Justin Trudeau and his family flee Canadian capital Ottawa as up to 50,000 'Freedom Convoy' anti-vaccine mandate truckers arrive at his office

dailymail.co.uk

 

Justin Trudeau and his family flee Canadian capital Ottawa as up to 50,000 'Freedom Convoy' anti-vaccine mandate truckers arrive at his office - days after he dismissed them as a 'small fringe minority'

• Justin Trudeau and his family have left their Ottawa home amid security concerns as demonstrators marched up and down the streets in front the Prime Minister's office to rally against the vaccine mandate
• Days earlier, he had called the truckers headed for the city a 'small fringe minority' before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long as it made its way to the capital . 
• Protestors could be seen carrying copies of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, while others carried signs reading 'God keep our land glorious and free,' 'Make Canada great again,' and 'we are here for our freedom'
• The convoy set out from British Columbia on Sunday and was cheered by hundreds of Canadians as it made its 2,000-mile journey to protest vaccine mandates 

By Afp and Gina Martinez For Dailymail.Com

Published: 00:43 GMT, 30 January 2022 | Updated: 12:35 GMT, 30 January 2022

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have left their home in the national's capital Ottawa for a secret location as up to 50,000 truckers gather to protest against the country's vaccine mandate and Covid lockdowns. 

Hundreds of truckers drove their giant rigs into the Canadian capital Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled 'Freedom Convoy' which started as a protest against vaccine mandates required to cross the US border. 

Days earlier, he had called the truckers headed for the city a 'small fringe minority' before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long as it made its way to the capital . 

The movement received an endorsement Thursday from Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who tweeted, 'Canadian truckers rule' and the movement has become a cause celebre for many on the right of politics  in the United States.

Flying the Canadian flag, waving banners demanding "Freedom" and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the truckers were joined by thousands of other protesters angered not only by Covid-19 restrictions but by broader discontent with the government.

There was an enormous clamor as hundreds of big trucks, their engines rumbling, sounded their air horns non-stop. Estimates of the number of truckers range from 10-20,000.

Closer to Parliament, families calmly marched on a bitterly cold day, while young people chanted and older people in the crowd banged pots and pans in protest under Trudeau's office windows. 

Canadian media said the prime minister and his family had been escorted out of their home and taken to a secret location in the capital, with much of the protesters' wrath directed at Trudeau.

'I want it all to stop -- these measures are unjustified,' said one demonstrator, 31-year-old businessman Philippe Castonguay, outside the Parliament building.

He had driven seven hours from northern Quebec province to make his feelings known: "The vaccination requirements are taking us toward a new society we never voted for," he said. 

Trudeau said Friday that the truckers' views -- which he described as anti-science, anti-government and anti-society -- posed a risk not only to themselves but to other Canadians as well. 

To date, 82 percent of Canadians aged five or older have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Among adults, the figure is 90 percent.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, a major industry group, said the vast majority of the country's truck drivers are vaccinated. It has "strongly disapproved" of the gathering in Ottawa. 

The protest originated last week in western Canada, where dozens of truckers organized a convoy to drive from Vancouver to Ottawa to demonstrate against Covid-related restrictions, particularly a vaccination requirement for truck drivers.

•  

Hundreds of truckers drove their giant rigs into the Canadian capital Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled 'Freedom Convoy' which started as a protest against vaccine mandates required to cross the US border

•  

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have left their home in the national's capital Ottawa for a secret location as up to 50,000 truckers gather to protest against the country's vaccine mandate and Covid lockdowns

•  

Days earlier, he had called the truckers headed for the city a 'small fringe minority' before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long as it made its way to the capital .

•  

The movement received an endorsement Thursday from Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk , who tweeted, 'Canadian truckers rule' and the movement has become a causse celbre for many on the right in the United States

•  

Flying the Canadian flag, waving banners demanding "Freedom" and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the truckers were joined by thousands of other protesters angered not only by Covid-19 restrictions but by broader discontent with the government

•  

There was an enormous clamor as hundreds of big trucks, their engines rumbling, sounded their air horns non-stop. Estimates of the number of truckers range from 10-20,000

•  

Closer to Parliament, families calmly marched on a bitterly cold day, while young people chanted and older people in the crowd banged pots and pans in protest under Trudeau's office windows

•  

Canadian media said the prime minister and his family had been escorted out of their home and taken to a secret location in the capital, with much of the protesters' wrath directed at Trudeau.

