ASSES FOR COURSES

Yesterday I was on that well known news site, you know, the one run by the Broken Biscuit Company.

What I saw on the front page got me thinking (yes I do manage that sometimes!) about our priorities in the world.

So, what were the headlines yesterday that prompted me to spout forth again?

Apparently, that pillar of the community, and much maligned president of soccer’s ruling body, FIFA, has finally realised there is no mileage in him swimming against the tide, and has resigned.

On the same day up to 450 people may have lost their lives in a boat disaster in China, a young girl was missing in the UK, Boston Police shot dead a suspected terrorist, and a much liked, thoroughly nice MP (not often I can use that combination of words in the same sentence), passed away.

Admittedly, all of these were on the front page but at the very top in bold as brass print were the headlines, Fifa scandal: President Sepp Blatter resigns.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t sport meant to be a form of entertainment? Yes I know it’s a multi-billion dollar/pound/whatever your currency is, industry, but when it really boils down to it, sport isn’t a life or death thing (Bill Shankly once famously said it was much, much more important than that), but the fact remains it is an entertainment. Yet for the past few weeks this embarrassment to the world has dominated the headlines.

What has happened to our priorities? When did we stop caring about human life, or did we ever care?

Yes, it is news, but it isn’t world dominating, oh my god the aliens have invaded news.

Perhaps it’s our own fault. We clamour to read the latest gossip, see the latest scandal, and revel in someone’s downfall. We rarely have an interest in human tragedy, or indeed human triumph. Or maybe the press are at fault because they feed us these stories all the time. Who knows which came first, the demand or the supply?

All I know is if an alien invasion were ever to take place, we just have to hope it isn’t on a day that Kim Kardashian has a botox booty boost, or we may never hear about it. (But that is another type of ass entirely, of course.)