CC™ Politico
By Muyiwa Adetiba
Decades ago, I had a colleague who later became a brother. He studied in the US and was besotted with the country. He often talked about life in the US in a way that tickled my curiosity and heightened my expectations. He talked about its system and its advanced technology.
Being young, I was interested by his narratives on the night life and his escapades with women. But mostly, he talked about America as the land of opportunities. He called America ‘ilu orun’. My reading of the words at the time, which might not be the literal translation, was ‘heavenly’. His constant renditions coincided with the era of Hollywood and its colourful portraits of America.
We watched the ‘cowboy’ films and fell in love with the swagger of the cowboy as one man battled ten ‘Red Indians’ to a standstill without feeling any empathy for the Red Indians who were being disposed of their land; we watched films of valour and freedom and films of romance. All of these made strong impressions on my young mind and I longed to see the US for myself.
It could be the timing – New York in winter; it could the company – I was with a fellow traveler; it could be that I was no longer a wide-eyed, neophyte traveler – I had by then, been to a few countries; or it could simply be an over expectation, but my first impression of the US was not that of ‘ilu orun’ (heavenly). In fact, subsequent visits gave more favourable impressions. But I remember traveling through Manhattan in the cold and thinking I had never seen so many high rise buildings in one place. I remember a city bubbling with life with attractive neon lights on my way to dinner. And oh yes, I remember my first visit to the Playboy Club and the seductive Bunnies. Those were some of the memories of my first visit to the US.
The US in the 60s, 70s and 80s was a shining country on a hill. Everybody saw it. Everybody admired it. Everybody wanted to emulate it. And almost everybody wanted to go there, if only for a visit. The US that was projected to the world was of democracy, the rule of law, and free enterprise. But more than that, the US projected human freedom and equality. A country of immigrants, it was a country where the first generation of immigrants felt the same sense of ownership as the fourth generation.
It also didn’t matter if your surname sounded Greek or Chinese or Italian; if your passport was American, then you were all supposed to have the same rights and entitlements. It was a melting pot of ideas and cultures with none seemingly more important than the other. From desert to swamp; from hot to cold; from oil to gold; it was a country that claimed to have everything.
It was God’s own country. It was on the cards that it would be the richest country in the world. It was inevitable that it would be the world’s first Superpower. It was a natural progression that it would become the world’s moral compass and eventually the Police Officer of the world, admonishing abusive governments which fell short of democratic or acceptable moral standards. For years, it used this enormous power so cleverly, so benignly, that it got away with many things even when it was protecting its own geo/political interests.
History tells us the US was originally home to the Red Indians. But it was such a vast, richly endowed country that it was soon home to people all over the world who wanted a better life and were not afraid of starting afresh. Its freedom was hard fought. History tells us of the war against its colonial master, against itself and against racism. The US acquitted itself on many fronts and emerged as a country where a child of a nobody could become a captain of industry, where a child of an immigrant could become the President or the Vice President, where an immigrant could become the wife of a President or the richest man in the world among many coveted positions.
It was called the Great American Dream and for years, held true to its promise. This promise was that America would give you a chance irrespective of what your background was. This promise was that if you were ready to keep your head down, your hands dirty and your nose clean, there would be a reward of a better life at the turn of the corner. This immigration flow has been America’s strength. It rejuvenates it. It gives it fresh oxygen, fresh ideas and fresh energy. At the time when Europe was aging and frankly decaying, America kept renewing itself. It has for years been the bastion of capitalism, rewarding enterprise and promoting trade without barriers – or tariff which is the new buzz word.
All of these are about to change drastically due to internal contradictions and demographic fears. Some of these fears are understandable. They could be primordial but natural fears of being overwhelmed and displaced. I mean, they almost had two Black Presidents in one decade which to the ‘owners’ was unthinkable. (It is now very convenient not to remember that America once belonged to a people who were not white.) So the fear that the current Lords of the Manor could easily be sidelined is real to them. But clamming down on immigrants could end up being an unenlightened self-interest. If America loses its ‘Great American Dream’, it will not only lose its allure and its cheap labour, it will lose its cutting edge. Trump with its isolationism might be what the White Americans want but is it what they need? Trade protectionism might be what they yearn for but would it really make their products competitive?
They might be romanticizing Trump as a strongman, but can they abide with a dictator? Speaking of dictators, am I the only one who sees a parallel between Trump, a descendant of a German and Hitler, the German who caused a World War? There is the same need to be loved and admired; the same feeling of grandeur, the same desire for racial purity bordering on xenophobia; the same disdain for checks and balances; the same thirst for territorial ambition. The perplexed world might find Trump’s stated desire to annex Panama, Greenland, Columbia, Canada and now Gaza as mere rhetoric. I hope it stays as rhetoric. Otherwise, it is a World War loading. Heaven help us all.
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