And of all of them I chose this one as The Most Likely To Be My Place. I walked in and had my first Melbourne coffee, and was right.

So many times, sitting on a stool at the bar, watching the art and the opera of this man at his life's work. Or sitting by the wall, contemplating life, clutching a perfectly made latte in a small glass, gazing at my reflection clutching a perfectly made latte in a small glass. Learning to fold and twist the paper napkin in just the right way to stay on the glass and stop your fingers getting burnt. The Melbourne Way.

For a while I went out with someone who worked there, and it was more than ever my home. My favourite times, sitting in the kitchen, watching the pots bubbling, wolfing down the glorious pasta (always the ravioli bolognese, thank you).

Sisto. Sisto. Forever with the cheeky grin. Forever with the jaunty scarf tied at your throat. Forever with the shirt buttoned just one button too low, like all the best Italian men. Never failing to kiss my hand and call me Bella.

Is there any goodness left in the world at all, or did it just give us one last look of disgust and leave with him? And when I look up from the news and the sadness, I see the sun has gone away, and the rain come on.

Amy Dalgleish, Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland

Simplistic responses not the answer

Politicians seeking to make capital out of the tragic events in Bourke Street should look beyond the ugly and simplistic responses so clearly exposed by Professor Greg Barton (Comment, 11/11).

Jan Hale, Torquay

They hate us for what we are not

No, John Ashton (Letters, 11/11), the Islamic terrorists don't "hate us for what we are" but rather "hate us for what we aren't" – that is they hate anyone who isn't the right brand of extremist Islamist. Their hate includes those who supported the US Iraq policy (Australia and the UK), those who didn't (such as Germany and France), and even many Muslims who eschew their violent creed. This last group includes almost all of the 1 million Somalis who have fled the murderous al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab in the past 10 years.

Jan Newmarch, Oakleigh

FORUM

Lessons in power

In relation to the article ("Labor's $160m republic ballot", The Sunday Age, 11/11), it was pleasing to note the commitment by Labor's spokesman on an Australian head of state, Matt Thistlethwaite, on "making sure there's a process to educate people about the constitution".

Those who think a republic is simply a matter of substituting "president" for "governor-general" or "Queen" in the current constitution need educating that the real issues are the role and powers of the head of state, not the identity of the incumbent.

Philip Howell, Wentworthville, NSW

The right model

The only question that should be asked is: Do you want a Republic? If the answer is yes, then as much time as necessary should be taken to determine the model that Australia wants.

Les Aisen, Elsternwick

Evolving answers

Altruism and heroic self-sacrifice can be explained by evolution (Faith, 11/11), and it has little to do with the survival of the species, just the wellbeing of relatives and near acquaintances in small social groups. The fact that it has become expanded to include strangers is a sign of enlightenment. Humans have come to recognise that even strangers are human too.

Wayne Robinson, Kingsley

Life cycles

I agree with David Sadedin (Letters, 11/11), motorists should take responsibility for cyclists, and cyclists for pedestrians.

Last year I cycled around Tokyo in a tour group. It's a busy city with lots of traffic, but we were told "just stick together and avoid pedestrians", and spent hours whizzing across road crossings, on footpaths, pavements and roads in what felt like a fairly reckless manner. The trick is one simple rule: the larger vehicle is always assumed to be at fault in the event of accident – the more vulnerable are protected by others having to respect their vulnerability. It works.

Janice Keynton, Ashburton

Timely strategy

The new "national interest test" to be applied to university research projects ensuring alignment with Australia's security, foreign policy and strategic interests is not before time ("Security 'test' for uni research", The Sunday Age, 11/11). It comes as security agencies warn of threats of Chinese military expansion into international waters and China's Huawei and ZTE are disbarred from building our 5G mobile networks.

Certain Australian universities appear to be in disconcerting thrall to Beijing.

