It has never been about democracy

17 Jan, 2021 - 00:01 0 Views
It has never been about democracy

The Sunday Mail

On Wednesday, Americans will be slamming the door on a tumultuous Donald Trump presidency and giving the reins to 78-year-old Joe Biden after a disputed election that has split the United States of America in half.

And the transition has been anything, but seamless and smooth.

We all saw the apocalyptic scenes that came out of the US capitol on January 6, when Trump’s shock troopers stormed the halls of that country’s congress and disrupted confirmation of results of the disputed election.

It was a real-life Hollywood action blockbuster: Some dexterous rioters — Spiderman-like — scaled towering walls, while others overran security and took over the building.

As thrilling as the images were, there were also episodic moments of comic relief in this tragi-comedy, where some insurrectionists smoked weed in the hallowed halls of the legislative house.

One of the dumb rioters, Mr Richard Barnett, was even photographed in the House Speaker’s office slumped in her chair, with his left foot leisurely resting on her executive desk. Kikikiki.

It was desecration typical of an empire in slow and painful decline.

What a farcical end to the Trump presidency.

Well, when he was elected in 2016, he promised to drain the swamp in Washington — which meant uprooting corruption and establishing a government that worked for ordinary Americans rather than special interests — but unfortunately he drowned in it. 

Trump might have been controversially defeated, but “Trumpism” — which attracted more than 74 million votes — is well and truly alive.

It is a stain in American politics that they intend to expunge through impeaching him and ensuring he does not run again in 2024.

The plague

As Bishop Lazi has always been saying, had it not been for the coronavirus, it would have been Donald Trump taking that oath on Wednesday.

Americans were prepared to tolerate Trump’s idiosyncrasies and craziness for as long as their bank accounts bulged and their economic fortunes blossomed.

The sad fact is: Inasmuch as he brought drama, his economic policies worked for both corporates and ordinary Americans.

Suffice to say, he was as good a chief executive officer for the American economy as he was a bad political leader.

It was under his stewardship that the unemployment rate fell to 3,5 percent, which was the lowest in more than 50 years (since May 1969).

And, during his tenure, particularly between 2016 and 2020, median household income rose from US$62 000 to more than US$68 000, which means families were better off under his presidency.

All this was achieved through aggressive policies such as leaning on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to zero and keep them there — a practice that had long been considered taboo by bureaucrats.

He doled out billions to farmers, including more than US$50 billion last year, from monies hived off punitive import taxes imposed on China.

As much as he was a lousy politician, the good fortunes brought about by his administration’s economic policies took care of the politics.

It is a secret that has long been discovered by the Chinese.

They often say seek ye the kingdom of the economy and everything else will follow.

However, the pain wrought by Covid-19, which was compounded by Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic, was just too much for him to garner the overwhelming popularity to take him over the line — or so we are told.

Funny enough, no one, except American channel Fox News, has interrogated his claims of rigging and fraud.

It seems all along we had been conditioned by the mainstream media to dismiss him as an abominable crazy old man.

Democracy?

The Bishop always uproariously laughs each time he hears the spin that Trump was voted out by pro-democrats keen on restoring democracy.

Democracy my foot!

They should tell it to African-Americans who are still fighting for the right to be recognised as human beings before being accorded the same civil liberties enjoyed by white Americans.

Or even native Americans — the Indians — who are still discriminated against.

They should tell it to Iraq, which has only known grief and strife since the toppling of Saddam Hussein by US troops in 2003, while their oil continues to be salted away by Western companies.

They should also tell it to Afghanistan, Syria, or, closer to home, Libya, who have all been subjected to America’s bitter brand of democracy.

Do these naïve people honestly think that this Western country, where some people still pride themselves as white supremacists, would give a rat’s ass about African countries, especially when they still think primitive natives live in jungles where they dance around bonfires throughout the night?

Baba’ngu shava.

But what is, however, funny is seeing the same people who believe in freedom of speech, freedom of blah, blah . . . blah . . . being quick to celebrate Trump’s ban from social media platforms, while chastising other jurisdictions for doing precisely the same thing to those who would have committed the same offence.

Social media platforms are over-reaching and self-styled extraterritorial platforms meant to further the culture, ideologies and interests of the West.

It is crass naiveté to believe that these big tech companies are unblemished and fair arbiters who are fighting for a Utopian world. Kikiki.

But Uganda couldn’t be bothered last week as it switched off the internet after social media platforms blocked accounts linked to pro-government individuals ahead of the elections.

It is not fortuitous that glorifying stories and copious visuals linked to Bobi Wine were plastered over the Internet in the lead-up to last week’s elections, just in the same way as Tanzania wannabe politician Tundu Lissu — who was given quite a thumping by John Magufuli — was treated in the lead-up to elections in the East African country.

You would have thought Bobi Wine was the only contestant in the elections.

And similar to what the Ugandans did, Tanzania also restricted access to the internet and social media platforms.

Ethiopia did the same in June 2019 when it blocked the internet for close to a month to blunt violent protests, which resulted in more than 90 deaths.

You see, there is a whole dark enterprise — harvesting intelligence, selling user data to third parties such as the CIA, including trying to shape views and influence opinion — behind these platforms.

Well, China knew better when it developed its own disciplined social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat and Baidu, where looneys are not given the carte blanche to preach division, disunity and spread perverted content. 

Dire outcomes

Far from what advocates of net neutrality continue to tell us, social media platforms do not protect democracy, but destroy it.

They are dividing people more than they are uniting and annihilating age-old normative values of respect, etiquette and decorum.

The toxicity that is now the norm on these platforms is as asphyxiating as it is intolerable.

Romans 16:17-18 warns us: “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”

Jude 1: 16-19 also says, “These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favouritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

“They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”

We need not let the rot on these platforms fester.

In October last year, Tim Kendall, Facebook’s former director of monetisation, boldly told Fox News that “extreme outcomes are the logical end conclusion if there is no action on social media reform during the increasing destabilisation of civil society”.

He said: “The attention-based business model of social media companies is a threat to democracy. Full stop! We as users are attracted to content that entertains us and reinforces our views. ‘Big social,’ as I call it, knows this and presents information that will keep us coming back to their platforms.

“These corporate practices encourage online tribalism that exacerbates the societal division we see today amid unprecedented economic, climate and public health turmoil.

“I truly believe things will not get better until tech companies move away from creating exploitative products that drive conflict over conversation, division over unity, and misinformation over truth.”

We all saw what eventually happened in the US capitol a fortnight ago.

It is that dire.

Africans need to wake up — and soon.

It is never, it has never and it will never be about democracy.

Bishop out!

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