Stop whining about Donald Trump

Remember that the US Congress only agreed to remove Nelson Mandela from its terrorist list in June 2008, long after he had ceased to be even President of the Republic of South Africa.
If Madiba had decided to spend his entire life moaning about his placement on that list, he would have only enjoyed five years of real freedom as he was to die in 2013.

When lemons are thrown at you, you squeeze them as hard as you can and make lemonade. Throwing tantrums will not take them away or turn them into oranges.

The world has a very sour lemon in its midst. That lemon answers to the name Donald J Trump.

The President of the United States has become infamous for letting words roll off his tongue without restraint.

Mr Trump is a very bad actor and there is a clear record to that effect.

Therefore, when he says African countries are “sh*tholes”, it should be clear as day that he is pretty much aware of what he is up to – spoiling for a fight.

Well, he got it.

The African Union expressed “shock, dismay and outrage” over his comment.

Many African countries, Zimbabwe included, joined in the chorus, with some summoning America’s envoys to clarify their boss’ largely racist statement.

White House spokesperson Raj Shah, whose task of late appears akin to applying make-up on a frog, didn’t even try this time around. He let it be; warts and all.

Shah is (mis)guided by the simple fact that Trump will always be Trump. No one and nothing can ever change him.

This is not the first time Mr Trump has been reckless with words; and it definitely will not be the last.

That is the reason why someone at Gondwana Collection Namibia – which runs several game reserves in the Southern African nation – thought long and hard before reacting to Mr Trump’s utterances.

Instead of giving him the backlash that he was obviously itching for, they felt it better to turn his statements into a tongue-in-cheek marketing strategy for their country’s tourism sector.

“Good morning Trump America. If ever you would want to leave your beautiful and so perfect country, and come to a real sh*thole country in Africa, we invite you to come to sh*thole Namibia, one of the best sh*thole countries out there . . .” a voice-over that comically imitates Trump says in a two-minute video that has gone viral on the Internet.

About 100 000 people had watched the video within three days of its release.

The video goes on to advertise Namibia’s amazing tourist attractions, including lakes, wildlife and climate, fully aware that in this latest Trump storm, they had the whole world listening and watching.

Good for you Namibia.

Zimbabwe is among the “sh*tholes” of President Trump’s world. If Zimbabwe is indeed a “sh*thole”, it is in no small part because of American economic sanctions on the country.

The West imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe following implementation of the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.

Close to two decades later, Washington’s Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act is still in place.

As a result, we have George W Bush’s Executive Order 13288 and Zidera on the one hand and the fact that Zimbabweans seem too comfortable in blaming the sanctions for every hiccup the economy experiences.

Economic sanctions – as terrible as they are to us – are a selfish but important tool of US foreign policy.

As such, just as the world has to make lemonade out of President Trump’s dirty mouth, we just have to make lemonade out of the sanction lemons we have been served.

Scrapping sanctions can be a long and winding path. Zimbabwe cannot sit and wait for American goodwill to end the sanctions.

Remember that the US Congress only agreed to remove Nelson Mandela from its terrorist list in June 2008, long after he had ceased to  be even President of the Republic of South Africa.

If Madiba had decided to spend his entire life moaning about his placement on that list, he would have only enjoyed five years of real freedom as he was to die in 2013.

Rather, he chose to live his life to the fullest.

You see, Uncle Sam is entitled to his opinion, but that opinion doesn’t have to hold anyone at ransom.