It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Djokovic was looking to game the system at the risk of putting people’s lives in danger. What makes this spectacle even more distasteful is the way that Djokovic’s supporters insist on casting him as the victim. His father, Srdjan Djokovic, claims that his overprivileged, overpaid son, who is staying at a Melbourne hotel used to house refugees and asylum seekers, is the “Spartacus of the new world” — a “symbol” of “poor and oppressed countries and peoples”.
How absurd. If Djokovic is Spartacus, then I’m Rod Laver. In truth, Djokovic is another whiny sports superstar with screwy ideas and an exaggerated sense of entitlement.
I hope that Australia deports him — and that he will not be allowed to enter the United States to play the U.S. Open unless he presents proof of vaccination. Just because sports stars are showered with rewards unknown to ordinary mortals doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to evade the (sensible) covid rules imposed on everyone else.
Max Boot
Speaking of accountability, I too am glad that this peculiar tennis-meets-coronavirus drama concluded with Djoković having his visa revoked and deported out of Australia. Exemptions from general rules for the rich and famous are never justified. In this situation it would be all the more unfair to the people who respected heavy travel restrictions for the past two years, some of them separated from family and friends for extensive periods.
people making fun of Djokovic have no idea how tennis works 🙄 we send him back to Serbia, they send him back to us and so and so forth until one of us misses - that’s a point
— %PCName (@johnnytrashbag) January 7, 2022
The whole situation reads like a textbook case of “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up”: to bypass the vaccine mandate for entering Australia, Djoković claimed to have been recently infected, but under increased scrutiny his test results revealed several inconsistencies. On top of that, during this time when he was supposedly positive, he was busy appearing in public and giving press conferences as if he was perfectly fine (regardless of whether he was infected or not, I’m sure he was convinced he was doing nothing wrong, as most Covid deniers are). In a final brilliant move, he lied on the visa application form, omitting his recent travels to Spain and Serbia, and blaming the mistake on his agent – just as any entitled brat would. This final piece was probably the deciding factor for his ultimate deportation. And it looks like other countries are prepared to bar him from entry as well.
As many others, this drama can serve as a reflection of the faults of modern society. People who are clinging to fantasies of celebrity, so they identify themselves with the famous and vociferously defend their ‘quirks’, even though they would loudly condemn the same behavior from their peers. People who selfishly put their idea of individual freedoms above any measure for the good of the community. The failings of media coverage, so focused on what’s ‘news’ that the ‘important’ is consistently ignored. Some refugees have been stuck in limbo in Australia for years – but poor Djoković, he had to stay in a hotel for a couple of days! And Australia is facing another record heat wave probably linked to climate change – but hey, that’s yesterday’s news, right?
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