Hero to Zero (Mo Farah content)?

[Liokault]

perdu said:

Liokault said:

Somalia

So?

Runs for team GB no?

So?

If we gave Bolt a bit of paper and a place on the team, would he be a British hero?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Liokault said:

So?

If we gave Bolt a bit of paper and a place on the team, would he be a British hero?

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

[smifffymoto]

Hero,please.
He's a runner FFS.

[Mr_B]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

While I would agree to the most part, it really comes down to what he feels, of which we have an indication he's quite happy here and to be British, so I go with that.
The other part about possibly the greatest living Brit ludicrous. You might make the claim for greatest living Brit athlete, but otherwise it seems about an smart as saying Richard Hammond is the greatest living Brit.

[Steffan]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Liokault said:

So?

If we gave Bolt a bit of paper and a place on the team, would he be a British hero?

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

Certainly the greatest living middle distance runner I woukd think?

I agree entirely that Mo Farah is British and I am proud of his outstanding achievements. His personal financial affiars are entirely his concen, IMO. Anyone spending as much time abroad, in his case to run at altitude, to extend and improve his exceptional performance, has the right to take advantage of the opportunities for sensible tax planning IMO.

Forty years being a Chartered Accountant in practice taught me that, for those individuals who legitimately spend much of their time abroad, and therefore can choose their taxation residency, personal taxation does become a matter of personal choice.

That is not true of the nonsense offshore creations used by permanent UK residents to evade legitimate taxation by subterfuge and sharp practice. Virtually all of these devices would fail all the IR tests used to determine legitimacy in offshore creations. Evasion of taxation, is clearly not one. Virtually all of these devices are artificial and have no legally acceptable basis whatsoever.

The promoters of these cheating devices, for that is what they are, rely on two defences. The first being the caveats in the voluminous documentation that nothing whatsoever is guaranteed and second being "It's not me, Gov!" in the event of a challenge the promoters accept no liability. Not good!

[Smollet]

I don't care how successful or British they are this obsession with rewarding people with a gong for doing their day job is just wrong. Paul Collingwood got one for scoring I think 7 runs during the 2005 Ashes win which shows how misguided the awards system has gone.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Mr_B said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

While I would agree to the most part, it really comes down to what he feels, of which we have an indication he's quite happy here and to be British, so I go with that.
The other part about possibly the greatest living Brit ludicrous. You might make the claim for greatest living Brit athlete, but otherwise it seems about an smart as saying Richard Hammond is the greatest living Brit.

He's clearly the greatest British athlete ever, living or dead. Not sure who would surpass him as the greatest living Brit. Maybe someone like Tim Berners Lee. Mo Farah has to be in with a shout. 5 & 10K metres champion in 3 successive tournaments, 2 world championships and an Olympics. Just amazing.

[johnfm]

smifffymoto said:

Hero,please.
He's a runner FFS.

Harsh...but true.

[Smollet]

johnfm said:

smifffymoto said:

Hero,please.
He's a runner FFS.

Harsh...but true.

Have to agree. A gifted athlete but his contribution to the well being of the planet is minimal

[Steffan]

Smollet said:

johnfm said:

smifffymoto said:

Hero,please.
He's a runner FFS.

Harsh...but true.

Have to agree. A gifted athlete but his contribution to the well being of the planet is minimal

On that basis since I am retired and do not work, except for the Odd (literally) client who needs support, and I never was athletic then I serve no really useful purpose, other than having fun personally, I am even more minimal in my contribution to the Planet? .

Mo Farah will hopefully assist in making potential athletes realise what can be done with really hard work and of course, quite exceptional talent. He will be a role model to a great many up and coming UK athletes IMO, particularly the middle distance runners. He is already a role model and the more he achieves the greater that influence. I agree that he is perhaps, not the greatest Englishman. But he is certainly the worlds greatest midde distance runner currently and very possibly the greatest ever.

Good Luck to the man.

[Eric Mc]

Is he an Englishman?

When one becomes a naturalised Brit (like I did) you are not given the choice of which part of Britland you would like to be called after.

