Australia has had several significant waves of migration (eg. Greeks, Vietnamese, Africans). Each wave coincides with which group mainstream Australia directs it’s vitriol, fear mongering and racism. But the targeting of Islam has been particularly intense.

This matters to me as a daughter of migrant parents, and a mother of bi-racial kids, who simply wants them to grow up in a world free of racial and religious judgement.

There is nothing more vile or polarising than an online conversation thread about feminism.

When I was a teenager I read something wonderful and it stayed with me, the author’s name however did not. The internet attributes this vacant place in my brain to Rebecca West.

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”

I’m asking because it is a question, after standstill discussions with peers — some for; some against — I cannot clarify to myself what I believe. To have this question answered would not only put my mind at ease, but influence how I see the world and go about my life.

I grew up in cities, but have lived in the provinces for over 20 years, and find it to be a refreshingly connected place to live. I rail against the snobbery of city folk towards ‘country folk’. We have just as many great ideas and cultural practises as cities do.

What makes for a more fulfilling life?

How far should religion
be separated from
our daily lives?

The rise of adult colouring books, the return of the 90’s and just us reaching for things that remind us of our childhood constantly, made me wonder if it was like this for previous generations too or are we trying to postpone adulthood and all that comes with it more than before? Are we longing for simpler times with everything developing so fast around us?

I find it strange that all educational philosophy and research gets ignored by modern high school education.

I am quite interested in the metaphysics of physics and in particular time.

Just wondering.

Most of us work because it facilitates us being paid, which affords us the ability to live. Some few people manage to pursue passions, vocations and the like. Others make different valuable contributions to society. What is necessary about working – is there a different model of enough where people can live well and contribute to a collective society without it being reduced to the *need* and *imperative* to have a job and be paid. What if there were other ways?

Living with mental illness (my own and that of my husband), I am bombarded with jingoistic slogans like ‘R U OK?’, parroted by gurus of ‘Mindfulness’, and by their minions who wave yellow balloons in my face, or consultants who advise employers to host endless parties, or feign empathy in exchange for docility, or friends who assume we need an ideological revamp. If wellbeing crusaders really cared how we felt, they would be quieter and let us have our contemplation; or ask a complete sentence with rounded vowels, including the last two letters of ‘you’. If a person cannot ask ‘How are you feeling?’ without abbreviating it into an acronym, clearly they have no time to hear us. If we had the power to define mental health, perhaps it would differ from current expectations? Who would the ‘sick’ ones be then?

Whether it’s gun control or bicycle helmets, Australia’s Common Law leads to a duty of care. What would the world look like if this was adopted internationally?