•  

Trudeau (pictured) said Friday that the truckers' views -- which he described as anti-science, anti-government and anti-society -- posed a risk not only to themselves but to other Canadians as well

 

Russia - Ukraine Tensions

Russia Observer

28^th JANUARY 2022 

THE WEST LEAVES MUMMY'S BASEMENT

 

 

BY PATRICK ARMSTRONG

 

After years of behaving like a teenager shadow boxing in the basement of his mother's house, playing out the fantasy of knocking out Ivan Drago in the 1985 movie Rocky IV, the US and NATO find themselves confronting the reality.

SCOTT RITTER

 

Being a member of NATO used to be pretty cost-free: fun even. You had a suite in the flashy new HQ, admired your flag with all the others, gloried in your excellent values. The biggest downside was that you were expected to provide a few soldiers to participate in the latest war in some dusty place. But, you could go home after destroying Libya or Iraq or Afghanistan and forget about it. Until the refugees showed up. And Washington really did insist that you buy some of its weapons and it was harder and harder to say no. And you started getting sucked into things that weren't as much fun as you expected. But, overall, for the leaders anyway, it was an attractive deal. And most of you didn't like Russia much, having edited your own communists out of the story and forgotten what the Germans did to you.

Russia was feeble and weak, going down, and certainly no match for "the greatest alliance in history". But what happens when that teddy bear turns nasty? Blowing up countries from 20,000 feet, you had stopped paying attention. Lost wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq turn out to be poor preparation and the bear had been paying attention. But, you cry, NATO was supposed to protect me, not put me into greater danger!

And that is the dilemma that Moscow has been patiently preparing for you. On 17 December Moscow published two draft treaties. Here are the official English versions: Treaty between The United States of America and the Russian Federation on security guarantees and Agreement on measures to ensure the security of The Russian Federation and member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They should be read but, in essence, after reminding the USA and NATO of all the international treaties that they signed up to and ignored, they are asked to commit themselves again, in writing, in public. They must accept the principle that security is mutual. In addition the USA and Russia will not station nuclear weapons outside their territories – which will require the USA to remove some. Finally – and not negotiable – the USA and NATO must solemnly commit themselves to no more expansion. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov later explained why the drafts had been made public: "because we are aware of the West's ability to obfuscate any uncomfortable issues for them… We have serious doubts that the main thing in our proposals, namely the unconditional demand not to expand NATO to the east, will not be swept under the carpet." There is little expectation from Moscow that these demands will be taken seriously by the West. I outline my assessment of the "or else" here and again here. Others have done so elsewhere: Moscow has quite a range of options.

There were two rounds of talks in Geneva and a meeting with NATO. The US written answer was delivered on 26 January and, in Lavrov's words, did not address "the main issue" of NATO expansion and deployment of strike weapons, although there were openings on "matters of secondary importance". So here we are and we await the next step. It is, of course, quite certain that Moscow has the next step worked out and the ones after that.

Other events since December have been interesting. The CIA Director visited Kiev 17 January; the UK began supplying Ukraine with light anti-armour weapons (rather elderly as it turned out); the US is sending more and others are providing light AD systems; Canada sent some troops (mostly it seemed to help evacuate Embassy personnel); a senior German naval officer resigned after committing crimespeak; some US troops on "heightened preparedness". The biggest laugh was the evacuate-or-not dance: Canada, USA and UK, the three most enthusiastic cheerleaders for war to the last Ukrainian, are running, the EU is staying.

Other developments worth noting. On 3 January the P5 declared "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." Iran and Russia showed close cooperation. Russian and Syrian aircraft made a joint patrol of all Syria's borders; these are to be regular occurrences. Agreements with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua in a range of areas, including military collaboration. And China's Foreign Minister advised Washington to take Moscow's concerns seriously. Only a fool would think these were random coincidences.

