Michael Egbejumi-David
I watched the United States of America
election night result from the comfort of a hotel room in beautiful
Mauritius. The first indication I had that things were going awry was
when my woman asked me why I kept running off to the toilet at frequent
intervals. As everybody now knows, the unthinkable happened.
America held up a mirror to itself – had its own “mirror, mirror on the wall…” moment – and what stared back was an ugly core.
What stared back at America were
intolerance, insensitivity, bullying, sexism, misogyny, racism and
xenophobia. Followed by the enthronement of outright falsehood, lack of
preparedness, lack of civility, gaudiness and an appalling lowering of
standards. And quite a lot of Americans are shocked at the realisation
that, at the core, this is who they are even after more than two
centuries of practising democracy.
In effect, it appears there are more Americans who are retrogressive and who embrace inequality.
America is going to be in the official
grip of its own ‘Taliban’ and this realisation is unsettling for some of
its citizens. That is ironic on two levels: first, Donald Trump never
hid the fact that he was leading an intolerant and repressive camp;
secondly, about 43 per cent (nearly half!) of the people eligible to
vote did not do so, and now they are wondering how a Trump is today
their President-elect. Yet, we all know that hate is a stronger
emotion, a stronger motivation than all others.
The world is changing as it has always
done. We have moved progressively from the Stone Age to the Informatics
Age. Invariably, some people are left behind because of inadequate
education, unwillingness to retrain and/or unfortunate timing. However,
all around the (Western) world, some folk that got left behind in the
‘Factory Age’ remain in denial and want somebody to pay. Anyone who
doesn’t look like them but has a job – any kind of job – is seen as a
foe. They hang about looking for a past life gone and readily latch on
to the coat tails of ignoble politicians who promise to bring back their
jobs. Before you know it, repression is let loose all around.
More than all of that, it is painful for
some Americans to come to grips with the fact that, despite aspirations
and preachings, egalitarianism is still not its core value. Rather,
there is a mounting fear of globalisation and of new technologies. So,
it responded with intolerance and insularity.
It has rudely dawned on Americans that
hatred and fear trump hope. They found out last week that they are not
their brother’s keeper as they like to believe. It is disheartening to
accept that given a stark choice between divisiveness and unity, a
majority of Americans chose the former. Furthermore, it is possible
that a part of the Trump base will see his election as a go-ahead to act
on hatred and racism.
Now, why does all of this matter to the
rest of the world? Why does it hurt so much? Why is there a pall cast
over everyone everywhere? What is the link?
Well, there is no doubt that the rest of
the world roots for America. We want America to succeed. Its success
is humanity’s success. What is missing in other countries is often
thought obtainable in America. I imagine if aliens were to come out
from outer space and ask whomever they encounter to take them to “your
leader,” the aliens would be pointed in the direction of the White
House.
All around the world, that White House
was seen as the safeguard for all humanity. It is heartbreaking to
think that we have lost that. We mourn the loss of our human values,
human rights, human dignity and decency.
For the rest of us, America is seen as
the moral conscience of the world. It is the one country we thought
would always defend the oppressed and the bullied. People that live in
repressive or offensive societies often find comfort in the fact that
there is a USA that could come to their aid, that would always insist on
what is right, insist on nobler governance values and hold our leaders
to a higher moral plank. But America has only gone and elected its own
version of such undesirable leaders. A Donald Trump in the people’s
house is disappointing for the rest of the world because it indicates
that we are now left defenceless against bad governments and repressive
regimes.
Moreover, the world’s financial markets
would be on tenterhooks as well as they rely heavily on America. The
American dollar is our dollar, it is the trading currency of the world.
When people like Duterte of the
Philippines, Putin of Russia, Marie Le Pen of France’s far right, the
fat boy in North Korea and other strong-arm leaders around the world are
rooting for, and applauding your victory, then you know you’re in a
very bad camp and company. If you closed your eyes and heard Trump’s
words, you would think that you were listening to a Third-World
strongman dictator speaking. It’s just not what the world needs of an
America. Oh…the morning after had that Hitler-Nazi feel to it.
And what about the well worn hypocrisy
of the American Pentecostal Christian group? That movement is analogous
to Christianity and slavery in developing nations. All known Christian
values were happily jettisoned for a, presumably, conservative
soul-mate. It’s all about mindless group-think and ‘follow the leader’ –
even when the leader is selfish, ill-motivated and patently wrong. It
is the Ayatollah phenomenon all over again.
The only slim hope we can hold on to
right now is that Trump had used the vulnerability of some disaffected
Americans to claim its Presidency. Perhaps, he would revert to normalcy
once in office, because, apparently, back in 1998, he told People
Magazine that, “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the
dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox
News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would
be terrific.”
No comments:
Post a Comment