Brazilian striker Neymar has become a global joke, a somersaulting clown, a diver and a prima donna.
In a sport where being in the vertical should be a distinct advantage, Neymar, sometimes Neymar Junior (full name, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior), has accumulated a reported 14 minutes in the World Cup competition thus far, writhing about on the deck in horrible pain, before getting lightly to his feet, sprinting off and scoring yet another goal.
Certainly, if Neymar, was an AFL player, he’d be dragged, forced to sit on the pine and think about what he did. In rugby, he’d be stomped mercilessly at the breakdown. In NRL, he’d almost certainly be killed. In soccer, or football at the insistence of my editor, he’s a gun and may one day become the greatest of all time.
SBS commentator, Craig Foster, declared him “a genius”, albeit a flawed one. Mozart was a genius. Michelangelo, too. No doubt. Unless Neymar is scribbling down a piano concerto in A Major or resolving the intrinsic paradox of transcendental bijection in the spacetime continuum before banging the ball into the back of the net, I suspect he comes up short in the genius stakes.
Full column here.
Was listening to an interesting interview with Sam Neill – about his new mini series on Capt Cook’s travels around the Pacific islands. Asked his impressions- his reply was the infiltration of China throughout the area is very noticeable. Infrastructure being built everywhere.
Here in Tasmania the same thing is happening since we became the favourite of the Chinese president. In what has been described as the biggest land grab here since settlement. 9 adjoining separate titles were purchased in 7 different names by the Chinese – who then applied to the local council for rezoning – with the intention of building a “resort” probably akin to Sanctuary Cove in Queensland. What it actually is is a retirement village for wealthy Chinese. Airstrip, hundreds of villas, village shops, theatre, palliative care unit (!) Etc etc etc. Magnificent serene land near Wineglass Bay. The East Cambria development near Swansea for anyone interested .
More interesting was that the developers were apparently popping champagne corks over in Beijing three days before the council meeting.
The council consists of 8. The meeting was held at 5pm on the eve of a long weekend. One councillor was off “sick”. The vote was 4-3 in favour.
There have been 460 objections lodged before it goes to Tasmanian Planning.
I would eat my hat if palms haven’t been greased.
It needs an investigative journalist on to it
Chinese foreign Nationals investment in Property in Australia has plummeted in the last 12 months after reaching record levels in the previous 2 years under the coalition. That Liberal supporting council down there did you vote for them? oh dear. do you have an issue with Asians or is it just a NIMBY whinge?
You don’t want to f*ck up a backyard like Tassie. They will.
Trivalve. Yvonne an numerous occasions has glorified her favored developments down in oaky oaks, it is curious she seems to have an issue now with the Chinese? The Liberal supporting council and the Liberal Premier put this deal in motion secretively where is her condemnation of the Libs? So who will F*ck up Tassie? the Politicians who did the secret dal or the developer who will have to meet the environmental requirements for the project? Xenophobia already gets too much of a boost by the cons for purely political points are you wanting to support that?
Xenophobia or a recognition of a very nasty future reality?
That development should be opposed no matter who proposed it.
The Chinese are too quick to shout racism when their pet projects are opposed.
I want to support Tasmania without killing its quality. Both sides of politics have been at it for years.
Interesting confluence there, the British explorer scouting for land to steal and colonise and the Chinese offering to buy it. From the colonisers, essentially.
Looks like Boadicea discovered Tasmania just ahead of the Chinese.
Hey, just a thought, and it’s entirely up to you but be careful what you say, and don’t sail to close too the wind.
I’m just one of more than 460 Tasmanians who have an issue with this rezoning, JB.
I don’t think it’s an issue of the nationality of the developer as much as the land grab by foreigners who have decided that this would be a nice place to retire – and the manner in which it got through the council with little advance consultation (less than a week I believe) people who live in the area. It was a fait accompli before anyone realised the huge scale of the land involved.
The development is totally inappropriate for the area- Tasmania is not the Gold Coast and doesn’t want to be. I think it’s this that has put the the wind up most who will be affected by it. Wouldn’t matter which country the devloper came from.
In this instance though its the Chinese who have already bought a large dairy concern here and who are flocking here because their president likes the place.
Tasmania is at a crossroad – what to do about a sudden surge in tourism that has taken the state by surprise and for which there is insufficient infrastructure. There are all sorts of spin offs to this. Airbnb is causing angst for renters who find themselves evicted at the end of their lease as the premises becomes tourist accommodation. The rental market in Hobart is the hottest in Australia. A lot of evictees simply cannot find anywhere to live They are camping.
Of most concern is when does development and over-tourism destroy that which made the place attractive in the first instance.
A raging debate here right now – and a delicate path to tread. Yes the economy here needs a boost – but at what cost?