There was lots of opinion, of course. Much of it stunningly idiotic. My favourite is An Aging Vladimir Putin Hopes War Can Make a Sagging Empire Rise Again. I must confess that when one sees "aging" and "sagging empire", Putin and Russia are not the first things that come to mind. But these are memorable as well: How Germany's greed for gas, and another grubby deal with Moscow, could plunge Europe into an abyss and Is Germany a Reliable American Ally? Nein: Berlin goes its own way, prizing cheap gas, car exports to China, and keeping Putin calm. A cry from mummy's basement: Why threat to Ukraine from Putin's Russia is exaggerated – Gwynne Dyer: THE geopolitical question of the moment is: how important is it to humour Russian leader Vladimir Putin? The answer is: not very. From another couch warrior: Russia May Underestimate Ukraine and NATO. And lots of threats: eighteen response scenarios; "sanctions like you've not seen before"; personal sanctions. The US State Department complains about "Disarming Disinformation" and burbles that it's "United with Ukraine". First he said "only winners" could make demands, then he complained he didn't have a seat.

But Moscow doesn't want to "invade Ukraine"; if it did it would have to pay for it. In any event, the way Ukraine's population is melting away, in another couple of decades, it will be uninhabited.

More rational thinkers exist. Scott Ritter, no couch warrior, knows that America couldn't defend Ukraine even if it wanted to. The troops Washington has put on alert may be from the storied 82^nd Airborne but they're only light infantry. NATO no longer has the heavy forces and their support in place. But Russia does. There is no credible military threat from NATO. Many understand reality: Biden's Opportunity for Peace in Eurasia; The Overstretched Superpower: Does America Have More Rivals Than It Can Handle?; Opinion: Ignore the hawks, Mr. President. You're right on Ukraine. People in RAND realise that the weapons being given Ukraine will be useless. Worse than useless, in fact, if they encourage Kiev to start something. This fictional account describes what a Russia-Ukraine war would really look like – over in a day and all with stand-off weapons, a few special forces and the local forces.

There have been some second thoughts. Washington and its allies have been booming the "Russian invasion" threat as hard as they can but Kiev is trying to to turn down the volume – it doesn't want to scare its principal backers away. No signs on 2 January, or 25 January. Delicate job this, as we see here: you have to say not now but maybe later. Now even Washington is trying to dial it down – after all, Russia has been "about to invade" for three months now.

But the real second thoughts are forming in Europe. By addressing its demands to Washington, Moscow has shown the Europeans where they fit on the tree. It's Europe that will – again – pay for Washington's conceits. Washington is always careful to exempt itself from the anti-Russia sanctions – no shortage of rocket engines or oil or titanium – but Europe can't. Amusingly, the EU is complaining to the WTO about the counter sanctions Moscow put on food which ended a profitable export market. The two favourite sanctions Washington is pushing for are stopping Nord Stream 2 and kicking Russia out of SWIFT. Neither of these will hurt the USA but they will be devastating for Europe. Killing Nord Stream will be a severe blow to German industry. And, absent SWIFT, how is Europe supposed to pay for Russian gas imports? No wonder Germany's Scholz wants a "qualified fresh start" with Russia as the Foreign Minister calls for diplomacy.

An Open Letter in Germany. France's Macron thinks the EU should start its own dialogue. Hungary's Orbán is going there for another reasons but will surely be talking about this. Croatia wants nothing to do with the adventure. Bulgaria wants out. One entertaining climbdown was the British Defence Minister's invitation to Shoygu to come to London; instead he will go to Moscow. Even Washington and London are starting to learn that the sanctions won't be off-stage after all. London has been warned there could be a big spike in energy costs and some big American companies have asked to be excepted. As for sending troops, Washington's not that "United with Ukraine". NATO won't; UK's Johnson admits no NATO country is capable of a large-scale deployment in Ukraine.

We are coming to the end of the story. All those people in the West who thought they could ignore Russia's interests are starting to suspect that they don't have the leverage they thought they had. Russia is pretty sanctions-proof. It is the closest thing to an economic autarky on the planet: lots of territory, lots of raw materials, lots of water, lots of energy, all the manufacturing it needs, self-sufficient in food, well-educated people, backed up government, armed to the teeth. It's pretty impregnable and it's not run by fools. And it's very closely allied to the biggest manufacturing power and population in the world. Not an easy target at all and almost impossible to hurt without hurting yourself more.

And all this to preserve the so-called right of a country no one wants in NATO to ask to be admitted. What a principle to die for!

