Posted on 01/11/2022 6:11:42 PM PST by naturalman1975
The Novak Djokovic saga has a new twist, with fellow players starting to turn on the ‘selfish’ world No.1 amid accusations of favourable treatment over his anti-vaccination stance.
As British great Andy Murray called on Djokovic to come clean over the outstanding questions relating to his botched visa documentation, Portugal’s Joao Sousa spoke out on the double standards that have allowed the defending champion to “find a way around (anti-vaccination) rules”.
“I respect that he fights for what he believes and I can be empathetic with what he is going through in Australia, but it’s a bit selfish from him to arrive here as the only player unvaccinated,” Sousa said.
“It’s tough for us players to accept that.
“Many players – not my case – didn’t want to get vaccinated and were forced to do it to be able to play tournaments. He is finding a way around those rules.”
Sousa joined Wimbledon quarter-finalist Marton Fuscovics in publicly questioning Djokovic’s ‘right’ to play at the Australian Open ahead of next week’s tournament.
Fuscovics, speaking with Hungary’s M4Sport challenged Djokovic’s non-vaccination decision and argued that the health and safety of players was the most important aspect in this debate.
“People’s health is paramount, and there are rules that were outlined months ago, namely that everyone should vaccinate themselves – and Djokovic didn’t,” he said.
“From this point of view, I don’t think he would have the right to be here.”
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
Yes. Because he didn't, and I happen to think Australia Border security laws are important ones.
this past summer, I ran into a woman from from Australia, and one of the things that struck me was her saying, “in Australia, it’s all about following the rules”
Do you know what part of Australia she came from? She sounds like a Victorian, because to a great extent, that is true here. Victoria is something of an anomaly in Australia. It consistently reelects hard core socialist governments that are very focused on rules. I live here. Have most of my life (except when I was stationed elsewhere while in the Navy). And that is a feature of the place. And it's got even worse during COVID.
just curious ... are people in Australia like those in Asia, with a slavish obedience to whatever The Government says? Do they feel a need to demonize and punish anyone who doesn’t “obey the rules”?
Yes, and no. It's not like it is in Asia, it's quite different in the way it happens, but, yes, at least in Victoria - well, more specifically Melbourne - that's true. It's less true in some other parts of Australia. You need to understand Melbourne sees itself as the cultural capital of Australia - the most civilised part of Australia, in a sense. So it has more people who reject the independence and lack of respect for authority that is more associated with less urbanised areas of Australia.
Generally speaking, I don't go along with this. But as somebody who has dedicated his life to the defence of this country, the security of our borders is one of those areas that I do regard as extremely important. I have resisted the lockdowns here in Melbourne. I have resisted the vaccine mandates. I have resisted all sorts of the nanny state laws, the state government has always tried to impose here.
But border security actually matters. And most of the rules there are, in my view, sensible and reasonable. This one - not really. But you don't get to pick and choose when it is something so important.
I think Djokovic should have been granted an exemption. And I actually think if this had been handled a little differently, he probably would have been - how fast it would have happened would be my only question. I also think if he hadn't painted a target on himself by posting online and saying he had an exemption when he didn't, and was about to get on a plane, he probably would have been waved through because the Border Force people wouldn't have carefully rechecked the exact rules. But once they had - they don't have much discretion.
OK, if you can point out some key issues of “ fascist medico-tyrant state”. If you mean with the Covid situation, I will agree with you, as is the USA. But, like the USA, it is much worse in certain states (like California/New York/New Jersey) in some Australian states. For example, we call Victoria the “People’s Republic of Victoria”, led by “Chairman Dan” (Dan Andrews) ...he is much more of a commie than fascist, however. He tried to do a deal with the PRC on roads and had to be denied the deal by the Federal government. Then there is Western Australia led by another dictator,Mark McGowan, I think he might be more of a fascist than commie, and Queensland is very bad too with dictator Annastacia Palaszczuk (not sure if she is a fascist, a commie or just a stupid power-mad dictator), as is the Northern Territory’s Chief. In Australia, the individual states many of medical advisors are indeed fascists that all think they are Dr. Fauci, and in Australia they control each state governments approach to Covid with more power than the way it is in the USA with the CDC controlling everything. The other states of NSW, South Australia and Tasmania are not as bad from a Covid restiricitons and mandates, but they too have some stupid rules. On the Federal side, other than the vaccine mandate for entering the country, the mandates are much less than the USA.
11 Jan: Spectator Australia: It’s a win for ‘Novax’ and a win for Australia
by Nick Kestelein
The first win shouldn’t be undervalued; it’s one in a series of wins we sorely need as we try to recover a few Western democratic norms in the coming year. What a good start though, to be reassured that our bureaucrats have a duty to provide due process according to written rules, rather than daily diktats, and that they can be held to account.
But the second win we need is a win for good sense, because things have changed in the last two weeks and paradigms need to shift in response...
Though the situation has changed dramatically, public mindsets have not. It’s terrible that so many Australians found themselves on the losing side of Novak’s legal battle. This is not their fault, but the fault of a blissfully under-informed, biased, sensationalist, and frankly dishonest media. At the time I write this, they’re leaning into it; holding onto the fading hope that a minister will overrule and send Novak home. That minister is a moron if he does...
Our media and politicians have been reckless to stoke division. They need to start explaining to the Australian public that an unvaccinated person, at most, poses a threat to themselves – not the people around them. And that if an unvaccinated person is young and very healthy and has already had and recovered from the virus at least twice before – they aren’t presenting any risk...