The ‘cost’ is too high Boadicea.
Tasmanians must get loud & kick this proposal back to China before Coles Bay is history.
How dare they give approval for anything without public consultation anyways.
Indeed, Bella.
An article I saw somewhere had this development overlaid on a map of Melbourne. Which put it in frightening perspective – it is huge. It will far eclipse even Sanctuary Cove in Queensland. It is totally not appropriate for Tasmania.
Most alarming is that this huge decision, which has huge implications for the area, was taken by just 7 people – mostly elderly councillors – with insufficient advance notice to the public! My God, if that had been made public it would never have got as far as it did. One of them actually made the comment that they weren’t aware that it could not be reconsidered by them!!
One can only hope that the Tasmanian Planning Commission chucks it out. The whole thing has a whiff about it.
Yeah, When Communism goes bad! It’s glorious Capitalism! Build a bridge.
Go to New Zealand, you can run but you cant hide. They wont be far behind you.
I’ve often disagreed with you Boa and we’ve had our moments, but I’m absolutely with you in this one. Tourism is great for any economy, but it has to be done properly and so too does managing investment opportunities. In Dewin they have just announced a multi million dollar hotel complex on the waterfront financed by? …….yep the Chinese. Remember when the previous NT Government sold the Darwin port to the Chinese? They are also putting in a water park, never mind that they already have a wave pool right next door. It seems that governments and councils jump at any so-called tourism development without giving a thought to sustainability. Don’t get me started on their plans for Kakadu.
Tourism jobs are great for low skilled workers. This is what happens when you kill manufacturing and mining. I don’t agree with it but it is what it is. How about we get some cheap energy flowing just like we used to have and then we could make more stuff. Too late now. Ideology won over practicality.
Absolutely, Penny.
I don’t want to sound paranoid but China are slipping under the radar and are encroaching everywhere. They own half the mansions in Toorak and highrise in Melbourne and Sydney.
London too.
Here in Tasmania the government is prostituting itself to the tourist dollar- it’s quite scary at times. Dangle dollars in front of them and they just roll over.
This East coast development will spell the end of beautiful Tasmania that was. They claim they want to attract tourists other than wealthy Chinese. It’s a retirement village for Chinese by Chinese. They have stated that people want to go somewhere beautiful to spend their last days! Who would want to go on a holiday to watch coffins from the palliative care building being loaded onto the plane at the private airstrip for the journey home? Apologies if that’s macabre!
This may help Boa.
http://www.bobbrown.org.au/alarm_over_statewide_planning_scheme_threat_to_national_parks
Thanks Bella. Interesting.
It’s all a bit depressing. One feels as if one is bashing one’s head against a brick wall and no one is listening – or caring , as long as the dollars keep flowing.
Good question! It would be interesting to find out exactly the demographic with the desire to holiday watching coffins being loaded on planes at a private air strip.
Personally I don’t think that particular tourist package has a great deal of potential, but jeez I’ve been wrong before.
“…but jeez I’ve been wrong before.”
Yairs, I’ve lost count. Still, Jean that’s no reason for you not to try your luck and be wrong again. Your little mate is indefatigable in that line of work! Give ’em heaps!
Wont be a problem JB. The only people in the ”resort” will be wealthy Chinese retirees close to death,
haven’t skipped a beat here
I used Translate to view some commentary of Neymar in the Brazilian press. For all his talent and skill, he’s been copping heaps. Cry baby is the most common insult, closely followed by disgrace, and immature. Some correspondents on the O Globo letters page are outraged by his behaviour. Less prestigious papers are posting stronger comments. The vehemence reminds me of the Columbian defender Andres Escobar, murdered for an accidental own goal in the 1994 WC. These folk take their sport far too serously. I place the blame for the entire imbroglio on FIFA who have done nothing to stamp out diving. It’s cheating and should result in the player being shown to the sheds.
Peasants, not fit to lick Neymar’s boots.
It’s not cheating by the way, there is no rule against lying down and rolling about on the soccer pitch. My own opinion is that the game requires even more theatrics. Get rid of the offside rule and ban the goalkeeper from using his hands and you might have a half decent game. (Simple fix, if a player cant immediately get to his/her feet and continue they should be taken off the field for a mandatory medical check and not allowed to return for twenty minutes)
Seriously interesting thing. I have been resisting this because it sounds ridiculous, and believing I was the butt of a joke I finally tried vanilla ice cream with a good drizzling of olive oil.
Weird, counter intuitive, who’d a thunk it! Brilliant!
It works surprisingly (well I think it does) a tiny smattering of salt flakes helps too.
Not keen on the salted caramel or the chilli chocolate though.