Time for Moscow to tighten the screws. How much will Europe and the other NATOites be prepared to pay for being in a security organisation that does nothing but get its members into disastrous wars and make them insecure?

Putin and his team can allow themselves a small smile: they've been planning this for a long time. He warned us in 2007 and here we are today.

***********************

I can think of no better demonstration of Washington's bankruptcy than Nuland's appeal yesterday: "We are calling on Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to urge diplomacy…".

 

--

brownstone.org

The Monumental Sacrifice of Novak Djokovic ⋆ Brownstone Institute

Author Stacey Rudin Stacey Rudin is an attorney and writer in New Jersey, USA READ MORE

7-9 minutes

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Defending Australian Open Champion Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia, the day before commencement of 2022 tournament play. He entered the country on a visa including a medical exemption based on recent Covid infection. Due to public outry over "special treatment," his visa was revoked upon arrival in the country, only to be reinstated by a court. It was later revoked by an immigration minister, whose decision was upheld by another court, sending Djokovic packing — potentially for three years. 

This draconian act puts Djokovic at a serious disadvantage in his Grand Slam rivalry with Rafael Nadal, who is competing in Australia this year after vocally supporting vaccines. Both champions, along with Roger Federer, currently hold 20 Grand Slam titles. Djokovic was favored to be the first to reach 21, but his decision to remain unvaccinated leaves Nadal alone with that opportunity for now. (Federer is out recovering from surgery.) 

Djokovic was technically deported for not being vaccinated, but the decision lacks even a superficial "health and safety" justification. Djokovic already had Covid twice, once in early 2020 and again in December 2021. At the time of his deportation, he had been in Australia for ten days, and tested negative. He's as healthy as a human being can be — you don't earn "GOAT' status in the difficult sport of tennis any other way. 

Further proof that Djokovic poses no disease threat to anyone is the fact that this tournament was safely played in January 2021, before vaccines were available for any player or guest. Even if Djokovic had taken the vaccine, he'd be no "safer" in terms of his ability to transmit the virus, as the 100,000 daily cases in highly-vaccinated Australia attest. 

Even the government that deported Djokovic didn't try very hard to frame its decision as the elimination of a health threat. Rather, it stated that Novak could become an "icon of free choice" if allowed to stay. Ironically, he will undoubtedly become that now that he's made the supreme sacrifice of forfeiting his chance to play in order to openly oppose mandatory vaccination. 

It's not a good look for the Covid Regime if an avowed "anti-vaxxer" dominates the sport. The world audience might start thinking about the relative health status of "unvaccinated" people, particularly since athletes have been experiencing heart trouble all over the world — several alreadyat the Australian Open practice courts. 

As it stands, Millions of Australians and others who have already taken the vaccine applaud the government's decision. They can't get the vaccine out of their bodies, so the next best thing is to make sure that everyone else has to put themselves into the same spot. 

Nevermind the precedent it sets to allow a government to force people to choose between their health and their career. Such Sophie's choices are normal these days.

The Regime would not have minded Djokovic playing in an unvaccinated state so long as he publicly expressed support for mandatory universal vaccination. He could have easily done this — a hero in Serbia, the wealthy star could have tapped any number of doctors to provide fake certification of vaccination. But that would have violated his principles. 

In 2010, an "unwell" Djokovic was collapsing at tournaments, unable to complete strenuous matches. A doctor witnessing his condition on TV got in touch with the athlete, recommending that he eliminate gluten, dairy and processed sugar from his diet. Novak thought it sounded strange but agreed to try, and it's hard to argue with his results. His 2011 season was one of the best in men's tennis history. On his new fuel, he was unstoppable. He ended the season with an unbelievable 10–1 record against Nadal and Federer, and compiled a 41-match winning streak. 

This experience changed not only the tennis player. It fundamentally changed the man, as Djokovic explains in his book "Serve to Win":

When it's not being cared for, your body will send you signals: fatigue, insomnia, cramps, flus, colds, allergies. When that happens, will you ask yourself the questions that matter? Will you answer honestly and with an open mind? 

Open-minded people radiate positive energy. Closed-minded people radiate negativity. Eastern medicine teaches you to align mind, body, and soul. If you have positive feelings in your mind — love, joy, happiness — they affect your body…But a lot of people, especially closed-minded people, are led by fear. That and anger are the most negative energies we have. What are closed-minded people afraid of? It could be many things: Fear that they are wrong, fear that someone might have a better way, fear that something has to change. Fear limits your ability to live your life.

