© Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic
The world's number one tennis player has become an unwitting accomplice to a game of political point-scoringSerbian great Novak Djokovic's treatment at the hands of Australian authorities has seen him cast in the role of a scapegoat for the anti-vax movement.
In February 2021, when Djokovic eased past Russia's Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to claim his third successive Australian Open title, few could have predicted the hoops that he would be expected to jump through to defend his crown.
Much has changed during the 12 months which have passed. The various vaccines developed to fight Covid-19, which were announced in the weeks before the tournament, have been rolled out in their millions
but rather than being a magic bullet to heroically defeat the pandemic, they have become central to a debate pitting the ideologies of individual choice and collectivism against each other.
The age of social media has only amplified this. A person's individual choice to what they put into their body is sacrosanct, one crowd says, while the other will preach that mass uptake of the vaccines is the clearest route to wade through a pandemic which has driven a wedge clean through much of our lives for the past two years.
To be frank, both sides of this debate have their merits but much of the discourse surrounding it has left very little room for nuance. A person with strong views is either blacklisted as an anti-science zealot or a government shill, depending on which side they fall.
© Diego Fedele / Getty ImagesSupporter of Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic stands vigil at the Park Hotel detention facility in Melbourne, Australia, January 6, 2022
Occasionally, though, sport can put these two contrasting viewpoints on a collision course - and that is what has happened with Novak Djokovic. The Serb, who is arguably the most successful player of his generation, has frequently been cited in the global media as fundamentally opposed to vaccinations despite remaining relatively tight-lipped about the topic.
Much of his anti-vax notoriety can be
traced back to the Adria Tour tennis event he arranged in the summer of 2020; an event which drew widespread criticism from western media for its perceived absence of social distancing and other measures designed to inhibit the spread of what was at the time still a relatively new and unknown virus.
Some might say that the media got their wish when a Covid outbreak was confirmed within the tournament, leading to the event being canned prematurely before its conclusion.
Comeuppance. That's what you get for trying to pretend Covid doesn't exist, they cried.
Since then, Djokovic has been unable to shake the tag of an anti-vax pariah -
coming to a head late on Tuesday night in Melbourne.
Regular readers of the sports media will know that Djokovic's participation in this month's Australian Open was a dominant narrative of the sport for several months now.
The country's leadership imposed strict guidelines throughout the pandemic designed to curb the spread as much as possible, using the much-maligned 'Zero Covid' protocol - which requires harsh border controls, quarantines and immediate lockdowns when breakouts are discovered.
Djokovic, who was rumored then and since confirmed to be unvaccinated, didn't satisfy the criteria to guarantee entry to Australia which says that only double-vaxxed people need apply.
He applied for, and was granted, a medical exemption by Tennis Australia - but that was swiftly revoked in a scandal which went all the way to highest levels of government, and even provoked an international staring contest with the Serbian President.
At the time of writing, Djokovic remains
in detention at a hotel near Melbourne Park which has been pilloried in the Australian media for its harsh conditions, 'maggot-infested' food and even outbreaks of Covid-19 โ a less than ideal scenario for an unvaccinated individual.
But more than that, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's treatment of the tennis great can be viewed in a certain light as populist grandstanding โ bowing to the bloodlust of an Australian public, the vast majority of whom are in favor of the vaccination drive.Serbian data, meanwhile, says that less than 47 percent of the populace are fully vaccinated.
The apparent scapegoating of Djokovic for his views was cast into further light on Friday when Australian immigration officials hastily detained Czech player
Renata Voracova after she had already been in the country for several days, and even participated in a warm-up tournament. Reports indicate she had received a similar medical exemption to Djokovic.
Where are the Prime Minister's snarky comments about her? Or is the 80th-ranked women's player in the world just too insignificant to justify them?
Regardless of one's views on vaccination, the treatment of Djokovic shouldn't sit well with anyone. One reporter from Down Under told Irish media this week the Serb is "public enemy number one" in Australia and
it is difficult to see how this entire incident isn't just an example of him being thrown to the wolves by the Australian leadership.It is a sacrifice at the altar of a failed Zero Covid strategy - and try as they might, no amount of political grandstanding is going to distract from that.
Reader Comments
Let's hope he doesn't get JL's ending.
RC
free Guadalupe
The more these new terms and concepts creep into the conversation the more the new events are accepted into manifested reality.
Introducing the new normal: A government detention hotel in Australia.
It's magic.
