I MUST confess that when Donald Trump threw his hat into the political ring, there is part of me that honestly wanted him to become president of the United States.
Develop me: Tapiwa Gomo
My wish for him to be next president was not inspired by anything, but a desire for Americans to taste what it means to have an irrational guy like him as their president.
I wanted them to taste the difference between good and bad leadership.
When we share our problems with people from other countries, particularly those from western countries, they do not understand us.
They always listen to our stories with a templated view. They have never been under a leadership that does not apply reasoning, a leadership that does not use logic to make decisions and policies, which is why we hear a lot of about local problems needing local solutions.
They do not understand that our situation is terribly bad and everyone is oppressed and suppressed.
Raising a voice against the system is a criminal offence, which can land one in prison. We have no power to change anything. Power, which cushions some stupidity, unquestionably decides the course of our lives.
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Americans have never tasted such a situation, which is why most of them do not understand how or why a president in Africa can make silly decisions and still stay in power for long.
In Trump, they have found a near-match to an African dictator. Since assuming office, Trump has been a busy man and his policies have shaken the world and caused global panic, which is threatening to tilt the global power dynamics in some way.
European Union (EU) leaders used their summit in Malta last week to raise an alarm call over Trump and noting that the EU block was now the key pillar of the free world replacing the US.
In the last 17 days Trump has been President, he has signed 19 executive orders.
Of those 19 orders, there are few that have not rabble-roused. One of them is the order that imposes a 120-day suspension of the refugee programme and a 90-day ban on travel to the US from citizens of what he perceived to be terror hot spots such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan.
This is despite that none of these top the list of nationalities that have attacked the US.
It also caused panic domestically in several sectors in the US such as the academia, technology, travel, hotel, transport and several others.
The markets also felt the tremors of the panic, but China and Singapore are waiting to pick the pieces and offer a shoulder to cry on to affected corporations.
The second laughable executive order is on border security and immigration enforcement, which includes the authorisation of a US-Mexico border wall, the stripping of federal grant money to sanctuary cities, hiring 5 000 more border patrol agents, ending catch-and-release policies for illegal immigrants; and reinstating local and State immigration enforcement partnerships.
While these two policies are premised on nothing but racism, supremacism and some strong element of barbarism, maybe it is still unbeknown to Trump that the world is now a global village and the level of inter-connectedness is such that when logic and reasoning are not applied to national policies, they can be counterproductive to both the global and his broader agenda of making American great again.
The 2 100km, 12-metre high wall will cost American taxpayers a whopping $12 billion to build, and yet more than 40% of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US travel by air.
It is clear that the wall will not address the Mexican immigration problem in the US.
However, with the traction “the wall” has acquired, Trump faces tough choices. He can either leave things as they are and allow Mexicans to continue providing cheap labour in the US or invest the $12bn in Mexico to create employment, so as to minimise migrants to the US.
Either of these options will not make America great again unless he can fix the domestic economy to create more jobs in the US.
But then isolation is not an effective way of making America great again.
I guess, as time goes, he will learn that presenting a reality television show is different from running a country.
For American citizens, what they have experienced in the last 17 days so far epitomises how most African countries are being run.
The only difference is that when stupid decisions are made, they only affect the local population, as African countries are yet to be part of the big players in the global villagers.
In addition, that also explains why young Africans are leaving the continent to western countries because the policies back home lack logic and reasoning.
Instead of banning those nationalities from travelling to US, Trump should have seen it a priority to find global solutions to the situations in developing countries than just impose a ban.
Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa
