HAVE WE OFFICIALLY LOST THE PLOT? OVER A PHOTO... REALLY?

 Australia has officially, certifiably and clinically gone mad.  By every scientific measurement of ones mental state known to man, we have completely lost the plot!

This week, the excessive scrutiny and ridiculous expectation placed on everyday human beings that through fault of their own god given sporting ability, have been labelled by some idiot with the tag "role model", has gone too far.  

I am of course referring to athletes.  In this case in particular, the disgraceful shit storm that is currently surrounding swimmers, Nick Darcy and Hendrick Monk.  For those who don't know, these two guys,  recently travelled to America to compete. While they were there they visited a gun shop. While in the gun shop, they took photos of themselves holding guns.  They then put the photos on Facebook.

 MY GOD!  HOW COULD THEY PERPETRATE SUCH  A DISPICABLE ACT ON THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE?

Are guns not legal in the United States? Is shooting not an Olympic sport? Are 20 something year old men not entitled to take holiday snaps and share them with their friends?  Apparently not.

The reaction by the media, swimming Australia and the Australian Olympic committee beggars belief. It has been on the news and in the papers going on its second week.  The pair were ordered home and made explain themselves.  They have now been banned from social media until after the Olympics and are being sent home from London as soon as they finish their events.  WTF  AUSTRALIA!?

This whole issue speaks to a problem that has been around for years.  The inflated perception that somehow, athletes should be held to a higher standard then, in this country at least, even our politicians.  What a joke!

Athletes are everyday humans like you and I.  They are not the moral compass of our society, they do not promise to uphold the integrity of a nation, they do not ask that your little Billy do as they do.  They run fast, jump high and hit hard.  That is it! 

The expectations placed on these people is a cop out.  Parents should be role models, the leaders of our country should be role models.  Running 100mtrs in under 10secs does not qualify someone as a role model. The current practice of  placing such strict and oppressive rules and guidelines on these young people is unrealistic and farcical.  

That said, obviously there are extremes here.  Athletes who break the law, probably deserve the circus that follows.  They know how this messed up world works and yet they still put themselves in a situation that will only end badly, for them I have no sympathy.   But we are not talking about any laws being broken here.  To my view we are not even talking about anything even remotely shady on the side of morality and ethical standards.  We are talking about a couple of young blokes who posted a couple of photos of their holiday on Facebook, doing something completely legal and in a totally inoffensive manner.

WAKE UP TO YOURSELF AUSTRALIA!

Peace

AUSTRALIAS MOST WANTED

Forget terrorism, the biggest risk to society as we know it is still on the loose.  There for all to see, in every State, in every City, in every Suburb on every second street corner.  We know it's there. The government knows it's there.  Yet whilst we send thousands of troops overseas and spend millions of $ trying to protect us from threats on the other side of the planet, this vicious killer is allowed to roam free.  Feeding off our weaknesses, growing unabated  into the supreme killing machine.

I logged onto facebook the other day and noticed someone had put a link on my wall to MacDonalds giving free food vouchers to users.  Then I turned on the television to watch the cricket, the KFC sponsored T20, when i saw an ad for $1 cheeseburgers at MacDonalds and I thought, WTF is going with our country when you can buy a cheeseburger for less than a mango?

Obesity linked diseases are by far and away the biggest cause of death in Australia.  As a nation we have now overtaken the US as the most obese per capita in the western world. The cost to our healthcare system in treating obesity related diseases is in the billions of dollars and yet despite this and a myriad of other obesity related issues, fast food giants can still sell cheeseburgers cheaper than water.

Enough is enough, surely?  Solutions to the problem form a list as long as the issues themselves but for the purpose of this article I want to focus on only one.  A Fat Tax on all fast food companies.  In Australia we tax Gambling, Tobacco, Alcohol, Petrol and we're even about to start taxing mining which does nothing but provide jobs and prosperity for the nation and yet fat food giants, who are at the very least guilty of being an accessory in the deaths of millions of Australians get off scot free. 

As a Personal Trainer, if I know an exercise is bad for a client, but I perscribe it for them anyway and they injure their back, I am liable for negligence.  In fact in almost all facets of all industries, this is the case. Not fast food!

Why are Fast Food giants not made to compensate the billions of $ taxpayers are forced to pay out to clean up the mess  that they create?  Why are we not taking a portion of their profits and putting it towards educating parents on the harm they are doing to their children? Why are we so focused on gambling when being able to pay $1 for dinner is only leaving more money in pockets to be used on other addictions.

Taxing Fast Food will not stop people eating it.  It will not stop obesity.  It will however provide some form of accountability on these mass murderers.  It would ease budget pressures. It would allow for more health programs to be funded.  The longer the government fails to act the more of a murder accessory they become.

IMPOSE TAXS ON FAST FOOD NOW