Sidebar

29
Fri, Mar

Typography

All that’s left now is for some sick soul to desecrate Akeem Adams’ grave after he has been laid to rest.

Like West Indies cricket, just when you think the lowest of the low has been reached in this decaying society, something happens to warn us that we are only fooling ourselves in believing that the depths of moral depravity have finally been plumbed.

It’s generally accepted that anything of any value left unattended anywhere in this country will be stolen. But to make off with candles, flowers and a picture of the deceased national footballer less than 24 hours after the simple tribute was placed in front of his Presentation College of San Fernando alma mater last week deepens the increasing sense of despair over a nation in which the very last few strands of moral fibre are fraying to breaking point.

To think that Akeem was dead for less than 36 hours in Hungary when a person or persons unknown stole the paraphernalia is an act that redefines callousness and insensitivity. True, we have grown accustomed to human corbeaux scavenging among the dead or seriously injured in vehicular accidents for money and cellphones. But flowers, candles and a picture? How depraved can you be?

Added to that the fact that a similar-type tribute had been installed at the player’s new club, Ferencvaros, in Budapest with no reports so far of a similar violation, and we can only describe this latest incident as another sad example of a people with almost no sense of shame, where selfishness trumps everything else.

Look, no-one is saying that we should declare three days of mourning or have the national flag flown at half-mast as they are now doing in Portugal following the death of legendary striker Eusebio at the age of 71 yesterday. But even if you have no respect for the dead, even if you don’t give a damn about his contribution to the school or the country as a footballer, are you so much of a compulsive scavenger that you will steal items that have no real value beyond the sentiment attached to them?

Several years ago, the Mighty Chalkdust sang that in this country, you have to learn to laugh. However it’s really, really hard to laugh this one off. In response to this outrageous act, the Presentation Past Pupils Association, which mounted the original tribute following a suggestion from the mother of one of Adams’ former schoolmates, placed another one inside the school compound this time with the intention of offering present students the opportunity to at least appreciate the contribution that one of their own had made to the game of football at school, club, national and international level.

With the opening of the new school term today, what do you think are the chances of students arriving this morning to find the second tribute violated, if not removed altogether? We may not be alone when it comes to such exhibitions of depravity, but that is of little consolation.

I know it’s an idealised perspective to think that sport and outstanding sporting personalities can inspire and bring out the best in all of us, for there is more than enough evidence all around of how the emotions and passions stirred on the field of play can either trigger violence and hate or reflect similar feelings that exist in wider society. Football, given its global popularity and how deeply entrenched it is in the cultures of so many societies, seems to be especially susceptible to being both a magnet and a spark for wider confrontation based on ethnic, religious, tribal and even political lines.

For all that negativity though and the human tragedies associated with occasions when highly-charged games of football lead to violence and death (we can all recall so many examples all over the world), there is still so much joy and unity that the game and some of its outstanding players can bring to so many millions of people, many of whom may not even be fans of the game.

Patrick Manning, the Prime Minister at the time, acknowledged that the national team that defeated Bahrain in Manama on November 15, 2005 to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany had succeeded where countless politicians had failed in uniting the nation. For all the bitterness of the blacklisted players and the recriminations that followed in the protracted legal battle for promised World Cup bonuses, many still fondly recall that period from qualification to the actual games at the finals against Sweden, England and Paraguay as a time when, for once, the usually divisive issues of race and politics were overwhelmed by a tide of national euphoria.

And even though we were long ago eliminated from qualification from Brazil 2014, the fact, according to a Reuters news reports quoting the Argentine Football Association, that Trinidad and Tobago will be taking on what is expected to be the full might of the two-time World Cup winners in a warm-up fixture just before the tournament proper kicks off in June is enough to get the pulses racing in anticipation of how our boys will fare against Lionel Messi and company.

Sadly, Akeem Adams will not be among those seeking to make the most of a glorious footballing opportunity. Yet he did have an impact on us, moreso with his three-month battle to stay alive that ended a week ago.

Those deviant desecrators of simple memorials can’t deprive us of that.