I’m annoyed by the illogical and racist emails that I receive from friends whose parents or grandparents came here as so called economic migrants or refugees. Ever since people like Pauline Hanson have come on the scene I’ve seen a change in our culture. I’m sure most Australians don’t want to live in a racist country.

I have a mental illness in a regional city. I had an episode of anger which I understand is due to acute anxiety, at my daughter’s school. Three years on, people still cower, there is gossip about me, that is of the effect that I am going to coffee shops to ‘meet’ and ‘pickup’ men, and that I am most interested in meeting married men. I am told I have to just move around and amongst the society, (by my psychologist) but I find it safer and apparently I am becoming more reclusive, to remain at home. I don’t condone aggressive behaviour. The school and my workplace, were trying to ‘support’ me, by having psychologists at the school, monitor my behaviour and have people behave ‘accordingly’. I began to feel I was living ‘The Truman Show’, and realise none of my interactions were authentic. Initially those people were being ‘kind’ but misguided, in supporting me, and I guess, my daughter. I have 3 years until she leaves school. I will go ‘somewhere else’. Michael Kirby has spoken of the chaplaincy program being a ‘front’ to filter through students of need/risk. I plod on. This stigma came into my new workplace. I plod on. Btw: this is not my paranoia. Underneath, I find it deeply alienating and distressing.

It seems that in an increasingly material world lust is getting the upped hand, but the idealist in me hopes that love prevails.

Why, in 2015, is the catholic church still not taking action against priests/bishops in positions of power who abuse children? A lot of it is getting swept under the rug. Is it to save face in light of declining religious beliefs amongst the public?

Like, when there is more than one opinion at play… and our beliefs are based on what we feel to be intuitive truths, how the hell do we make a decision? Is it just power?

Because the EU is in turmoil, countries are being held to ransom by market volatility and austerity is fueling social unrest.

Knowing ourselves seems to be the foundation for everything. It is important to question, and be critical of the thoughts, actions and beliefs that resonate with us. Such contemplation is crucial to continual self-development and sanity. Thus, madness can be partly seen as obliviousness, or in history it was highlighted as forgetting. If we forgot what had made us happy, are we mad?

I’m a journalism student, and I’m sick of being asked to respond to the notion of a ‘brand’. I even had Fairfax present a curriculum as part of my course which spent a week on “brand building”. I find this insufferable, and I’d like to see how other current practitioners and other students feel about this notion. Obviously, change is inevitable, but to what extent are journalists performers, too?

In a university class at the moment I am learning about indigenous land injustice. I came up with this question in a tutorial. History is not objective, and who really shapes it?

Why does Nutella taste so good? Why is Australia going so crazy for it, to the extent that we have it in donuts, milkshakes, brunch items… etc?

I am a teacher and very interested in finding peaceful pathways for multi-culturalism.