This was all your fault Djokovic ...If you flew into North Korea you would have had a more welcoming experience...But you flew into Melbourne where a total nut case rules the place and you think things were going to be just normal?....Obviously Djokovic doesn't use his brain to think things thru
Police deploy pepper spray on Novak Djokovic fans!
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I've not watched it all, but didn't he have a hearing today? Maybe he was going to that rather than being arrested? I don't know.
RC
I still can't believe the NRA in the USA do not have ads running 24/7 exposing what happens if you give up your guns...you become an Australia...WTF is wrong with the NRA and not advertising that?...Are they controlled opposition now?
When, after threatened or actual litigation, the pigs finally released the rifles and what not, they left them out in the rain and they were all rusted and beat up when they got their guns back. That was in the mid 90s as I recall and was when I quit the NRA. As I recall, several alternatives to the NRA were opened then. The ACLU also got coopted before that.
For the FACTS of the false flag behind that 2A violation (and IMO the 2A applies to all persons everywhere in terms of its intent and meaning) I will here summon Spur Input my friend?
Jason FWIW my guess and/or recollection is that he's in Australia. Are you there I think? Hang tough all.
RC
NZ is where I'm at. Across the ditch from Aus.
The people who gave up their guns would be most of the law abiding ones. The ones suffering from mass formation psychosis haha. Most are under the spell, even the law breakers around here are getting their shots and wearing face diapers. What I'm saying is even the people who didn't hand in the semi/fully auto hi capacity mag guns have falling for the con. But you know that.
Mind control is the issue. And tptb have used that forever.
I asked Dean what having a gun actually does when you live in society under mass mind control? Maybe he believes having a gun stops the cops harrasing you? From what I've seen it doesn't. Tptb use the media to spin it to make you the bad guy in these situations.
Non conforming on a mass scale is the only way i see this stopping. And it will be painfull. Torturess.
I don't have to tell you or most others here to switch off the tv and don't get tested for the bug. It starts there.
Reject all consumer marketing.
Get/stay healthy. Lose weight. Prepare for tough times.
I really believe that the only way it's going to get better is when these bastards start getting politely renditioned, interviewed, and then immediately cross posted all over the internet. Anyone has more right to do it than the CIA ever did.
RC
Same thing in Australia...if the majority of people give up their guns because of retarded false flags then the Govt aka communist Jews can easily pick off the rest...I keep seeing posts from dumbass aussies saying Australians didn't give up their guns, they hid them, buried them etc.....A gun buried after 25 years...how good is it going to be dumbass let alone the most important question...How much ammo do you have for your rusted out gun that probably won't work by now?
My point with the NRA comment was to show that they are now under Juden hooked nosed control by not showing ad after ad what happens when people disarm...I.E Australia.
And when it comes to the "tough Guy" aussies....excuse me while I vomit...the biggest bunch of girly wimps ever to exist on the planet...I go to shopping center and here they are with their tank tops on showing off their skull tattoos on one arm and on the other it say "freedom" while they are wearing a face diaper, got their 3 year old kids in face diapers giving them brain damage...Aussies are the most pathetic wimpiest morons on the planet even tho they pretend they are crocodile dundee...Crocodile Dundee was the fakest shit ever about aussies
Thanks. Hang tough all.
RC
Whether immigrant or not they are still trying mass murder a huge amount of the population...I don't think the Jews give a flying fck where any of us come from
RC
You go off on a rant.
I can read into that. Just saying.
Whats hard about that to understand?
Clue. Its a yes or no question. But then you got all defensive. So, ok, whatever.
What a stupid question.... Do I give a flying rats ass if you are an original caveman from your country where you now reside?
The better way to say it would simply be to say 'I prefer not to reply' or to simply ignore the question, don't you think?
RC
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RC
This Djokovic theatre was a huge scam...He is controlled opposition....He and he wife are best friends with Marina Abramovic...that repulsive satanic Jew that probably eats a kid every breakfast
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Sometimes "controlled opposition" gets directed to do things that backfire big time!
I think this may be one of those times if what you speculate is accurate.
I could give a flip in a way because if things go in a direction desired
then it means "the enemy" is running back to a hole somewhere
to re-formulate plans, but often when retreating is when
vulnerability is most and so, if the enemy retreats
from me and we are ready, then I will scream
CHARGE.....easy pickens....
On the battlefield this has happened so many times and typically much blood soaks into the ground - the blood of the ones retreating - unless of course, it was a "trap", but I'm doubting it and the wise one knows a trap a mile off. I think they are on the run and so let me say it again:
CHARGE
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BK, Poem of the Day: 12222 1228/9 est us of ..........