Why is there so much hostility in this world?

Yes, why is there so much hatred and trouble in this world. Have we forgotten the words “love” and “peace”?  Religious hatred and violence run rampant throughout the entire civilized world and today. Now we have seen what the so called religion of peace was capable of doing in Paris; also Australia and around Europe.  They are causing untold human suffering and destruction - and our politicians are sleeping at the wheel and still talk about moderate Islam. Yet the Turkish President states that there is no such a thing, “Islam is Islam!” Now Europe is shutting the gate after the horses have bolted. When will we shut the gate to Muslim immigration?

That Muslim Children are offended with our National Anthem and walk out of a school is incomprehensible  and absolutely intolerable. I have reports from family  and friends in Germany and everybody is deeply worried and most Germans are not happy with what Merkel has done.
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The list of religiously inspired conflicts goes on and on. Islamic fundamentalism is preaching hatred to the gullible, and wants to kill anyone outside their square.  It just doesn’t make sense. The Islamic culture is just not compatible with Australia or other Western countries. The reason they come here and not to an Islamic country is simple, they want to bread us out and take us over. I’m starting to worry about my grandchildren and great grandchildren in what kind of Australia they will in 20 year time.                             
We are still fighting futile unwinnable wars, costly in money and lives. Haven’t we learnt any lessons from World War Two, which was supposed to be the war that ended all wars? Will we ever learn? Perhaps we should centre upon the old adage: “Make love not war.” Hear what Pat Condell has to say about the Paris attack? Click here.

Someone sent me the following. I don't know who wrote this, but it should be considered seriously. Take it as you wish - but give it some thought. A lot of this could also apply for Australia -in the not too distant future. - Werner

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 A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.
'Very few people were true Nazis", he said, but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

 We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslim just wants to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics, who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kills. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the 'peaceful majority', the 'silent majority', is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

 History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

England has almost surrendered to the Islamic wave having more than 130 new mosques built in 2005 and proposed 100 to be built in 2006 - in 2007 the count was 843 prayer meeting places with howling/wailing towers across England. In 2015 there are many more.

So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it on. Perhaps sometimes, the end does 'not' justify the means.  (Author Unknown)

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My thought for today. – Werner

It is much easier at all times to prevent an evil than to rectify mistakes.- George Washington.
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My Cashew Nut Tree.

Here is another interesting story from my varied life. Life is about learning new things and I hope that you learn something from this story. - Werner

Most people enjoy eating cashew nuts, but if I were to ask how many know how they evolve before reaching the consumption stage, few would put their hands up – and I would have been one of them, until recently. This story started quite unintentionally and took four years to unfold.

It is quite interesting that the cashew nut actually grows two fruits, the apple, and the nut underneath it; they can be yellow or red, depending on the variety. To my knowledge there is no other plant that produces two different fruits on the same stem. In some regions in the world they refer to the cashew nut tree, also as the “Cashew Apple Tree.”  This picture shows the apples and nuts, and you see in the middle how the thickened stem above the nut develops into the apple. To enlarge pictures, just click on it!

Many years ago I saw a cashew tree full with fruit on a friend’s farm.  He grew it merely as a novelty and not for the nuts. The reason being, the tree is a sight to behold with its yellow apples, but the kidney shaped nutshells below the apple are toxic and it is a difficult process to extract the nut before it can be eaten. So this was all I knew about this subject.  The cashew nuts we eat in Australia come in the main from India, or Africa  and are processed there because extracting the nut is a labour intense process. PROCESSING OF CASHEW NUTS HOME. 

This story had its beginning four years ago, when I found several kidney shaped cashew nutshells spread over an area in the grass while moving my lawn. Because of that limited “cashew nut lecture” years ago on my friend’s farm I had no trouble recognising what I had found. I pondered though how the nuts had arrived on my lawn knowing that nobody in our close proximity has a cashew nut tree, and I surmised that the carriers would have been fruit bats which ate the apple and dropped the nut. I planted three of the nuts, each in a separate pot, and in due course three cashew plants emerged. Several months later I planted the most vigorous of the three seedlings in my yard, and got rid of the other two as I couldn’t find anybody wanting to plant a cashew nut tree.

After four years the tree had grown to a height of 3.5 metres, but I thought that nothing would come out of it and that it may shade my veggie garden too much and I decided to cut the tree down. I had already removed some branches close to the ground in order to get better access to the trunk with the chainsaw. When I was about to cut down the tree, I noticed some branches were starting to produce flowers. So this gave the tree a temporary reprieve, as I was keen to find out if it would bear fruit – and it did. Now this tree will become a permanent fixture in my yard, even if it is only for the novelty value. However, the DPI in Cairns sent me instructions on how to process the nut and get it out from its toxic shell.  But it was too complicated and not worth doing it. Picture on right: Cashew nut blossoms. From tiny blossoms big apples and nuts grow.

It has been a wonderful opportunity to observe the development of this tree and its fruit on a daily basis – and my digital camera comes in handy to take pictures, which are immediately available.

The blossom bearing part starts with a stem with numerous sprigs to which very tiny, but numerous flowers are attached. In addition, I observed a teeming multitude of tiny insects, visiting the flowers and no doubt assisting with the pollination. Interestingly the kidney shaped nut develops first, and right above the nut is a thickened green stem, which starts to develop the apple as soon as the nut has attained its full size.

It takes approximately ninety days from the flowers to the time when the apple  turns yellow and drops off; this is then the time to remove the nut. The apple is edible, has a pleasant aroma and is very juicy. It can be used to make jam or jelly.  I’m told it is eaten by  the natives in some countries. Once the apples are on the ground they start to ferment and deteriorate quickly, and become part of the food chain for ants.

Although cashews are one of the lowest-fibre nuts, they are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. These include vitamins E, K, and B6, along with minerals like copper, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, iron, and selenium, all of which are important for maintaining good bodily function.
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More reading about cashews. 
1. Are cashew good for you?
2. Cashew nut nutrition facts.
3. What are cashews good for? Dr. Mercola
4. Health benefits with video.
5. Cashew nut processing.
6. The nut that you can’t buy in the shell.
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My thought for today. – Werner
Learning never exhausts the mind. -  Leonardo da Vinci

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