This country of ours is a riddle.
I just can’t get around to understand what ticks in our collective deliberation.
One jiffy we are flooding telethon after telethon with cash, with over 4 million Euros being collected in just a month towards charities and the ‘needy’ and the next moment we are having a go at Peppi because he appeals on his Facebook page to give an extra jacket or duvet to immigrants who are freezing in the containers in the middle of Hal-Far, people who by the way are busy running away from dangerous, unsafe and treacherous conditions.
It’s a schizophrenic society of mind-boggling proportions this Country of ours.
Because to me if giving money is just about charity, than giving so fluently is only a reflection of the fact that we are a richer society with more ‘change’ to spare and that’s that – there is no more to it. If we would be a society authentically based on amity it would be an issue of the money we give reflecting the bigheartedness in the way we think.
So in other words, if we are really talking camaraderie we are failing miserably and this Ched Evans episode proves it once more.
Like every society that enjoys speculation Ched Evans a Welsh footballer ex-Manchester City, Norwich City and Sheffield United comes in handy to spice up our ‘kindly qualities’. It seems that most or many prefer to take him to the gallows instead of driving him to the National Stadium to entertain the 800 or so supporters that ‘pack’ our terraces.
Regrettably Ched Evans is a case that brings to the fore what we really stand for in this country.
We live in a two faced society whereby citizens are duplicitous and throw the money in the collection box with their eyes closed and because when push comes to shove we get as ruthless as they come.
Not that I am a fan of Hibernians FC, far from that, but deciding on whether to sign a player or not shouldn’t be based on an incident that happened in 2011 and where the person in question served two and half years in jail after being convicted of rape and is still being propped up by the correctional services through the parole program. There is no doubt that his behavior was awful, appalling and outrageous – but the key word here is, ‘was’. He’s done time and I really can’t understand what triggers the witch-hunt that keeps tracking Evans.
His own girlfriend Natasha Massey has appealed for her partner to be allowed to get back to work even though she was the one who had been betrayed and let down. She has been quoted as saying, "If he was a builder or a bank worker we wouldn't be having this conversation” and possibly she’s right. She goes on to say that; "He's a professional footballer and he just wants to get on the pitch and score goals. I think he should be allowed to do that." Now the person who is saying this is the same individual who had to endure this ordeal with Evans having a relationship, abusive or other, with another woman when they were already seeing each other.
Arguments have been thrown around that if Evans had to be part of our football scene he would draw in bad attention to this Country. And now my jaw drops! I really can think of tons of reasons why we could show ourselves to be an embarrassment and ‘lure ghastly interest’ - having a reformed offender is definitely not one of them.
Some have also argued that if Ched Evans is anywhere close he will give a bad example to children and young people. Well, firstly you would need to have children and young people interested in the local game and secondly I could list off-hand at least ten players who are currently active in the local game who have drawn attention to themselves because the rumors are ripe that they have been disloyal on and off the pitch, have consumed drugs and have serious anger management problems back home – how about that for tossing them off the park?
Is our morality that easily influenced in this country?
Bullocks.
This is text-book moral panic as far as I am concerned. So many people who occupy our public space are not the role models I would chose for myself. As journalist Matthew Vella said on his Facebook page, “When do jobs become arenas of 'role models'?” We could quite easily drag in so many musicians, artists, athletes and entertainers that have or had conniving behavior (Isle of MTV comes to mind) – so what do we do, dismiss these people as well? Shall we ask these people to step out of our own conjured Vatican City cum Malta.
Do we really believe that young people and children are interested and affected to the extent that their lives are influenced by their player idols and in this case will go around raping women because Ched is around? Mind-boggling indeed.
As the Justice Minister Owen Bonnici (a fellow Saints supporter (J) tweeted), ‘Ched Evans should be given a second chance. If we believe in rehabilitation of ex-prisoners we should practice what we preach.’
If I may, in conclusion I would like to re-write Barack Obama’s victory speech formula, “....your role of citizen does not end with your [money]”.
Anyway, it seems that Evans is going nowhere as the Ministry of Justice in the UK has stated that, “as a convicted sex offender on license, Evans [is] effectively barred from working abroad.”
The point is that Evans deserves to play football, it’s his trade and profession. If it happens or not should be a question of whether a football club can come to terms with his contractual requests in relation to his skills – yes, Evans deserves to be given a second chance!
Dr Andrew Azzopardi presents Ghandi xi Nghid on Radju Malta and lectures at the University of Malta