomed anyone who wanted to come pay tribute to everyone affected by this tragedy. He was joined by award-winning true crime author Tony Reeves and health care professional Danny Stuart, the authors of a book that will shed new light on the murder conviction of John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch.

Danny Stuart, who was thirteen at the time of the attack and is the nephew of John Andrew Stuart, told everyone at the service that his father, Daniel Stuart, was known by the police and because of that was an easy target to make him give an alleged false testimony to pin the firebombing of the nightclub on his brother. Danny, thanks to having a good memory for detail, has been able to assist Tony Reeves with the research for their book, seeking the truth of what really happened at the nightclub that day.

Tony Reeves talked about the evidence that he has come across regarding the event, which will be further discussed in their book. When the book is published it will hopefully re-open the case to allow the truth to come forth.

Tony Reeves understands that it might be painful for those involved, but hopes that the truth will have a healing effect on the family and friends of those fifteen whom died, finally knowing what truly happened.

Rev Len Donaldson gave a service where he read out the names of the fifteen people who died from this tragic event, releasing a white dove for each name read out.

The book by Tony Reeves and Danny Stuart is under consideration by a publisher, and it is hoped it will be released later this year.

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