Some people at the top feed off of negativity. The way I see it, pharmaceutical and food companies want people to feel fear. They want people to be sick. How many TV ads are for fast foods and medicines? And what's at the root of those messages? We'll make you feel better with our products. But even deeper down: We'll make you fear that you don't have enough of the things we say you need. It's crazy — even when you're completely healthy, they say you need [products] to stay that way.

Here's a pattern I'd rather embrace: good food, exercise, openness, positive energy, great results. I've been living that pattern for several years now. It works better than the alternative.

Djokovic rejects Big food, Big Ag, Big Chemical, and Big Pharma. He doesn't need them. His practices allow him to be healthy without any of their products — in fact, he's achieved an elite level of health by actively avoidingtheir products. 

There is no greater threat to the bottom line of these companies than people like Novak Djokovic. He is not scared, he is not anxious, so he can't be manipulated or sold an easy fix. He can see the path to health takes hard work, and he's willing to put it in. When they tell him that he can't be healthy without a vaccine, he laughs in their faces. They can send him packing, but they can never take away his integrity and self-worth. 

Novak Djokovic doesn't want to lie to the public, making it appear as if he agrees with The System's "path to health." If he did that, he would get to play his tournament, but he would have millions of lives on his conscience. He'd rather give up his career's crowning achievement in order to stand in truth. To send people the message: you CAN reject this tyranny. You do NOT have to comply. You can SAY NO, and you will be okay. 

It's easier for him, yes, with his millions of dollars. Healthcare workers on a middle-class salary will have a harder go of it. Military members faced with dishonorable discharge absent vaccination have it worse. But Djokovic has made it easier, at least, for everyone to publicly reject vaccination. If Novak openly rejects this vaccine, they can too, without shame. His very public deportation will hopefully get many people thinking about his approach to health, which if widely understood and adopted, will finally burn the Covid Regime to the ground — once and for all.

 

tass.com

Serbia has no plans to join NATO, president says

2 minutes

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BELGRADE, January 13. /TASS/. Belgrade has no plans to join NATO and seeks to form a strong army to defend the country, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told national television following a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels.

When asked why Serbia was obtaining weapons when it could join the alliance, Vucic said: "We will not join NATO." "They have the right to obtain weapons because they are NATO members, while we - a free neutral nation - cannot defend ourselves? What is it that you don't like? We only purchase defensive weapons, not offensive ones," the Serbian president pointed out, adding that Belgrade would never allow military operations against the Serbian people.

Russia supplies equipment to Serbia as part of military aid. Moscow earlier provided Belgrade with 30 T-72MS tanks, 30 BRDM-2MS armored vehicles and the Kornet anti-tank missile systems. Serbia is also expected to purchase Russia's advanced Pantsir-S1M system. Russia delivered four Mil Mi-35M helicopters, six Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters, ten BRDM-2 vehicles, three Mil Mi-17V-5 helicopters and the Pantsir-S1 systems to Serbia between 2018 and February 2020 as part of military aid.

 

spectator.com.au

Hating on Novak has become a national sport | The Spectator Australia

Flat White Hating on Novak has become a national sport James Macpherson

6-7 minutes

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The whole country is hating on Novak Djokovic right now because he had the courage to do what most of us did not – stand up for himself.

Novak's principled stance has only served to highlight the fact that millions of Australians have allowed themselves to be abused for the past two years. And no one wants to admit that.

It is far easier to demonise a Serbian millionaire who took a stand than it is to agree that we have been bullied into submission by politicians and health bureaucrats.

How else to explain the unhinged reaction to the world Number One tennis player being allowed to defend his Australian Open title? And how else to understand the glee with which his subsequent visa rejection was greeted?

When news broke earlier this week that Novak was going to be allowed to play in Australia, a Victorian journalist tweeted: 'If we still have crowds at the Australian Open by the time it starts, it's the duty of every Australian to boo Novak relentlessly between sets. Shit is absolutely f***ed.'

Urging 14,000 people under the Rod Laver Arena roof to exhale in unison to protest an airborne virus is the kind of dumb you can only be when you're smack bang in the middle of a rabid mob.

