People who travel on Melbourne trains are now “customers”, we’re no longer “passengers”. At many service organisations, people with a disability are no longer “clients”, they are “customers”. The change of language, driven by Marketing, is leading to many problems.

The flaws in our Australian law system, reflect the inequity on a world basis. If Australia, a relatively new country, that has a fresh start, is already in a conundrum with it’s inefficient and biased laws, then what hope is there for transparency and justice on a world level? To illustrate, I lent a friend $45,000 for a mutual project. They refused to pay it back, admitting they just spent it. We made a signed legal contract and I have a bank paper trail. Also, a witness who verified his actions signed an affidavit. Yet, this is not enough for me to retrieve my money or for them to go to jail. This person, continuously cons others with small amounts of money, so that legal fees make it unviable to retrieve the lost money. It is clear that I was conned and that they are thief, yet the justice system has no effective recompense for these serious situations. This person should be in jail and working to pay for my loan. I tried going to the local court and followed the procedure of a small claim. After the sheriff failed to find him, nothing could be done. This is a ludicrous system that fails to protect the vulnerable in our society.
I believe there is a long overdue overhaul of our justice system, which protects the unjust, provides extreme wealth to the judiciary and fails to facilitate justice.
I tried Legal Aid, etc and they were unable to assist me.
What do the great thinkers think?

There are varying degrees of mental illness – some are profoundly affected where others are not. In the lesser cases, some of these people display signs of a difficult personality or difficult behaviour, but use the label of mental illness. How do we define which is which, and navigate the tricky terrain where their behaviour affects families, workplaces and relationships?

We have laws, law enforcement bodies, military defence resources, and humanitarian organisations sponsored by Government. Why don’t we just let them do their job without political meddling? If the public don’t agree, political parties can suggest change as part of an election platform and we can vote for it.

I don’t believe it is considered enough. I believe the soul is at the core of what makes us beings, but we seem to shy away from treating our souls with tenderness and significance.

We seem to spend a lot of time telling people they’re wrong (and even stupid) – in politics, in the media, on social forums. Nobody ever seems to change their mind. It all seems a bit boring and pointless. Can we change the way we communicate and actually have an effect?

The horrors of war are making the planet unliveable. Every decent human being wants it to end.

Behind every story in the media that makes me want to cry I can trace the instigating issue to greed and lust for power/control by entities (corps and gov) and individuals who seem classically sociopathic. The way we have decided to perceive success seems to lead inevitably to the ones most lacking in morals, ethics or care for others to be hailed as leaders. I am tired of the cruelty. I would like to see what we could achieve if kindness and social wellbeing were the goal instead of greed.

What with robots, computers, and all the other “help” we’re creating, not to mention jobs going offshore and/or “cheap labor” coming in from offshore, not to mention whole industries (manufacturing, mining) imploding, it looks as if it won’t be long before a goodly portion of the jobs will have disappeared. When three-quarters of working people can’t find a job in countries like Australia, surely we can’t rely on the old solutions of throwing them (us) a little dole money and calling them (us) bludgers (or leaners, if we’re being polite). Is it even possible to restructure the economy so that people can live well without working (or inherited wealth)? What would that look like? How would we get there?

Goddamit.

I need to know, and so does the whole of humanity. What exciting ramifications might come from an affirmative?

I am asking this question because the UN has identified a set of development goals such as equal access to education and eradication of poverty that it made me wonder if we as citizens of the world can truly achieve these goals.