President Donald J. Trump: Making America Great Again?

Every American president tries his very best to leave a legacy before exiting the White House. This legacy could be either positive or negative depending on where you stand. Most former American presidents left legacies of helping to destabilize one country or the other. Examples of such countries are Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and currently Syria. When they are campaigning to be elected as president of the U.S.A., they always spell out their policies especially their foreign policy. This makes the whole world know the kind of administration they will have to deal with after the elections and one of them eventually emerges as the winner.

President Donald Trump is no exception to the above, in fact he made the whole world know that his administration’s foreign policy will be guided by the mantra “I will make America great again”. This he said he will do by not meddling in the affairs of other countries militarily. That is, he will allow countries to solve their own problems and will not help any of the factions. He said he will also make sure more jobs were created in America for American citizens to benefit. Thus, making sure that American companies who have factories in China and other countries will relocate back to America and provide jobs for the American people. These and other numerous measures President Donald Trump promised to undertake during the campaign period so as to make America great again.

But what have we seen since he assumed the reins of power? Is he on the path of making America great again or making more enemies for America? Is he also on the path of creating more tension in the Middle East and also on the Korean Peninsula? He launched a barrage of cruise missiles against the Syrian government for an alleged sarin gas attack in the Idlib province which killed many children. Will that make America great again? He also sent attack navy ships together with an aircraft carrier to be stationed in the Korean Peninsula, just to warn or deter North Korea from undertaking any new missile tests. This was a show of force and might, and he vowed to deal with the North Korean problem once and for all. And he promised to take military action against North Korea should they do anything to threaten South Korea or any of their allies in the region. North Korea responded that they were prepared for war and they will not hesitate to strike back decisively should the U.S. provoke them. Will this make America great again? Or is Trump trying to diffuse the pressure mounting on his administration as investigations are being conducted on his alleged ties with the Russians and they meddling in the U.S. elections of 2016, thus helping him defeat Hillary Clinton?  Has he also drained the swamp as he promised? Or are the neocons and the warmongers feeding him with wrong intelligence contrary to his foreign policy? Will America be great again under President Donald Trump? Is he really on the path of making America great again?

South Africa: When The Rainbow Loses Its Colors

Is Africa a united continent? Are we serious about being each other’s keeper in Africa? Why should we fight amongst ourselves to the extent of killing each other? February 21^st, 2017 will go down in the history of the African continent as one of the saddest days for Mother Africa. This was a day when some black South Africans decided to attack other nationals in their country. Most of those attacked were Nigerians and other African nationals. Their shops and businesses were vandalized and burnt to the ground. Some of these foreign nationals also lost their lives as a result of these attacks.

Whiles the police moved in to protect the lives and properties of these foreign nationals, the attackers fought running street battles with them. They were complaining about not getting jobs as a result of these foreign nationals taking over jobs that were meant for them. But in my humble opinion and from my readings, these same South African citizens are not ready and willing to take up some of these so called menial jobs which the foreigners have taken up.  The South African government should condemn these xenophobic attacks and put in place measures to curb future occurrences of this nature. My question is, why is it that most black South Africans are still under economic apartheid? Why have they not been empowered economically? Why do they look down on certain menial jobs but when other nationals take up these jobs, they turn around to attack them? Should the ANC government be blamed for these acts of lawlessness being perpetuated by some black South African citizens? Meanwhile, I have not heard the African Union condemn these xenophobic attacks.

Ghana’s Parliament condemned the xenophobic attacks in South Africa and measures have been put in place to safeguard the lives and properties of Ghanaian citizens living and working in South Africa. When the attacks do not stop, I think we should boycott South African products and businesses in Ghana. This will put pressure on their government to act swiftly and curb the xenophobic attacks. Have they forgotten so soon when almost all the African countries came together to help them fight against the apartheid system? What if we also retaliated as it was reported that some Nigerians wanted to vandalize some MTN offices in Nigeria? One thing we should know is that Africans need each other to survive no matter the situation. I am sure the western world would be looking at South Africa with glee and their sensational media houses will have a field day giving 24 hour updates on the situation in South Africa. They always want to project bad news from Africa to the rest of the world. It’s time we proved them wrong. South Africans should be ready to coexist peacefully with Africans from other countries as they are in their country to do legitimate business and also pay taxes to help develop the country. United we stand, divided we fall. Africa must unite.

Remembering 9/11

It all started as a normal day for me on September 11, 2001 which was a Tuesday. I had gone to talk to my dad about an important issue concerning my tertiary education. I was in Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. I came back to my Aunty's place which was in the same area as my parents residence. i decided to take a nap. Deep into my sleep i heard the house phone ringing, i picked it up and it was my Aunty's husband who was telling me to switch on the television for something tragic had happened in the US and it was being shown live by most of the major news networks all over the world. I did just that and i realized that the US was under attack by some cowards. I became glued to the television set as i watched the events unfold on CNN via our national television station, GTV.  I could not move out of the room as i did not want to miss any second of what was happening in the US. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were burning as two commercial domestic airplanes had crashed into them. The Pentagon had also been attacked as a plane also crashed into a part of it killing some of the staff. Another plane was also brought down as it was trying to make its way to another target.  By the close of the day, the whole world was waiting for any news on the perpetrators of such an atrocity. In all about 3000 people both on the four commercial planes and on the ground in the Twin Towers and scores of Fire Service and Security agents were killed. This tragic incident in my opinion could be said to be second to what happened at Pearl Habour on December 7, 1941 which also killed about 3000 soldiers when the Japanese launched a kamikazi attack on the American Naval fleet in the South Pacific. May the souls of all the victims of these cowardly acts rest in perfect peace as we remember the September 11 attacks on the US. Though so many conspiracy theories abound about who actually orchestrated this dastardly act, i hope those mistakes that made the perpetrators take advantage would not be committed again. God bless us all.