Not to be outdone, a prominent Melbourne journalist tweeted that the Australian Open was 'a tournament fans were scared to come to in the first place and won't want to attend now'.

Really? People were scared that the medically cleared Grand Slam winner might walk onto a fenced-off court, cough during a rally, and infect everyone in the stadium with the plague? Get a grip. He's a tennis player, not the Grim Reaper.

No one seriously believes Novak is a health risk. And no one seriously believes that kicking him out of the country is protecting Australians.

Australia recorded more than 60,000 Covid cases in the past 24 hours. It's not like Novak – someone who is perfectly healthy and who has natural immunity from having beaten the virus earlier – was going to ruin Melbourne's (mythical) Covid-Zero utopia.

Novak's crime was to have insisted that a person's medical information should be private – something we all believed as recently as 2018.

He then successfully argued his case before an independent panel of six doctors as well as the Victorian Health Department. As a result, he was cleared to ply his trade as a free man, with a clean bill of health.

You see the problem here, don't you? Novak kept his medical history private while we all agreed to flash our medical history to a stranger in exchange for the right to enter Kmart.

Novak fought for and won the right to earn a living on his own terms while we all consented to making a series of unending injections a condition of being able to earn a livelihood.

Damn!

Novak probably wouldn't have agreed to a 9pm curfew. He probably wouldn't have forbidden his children from visiting playgrounds. And he probably wouldn't have missed out on precious time with family because an unelected, unrepresentative bureaucrat said 'science'. Novak probably would have stood up to all that nonsense. And how we hate him for it!

We have to hate him… If Novak is not the devil, then we are all fools – fools for acquiescing to increasingly nonsensical demands and fools for agreeing to endlessly shifting Covid goal posts.

Novak's Australian Open entry did not mean that we had all been played by politicians. It was Novak who was the problem – not the tyrannical rules to which we so meekly submitted. Rules that made us so angry because Novak refused to be enslaved beside us. It wasn't fair. Why should Novak resist when we had not?

He should be booed. He should be boycotted. He should get sick with Covid!

At least, that's what some people seriously suggested, whilst claiming they were concerned about 'public health', of course.

On and on it went. Vitriol heaped upon disdain, piled upon contempt.

The Project's Peter Helliar tweeted: 'Margaret Court relieved she won't be the most unpopular person at Rod Laver Arena this year.'

Leaving aside the fact that using the story of Novak's medical exemption as an excuse to kick a 79-year-old woman did Helliar no favours, how do we explain Helliar's assertion that Novak – who has harmed no one and who has broken no law – is suddenly the most reviled person in the country?

'Rules are rules,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisted, when announcing to the baying Twitter mob that Novak's visa had been cancelled.

Most of us just thought it was good of the Prime Minister to finally turn up for something… But I digress.

'Our strong border policies have been critical to Australia having one of the lowest death rates in the world from Covid, we are continuing to be vigilant,' he said.

Vigilant in what? Protecting a Covid-ravaged populace from a healthy man with natural immunity?

One suspects it might have more to do with the fact there is an election coming up and it suits to have an unpopular foreigner upon whom to focus community anger.

Novak's real crime was to have stood up for himself and, in so doing, exposed our cowardice.

Don't think of Novak as a tennis player who got special privileges. He did not.

And don't think of Novak as a selfish athlete who is disrespecting Australia. He is not.

Think of Novak as a mirror in whom we saw an unflattering reflection of ourselves. Our first response was to smash the mirror. Then we cheered that the mirror was to be marched onto a plane and sent back to where it had come from.

But there is no escaping what we have seen of ourselves – or the bad luck that's sure to come with breaking that mirror.

You can follow James on Twitter. You can order his new book Notes from Woketopia here.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/01/hating-on-novak-has-become-a-national-sport/

newstatesman.com

The paradoxes of Novak Djokovic

By Jonathan Liew

8-10 minutes

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Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

A small crowd had gathered outside the Park Hotel in Melbourne. Long past midnight, under cover of darkness, they lit candles and sang songs. They waved Serbian flags and held aloft banners bearing the name and image of their chosen one. Was this some sort of sinister religious cult? A moonlight vigil in memory of a murdered political dissident? Or simply excitable tennis fans trying to get a view of their favourite player?