Not only is there concern at universities' fiscal over-dependence on the one income stream of Chinese international students, but Alex Joske's ASPI report states that more than 2500 Chinese military scientists have been sent abroad as students or visiting scholars in the past decade, and People's Liberation Army scientists are using civilian research fronts to obscure their military status.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East

Testing times

As a former teacher of VCE English, I can see some benefit in open-book VCE exams ("Fresh calls for open-book VCE exams", The Sunday Age, 11/11). It certainly challenges different skills: the ability to use resources efficiently, to access information quickly and to apply it appropriately to given tasks, to be creative unimpeded by the stress and anxiety that may occur from relying on memory and recall.

The English course encourages students to take a unique perspective on texts. The open-book approach may produce responses striking in their similarity. The claim that VCE lends itself to cramming and memorising is then significantly overstated – it is open-book that is more likely to produce responses that are mass-produced.

Standards don't need to be watered down; we live in a competitive world and the VCE, in its current format, prepares students for this harsh reality.

Noel Butterfield, Montmorency

Fair please

The suggestion of open books and internet access is silly and misses the point of what the exams are for. The use of the internet would be unfair given the variability of access and this would almost certainly disadvantage country students. Some students will be able to afford the quite expensive calculators and some won't.

The reality of VCE exams – not the political, do-gooder version – is that they determine who meets a minimum for employers and that students are ranked for universities. The use of technologies does little to change the outcomes, as about 66 per cent of students will pass and somebody will be best and most will belower.

Design a fairer system, please.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill

Total recall needed

I agree with Reg Murray (Letters, 11/11). Instead of remembering military conflict in terms of the men who sacrificed their lives, we should be remembering (and not nearly so fondly) the governments whose failure to avert war or stubbornness to prosecute them led directly to the deaths of these men and also, as Graeme Lindsay (Letters, 11/11) points out, countless civilians.

Anthony Hitchman, St Andrews

Good aim

I wondered how long it would be before someone would suggest that police would take time to aim, with precision, at the legs of an aggressor wielding a knife and rapidly descending on police with little goodwill in mind (Letters, 17/11). If the policeman involved were my son or husband, I would hope he would take all measures, in such a murderous threatening situation, to save his own life and that of others. Imagine being in the policeman's position. To shoot at rapidly moving legs would take a great deal of skill and it would not be a good time to miss.

Jean Tansey, Berwick

Bailed up

If the government adopted the Liberals' bail policy, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali would not have been free. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bus.

Henry Herzog, St Kilda East

The big picture

Yes, Australia should be making our own diplomatic decisions and stand by them as we need to be, and be seen as an independent country. But let's make these decisions with the full knowledge of their ramifications on our friends, neighbours and trading partners. We don't exist in isolation; we are a small part of this world, but a slightly bigger part of the region we live in. Our influence will diminish as others grow stronger, so the path we take cannot be governed by spur of the moment political decisions taken in ignorance. The picture is far bigger than the relocation of an embassy regardless of the rights and wrongs of its location and the Prime Minister should have known this.

Bruce Cormack, Kilsyth

Love of reading

I love my job. I am a teacher/librarian in a primary school, but as Catherine Ryan (Letters, 14/11) expressed, I am an endangered species. My school is in East Coburg and my students are excited about literature and want my book recommendations.

I take great pride in connecting each child with a book that will hook them into reading and nothing is more delightful than a reluctant reader with bright eyes asking for the next book in a series. Don't we all want to give our children the best opportunities and a safe, calm haven in a busy school?

Josephine Natoli, East Kew

Phish and chips

So, workers are to be microchipped in Britain. Not for identification purposes in case they get lost (as in pets), but to "boost security and stop staff accessing sensitive business areas". What remaining rights and freedoms workers now have will be completely eroded if this plan goes ahead. I am appalled at the thought that these companies will be allowed to do this.

Margaret Collings, Anglesea

Get smart

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has ticked off Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for calling out Malaysian President Mahathir Mohamad's outrageous anti-Semitism. Bill Shorten and Labor have been little better on defending our right to choose where we locate our embassy in Israel, essentially suggesting we bow to the views of Indonesia and Malaysia, which don't even have diplomatic relations with Israel at all. Is this the kind of principled and smart foreign policy we can expect to see under a Shorten government?

Mark Kessel, Caulfield North