Welcome to Trump World
By Ishmael Bundi
Trump: With goodwill towards none and malice towards all
Who’s afraid of Donald Trump? The short answer, it appears, is “the world”. Or more specifically, those who see themselves as guardians of the world’s fundamental rights and freedoms. After barely a week in power, the new American president has struck fear in the hearts of members of the international human rights community to the point of inspiring nostalgia for the good-old Bush-Cheney “axis of evil” The headlines speak for themselves.
said Trump’s “America First” doctrine spelled trouble for America and the world:
“By trampling on the rights of millions of people in the US and abroad, Trump’s proposals if enacted would weaken everybody’s rights.”
It’s not just about what Trump intends to do either. Rights defenders fear the Trump-knock-on-effect Specifically, that Trump’s overtly authoritarian style could embolden rogue regimes and erode America’s long (however imperfectly applied) rights-based foreign policy agenda.
The panic is palpable, not least because of the worrying updates on Trump’s intentions coming out of White House. Most alarming for human rights defenders is Trump’s plan to bring torture back into vogue because he believes, as reported by The Guardian, “we have to fight fire with fire.”
ink is still being spilled over Yahya Jammeh. Though now in exile, the former strongman has become the perfect muse for a certain kind of journalism. The kind of journalism that revels in counting the many ways a dictator of his mould took from the people to give to himself.
reports, he also systematically robbed the people of their freedom of expression, assembly and viciously clamped down on dissent. Naturally, now that he has been booted out, the question on many minds is if Jammeh will ever answer for the excesses of his regime à la Hissène Habré.
reported vaguely – that Ousainou Darboe, the former leader of the opposition, wouldn’t be opposed to Jammeh’s trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
talk of rigging, even this early, is rife. Odinga reportedly threatened that “there will be no country” left, if the security services continues what he alleges to be actions aimed at tipping the election in president Kenyatta’s favour.
Meanwhile, local news outlets reported that some victims of the 2007/08 violence threatened to boycott the August elections because they lack documents to register for the polls and still haven’t received any compensation.
Image: Facebook/Donald Trump
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