Ruud awakenings at Marbella's Three Kings Day

Ruud Van Nistelrooy as Balthazar, one of the Three Kings

The UK’s Daily Mail has once again whipped itself into a self-righteous frenzy – while spectacularly missing the point – with this report on former Málaga and Real Madrid footballer Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s appearance at the Three Kings parade in Marbella.

The so-called ‘racism row’ that has piqued the paper’s special kind of one-eyed opprobrium involves the retired Dutch footballer ‘blacking up’ to play the role of Middle Eastern king Balthazar (even though recent revelations from the Church suggest that they may, in fact, have hailed from Andalucía).

Van Nistelrooy wowed crowds at the Marbella marina before heading to the Costa del Sol hospital to deliver gifts to sick children. So far, so ordinary. The fact that he ‘blacked-up’ drew predictable criticism on Twitter; criticism that normally would have raised barely a murmur throughout wider society.

But such is the way the modern media reports on the slightest whiff of controversy that even a few misspelt, ill-informed bile spewings on Twitter can fan the flames of a media witch hunt.

The article by the Daily Mail merely confirms their own prejudices. Sure, it would be ill-advised for a footballer, or any celebrity, to ‘black up’ for a cause in the UK – where race relations are ostensibly advanced but incredibly sensitive – but it’s not a big deal in Spain. Such a practice goes back for many a year, and nary a controversy has ever been reported.

In this instance, however, the fact that it was former Manchester United and Premier League star Ruud Van Nistelrooy doing it meant it became fair game for the British press.

The article then hints at a similarly ‘misguided’ stunt by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an inclusion that subtly implies that many people on the Continent, even the educated ones, cannot help but yield to their innate prejudices. If only they could be more like the British, the article doesn’t quite say.

Which is quite ironic when you think about it. Two countries (well, three if you consider that Van Nistelrooy is Dutch and the practice is quite widespread in the Netherlands for Sinterklaas in December, too) do one thing; the media of another country disapproves.

So who’s in the wrong? The countries that have merely revelled in their ancient traditions, or the one that’s doing all the finger pointing and mud flinging?

Sometimes, it’s hard to know. The best way to guard against such ill-informed prejudices is to expand the mind. Travel, move abroad, learn another language and discover another culture. It will definitely do you good.