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Trump puts the world on notice
If the only thing Donald Trump did not do to hammer home his message that the rest of the world should bend their knee before the altar of America’s unmatched superiority in dimes and nukes, it was to have placed his pistol next to the podium’s megaphone to convey the threat in the manner New York’s godfathers do by sending a dead fish wrapped in newsprint as a deadly warning to their Mafioso foes.
And just like Don Corleone’s mackerel, Donald Trump’s warning killer whale delivered unwrapped and served raw at the UN to world leaders stank the same, even worse.
In a no-holds-barred savage speech to leaders of the rest of the civilised world, addressed in a manner which, perhaps, no other US leader has ever done before, President Trump went for the jugular when he boisterously gargled his throat to brag America’s economic superiority and rolled his sleeve to flex the militant muscle to browbeat sovereign nations and cow before the dollar and the arsenal and do his mad bidding to make America greater still. If that’s the stuff that snares Trump in sleep when he dreams the American dream, he will awake one morn and realise that in reality it’s nothing more than pie in the sky.
But for the moment the man’s boss and believes that he and his nation are invincible. That the world is America’s oyster and he’s the guy who will crack it open.
Now let’s turn to his performance at the United Nation’s summit where he sang ‘how great art thou Lord Almighty of all nations and how great am I as its Archangel’.
PRESIDENT TRUMP AT THE UN THIS TUESDAY: America’s ideology is not globalism but patriotism
He began it in the manner Muhammad Ali used to begin his boxing bouts by proclaiming ‘I am the greatest, who dances like a butterfly and stings like the bee.’
The start was nothing more than an exercise in self-aggrandizement, an indulgence in narcissism. The dance of the butterfly, the song of the nightingale rendered by a bald eagle.
His opening words “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. America’s – served only to send a titter through the UN hall, hearing as they did a primate — chief or leader – praising his own tail.
He then went down his own road to hold himself as America’s greatest president by marking milepost by milepost the track record of his grandiose achievements.
He said: “America’s economy is booming like never before. Since my election, we’ve added $10 trillion in wealth. The stock market is at an all-time high in history, and jobless claims are at a 50-year low. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment have all achieved their lowest levels ever recorded. We’ve added more than 4 million new jobs, including half a million manufacturing jobs.
“We have passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history,” he continued without a blush, except that of pride,” We have started the construction of a major border wall, and we have greatly strengthened border security. We have secured record funding for our military — $700 billion this year, and $716 billion next year. Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before. In other words, the United States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I assumed office less than two years ago. We are standing up for America and for the American people. And we are also standing up for the world.”
If that was the dance of the peacock, the proud cackle of the hen after laying her egg, their followed the wasp’s sting to stun the world. The jingoist call which held patriotism – oft called the last resort of the scoundrel – as the greatest virtue.
He announced that henceforth America will not be bound by international law but will be above it, that the only law it will be subjected to and be governed by will be its own and no other. The message was clear: Henceforth America will do as it pleases, subject only to its own laws and let the rest of the world and their concepts of human rights be damned.
He said: “As my administration has demonstrated, America will always act in our national interest. I spoke before this body last year and warned that the U.N. Human Rights Council had become a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends. Our Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, laid out a clear agenda for reform, but despite reported and repeated warnings, no action at all was taken.”
“So the United States took the only responsible course: We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and we will not return until real reform is enacted. For similar reasons, the United States will provide no support in recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority. The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process. We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy. America is governed by Americans.”
And then he delivered the cruncher: “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.”
It was the signal that America will be retreating to an era of isolationism as it had done in the past before two world wars had forced it to emerge from its shell. In a world which has shrunk to a global village this was bad news. As Trump will himself put as he often does when something is bad: “Not good”.
When the present ‘politically correct’ ideology holds the view that the world must unite for humanity’s common good and nations must be one for all and all for one, when the fires of war that America has set ablaze to advance their own economic interest have to be doused, when the threat of global warming and environmental issues demand common effort before the climate engulfs all, for the world’s superpower — one of the main culprits responsible — to shrug its head and wash its hands off from all responsibility and say to the rest of the world, each man for himself, then the Apocalypse will be here sooner than we thought. ‘Not good’.
And where will that leave America? Will it be untouched, will it survive to rule the world alone in darkness or go down the tub hole along with the rest of mankind not with a bang or whimper but with a chortle when the last drop of all humanity is drained out in nature’s sink? Such blasé thinking by the most powerful man in the world today that any nation can live and act on her own without helping one’s neighbour will only serve to expedite the end. ‘Not good’.
This is not to say that Trump is all bad and no good. As the president of his country he has fought hard and valiantly to wring the best for his people. His border issues with Mexico to stem the tide of immigrants. His trade negotiations with China to gain maximum profit for his country and turn round the trade deficit. His one to one meeting with North Korean dictator to make the US a safer place to live in, are but issues which he, according to him, he has successfully achieved. Single handedly.
Good for him. And good for America. But by being the Mother of all Nations, what has he, her self-anointed greatest son, done to give the rest of the world in return? Nothing. Except to demand more from the rest to fatten the American livestock.
Thus it’s why, whilst the world’s leaders stand up and clap in unison his self-acclaimed achievements of what he has done to make his nation great and proud and his considered opinion of himself to be the greatest president America ever had – and that, too, not even two years of being at its helm – no doubt they do a double take and deplore the callousness which with he holds in contempt nations less privileged.
And then the threat to any nation who does not play the American game and accept referee Uncle Sam’s ruling as the final and correct verdict.
