Niamh Walsh’s Manifesto
Rory has a strong moral compass
WITH the proliferation of abominable actions from sportspeople – be it dropkicking cats, doping or continuing sexual assaults – it is to be applauded to see some scruples in sports.
Unlike the perennially self-righteous Lewis Hamilton, golfer Rory McIlroy took an actual stand for human rights with his refusal to be complicit in sportswashing Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record. The golfing war of words teed off when US golfer Phil Mickelson said he was prepared to be a good sport and be a paid shill for the Saudis.
‘They’re scary motherf***ers to get involved with,’ said Mickelson.
‘We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and US resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights.
‘They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-alifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.’
Sure, why let a few headless homosexuals get in the way of a jolly old game of golf.
Thankfully McIlroy, Tiger Woods and more than a few horrified golfers with a moral compass have a different view.
‘I just don’t see the value in tarnishing a reputation for extra millions,’ said our Rory. American Justin Thomas, added his repulsion: ‘Seems like a bit of a pretty, you know, egotistical statement.’
Egomaniacal more like.
Stream of new docs say crime does pay
OLIVER STONE’S Wall Street, albeit entertaining, was a damning indictment of the 1980s Reaganomics capitalist culture of excessive greed.
The infamous words of fictional financier Gordon Gekko neatly encapsulated the entrenched ideological expression of avarice when he declared: ‘Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works… Greed clarifies.’ Gekko’s greed pales into the halfpenny category compared to the scamming, swindling shysters of this society of excess at any cost. A stream of docu-drama series have landed of late that not only glamorise greed but pay homage to charlatans, con-artists and common criminals.
The latest, Inventing Anna, is a dramatisation of the story of the fake German heiress who swindled her way around American society and conned the elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The eight-part Netflix series, while entertaining, shows that in this time of dollars over morals crime pays, or that the cost-benefit analysis to being a rapacious, rip-off merchant is now a calculated risk.
Anna Sorokin, the German who faked being an heiress, spent a few years behind bars but on her release received a seven-figure sum from Netflix for the rights to her story. She has shown no genuine remorse or propensity to amend her deviant, robbing ways.
When asked if crime pays, she told BBC Newsnight: ‘In a way, it did. I can’t say no because I did get paid.’
Another documentary. The Tinder Swindler, is a variation on a similar theme with a crafty loverat conning love-struck women out of massive sums of monies and saddling them with crippling debt.
The Tinder Swindler – aka Simon Leviev – served just a few short months in jail despite leaving a trail of victims in his wake.
A perusal of Leviev’s Instagram shows him back living in the fast lane driving a Ferrari with a string of beauties lusting after him.
While streaming giants like Netflix are in the business of entertainment, the shows they are producing are cultivating a culture wherein crime pays and greed is not only good for Generation Z, but greed is GR8, as they might say.
Warring WAGs need to call a ceasef ire
THE undignified high court battle between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy underscores the adage that no multiple of millions can buy even a modicum of class.
They are engaged in a hugely costly court case over Rooney’s infamous Wagatha Christie social media unmasking of Vardy being the alleged press leak of story’s about Coleen.
Unearthed texts from the two foes show them both to be bitchy and self-obsessed.
Regardless of which of them wins the verdict of both is damning.
Given the unpalatable nature of the case, they should agree to cease all actions, pay their costs and donate what they would save in fees to a charity to help women who have actual, real problems.