Chamber Music Festival would be welcome

THERE`S a wonderful little battle underway down at Brownsville, sorry Townsville, that could play right into the hands of Cairns.
   For years the city has hosted the Australian Chamber Music Festival but it appears a date clash with the new V8 Supercars race has the fiddlers more than upset.
   You could hardly call the events complementary: Noisy, burbling V8s and dulcet tones from string instruments and the like.
   The problem is one event draws thousands while the other draws hundreds.
   One is high profile and the other is not.
   Such is the angst in Townsville, there is talk of moving the Chamber Music Festival to Cairns.
   It would be a perfect fit with Festival Cairns and add something to the city`s cultural strengths.
   
   Basketball bounced
   
   
FINANCIAL responsibility, anti-sport or simply a bit of political payback?
   They are the questions raised by a couple of funding requests voted on by Cairns Regional councillors this week.
   The two cases were out to the council by Denis Keeffe, chief executive of the Northern Pride Rugby League side and the Cairns Taipans.
   As the Pride`s front man, Mr Keeffe asked the council for $25,000 to help offset the Pride`s cost of hiring Barlow Park for its Queensland Cup commitments.
   It was a commitment given by the former council with $5000 from then mayor Kevin Byrne`s discretionary fund and a similar amount from the community relations budget.
   After discussion and debate, it was agreed to on a majority vote.
   On the basketball front, however, the Taipans couldn`t get support for their Queensland Cup competition which will see the Townsville Crocodiles, the Gold Coast Blaze and the re-named Sydney Spirit taking on the Taipans over four days at the Aumuller St basketball centre.
   The Taipans were seeking $10,000 to help stage the competition with all funds raised going not to the Taipans but to Cairns basketball Association.
   It is interesting to note Mr Keeffe was an unsuccessful candidate for KB`s  Cairns Unity team at the election.
   
   Don`t upset the tourists
   
   I`M not quite sure what to make of the brouhaha over Wicked campervan`s message of "Save a whale - harpoon a Jap'' on one of its vehicles.
   Political correctness says it should be banned because it is offensive and racist.
   Premier Bligh agrees.
   But then again, what about free speech?
   Maybe it`s just a case of us taking ourselves too seriously given some of the other bumper stickers and T-shirts that abound; many of those risque, bad taste T-shirts worn by tourists.
   So, if Premier Bligh wants to be our moral as well as political guardian, how about putting her blowtorch to some of the crude and crassness that is allowed on TV or emanates from the mouths of commercial radio announcers where innuendo and sex are the staple diets.
   
   
Car 54 Where Are You?
   
   THE State Government is spending $14 million to arm our police with Tasers.
   Perhaps more money spent on police cars mightn`t go astray.
   It appears last Saturday there wasn`t a designated Cairns patrol car available on the day shift, all being tied up on escorts, prisoner transfers or other out-of-town duties.
   While the city area wasn`t left uncovered with cars from Smithfield and Edmonton brought in, perhaps we should be thankful it was a quiet weekend.

 

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