Mosibudi Mangena
Donald Trump is a wrecking ball that is throwing the world into turmoil in the military, trade, diplomacy, international aid and human decency senses.
In the few weeks that he has been president of the United States, he has shaken things so much that many are wondering where the world order is going.
One thing that is clear is that he is destroying the soft power that the US has had as an economically successful country that contributes generously to needy courses.
Its overpowering cultural influence in the form of music, films, fast foods and fashion are likely to suffer.
In the case of South Africa, he unceremoniously cut aid for HIV management and research, offered refugee status to Afrikaners who are spuriously said to be facing genocide at the hands of the government and expelled the South African ambassador to his country.
It is instructive to observe the differing reactions of other countries that are at the receiving end of Trump’s school playground bullying with those of South Africa.
While we responded with hand-wringing supplication, the other countries adopted a self-defence pose that seeks to challenge the bully.
After accusing Canada of refusing to be the 51st state of the US and failing to curb the smuggling of fentanyl across the long border the two countries share, Trump slapped the US northern neighbour with 25% trade tariffs.
To demonstrate their fury, Canadians introduced retaliatory tariffs against US goods and mobilised one another to boycott US products and buy Canadian instead.
Some shop owners were seen removing American goods from their shelves. A lot of Canadians cancelled or reduced their travels to the US and the singing of the American anthem at sport events was booed by Canadians.
Now, that’s patriotism in full display. Can you imagine South Africans doing that?
The Europeans, through the EU, retaliated with tariffs of their own against the US and scrambled to re-arm so that they may collectively be able to defend themselves, as opposed to over-reliance on the US military.
Tesla electric cars, made by one Elon Musk, a prominent Trump acolyte, and other American goods saw their sales in Europe declining sharply as a result of a backlash from citizens of that block.
In addition to responding in kind with tariffs of their own against the Americans, the Chinese also decided to restrict the export of rare earth and other minerals critical for the manufacture of micro-chips and batteries to power computers, smart phones and other such advanced technological gadgets.
These counties are able to respond robustly to the obnoxious behaviour of Donald Trump -because they have relatively strong economies.
We have a weak economy, which renders us vulnerable to the machinations of Trump. Instead of industrialising and growing our economy, we have, in the last 30 years, been de-industrialising and shrinking our economy.
South Africans talk a lot about re-industrialisation and beneficiating our enormous natural resources but do almost nothing in practice.
We don’t need aid from -anybody. We have abundant mineral endowments, a huge land mass with varied climatic conditions to plant different crops and keep animals, a fairly big population of more than 60 million souls, a big portion of which are young people, 26 universities that -produce world-class graduates, a sophisticated financial sector, a developed road and rail infrastructure and a sophisticated tele-communication setup.
What we lack severely is a single-minded determination to develop our economy, taking advantage of our huge natural resources.
We need some patriotism, as well as a mentality to look after ourselves and our needs, not a begging mentality that sees us extending our palms for gifts.
Trump is giving us a hot clap across the face that should wake us up to stand on our own feet.
We need trade, not aid.
- Professor Mangena is former minister of science and technology
