With this year’s theme being Rewrite, we wanted to know what are some of the issues of the world that participants would like to be different. Their answers, ranging from personal stories to global issues, from politics to poverty and from abuses of power to our relationship with animals and nature, provide a roadmap on issues that need to be tackled, written about or given more thought to.

We extracted some of their notes below.

Girls getting married against their will

The fact that we think the planet is just for the rich people

Children not going/quitting school

Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes as a species?

Parents abusing their kids

Teaching science through stories

The policy process; Odessa massacre; Berlin Olympics; This summer.

Making businesses that care for the people and the planet

Poverty, politics, education

Intimate partner violence

Last Romanian elections

Making education more accessible

My father leaving me and mom

The way we look at poor people

How people communicate with each other

The role of Church in politics

Love, hope, fear of death

Child’s early education in the political life their country

The meaning of life

Religion, wars, poverty, injustice, inequality

The tradition of eating animals for holiday meals

The idea of original sin. Humans are born noble

The importance we place on money

Families (and nations) not telling their stories

How power flows. Who has it. How it’s used.

My relationship with myself

Generational trauma. Like Decrete 72 and December 1989

All of the world’s biases

The story of women in motorsports (&co)

Our relationship with the Earth and its resources (granted that I write this on paper)

The purpose of education: from creating obeying contributors to the economy, to fulfilled human beings

Cancer and mental health; disability

The importance of Kanye West

The importance of kindness

Vulnerability, authenticity, love, hope, freedom

The power that we gave to women

The life of post-industrial cities in Valea Jiului

How feelings of racism are passed on to other generations

The divide between profoundly similar human beings

The way we have poisoned the earth, the seas, the air

LGBTQ, hate, and discrimination

Asking her name.