SOMETIMES when I read the horrific toxic messages that go around WhatsApp groups, I have to wonder about my people. Do we enjoy being whipped up into agitation? Do we find reading bad news pleasurable? Is it really blissful to wallow in ignorance? Don’t we mind being manipulated by irresponsible people?

I REMEMBER more than a year ago feeling dizzy because I thought the world had turned upside down. Things that used to be true were then declared fake, values that used to be upheld were discarded and their opposites lauded instead.

That seems to be the wrong-headed thinking in some circles. What we need to do instead is teach our children that sexual harassment and sexual violence arise from an environment that does not treat girls and boys equally.

Also, our columnist hopes Malaysians will use their right to free speech intelligently in 2019...and perhaps our ministers could get good communications people to advise them?

It’s high time for the many intelligent, progressive Malays to start pushing back and claim their right to be judged on their own abilities and efforts.

We now have a choice of setting new, better standards or going the same old way that led us to the brink of disaster.

WHEN I was a mere schoolgirl, there was a chant that everyone dreaded. If your skirt managed to get hiked up and your panties showed, or if you had a runny nose and no tissues to wipe it with, you ran the risk of the unsympathetic teasing of your classmates.

AROUND the world, climate change is causing heatwaves where people are unused to very warm weather. Back home, due to another type of climate change, we are experiencing a different kind of wave, which I call a hatewave.

THERE’S a quote I found somewhere that goes “What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it’s supposed to be.” I don’t know who said that but it’s a wise observation on how our expectations often don’t match what actually happens in real life.

A democracy is far from just about voting in elections. We need to maintain it, and the real test is how we check our mindset every time we treat another human being as unequal to us, regardless of whether they are fellow citizens or not.

Recent acts of violence against the less powerful are symptoms of an even bigger problem.

Those who equate the anti-Trump protests with local protests against our Government are ignoring some key differences.