My Grandmother once told me a story about a distant relative who had come to visit the little village where she lived and brought her a gift.
Not a doll or some toy, not a dainty little dress for her to twirl around in. . .no, this visitor brought her a banana.
She had never seen one before but had heard of the sweet tropical fruit. She said that for that day she felt special. It's not often that my grandmother has nice things to say, so I kind of like this story.
Well these days she can't have any bananas, no body in Australia can.
90% of Australia's banana crop was blown away from the 18th to 21st of March
Cyclone Larry (Cyclones are known as hurricanes in the northern Hemisphere) crossed the North Queensland coast on Monday the 19th of March as a Category Five storm, the strongest on the intensity scale with winds of up to 300 kilometers an hour (180 miles an hour ). The Cyclone tore the roofs off buildings and left about 120,000 people without power.
I like the CNN Headline the best (to be read in a action movie trailer voice-over voice). . .
Cyclone hits Australia "like Atomic Bomb"
no deaths, but thousands left homeless
About 30 people were treated for minor injuries and unlike an Atomic Bomb, nobody died and although the repercussions will be around for some time, Northern Queensland will recover. I don't know if this was just luck or due to the fantastic warning system that was put in place after Cyclone Tracy devastated the City of Darwin on Christmas day in 1974. Unbelievably Cyclone Tracy only claimed 49 lives in Darwin itself and a further 16 were lost at sea. 80% of all buildings were destroyed and only 400 homes remained "reasonably" intact.
Bananas are prone to many diseases and being so far away from everyone, our crops rarely get hit. The quarantine laws are strict on many fronts and the government is not backing down on the banana import rule at all, much to the disappointment of the Philippines who have been trying to import bananas here for years.
So I'll happily sing
"Yes, We have no bananas,
We have no bananas today"
and wont have for about another 12months or so 
Little Blue
banana republic
