This is about that overweight, self-absorbed, orange man called President Donald Trump. More importantly, this is criticism of bat-shit crazy South Africans who support him on social media as if he’s the solution to the injustices we suffer as members of a greedy planet.

THE FINGER VERSUS THE BOMB

There’s that saying: “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”. The proportional Africanism, in respect to the USA, China and the UK, is: “Don’t bring a pointing finger to a bomb fight.” This week, the the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) is being taught that lesson. I’ve yet to be educated that might is right.

THE INCONVENIENT GLOBAL ECONOMY

I’m not a nationalist but, practically, believe in local first. However, I’d be be an idiot to ignore that what happens in the USA affects us all.

There are approximately 200 countries yet the USA is responsible for 24% of the global economy and has over 1000 military bases on foreign soil. Many countries with begging bowl politicians are unaware, or don’t care, that the USA is the modern day version of the British Empire. The biggest difference between then and now is the excessive reach of electronic economy and media.

Of course, China also wants to control the world but that isn’t what this outraged opinion is primarily about. But it should be noted that China comprises 15% of the world economy and is the best capitalist a communist could be. Consequently, investor confidence during the coronavirus crisis matters. And that confidence was already shaky owing to China’s slowing economy and its trade war with the USA. The financial well-being of 1.4-billion residents of Earth is relevant to our health.

A sizable chunk of the world’s legal and illegal wealth is funnelled through UK financial institutions. Brexit just cost the European Union 15% of its GDP and its biggest weapons manufacturer. The next decade may find Scotland independent and Northern Ireland rightfully in the bosom of Ireland. Luckily for the UK, wealth mostly flows through the City of London. More important than suntanned South Africans bizarrely stalking news about Rainy Royals is that we’re a member of the Colony Club a.k.a. The Commonwealth.

South America is in uproar, cheering itself on as it gives itself another black eye for the amusement of the IMF and World Bank.

Have any of you heard of Syria? What about Egypt, the Congo and Zimbabwe?

Australia has the fire.

South Africa has corruption like fire.

Why do we treat this and more as shit that doesn’t matter? We won’t bring shit on a shoe into our home yet are happy to swim in it as if it isn’t there? What will it take for us to not be suckers, to use our arseholes in the right direction?

I’ve no idea how to make good things happen. I’d call in a favour if I could but, unlike those who control our world and our lives, I’ve no direct link to God. And corrective zeitgeists seem to happen by themselves, taking us along for the ride. All I’ve got is this finger of a blog and my hate for bombs.

FAITH AND SHIT

How can almost everyone be asleep in this Age of WOKE? How can the “He”, “She” or “Them” debate be more important than than big things affecting “Us”?

Worldly shit matters because money and shares are like religion. They exist because of our faith.

Money is created on computers and given to banks and corporations to loan to us for their profit. We accept that us being last, at the bottom of the pyramid scheme, is the natural order. Like Moses saying God spoke to him, God has told the greediest capitalists to tell us what to do. For the most part, we obey, opting to live within the system they’ve created for us, competing not to get out but to be the best pleb within. Within, our emotions have wiggle room. Our wriggling concerns me.

I know I’m simplifying but hold onto your criticism so I can criticise.

The value of companies on the stock market are determined by how happy or unhappy we are with them. A quality condom, for example, may cost R1 to make but its value could swing from fifty cents to two rand because of our pin-prick emotions called “investor confidence”.

As a species, our current Facebook status is: “Unsure where I’m going, lacking faith in everything I pass through.” As much as I respect optimist Stephen Pinker, all the angels he can muster won’t change the fact that we’re irritated and dissatisfied, ripe for bursting… which is why I’m worried.

WE NEVER FUCKING LEARN

12 years will be invaluable to the parents of a premature baby that’s now 12-years-old. But for those of us who were adults 12 years ago, forgetting the same period may prove disastrous for the rest of our lives. Do we remember 2008? If so, why didn’t we learn from it?

We’re currently 0.3% away from a global recession. But that’s technical. Scarily, we’re worse off than before 2008 tried to crash us to our senses. Wall Street is fatter now than when it tried to eat everything.

At the bottom, times are tough for us common folk. Even when, for example, more North Americans are employed, overall, they’re earning less than before. If you doubt that, just remember when average families could afford to have only one parent working. And who of you believe that the inflation rate the Government states is true rather than something worse?