He said, “the US is taking a hard look” at the foreign aid it sends to other countries and the financial support it provides to international organisations.”Few give anything to us. That is why we are taking a hard look at US foreign assistance. We will examine what is working, what is not working and whether the countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our interests at heart,”
Trump said. “Moving forward we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and frankly our — our friends.”
And to back his words with fire power, he added the blatant bullet: “We have secured record funding for our military — $700 billion this year, and $716 billion next year. Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before.”
For all his tough talk, for all his painting of America as the greatest nation the world has ever seen, for all his assertions that America will be governed by its own laws and no other, he should remember, even as America under his presidential reign moves from being not only the sole policeman of the world but to be its supreme chief justice as well, that no nation is an island, even one as big a land as the United States of America undoubtedly is. And may God bless her and save her indeed.
| Life, if you blow up hundreds; Death, if you kill just one manGovernment gazettes new counter-terror charter Last week the Government gazetted the Counter Terrorism Bill ‘to make provision for the protection of Sri Lanka and the people of Sri Lanka from acts of terrorism and other offences associated with terrorism; and to provide for the identification, apprehension, arrest, custody, detention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of any person who has committed an act of terrorism or any other offence associated with terrorism; and to repeal the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979. Section 3 of the Bill defines who a terrorist is and what constitutes an act of terrorism. Amongst a host of definitions, it states: a) intimidating a population; has to state: commits an offence under section 3 and causes the death of any other person in the course of committing such offence, of which the reasonable foreseeable consequence is the death of any other person, shall, upon conviction by the High Court be punished with imprisonment for a period which may extend to life imprisonment; or Funny, isn’t it, that while the punishment for a person who murders his next door neighbour for some personal reason or the other is death upon conviction, the punishment for one who comes under the definition of a terrorist and blows up hundreds with a bomb planted at some busy public place for some political reason is only life imprisonment? Ironical, is it not, that when the President has announced his intention to break away from the 42-year tradition not to hang those on death row and is itching to execute not only convicted drug traffickers who still continue to operate behind prison walls but has suggested the death penalty for those who steal from the public purse and misuse state property, that the Government has presented a counter terrorism bill which literally allows a mass terrorist bomber to get away with murder most foul? No need any more for the suicide jacket. The terrorist will no longer have to fear swinging on the gallows attired as he will be with this life saving charter of protection. | |
| Sirisena at the UN: Hands off Lanka Then he had told the General Assembly: “We have, in recent months, taken many important steps for socio-economic transformation. Before I came to power, people in my country were living in fear and I ended that period and made the people free of fear, established rule of law and restored democratic rights.” “My intention is to make people of Sri Lanka one of the happiest among the world communities by establishing a knowledge-based society. I am determined to alleviate poverty in my country. For that purpose I have declared 2017 as the Year of Alleviation of Poverty.”  IN GOOD COMPANY, FOR THE FAMILY ALBUM: Donald and Melania pose with Maithri and Jayanthi Whether he has succeeded in alleviating poverty in 2017 or whether he has brought his people to the brink of starvation with rising food prices and made his people one of the happiest in the world next to Ethiopia or Somalia only the forthcoming presidential election in Lanka can truly tell. But what he told the UN this week in his address to the delegates has some ring of truth. That, during these last three years of his rule, Lanka’s track record on human rights has taken a leap of faith and has atoned for past Rajapaksa sins. In the same manner Trump did at the UN this week with self praise at the start of his speech, so did Sirisena preface his address self-eulogising his achievements; and justifiably so when he spoke of the air of freedom he had blown to the Lankan environment. “Look at Lanka”, he said to the international community, “Look with a fresh perspective, in new light. Look at the tremendous progress made by the government towards reconciliation. Look at the tremendous advances we have made in restoring democratic freedoms, in safeguarding human rights, in ensuring the rule of law prevails; and extend to us your fullest support to build further upon it and establish a progressive democratic, free and equal society.” He said that when he became the executive president of Lanka, the post gave him the powers of an emperor but he has divested himself of the excess and retained only those necessary to rule. “During the last three and a half years, the government has taken several important steps that are necessary to consolidate democracy, freedom, good governance, media freedom and independence of the judiciary. Through such transformative steps, we have laid the foundation necessary to forge national reconciliation, communal harmony and ensure non-recurrence of conflict in our country. “As a country that has suffered violent conflict for 30 years, we are drawing from experience and lessons learned to strengthen national reconciliation, and we are determined to prevent the recurrence of conflict. We have given priority in this context to consolidate freedom and democracy in our country, and through a strong foundation of national reconciliation forged through unity and friendship among communities.” Compared to Trump’s lion roar which would have made many plug their ears in fright, Maithripala’s speech may have sounded nothing more than a mouse’s squeak but it would have certainly made their ears prick, especially when it echoed Trump’s rhetoric: “I honour the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. Many countries are pursuing their own unique visions, building their own hopeful futures, and chasing their own wonderful dreams of destiny, of legacy, and of a home. The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its part of the world.” The day before his UN address, on Monday, Maithripala was the guest speaker at the UN organised Nelson Mandela Peace Summit. In his speech, he urged world leaders to follow Mandela’s path and not to cling to power. He said Mandela was a leader who showed how to use power for the benefit of the people and give up power without any greed for power. He served only one term and then he gracefully retired.” “There is a dearth of such leaders today. I wonder how many of the leaders have the qualities displayed by Nelson Mandela and I feel that it is for the leaders to emulate Mandela and enter the correct path displayed by him.” |
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