The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gaborone, Botswana | AFP | Botswana’s government on Friday summoned the US ambassador to complain about remarks reportedly made by President Donald Trump describing African nations as “shithole countries”.
The alleged comments, first reported by The Washington Post, were apparently made during a meeting at the White House about immigration reform on Thursday. They quickly sparked anger among Democrats and Republicans and revived questions about Trump’s tendency to make racially charged remarks.
“The Government of Botswana, today summoned the US Ambassador to Botswana to express its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by the President of the US,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The statement added that Gaborone had sought clarification from the US ambassador on whether “Botswana is regarded as a ‘shithole’ country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US”.
“We view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist,” it added.
PRESS RELEASE |Botswana condemns remarks made by President Trump @VensonMoitoi @MIACBW @OfficialMasisi pic.twitter.com/16i7CUMR4x
— Botswana Government (@BWGovernment) January 12, 2018
Yea:
Good – Botswana has acted. And some will say it is because it is a well governed African country needing no handouts from the US for its national budget financing. But this does not erase the fact that we Africans are looked down upon whether in the West, the North or the East. It does not matter which ‘little’ or ‘big’ country you come from or how sharp brained you are – as long as your skin has plenty of melanin relative to those people’s, they will first suspect you of being: a zoonotic disease vector; a drug dealer; an economic refuge seeker; a run-away political/economic crook; etc. As Africans we are all lumped thus – and no single African country can stand up and change that perception. Not even a collective of countries will manage to change that. So what should we be doing? To become relevant, we need to reconsider our so called political borders, forge sizeable national populations with sizeable all round resources which our bigger human resource can exploit for our own peoples first. This business of each tiny territory competing with others to supply resources to our haters and despisers has to stop. The reliance on those despisers for most things developmental has to be slowed down if not stopped. We are probably 1 Billion negroid peoples. If we formed two countries, (better one) each stretching from the Indian to the Atlantic seaboards and each of at least 450 Million people, we would probably be taken more seriously.
Now our good brothers and sisters the Batswana have complained. What can these mere 2 Million (smaller than 50% of any major American city) people with their annual output at 15Bn US$ do to change attitudes of a leader of 330 Million people producing 19 Trillion US$ worth of goods and services?
Dr Eng Kant Ateenyi Kanyarusoke – Cape Town