Maria Sharapova failed a drug test at the Australian Open.
The world’s highest-paid female athlete admitted she had tested positive for the recently banned drug meldonium. The drug, which she had been taking legally for 10 years, was banned, effective 1 January 2016. The star admitted receiving correspondence from WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) detailing the changes to the list on December 22, but she “didn’t read” the contents.
Ignoring the email has probably cost her her career. Her sponsors (Porsche, Nike, Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer) have abandoned her, and it could possibly cost her more than $100 million.
It is interesting that our society is so hard on top athletes, yet so lenient on politicians thieving the system. Why are we so wishy-washy?
If we are able to crack down on a sports cheats, why not do the same to politicians.
What if we applied the “Sharipova Standard” to politicians?
Examples
Lord mayor Robert Doyle of Melbourne used a publicly-funded credit card for $28,000 of personal expenses since 2012. He got mixed up over pin numbers (like Maria did).
The Sharipova Penalty: Sack Doyle from the Melbourne City Council. All pension and privileges normally associated with mayor to be retracted, and Doyle to be banned from Melbourne City events for 4 years.
Minister Bronwyn Bishop chartered a helicopter for an 80-kilometre flight from Melbourne to a golf course near Geelong to make a splash at a Liberal Party function. The trip cost $5,227.27. Mrs Bishop also spent more than $88,000 on a 15-day official visit to Europe while she was running for the presidency of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union. Fails “pub” test.
The Sharipova Penalty: Withdraw Mrs Bishop’s potential annual $255,000 retirement package for 4 years. This will save tax payers approximately $1 million while she survives on $384/week for the four years.
In 2013 it was confirmed that Former Prime Minister Mr Abbott had traveled to Sophie Mirabella’s 2006 wedding on a tax-paid ticket. After facing media’s questions he quickly repaid the $1095. Sorry too late.
The Sharipova Penalty: When Mr Abbott retires, all free tax-paid first class travel to be withdrawn for 2 years.
Wouldnt worry Mr Abbott, he could just swap teams and play for the UK as he is a dual national..
If we punished a few politician’s travel privileges…. It would make little difference. The corporate sector would just chip in.
Some other dual national politicians already work primarily for their second nationality, as Bob Carr brought to our attention (and was much vilified for having done so).
Dear Dee, would it be OK if I write an article “Let’s Apply the Julius Rosenberg Standard to Politicians?”
Martin Bryant standard?
No evidence required… just an allegation, and chuck away the key.. 🙁
Yeah!
and NO chocolate.
A Great Day for Alexander Haig
Dee is in Sydney today, so I take the liberty of posting to her Maratalova article an old item I found about Martin Bryant. It came in from the resident barrister, Terry Shulze, as a comment to Dee’s December 15, 2015 article “Three Cars and a Will.”
Until this moment I had not read it or heard of the “antenna” story. One wants to know more. I quote:
“About Bryant’s Volvo, there was a picture that the media took of his Volvo at the gatehouse from behind that showed the rear window.
The first reports were that the rear window was shot out, then there is the picture with the window – what’s going on?
Then one of the investigators noticed a ‘smudge’ on the rear window at the top and blew up the picture to see what it was – it was a UHF antenna that they had tried to pixel out.
It appears they wanted to stay in contact with the killer as he made his way through PA. Probably got messages like ‘forget the woman and kids, find someone else for a hostage’ stuff like that….
All they did by trying to pixel out the antenna is draw attention to it. They put their guilty state of mind on show.”
Quel fun.
Update on petition. The “other” petition re “a trial for Martin” has now disappeared, and “ours” gained 20 signers today, making 2020. Very nice.
Meanwhile Cherri is suffering harassment. More on that later.
I think you are being too easy on them Dee. If all (US) politicians would be held to the same standards (they insist on) that ordinary citizens are held to, the government would all be in prison. (which would be a wonderful sight to see)
Cheryl you are absolutely right. The fact that we as informed citizens are up against lies and deceit from our politicians and big business reminds me of the theme in the science fiction movie by John Carpenter called “They Live” (1988), which he produced as as result of Ronald Reagan’s ( Actor President…oops I meant “Actor, then President) rule in the USA. The theme highlights the difficulty one has in opening the eyes of uninformed citizens in our world and what was required to achieve this. Cool movie. Check it out. It’s on u-tube.