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Wednesday 27 February 2013
Featured Opinion

99 tips for a better world (15 of 99): take a nap

Sarah Fortuna
3 comments

I am devoted to the Slow Movement. Slow food, slow travel, slow work. I once even tried to get traction on the idea of slow aid because I was frustrated by the push by donors to engender positive change in disadvantaged communities according to 12-month funding cycles. Sadly my devotion is, at best, one of…
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Wednesday 20 February 2013
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: make a list (14 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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So…2013 is kind of nuts. So far, it’s all about the work, with the occasional summer frolic and wedding (not mine) squeezed in. One of the downsides of the busy is that some of the small good things I do can fall away in the mad rush. Late last year as I careened towards holidays,…
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Wednesday 13 February 2013
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: don’t overcomplicate. don’t oversimplify (13 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
2 comments

I spent a fair chunk of my twenties studying and working overseas. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times (as they say). It was the best of times because I felt that glorious sense of ‘this is life!’ ALL. THE. TIME. I had days when it felt as if…
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Wednesday 6 February 2013
Featured

99 tips for a better world: go placidly amidst the noise and the haste (12 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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I grew up with Desiderata on the back of the kitchen door. My friend Lara had it on the back of her toilet door. We both memorised it, as you do when you are a kid, in much the same way that you would memorise the text on a Weet-Bix packet or every word in…
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Thursday 20 December 2012
Culture

99 tips for a better world: have an authentic christmas (11 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
One comment

I’m going to take a guess that you feel ambivalent towards Christmas. I certainly do. Deep, wide-ranging, conflicting ambivalence that is harder to unravel than just getting through the season without asking too many questions. So I don’t. I struck it lucky in the personality and preferences lottery for this time of year. I love…
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Thursday 13 December 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: celebrate milestones (10 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
One comment

Today’s tip will be so obvious to many of you that you will wonder why I bothered writing it down. ‘Of course you should celebrate milestones!’ I hear you say, as you decorate a cupcake or write in a fancy card with a calligraphy pen. Take this opportunity to revel in your success at making…
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Thursday 6 December 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: know what you believe in (9 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
One comment

I am a contemplative type. While some people are primarily doers, I am primarily a thinker. This has its advantages (I rarely get bored standing in a queue) but also notable disadvantages (I rarely find myself standing in queues because that would require doing something like running an errand). Knowing this about myself, I thought…
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Tuesday 27 November 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: find some time for healing (8 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
2 comments

I started writing today’s tip curled up on a rattan chair in a gorgeous Balinese villa, surrounded by lush greenery and the clicking tails of geckos. Peace was in abundance. I, however, was unable to enjoy it. It was 3am and I couldn’t sleep. I’d made it to Ubud but was still running on Melbourne…
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Tuesday 20 November 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: take a break (7 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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An important part of achieving an ambitious goal is taking time out to rest. As God rested on the seventh day of creating the world, I am going to rest on the seventh of 99 tips for a better world. I’m going somewhere quiet to sleep in, read books and go for long wandering walks…
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Saturday 17 November 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: Celebrate World Kindness Day (6 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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Wednesday was World Kindness Day. Kindness strikes me as one of the most import conditions for a better world. Fortunately we are surrounded by acts of kindness every day. From holding the door for someone, to saying “don’t worry about it” when a colleague makes a mistake; kindness slips into daily life effortlessly. Unkindness, and…
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Tuesday 6 November 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: make yourself at home (5 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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Today’s tip struck me as I listened to a local coffee roaster talk about his motivation to start a café. He worried about the erosion of local community so he created a hub for the locals and got to know the neighbours – the grocer, the newsagent, the dry cleaner. As I listened to him…
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Wednesday 31 October 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: enjoy a hot shower (4 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
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I hate cold water. I wanted you to know that before we embark on a discussion about my complicated relationship with gratitude. Allow me to lie down on the therapist’s couch and tell you about it. As a kid, the nuns at my school would tell us, ‘Eat all of your lunch. Remember the starving…
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Tuesday 23 October 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: smile at yourself in the mirror (3 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
3 comments

This relatively new column is about the small things we can do every day to make the world a better place. Last week I talked about developing your own personal diversity strategy. The week before I talked about Fairtrade coffee. At first I didn’t think today’s topic fit so neatly into my “99 tips for…
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Tuesday 16 October 2012
Culture Featured

99 tips for a better world: meet a dairy farmer (2 of 99)

Sarah Fortuna
One comment

“Friendship is the most powerful “diversity strategy” there is. There is nothing more important than creating meaningful and organic relationships with people across the various borders that have historically divided us. It is through these real relationships—whole, vulnerable, reciprocal—that we really learn about our own blind spots and the beauty of others’ perspectives.” – Courtney…
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