Your say: week beginning November 10

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 November 10

Managing pain

“As someone who has lived for decades with chronic pain that is severe, wide-spread, and present for over 90% of waking hours, I am one of that small group of people for whom ongoing opioid therapy for pain management has been life changing, yet your article pretty much denies my existence. I don’t take opioids because they are fun, or because they are some kind of quick, easy fix. I have to consult regularly with my pain specialist, and attend the same pharmacy every week to get my prescription filled. I’m fine with the regulations and rules around access to opioids, but it is a shackle that makes it difficult to travel, and that exposes me to gaslighting about addiction and substance use disorders from other medical professionals and misinformed but opinionated others.”

Name withheld

Practicing kindness

“Thank you Gary Mortimer et al, for sharing your study into reducing retail abuse – a timely reminder to genuinely connect with each other as human beings as we head into Christmas! It seems the more digital connections we have in our lives, the less capable of this we have become – the drop in community engagement and volunteering being another symptom of the same disease. In the face of global challenges human connection, empathy and seeing each other as equals will provide the solution.”

Sarah Murton, Sunshine Coast QLD

Cop criticism

“Why do you include a dig at the Liberal Party in your editorial on COP30? It’s quite unnecessary to the story and out of place in a publication reliant one way or another on public funding.”

Peter Murray

Tuesday November 11

Put paid to this

“I am offended when I read about people being ‘paid’ vast and incomprehensible sums of money for their ‘work’. Do these people somehow have more hours in the day than others? Do they work harder than anyone else? These people don’t ‘earn’ the money. They receive it or are given it. They exploit us for their own selfish ends, evidencing their extraordinarily maladjusted mental and emotional states in their greed. Let our language reflect reality please.”

Ann Britton

No oxygen for billionaires

“I find it so disappointing billionaires are given so much time in the media. If I read about how they are helping mankind, I probably would read the articles, but that seldom happens. I, for one, don’t wish to give them any oxygen. I’d prefer to read about scientists or people making a worthwhile difference in our world, not characters like this. Or am I missing something here?”

Sue Muspratt

How many million?

“Thanks for the article on billionaires and influence, I enjoyed reading it. There is an error in the article: ‘Gina Rinehart has also sought to influence politics, urging the Liberal Party to adopt Trump-inspired policies and donating A$500 million to the party in 2024.’ While Gina is generous for selected causes, she’s not THAT generous! It was 0.5 million or a $500,000 donation.”

Victoria Haritos

Ed: Quite right and thank you for spotting it Victoria. We’ve made the correction.