Disgraced celebrities

Is it just me or are you also feeling gatvol of all these celebrities who may be a huge success in their field of endeavour, but are terrible role models?! I actually feel really mad at Lance Armstrong - I mean I bought his books and loved them and like the rest of the world, was awed and amazed by his seven Tour de France titles. Now he, like so many others, is being dragged through the mud, in his case NOT kicking and squealing, but keeping totally mum and refusing to admit any culpabililty for dope taking and running a doping programme... What annoys me the most is that in the workshops I do with kids, I've used him an example of what you can accomplish when you put your mind and body to it... Grrrrrrr.

Just think about it. We've had Mel Gibson, with all his obnoxious drunken behaviour; Bill Clinton and the Monica scandal, Lindsay Lohan and her drugs and alcohol problems, Britney Spears going off the rails, Amy Winehouse with her heavy drug addiction, Winona Ryder and her shoplifting, Robert Downey Jr with his rantings and ravings and drug problems, Eddie Murphy being caught with a transvestite prostitute, George Michael caught in the loo with his pants down and of course Hugh Grant and the prostitute! Then what about other sports stars brought into disrepute - the various Indian cricket players caught match fixing including Mohamed Azharuddin,Tiger Woods with his womanising, OJ Simpson accused of killing his wife,Tonya Harding, the skater who conspired to get her competitor attacked, quite recently the BBC entertainer Jimmy Savile accused of paedophilia and of course our very own Joost (taking cocaine) and Hansie,

It makes me both sad and mad when this happens. I understand we're 'only human' but I feel that the more power, success and celebrity status you have, the more responsibility you have to be a good role model to our youth, and to do everything you can to make a positive impact on our world! If you think about all the fantastic role models we were lucky enough to have when we were kids - people we could look up to and really aspire to following or walking in their footsteps. I think it takes away our hope and aspirations and brings in an element of scepticism and insecurity (nothing lasts forever) when we have to face the fact that the idol we so revered had feet of clay that could so easily crumble to dust... Although I understand the media climbing on the bandwagon, I don't relish reading about the downfall of people like Lance Armstrong, who I really admired. I don't like it. It makes me feel unsettled.