I Love Coca

This man is Lapo Elkann. Not any ordinary man. He is the nephew of il Grande Avvocato Agnelli. His bloodline has allowed this figlio di papà (and even more di mamma) to take his place among the commercial elite in Italy. For the last three years the young man (now 28) has been in charge of redesigning the FIAT marketing campaign. One of his brainwaves was the infamous I LOVE FIAT logo which is supposed to be the result of intensive research. He was also gradually becoming a thorn in the side of the smooth management at Juventus FC through his brash statements challenging the established triade of Moggi-Bettega-Giraudo.

This morning young Lapo Elkann was admitted to hospital with a cocaine overdose. The early attempts to cover up the real cause of hospitalisation has failed. The miserable attempts to defend his choice of life (or rather game with death) fell through and the true cause of his ills is already out. I can feel sympathy for the drug addict who has ended up in the rut because of the darkness of the world surrounding him. I fail to find any commiseration for the Lapos or Kates who would want us to feel sorry for them and empathise.

We are beginning to hear a certain phrase too often. A phrase justifying well-to-do drug victims by claiming that they fell victim of society. Victim's my back side. They have an ability of moving from snort to sniff to drivvel which nullifies any Oscar winning performance ever given. Oh poor multi-millionaire heir, poor glamour model... almost died of coke... how dare society put them in this situation?

I do not feel sorry for Lapo. Neither do I welcome the comments by Count Gelasio Gaetani Lovatelli d'Aragona comparing the man's possible recovery to Maradona's. I never liked Maradona anyway (nor did I like his coke sniffing companion Caniggia). I speak of tolerance... and yes I do believe that we must not be harsh on Lapo, Kate or Diego. Nor must we turn them into heroes.

They are not and can never be our heroes.