Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.
Monday January 12
The Hiding Place
“This review of Kate Mildenhall’s novel resonated with me on a couple of levels, as a picture of contemporary Australia and as a reminder that all that glitters is not gold. My first thought on reading it was a resemblance to Christos Tsolkas’s The Slap, which also skewers a section of bourgeois life. My second thought was that the characters here represent a recognisable section of Australia in the first quarter of the 21st century. Perhaps the characters are young, upwardly-mobile, professional people (Yuppies) and carry all the poison that the group has been notorious for. The sheltered, naive ‘lifestyle’ of these well-heeled Australians is a gift and a curse for them. It is also just a curse for the rest of us. The enclave they seek to create represents a phenomenon we see every day, in real life, where exclusivity is a desired goal.”
Kym Houghton
From democracy to corporate control
“Trump is carving up the world. Is this the start of blatant corporate takeover of nations? In the Mars Trilogy (written in the 1990s) by Kim Stanley Robinson, the Earth’s nations now belong to, and are divided up between the Corporates. The world is flooded and the new settlers on Mars hope to create a community using common good economics and existing in rather than owning their environment. All is good at first, until the Corporates arrive, who wish to harvest Mars’ resources. Whilst back on Earth, the general population try to lead a meagre life in a flooded world. When we look to money as the goal, and not living along with the Earth, the quality of life is not a right, rather a privilege gained through toxic culture.”
Emma Hain
Keep the flags
“I support the use of consistent coloured surf flags globally. The red and yellow stand out miles away. Australia’s system saves many lives. Advertise them on all forms of public transport for those who come across the seas. They’ll soon learn.”
Ms Louise
Tuesday January 13
Writers’ week controversy
“The arts community in general needs to take a hard look at itself during the Royal Commission as to how they may have contributed to the growth of antisemitism. Across several areas of creative endeavour (theatre, film, music, visual arts) their unconditional support for the Palestinian cause has not differentiated between Israeli government policy under Netanyahu and Jewish identity itself. The two elements are not the same. Creatives, including writers, will find an inconvenient truth lurks in their own home ground.”
Charles Latimer 
Lunch time
“Providing free lunches to Australian school children is a no-brainer. When visiting Finnish schools on an Australian Executive Fellowship, the single thing I noticed about the Finnish education ‘miracle’ was that the entire school community sat down to a cooked lunch every day. Children ate nourishing food and learned about socialising and behaving at meals. Teachers ate with them and could observe peer group interaction. There was an obvious direct correlation with improved classroom behaviour. A cost benefit analysis with this last effect alone would show that investing in school lunches would save in the long term, given our current problems with behaviour management and teacher burnout.”
Dr Tom Stehlik
Wednesday January 14
Writers’ week controversy
“Yesterday’s letter, claiming the arts community has contributed to antisemitism by confusing Israel with Jewish identity, is an often repeated claim by Israel supporters. It is simply a false claim. If it happened, the howls from the Israel supporters would be deafening. There are claims that ‘Palestine will be free’ is an antisemitic death threat. It’s not. The Israel supporters want this to be true, so they can claim the high moral ground and undermine Israel’s critics.”
John Whaite
Car touchscreens
“Thanks to Milad Haghani for this article on car touchscreens. Anyone pinged by state government agencies for touching a mobile phone, even inadvertently when stopped at lights, will be justifiably miffed that global corporations, who sell them cars with similar tech, are simply asked for a ‘from-next-year’ adjustment.”
David Young
Free school lunches
“For many years I worked in Aboriginal communities and observed the ongoing problem of school attendance. The elders, teachers and education officials tried every way to induce the children to school and, yes, that included school breakfasts. School attendance surged and by lunchtime it had plummeted. I think educators need to look for different inducements.”
Bronwen King
Thursday January 15
Local media obsession?
“Arthur Sinodinos, a recognised expert on Australia’s ambassadorial role in the US, provided a good summary of both the role of the ambassador and Kevin Rudd’s achievements in that role on ABC RN yesterday. From the Sinodinos perspective, the focus and significance the Australian media has put on some personal observations Dr Rudd made about the current US president some years ago, has not happened elsewhere, including in the US. Is this a perspective widely shared I wonder?”
Glenda Gartrell, Newtown
A festival waiting to happen
“If I had the money I would sponsor a ‘Not the Adelaide Writers Festival’ to be held in, say, Melbourne on the already planned dates. The authors now have a gap in their diaries, the programme would need little tweaking, and there is a festival director with time on her hands. It would be a sell-out, a fitting response to the 'sell-out’ of free speech which has occurred.”
Name withheld
Eyes on the road
“I fully agree with your article that touchscreen controls can be even more dangerous than texting while driving. Not that I’ve ever texted while driving. We have a BYD Atto3 and there are multiple screens for controls which are inconvenient/dangerous to use for actions like changing the air conditioning settings when driving. Eventually I realised I can get most of this functionality by using the "Hi BYD” voice control to change settings etc while still being able to keep my eyes on the road. I’m not sure how many modern cars have this facility but it is beneficial and usable even for an old bloke like me. Better and safer than either buttons or touchscreen.“
Tom Maher
Friday January 16
Writers week
"Your story on Adelaide Writers Week refers to Randa Abdel-Fattah as having confirmed that she made a public comment that ‘Zionists have no claim or right to cultural safety’. Most Jewish people consider themselves to be Zionists as they support the self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their historic homeland. I am curious as to what action people think would have been appropriate by the Board if they had invited someone to the festival who had previously made a statement that Indigenous Australians or gay people (or members of any other minority group) ‘had no claim or right to cultural safety’, with the festival being held soon after a massacre of people in that minority group in Australia? Many of the calls for academic freedom and freedom of speech seem to ignore (or at best gloss over) the duty of care owed by universities, the Boards of different organisations, and others.”
Pnina Levine
“Louise Adler is to be highly commended for her brave stance in resigning from her position due to the interference of the Board, which succumbed to political pressure, to exclude the Palestinian-Australian writer. Very well done, absolutely brilliant to observe your courage. You are an unbiased citizen of the world and I love you for it.”
Ray Harrop, Bermagui NSW
Shakespeare’s ghost writer?
“I’m a trained actor and a lifelong Shakespeare enthusiast and I agree absolutely with the view of your two academics about the improbable link between the death of Shakespeare’s child Hamnet and the play Hamlet. As your writers point out, Shakespeare could write of the reality of grief as he does so hauntingly in King John (it brings me to tears every time). How, then, to account for this wonderful speech appearing in King John, one of his very worst plays? I have waited patiently for some researcher to discover that most of this feeble piece, by his standards, is a collaboration and that Shakespeare was brought in to add some much-needed quality to it. Any thoughts?”
Graham Williams