KEEP YOUR BOOTS
understand if the shoe (boot) was on the other foot, basically said Egypt doesn’t need his shoes, and that he should donate them to Argentina because there’s much poverty there. My gosh!
What a stress! Kind of makes you say damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If a superstar like Messi isn’t part of a campaign to raise funds or awareness, he’s considered a bad role model. And when he does, it’s still a problem. But the bigger issue is that people have to understand different cultures. But they have to know the culture to begin with. To be fair to Messi, how many of us would have searched Google for ‘Egyptian customs’ before donating the boots? The Egyptians who found it insulting need to realise that Messi is, obviously, not one of them. So there’s very little, if any, reason to believe he would or should know how his gesture might be taken.
RESPECTING CULTURE
But understanding and respecting culture is a twoway street. So the offended individuals should have googled that donating boots is not strange. Plus, if you’re a painter, and you want to help charity, you donate a painting. That’s what you do. What’s a football player supposed to donate? I suppose we can argue he could have used a jersey. Except, more than likely it would have been one he’s never worn. For me, a pair of boots he actually played in, maybe even scored a goal or two in, is much more valuable. Either way, it was an unfortunate outcome to what should have been a simple matter.
In most countries of the world, people would be asking Messi if he had anything else he would like to pass off. In Jamaica, we take things passionately, too, but usually if people stereotype us (e.g., all Jamaicans are weed heads). But I know more than a few people who would be making a bid for those boots. But then, we nuh have a shoes problem. In fact, we love our shoes dearly. So, gentle people, take my advice. Study Wikipedia before people fling dem boot affa yuh!