In reality, it was a mixture of all three. As it turned out, Novak Djokovic was not dead. He was not even really being incarcerated. Unlike many of the internees at the makeshift immigration detainment centre in Carlton – refugees and asylum seekers being held in squalid conditions, often for years, while their cases were processed – the world No 1 men's tennis player was free to leave and get on a first-class flight back home whenever he wanted.

His only crime, if you could even call it that, was to attempt to enter Fortress Australia in 2022 without a vaccination certificate or a valid medical exemption. In the meantime, expensive lawyers were arguing his case. A fast-tracked court hearing on Monday 10 January will determine whether he can stay in the country and compete in the Australian Open, where he is favourite to break the all-time men's record of 21 Grand Slam titles.

None of which seemed to provide much comfort to Djokovic's outraged fans or family, who continued to demand the release of their idol in what you have to call slightly melodramatic terms. "Jesus was crucified, and he endured, he is still alive among us," Djokovic's father Srdan said. "They are trying to crucify Novak in the same way, to underestimate him, to throw him to his knees, to do everything to him."

Back in the secular world, an arcane dispute over visa requirements for a tennis tournament had somehow escalated into a full-blown diplomatic incident. The Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic was unstinting in his criticism of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, accusing him of a "political witch-hunt". Angry crowds gathered in Belgrade. Australia's ambassador to Serbia was summoned to the foreign ministry to explain himself.

How did we reach this point? On the face of things, Djokovic's plight was entirely of his own making. Although he has never publicly disclosed his vaccination status, he has made fairly unambiguous anti-vaccine comments in the past, and strongly opposed regulations requiring players to get vaccinated in order to compete. As Rafael Nadal, one of his rivals, put it: "If you are vaccinated, you can play. He made his own decisions."

But as ever with Djokovic, there were complicating factors. For one thing, the player had been assured by tournament organisers and the Victoria authorities that he was free to travel, having been granted a vaccine exemption on medical grounds (believed to be a recent Covid infection). Yet on arrival at Melbourne airport, amid growing public outcry, Australian border staff and Morrison took a different view. Djokovic was held and questioned at the airport for several hours. Finally he was denied entry and moved to the Park, which according to TripAdvisor is 105th out of 170 hotels in Melbourne.

Clearly the whole thing had been handled abominably from bottom to top, with a strong suspicion that Morrison was using Djokovic's case to boost his own political standing. In any case, for a player who has long harboured an acute persecution complex, a sense that the world is against him, there was plenty of fresh fuel here: more obstacles to be surmounted, more enemies to be fought, an adversity that would only strengthen his resolve. This has in many ways been the theme of Djokovic's career, a trophy-laden dominance that still identifies itself as a kind of guerrilla resistance.

There is a word in Serbian culture – inat – which is often translated as defiance, resilience, pride or stubbornness, but really has no equivalent in English. In fact there is an innate paradox to inat, one that incorporates both refusal and resignation, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, self-awareness and self-delusion all at once. Inat is the state of simultaneously accepting one's fate while also resolving to fight it. Inat is choosing with relish to do the thing that is forbidden, taking strength from one's moment of greatest weakness, growing in direct proportion to the animosity one encounters.

In the case of Djokovic, it invariably involves taking the path of most resistance, a belief that victory without struggle is no sort of victory at all. On the court he has finally overhauled the great Nadal and Roger Federer with a game based on immaculate defence, on counter-punching, on absorbing an opponent's power and throwing it back in their face. Off the court he seems to harbour a desperate need to be liked, even as his actions – angry outbursts against officials, a spiky relationship with the media, disagreements with rival players, his anti-vaccine stance – seem fated to antagonise.

I crave your love, and so I will make it impossible for you to love me. This is the enigma of Djokovic: his mantra, motivation and the source of his power. Perhaps this helps to explain why Djokovic seems to inspire such fanatical devotion in a small core of believers, even as the wider world disdains him. Perhaps, too, it explains why the world's best tennis player is currently being confined in a four-star hotel room while his rivals prepare and practise. Why not just get jabbed? Why not just go home? But that would in many ways be to miss the point of inat. As Djokovic appeared at the window to salute the supporters who had gathered to serenade him, you couldn't help feeling they were all getting exactly what they wanted.