But Australia faces additional regional and global challenges also crucial to our nation's future - climate change questions of energy and food security the rise of China and the rise of India. And we need a strong system of global and regional relationships and institutions to underpin stability.

I have run two Olympic 'A' standard times over the past 12 months and with the time I ran at the African Championships last week I know my speed and fitness are constantly improving so that I will peak in time for the Olympics.

At the start of his second term one wonders less about Obama's fitness than his willingness: Why doesn't he do more to build and maintain the relationships required to govern in era of polarization?

Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.

On the other hand when I give it closer thought I realize I'm not enough of a dictator to conduct an orchestra because it requires a pretty awful person. When you read these biographies of famous conductors they are all awful people who fail in their private relationships.

The Bronx is famous for two things. Hip-hop and 26 world championships.

I thought the more famous I became the more friendships I would have but the opposite was true.

But in my heart of hearts this is the kind of thing... this is what everyone is struggling with in their lives - relationships and family. To me it's always an interesting area to mine. I'm drawn to it.

Getting a family into work supporting strong relationships getting parents off drugs and out of debt - all this can do more for a child's well-being than any amount of money in out-of-work benefits.

Broken relationships are a source of heavy heartbreak that seem to affect every family.

I work more now because at this time of my life I am not disturbed from my aim by outside pressures such as family passionate relationships dealing with 'who am I?' - those complications when one is searching for one's self.

Women are in my view natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities.

The baby boomers are getting older and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.

Cherish your human connections - your relationships with friends and family.

I have very little faith that I'll ever find someone. I've had some bad luck and I've made some bad choices - not in men but in how I've chosen to deal with relationships.

Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life and you should be building friendships.

Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place the foundation upon which more can be built. Where trust is love can flourish.

At the end of the day I have always seen the end of my relationships as a personal failure. There is nothing ever pretty in saying goodbye.

It's probably foolish to expect relationships to go on forever and to say that because something only lasts 10 years it's a failure.

I have a tendency to sabotage relationships I have a tendency to sabotage everything. Fear of success fear of failure fear of being afraid. Useless good-for-nothing thoughts.

The guns and the bombs the rockets and the warships are all symbols of human failure.

My experience with both my parents is that grief has a lot of down sad things but I was also really emotionally raw in the first year after each of them passed. Flowers smelled more intensely my relationships were hotter and I was more willing to risk. I was going for it a lot more. I was 'unsober' and I wasn't playing by my rules.

When you're a soul singer I'm singing a lot of songs about love and relationships that I think a lot of girls really relate to. For whatever reason that seems to get 'em excited. The DJ everyone always says the DJ gets all the chicks but that's never been my experience.