Too good to be true – you’ve heard that before. If you’re a representative of the middle class, you probably nodded your head in agreement, and never listened thereafter. Our cocaine culture of consumerism is happy so long as it’s non-stop-sniffing-shopping. But that needs credit. Or it needs us to spend all our money on many things that don’t matter because cappuccinos, beer, hair extensions, bigger breasts and bigger cars are more valuable than owning land or solar panels.

All the personalities of our schizophrenic society add up to one brain lacking. We hate those who inherit when we’ve got nothing. Or we inherit and buy more nothing. What are we going to do when it’s buy-buy good times? Is that coming?

On the last day of January this year, Project Syndicate published an article by Kaushik Basu. It began with: “The World Bank has warned that a massive debt wave is building worldwide. There is no telling who will be hit the hardest, but if vulnerable countries, from the United Kingdom to India, do not act soon, they may face severe economic damage.”

KING OROS, HIS ARSE & HIS DOG

This isn’t an article. This is personal. The idiocy of the world gives me a rash I scratch until I bleed.

I fight corruption so I don’t need South Africans who don’t fight corruption to tell me that Donald Trump is great because he’s not part of the corrupt system. They come up with other reasons but that seems to be the elastic they bounce on the most. There are exceptions, people I both like and disagree with, but all are white with too many seeming to be nationalists or conspiracy theorists (the bad sort rather than the real). It could be cloudy but they’d say the sun is shining… and I’d say it looks like Trump’s arse… and they’d sigh with religious fervour, happy that that the sun looks like Trump.

Bill Maher, the political commentator and comedian, recently summed up Donald Trump better with, “This is a guy who farts and blames it on the dog… even though he doesn’t have a dog.” Similarly, there’ll be readers who’ll miss the point to think, “Trump has a dog.”

OUR POLITICIANS ARE OUR REFLECTION

In South Africa, we’re accustomed to idiots for the socialist ANC, liberal DA and communist EFF who cannot see that they’ve got a lot in common. Belonging to a gang is the easiest route to hating others so as to feel better about one’s own inadequacies. But that kind of satisfaction is fleeting.

The crazy are those who don’t try to fix South Africa yet feel the urge to join an overseas gang to continually confirm their confirmation bias.

Maybe it’s the way of society and I’m the odd one out. After all, politics is a reflection of who we are collectively. Helen Zille prickles like Hillary Clinton whilst Julius Malema may only need a bigger gun to become Kim Jong-un.

There’s nothing to trust when the left-wing and right wing are halves of each other. I’m not against Donald Trump because I support the Democrats – I don’t. However, I support what will damage us the least. I’m most interested in the bigger picture where it’s Power versus the People (which means us). And we don’t stand a chance if we continue to embrace our own stupification. I find nothing more representative or as ugly as people supporting Donald Trump’s narcissistic, pathological lying.

WE DESERVE BETTER THAN DONALD TRUMP

North Americans deserve better than a President who represents himself, who disrespects women, vilifies truthsayers, incites violence and uses taxpayers money for weapons to bully another country to dig up dirt for his re-election ambition.

And because the health of the USA affects the health of South Africa (and the world), we deserve better too.

The USA influences our lives. It’s television, sport and mega companies are regular parts of our lives. More importantly, the USA’s claim that democracy matters and justice will be served are an underpinning of the ‘West’. When the United States Senate refused witnesses and evidence against Trump, it insulted our world. It arrogantly reinforced that power and money justifies crime, and that us citizens don’t matter.

BE COUNTED BY YOUR ACTIONS

Ideologies are rarely the beliefs of politicians. Like flag waving, they’re used as selfish adverts for power.

Doism counts, as an ism and especially as individual action. What we do in our street, the individual example we set, is most important but not absolute. We cannot ignore what’s happening to the world we all belong to. To pretend we’re not connected is to become less. To be useless when faced with wrong is to lose.

Alone, populism isn’t evil (as liberals wants conservatives to believe). But when motivated by illogical prejudice, it’s dangerous. Trumpism, in itself, and as a synonym for nasty things happening in other places, is threat.  It’s made our lives unpredictable and precarious. It destroys faith, encourages paranoia which, in turn, will hasten and deepen another economic macrocosm collapse. What effect will that have on South Africa where the majority are unemployed or scrape a living, where minorities are hated.

FIGHT THE BULLIES

The land of the Armenians is small but ancient. They know about being divided and unified, conquered and independent. They know about standing against the odds. They exemplify perseverance. I hope this saying from their country becomes true for South Africa:

“We fight ourselves until the knife touches the bone. Then we unite.”

Maybe, as the video below suggests, it’s time that we fight those that bully us in ways they understand.