Yesterday, we cancelled our subscription to “The Age” newspaper. We have written to Don Churchill (CEO and publisher of that newspaper) to explain why we can no longer tolerate the philosophy which guides “The Age”. He should be receiving our letter sometime this week. From next week we will be getting delivery of “The Australian.”

As background information, we relocated to Melbourne at the end of July last year. Avid readers that we are, we believed we should be learning about local Victorian issues and becoming familiar with the situation here. Our friends advised us against getting “The Age” if we wanted a balanced reporting about Israel. Despite their advice we went ahead and subscribed to the publication.

We are not sorry that we did this because now we know how biased this newspaper’s reporting is. Whenever something about Israel came up in the news, “The Age” was eager to blame Israel while defending the Palestinian or Muslim or Arab point of view.

Even when they published letters from the Jewish community which objected to this unbalanced reporting, there would be one letter that was pro-Israel, and three letters that were condemning Israel. Glaring factual errors were not corrected, or most likely, not allowed to be corrected

This was unfair and made us question “The Age’s” motivation.

The cartoons from Leunig and others were so prejudiced that had this approach been taken towards the Arabs, there would have been riots in the streets. As indeed there were over the Danish cartoon hysteria.

I stopped paying attention to what “The Age” was writing but my husband believes that it is good to know what the “enemy” thinks and does. His use of that terminology is revealing, isn’t it?

As for getting news about Melbourne, we learned a lot about some “reformed” druggie called Ben Cousins and other pathetic examples for our youth to emulate. As far as we could see, the local news was not informative. We could learn immediate news items from the internet and TV.

Let’s face it, newspapers are not current. By the time they are published, the news has been broadcast on other media. So the biggest attraction of newspapers is their longer articles, the columns from contributors, and even the Letters to the Editor which should be a selection of opinions from both sides, for and against and not just from one side. I would not want “The Age” to be totally biased against the Arab view either. There is no benefit in that because it just becomes propaganda.

The tipping point, to use the latest jargon, was “The Age’s” reporting on the constant shelling of Israeli towns by Hamas militants and the subsequent retaliation by Israel which is still going on as I write.

I don’t intend to go into the details of what is happening in the Middle East right now, but in my opinion, if you keep shelling me I will not keep taking it forever. Everyone has a right to self-defence. Israel should not be expected to sit back and do nothing about missiles being directed towards its civilian population. I am always amazed by Israel’s patience in the midst of such provocation.

None of this patience is ever mentioned in “The Age”. The fact that Israel wants to live in peace alongside its Arab neighbours is conveniently played down by this paper.

And if that is the way that “The Age” reports on affairs in the Middle East, then how can I believe what it writes about the rest of the world?

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To visit Vassar College in New York state is to appreciate what philanthropy can do when it comes to education. The college was set up originally by a brewer called Matthew Vassar for the liberal arts education of young ladies.

I had read about Vassar in literature and heard references to it in American films, so it was truly a pleasure to walk around its beautiful buildings dating back to the Nineteenth Century. I was in architecture heaven and would have loved to live on campus.

This is what money can do when it is used for causes more worthy than buying a football team. But money can also be used as a bribe and as a tool for propaganda.

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Problems in the Health system can’t wait until 2020, especially the one caused by too many female doctors in general practice. It’s time we gave some serious thought to whom we enrol in Medicine. We need more doctors, especially in rural areas, but we have the proportion of female doctors to male doctors wrong.

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By lunchtime yesterday I had given up watching the broadcast of the 2020 Summit in Canberra. Call me a sucker for punishment, but I couldn’t resist watching some more in the afternoon.

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We sat down to watch the opening of the 2020 Best and Brightest Summit at 8.30 am on Saturday and three and a half hours later we gave up. This is why…

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He was not invited. He is no friend and yet he has the audacity to turn up in Israel before going to fraternise with Hamas leaders in Gaza. As if that’s not enough of an insult, he intends to meet with Hamas supremo Khaled Meschaal who’s operating from Damascus.

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Lately I’ve been reminded of that famous saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” But plagiarism goes too far. I say that because I’ve noticed that too frequently when I make an observation and use particular analogies they turn up in a newspaper article a day or two day later.

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When Trinny and Susannah, fashion gurus from England, came downunder to Australia, I was hoping that they might have some fashion advice for the Prime Minister’s wife, Therese Rein. But alas and alack, that was not to be and a golden opportunity was missed. I wrote about Mrs Rudd’s poor dress sense last year.

And now, four months after the election, the newspapers have finally dared to criticise the Prime Minister’s wife’s fashion nonsense.

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The head of the Australian Medical Association is not happy that she was excluded from the 2020 Summit of the Best and Brightest in April. I am amazed that Dr Capolingua should be under the illusion that her views would be welcome. In my opinion she has nothing to contribute.

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When I watched the Prime Minister of Australia prance cutely up the stairs of his plane I thought he needed a lesson in moving like a man. A swagger like John Wayne, a ramrod stride like Robert Mitchum, perhaps, even a normal homo erectus march would be better than the merry munchkin frolic of Kevin Rudd. T.V stations played his ascent over and over again and there was plenty of discussion about his jerky farewell at the top of the steps. Frankly, he looked like a silly schoolboy on a first date. I’ve said it before, in politics impressions count.

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