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/01/its-a-win-for-novax-and-a-win-for-australia/
12 Jan: Spectator Australia: Game, set and match to Mr Djokovic
by David Long
Djokovic’s appeal win must be very embarrassing for Scott Morrison, who sanctimoniously lectured us in his tough-man voice: ‘Rules are rules, especially when it comes to our borders. No one is above these rules.’ With those few words, Scot Morrison revealed himself to be a gloating bully quite happy to implicitly defend his Border Force employees who, it seems, had broken far more serious rules by not allowing Novak to obtain legal advice.
And it is particularly sad in a country noted for the ‘fair go’ to find hundreds of people who would still deny Djokovic’s win and the benefit of a law that anyone of us in similar circumstances can use...
In answer to Judge Kelly’s question, ‘What more could he have done?’ quite a few people said he should have got vaccinated, which seems to prove that many Australians do not know that ‘exemption’ means ‘excused from being vaccinated’...
None of it should have happened because there were so many opportunities for the federal government and its various agencies to check Mr Djokovic’s documents before he left Serbia or before he boarded the plane. That would have been one way to pre-empt the problem that unvaccinated players from overseas posed.
Unfortunately, it appears that Morrison’s incompetent government had approved a transfer of responsibility for that final decision to Tennis Australia and the Victorian government, which meant that their control of the visa process had already been compromised. Worse still, the Morrison government knew what rules those two bodies were administering and, despite their caveats during the process, had approved them...
There are many reasons why what Australia has done to Novak Djokovic will remain a canker on our national reputation for giving everyone a fair go for a long time. It would be interesting to know if they received instructions from a minister to do what Justice Kelly said they did. If that is the case, that minister should resign...
PS: If reports are correct that the federal government is investigating Novak to see if he travelled in the 14 days subsequent to his infection with a view to cancelling his visa, it will prove that all that I’ve said above about Morrison’s bullying is correct. It will be nothing less than revenge for his having won the appeal and it’s about time that Morrison retired. He was never suited to the top job and this is just another example of the old saying: ‘It’s not only cream that floats to the top.’
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/01/game-set-and-match-to-mr-djokovic/
11 Jan: Spectator Australia: The importance of informed consent in the Covid era
by James Kildare
It used to go without saying that the morality of medical practice rested on informed consent. It is enshrined in the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights and in international human rights law – at the core of this principle is the knowledge that ultimately, as medical professionals, we might be wrong. However, it seems the erosion of this principle is a consequence of pandemic policy-making...
A reasonable risk for a doctor may be unacceptable for a patient. With diseases such as Covid, where risk profiles differ enormously between population demographics the decision to take any treatment must be made on an individual basis. By removing an individual’s ability to make healthcare decisions for themselves, we are removing that fundamental element of healthcare practice. Sadly, this seems reflective of our society’s present lack of belief in the value of the individual...
So how will future generations look back on this? Perhaps it will be normal henceforth. However, perhaps it will be a moment of shame, when we let our profession and the moral basis for it, be overtaken by political and moral expedient. We should not forget the principles upon which we practice, and the right of patients to disagree with us. As medical practitioners, we are wrong more often than we like to admit.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/01/the-importance-of-informed-consent-in-the-covid-era/
All I can say about me as an America is that I am fine with Australians bitching all day long about America and, if it’s accurate, I will back you up 100%. The entire Western World is facing a unprecedented attack by totalitarian communists And I have no problem with anyone from anywhere calling them out like the vermin that they are.
Can you claim the same objectivity or are you just some mediocre, jingoist flack that will protect the Australian governments’ (plural intentional) abuse of its own citizens because you have some kind of inferiority complex vis-à-vis America?
That is a nice way to win an argument. I have repeatedly posted about how I think the Covid mandates on both masks and vaccines are stupid in Australia and the rest of the world. What makes me angry is when people who have little understanding of the facts and post exaggerations and/or completely false statements about what is going on in Australia. I am against mandates, and I am against masks. I do not believe children should be vaccinated at all for Covid. I believe Novak should be allowed to play, whether he broke the rules or not. But he is such a whinger.
You’re like drunk, trailer-trash yelling at the police to defend the husband that is beating the shit out of you. My advice is to attack your true enemies in Australia that are making your life miserable instead of the going after the innocent Yankee that called out those abusing you.
Christ! I feel like a police officer who just got in the middle of a domestic dispute between an abuser and their victim!
I would’ve told the Canadian Stasi that my computer my password is “CanuxSuxDix” with a shit eating grin.
You are so sad.
Idiotic Australian lickspittle says what?
That was painful reading this thread. Jeesh. Seems like we are now entering the in between period where people are adjusting to the new realities and the internalizing/ externalizing is still not in sync. Was like feeding the trolls though. I’ve noticed it is very difficult to speak with people lately as for now sides seems to be hardening as choices have been consciously or unconsciously made.
When you beat down people with weak wills they adjust to identify with their abusers to excuse their own weakness as victims. Taking advantage of this psychological phenomenon is how pimp render women into whores.
Don’t you think the vaccine mandate in Australia is far too extreme by restricting even Australians to come back to their own country.
The right of a citizen to enter his own country is a fundamental right - you will find it hard to any other country with a similar policy that Australia has,
I’ll take your lack of response for a concession that I won that argument...
Cheers!
Who cares? Baseline robots game now. 130 serves. 5hr. baseline robots. Boring and monotonous. Boring.
The net artistry dead. The game dead.
Since the vaccines do not stop the stop the spread of the virus, there is no valid reason for any government to require their use. I don’t know if vaccine mandates are due to bribery, stupidity, or just pure fascism.
Your lack of response must mean that it is “Bong Time down under” and that you concede defeat or that you have no logical rebuttal. Sad.
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