[Smollet]

Steffan said:

On that basis since I am retired and do not work, except for the Odd (literally) client who needs support, and I never was athletic then I serve no really useful purpose, other than having fun personally, I am even more minimal in my contribution to the Planet? .

Mo Farah will hopefully assist in making potential athletes realise what can be done with really hard work and of course, quite exceptional talent. He will be a role model to a great many up and coming UK athletes IMO, particularly the middle distance runners. He is already a role model and the more he achieves the greater that influence. I agree that he is perhaps, not the greatest Englishman. But he is certainly the worlds greatest midde distance runner currently and very possibly the greatest ever.

Good Luck to the man.

My situation is similar to yours except I do no work whatsoever so I'm of even less benefit to the planet but then I'm not being fated as a hero which Farah is by some.
Heroes are different to a top class athlete going about his job imgo. I'm not knocking his considerable achievements and the role model he sets I'm just questioning the term hero to which is being applied to him.
Freddie Flintoff, Lewis Hamilton, Martin Johnson were/are called heroes but not in the true sense of the word. Again this is my opinion and if you want to call someone a hero for running a long way very quickly, driving a racing car faster than most, bowling out a lot of Aussies or flattening the opposition on the way to a world cup feel free to do so.
Me I'll stick to the old fashioned hero. Someone who does something that benefits others with little regard to their own personal safety.
On that note I'm going to heroically prune some bushes in my back garden which are very close to a wasp's nest

[Mojocvh]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Liokault said:

So?

If we gave Bolt a bit of paper and a place on the team, would he be a British hero?

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

[Eric Mc]

Smollet said:

Me I'll stick to the old fashioned hero. Someone who does something that benefits others with little regard to their own personal safety.

Or financial gain. A lot of these modern "heroes" are very well remunerated for their efforts.

[Mojocvh]

Eric Mc said:

Smollet said:

Me I'll stick to the old fashioned hero. Someone who does something that benefits others with little regard to their own personal safety.

Or financial gain. A lot of these modern "heroes" are very well remunerated for their efforts.

As a matter of debate, if Mo was suddenly unable to participate in athletics, just what would he bring to the country??

Sports consultant??? Join Lord Coe???

[Steffan]

Eric Mc said:

Smollet said:

Me I'll stick to the old fashioned hero. Someone who does something that benefits others with little regard to their own personal safety.

Or financial gain. A lot of these modern "heroes" are very well remunerated for their efforts.

Indeed. It is the consequence of the generation with stars in their eyes and fifteen minutes of Fame and notoriety being of great value. These modern heroes earn telephone numbers and become for a short time celebrities. Some like Coe go on to achieve almst as much success in later life which probably underlines the extent to which such individuals are drive from within.

I take your point on the British/English comment earlier today. You are very probably correct in your view. I could never hope to achieve such dizzy heights. He is certainly British and good luck to him. I intensely dislike the Media circus that accompanies such events. Seems to be the way thing happen nowadays.

[Eric Mc]

It's not unusual for people who excel in one field to go on and excel in some other field later. Being "!driven" and "successful"! is a long way from being a "hero", however.

[Mastodon2]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Has Bolt lived in the UK for 25 years, since he was 8??? Plenty of British born people currently in Syria fighting for IS, yet Mo Farah does his laps of honour draped in the Union flag and people say he's not British. Not only is he British, he's possibly the greatest living Brit.

Am I actually reading this?

[Steffan]

Eric Mc said:

It's not unusual for people who excel in one field to go on and excel in some other field later. Being "!driven" and "successful"! is a long way from being a "hero", however.

I entirel agree. Gentleman like Eric "Winkle" Brown ad all those other true heroes did everything they did at huge personal risk, for year after year,and were paid a pittance to risk their lives daily. Surviing ships sinking by submarine and being in the water and then returning to the battle at the earliest opportunity is unquestionably heroic. I do not think that is true in Athletics.

[Eric Mc]

In fact, all my "heroes" tend to be aviators or astronauts who did precisely that - their job for what was in effect, Civil Service salaries.