Jean-Baptiste – Several centuries of alleged French culinary superiority just went down the gurgler.
Worst thing I’ve ever eaten was chocolate coated grasshoppers, a popular snack on Burmese and some Thai trains. The ‘hoppers are specially bred, and fed a diet of special grass. Another train snack specialty is ngu pad, fried rat. It tastes like rabbit. When I told the vendor it tastes like rabbit, he got a horrified look on his face, made some retching sounds and said something I presumed to mean ‘You eat rabbit? YUK!’ Guess it’s what you get used to.
Try it.
Yuk on the oily ice-cream mate, you must have a very strong stomach! 😧
Bollocks! Doesn’t taste oily at all. The vanilla taste is much enhanced. Strong stomach? Well yes, first thing I do in the morning is take a few selfies of my six pack and post them on face book.
hillsong morison appoints another liberal staffer to a government appointed role at the “productivity” commission. the corruption goes on unabated. this is the most morally bankrupt government in this nations history. No wonder the cons sheeple here are getting antsy and making premature statements about the prophylaxis they require to protect themselves from the fallout with their usual attacks and then claiming to be victims.
I say Dismayed, re your” corruption” claim in relation to the appointment of a Liberal staffer, I was wondering if this was just another one of your customary, careless, unabated pessimistic posts, or do you actually believe the import of your message supports a case of criminal deception?
cotc. I definitely believe this coalition government should be subjected to all manner of royal commissions due to it’s inherent malfeasance, collusion and misuse of power and removal of civil liberties. But Labor do not stop the depths of the gutter that the conservative do every time they are elected.
How much did you spend on that new computer? It’s worse than the old one.
I say JB, did you know the oldest computer in the world began with Adam and Eve? It was an Apple with limited memory … just one byte , then it crashed.
Creationists, bloody creationists.
“a case of criminal deception” Absolutely Carl, couldn’t say it clearer than that.
It’s really strange, newer comments reads 264, go back a page 235 comments.
When I post a comment it disappears, used to show up with the awaiting moderation tag, most peculiar☹️
Just made a change so the comment awaiting moderation message should come back.
Just posted a comment to test ‘awaiting moderation’ & it disappeared on me again, so I dunno, it’s not important mate, just letting you know.
Ok. The tech is going to give it a thorough examination on Monday.
IMO, these Bots have caused enough trouble on this blog and Australia should consider severing diplomatic ties with Botslan and imposing sanctions. They’re worse than the Russians.
Hey you, not be insulting to Russian people. Botslan got nothing compare to mighty Russia.
OK? Nyet, nada nothing. You want old KGB men come your place and show what trouble with computer is? Eh?
You be quiet.
Testing – just breaking in a new HP desktop.
Are we Robocalling, Mr. Insider?
The fact that Trump has endorsed Boris should be enough to persuade the Pons to stick with Therese
Boris the man, Boadicea, poor Theresa is yesterdays “lunch” am afraid. Cheers P.S. go Croatia in the final not the French
Big fight between the “process” people and the “big picture – let’s make a deal” people.
I might add that the former have gotten us into the mess the world is in today.
we see potato head, the last person anyone would want having more power can now compel companies to take a leap into his black shirt fantasy world. C’mon Australia vote this freak out. For all of our sakes.
Dutton having more power is a real worry.
His electorate came close to getting rid of him last time so for this
bi-election the Fibs have fiddled with the boundaries to attempt to get that hate-filled inhumane d***head over the line. Let’s hope they fail.
Bella ‘the fibs’ had nothing to do with the boundary changes. These things are conducted by the AEC which is an independent body whose processes are totally independent. If there was some sort of collusion don’t you think Labor would be screaming from the rooftops?
Yeah just like they had nothing to do with the setting of the date for the Bi -elections or the very strange changes to 4 electoral boundaries in the SA state election. Or the recent abolishing of the strong labor held Port Adelaide federal electorate. Give us a break.
Yeah, the by-election date was like dogs balls.
Same with the pollie pay rise. A lot of silly stuff on Twitter about that.
I think that Dickson is quite capable of showing Dutts the door.
It amazes me Triv how people just don’t get it. The figures and reasoning are all there. It is absolutely transparent but the haters gotta hate.
Mate, from the get-go this self-interested government has given us a multitude of reasons to distrust their scams & their repetitious bull***t.
Yesterday I learned that -Xrays & CTs for age pensioners like my Mum are no longer bulk-billed, there’s now a $60 fee, but that’s on top of a long list of cuts this grubby lot have applied to Medicare. Pay up or die.
Can anyone say Mediscare???
Sorry mate, I know you can’t get your head around the truth of it, but with this shocker of a government, nothing is ‘independent’.
It’s called corruption.
Last nights game split the tipsters pack in half.