Here is how the BBC updated this unfolding international farce today:
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The Serb star remains in immigration detention [at a hotel] in Melbourne after being denied entry on Wednesday.
A court challenge is due on Monday, a week before the Australian Open begins. …
Djokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament for unspecified reasons, in a decision that infuriated many Australians. More than 90% of the country’s adult population are fully vaccinated, but they still face restrictions as cases of infection rise.
Djokovic’s exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state. But on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said the 34-year-old player had “failed to provide appropriate evidence” at Melbourne Airport.
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I love Australia, but this is absurd. It should never have granted Djokovic an exemption in the first place. Now it looks like its left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
More to the point, notwithstanding the purported independent medical reviews, I just think greed and lack of patriotism caused Tennis Australia to do something it should have known the Australian government would find objectionable.
Frankly, it reeks of spitefulness for Australia to have made him fly all the way Down Under just to snub him like this. It takes a lot to make an arrogant SOB like Djokovic look sympathetic. Australia risked doing so in spades …
But then his father began leading sympathizers in hurling accusations only a rabid Serbian nationalist could abide:
He likened this incident to an attack on Serbia, referencing NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia to remove their forces from Kosovo. ‘Novak is Serbia, and Serbia is Novak,’ he said. ‘They are trampling on Novak and thus they are trampling on Serbia and the Serbian people. … They crucified Jesus, and now they are trying to crucify Novak the same way and force him on his knees.
(Newsweek, January 6, 2022)
Hell, even Louis XIV was content to limit his delusions of grandeur to personifying his country with his famous intonation of l’état, c’est moi. But this misguided father would have his novaxx joker of a son personify a whole friggin’ religion too…
Meanwhile, the father is engaged in a juvenile shouting match with Australian authorities. He keeps saying Novak is a corona “prisoner”. They keep saying he can get on his private jet and fly home anytime he wants. Some prison, eh…?
In any event, despite all this silly drama, iPINIONS suspects they’re just making him spend a (de facto) period in quarantine before releasing him to play in the Australian Open … as scheduled. What a farce!
Related commentaries:
Novak Slams… Anti-vaxx sports stars…
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