Tennis and All That

We still hadn't solved the disappearance of Peng Shuai when we became focused on a detention centre in a different country on a different continent and another player. Djokovic should never have been placed into an immigration detention centre. He was in Australia, for a few weeks only, to do a job, that of playing tennis and, hopefully, winning a Grand Slam! Allowed in, initially, on an exemption given by the Australian Open, the whole episode around him soon became a mess because border control didn't wish to recognize that exception so they cancelled his visa. First time round, Djokovic won his case to remain and play the GS, but this ruling upset Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke who waded in and recancelled his visa. Then a federal court backed that up by upholding this government decision.  Alex Hawke and the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison represent the conservative / nationalistic party which is confusingly called the 'Liberal Party of Australia' because, in fact,...

Since my last post the world has gone from bad to worse. So here is another post which is a hot potato. Peng Shuai's situation was overshadowed by the situation Djokovic found himself in when, given the green light by Tennis Australia, he arrived in Australia  to play in its Grand Slam. It really doesn't matter what you think about someone or your opinion on something, you should always treat people with respect maintaining their dignity at all times. He was given a visa to play in the AO. The fact that it was retracted subsequently was not his fault. It was officiousness and bureaucracy gone mad.  Indeed, attitudes towards people has taken a downward turn. It's fashionable to label people anything you like, truth is irrelevant. Suddenly, freedom and right to bodily autonomy ceases to matter and people and governments take an autocratic stance and silence anyone disagreeing with them even if they have good reason to do so. Furthermore, good medical and scientific reasons to...