Excited about the increasing depth of the Trump criminal investigations? Don’t put too much faith in the law. A good portion, but not too much. And while you’re at it take a quick look at what’s happening with Africa’s Trump, more than four years after he slid from power.
Is anybody but Trump, the Proud Boys and me following South African politics? Reporting today from Pretoria, three years and one day since the former South African head-of-state left office: “Former president Jacob Zuma dodged his appearance on Monday before the State Capture inquiry, headed by Deputy Chief Justice Judge Raymond Zondo, and took refuge…Continue reading
I wanna stand up and shout through a megaphone! Listen, idiot Americans! South Africa shows us exactly what’s going to happen here now that Donald is gone! But I’m torn, too, between just shutting up and letting the little birdie in my ear prove me remarkably prescient.
Particularly for my African friends, suddenly bombarded with their media exhalations of joy with the Georgia race, puncturing with nuclear force the silences that I had attributed to a sagacious long-view of history. Regain the patience you are so notable for. This tiny moment in history does not an epoch make. Trump is alive and…Continue reading
Everyone wants to know: what will happen to the Republicans? Look to South Africa. You know the “ANC,” the party of Mandela, but in American terms it’s the Republican Party of South Africa: The ANC dominated South Africa just like the Republican Party dominated America. It had a crazy president who left in disgrace then…Continue reading
Imagine about a year from now when much of the world, even a few parts of Africa, start to really manage the virus. Imagine an airplane actually flying from London to Johannesburg. Imagine, too, that Americans are banned from these flights. I just finished an hour reading the sarcasm, fear and disbelief – mostly from…Continue reading
Party power controls democracy. Elections make the final decisions but to get onto the ballot you have to go through the party. Independents have a slightly greater shot in America where primary elections aren’t closed exclusively to registered party nominees but it’s rare in America that an “independent” who caucuses as a Democrat is challenged…Continue reading
People think I’m nuts when comparing Trump politics in America to Zuma politics in South Africa, but I’m not cracked yet. Zuma (Trump) is currently in the 4th day of a trial/inquiry into all his wrongdoings before he was ousted (impeached) in the 3rd year of his second term. The same will happen to Trump….Continue reading
More and more we can foreshadow global futures by following South African politics. Read my many previous blogs comparing the impeached Jacob Zuma with the yet to be ousted Donald Trump and the established political parties and their fiery challengers. As I write this today 75% of the votes have been certified in Wednesday’s national…Continue reading
Americans, please pay attention to the May 8 South African national election. Your future’s being told. South African politics is one step ahead of American politics, and American politics have tracked it inch-by-inch for the last 9 years.
“Now,” a taxi driver in Lagos told the New York Times yesterday, “we just look at them. No one cares.” He was referring to the candidates for president in this weekend’s election. Follow me: What’s happening in Africa, in Nigeria now, South Africa last year and elsewhere, proves that right now no one will beat…Continue reading
Do you wonder – as I do all the time – what happens after Trump? Wonder no longer. What’s happening right this instant in South Africa tells us, and it’s exactly what you’d expect when your mind finally overcomes your emotions: Trump won’t just disappear.
2018 was a sobering year in Africa: Human rights and democratic freedoms declined. It was hard to find much hope. There were a few places, though, and South Africa especially may be showing us and the rest of the world the way out of this darkness. It’s very African: patience pays.
Have you ever watched a colony of anemones? Touch the biggest one and it immediately begins to shrink into itself. Then even without touching others, all the anemones follow suit withdrawing into themselves. It’s like the mopane tree in Africa. One giraffe starts to nimble a mopane leaf and the whole forest starts to fold…Continue reading
Once the darling of Africa, South African Airways is on the verge of collapse. Unless the South African government bails it out to the tune of 21 billion rand ($1½ billion) it will cease to exist within the next year. Here’s why: