The other day, I came across one of my French language bookmarks, over a ‘mundane’ event, and the fact that it raised a certain level of torment, actually worried me!! So, the story is the following:
In the French Football (Soccer) League, on January 30, there was a match between Monaco and Marseille. On the Monaco side, there is a Russian player (Alexander Golovine) and on the Marseille side, there is a Ukrainian player (Ruslan Malinovski).
After the game, as the Ukrainian and the Russian crossed each other (which often happens between the players of the two competing teams), apparently the Ukrainian saluted the Russian in a too ‘friendly a matter’, as argued by the Ukrainians, on the social media.
This matter got so intense, that the Ukrainian, Malinovski, issued a statement on his Instagram account. He apologized for his gesture of greeting towards the Russian. He also explained that his gesture is a standard practice in the game, but also that if it had been an individual (not a team) competition, he would not have even played against the Russian. And finally, he knows what the Ukrainians are going through, and he supports them all the way.
While most people may have ignored the point, I am truly saddened by this event. Have we lost something? Are we now just in a binary mode: ‘Friend’ or ‘Foe’? Is this not just a different version of Japanese internmetnts, in the US and Canada during the second woled war? Is the Russian (Golovine) responsible for the war? Is he benefiting in any way from the war? Has he even made any comment in support of Russia or against Ukraine? The answer is no. He is just ‘persona non-grata’ because he is Russian. Mixing up the ‘individual’ and the ‘state’ is the very essence of Xenophobia, and we know what that has given to humanity. We just can’t count the number of victims of Xenophobia, over the centuries.
So, if we believe in basic freedoms in the West, we need not curtail human gestures between humans, who are innocent. Fascism is not too far away from Xenophobia!
Paris, February 13, 2023
Zeejay