Puny Trump in Grand UN
US President Donald Trump hogs the airways at home with braggery, lies and vitriolic theatrics. In the global soup of near-200 country leaders meeting this week at the 2019 annual General Assembly session of the UN, his address fell dismally flat.
For all its flaws, the United States has commanded the greatest respect from world leaders whose countries are less fortunate than the great US. As Head of the Host Country, the US President has always addressed the world body of peers with s message of bettering the future for all. This year, President Trump aired personal grievances and in essence said “adios” to others.
“You’re on your own. Stay out of my country, take care of your own problems,” the leader of the world’s richest country told the others at a time when gross climatic changes impact all with forced migrations and when diseases cross borders with no visa or passport and certainly no respect for walls of any sort. It is also a time when the information highway spreads a message far and wide to cause disappointment, resentment and anger in those outside the US.
Donald Trump represents the worst aspects of prosperity and wealth. Those are selfishness and greed. Neither has ever benefited anybody in any but the most shallow and ostentatious ways. That outward show may matter but it’s not enough as demonstrated by other differences.
Money does not satisfy Trump, who lied when he claimed in his presidential campaign that he was so rich he did not need wealthy fund. Those might showed up in abundance and no telling what happened to the money. What is obvious to all, however, is the fact that those landed prestigious government jobs with lavish perks that went with their positions, free to them courtesy of american taxpayers.
In 2019, America is not unique in being headed by a greedy, selfish egotist swindling a host of followers by tooting his own horn on a false note. This General Assembly reflects this state of affairs.
The leaders of China, Russia and Israel are missing, embroiled in national situations revolving around the use and misuse of power. Bors Johnson of the UK will leave early after unlawfully engineering a reckless “Brexit” break of Britain from the European Union. No telling what will happen with Trump and impeachment efforts to stop his gaming of the American Constitutional system. In the meantime, the little people of the world rely on each other for whatever generous support can be given.
In his speech to the 2019 UN General Assembly, Trump admonished the near-200 non-American countries to cherish their history and culture. He seemed unaware that the United States was made up of people whose culture was rooted in some foreign country. The land of plenty is a land of immigrants. Those are the people that Trump now warns to “stay away.”
The illogic tells the story that other heads of states hear. Despite its gold standard of intelligence and expertise, the great United States has lost its moral compass. By extension and as measured by discord, many in the industrialized western world have followed the American lead. into disarray.
In a world where challenges are a global global in scope, the United Nations is the best reflection of where humanity stands as a whole. It has regional groups that address issues such as small island nations facing climatic ammojo; atopm and legal bodies that help clarify the rights and obligations of countries sharing joint resources, such as trans-border rivers. Water and land are major sources of conflict in regions not gifted with Trump golf courses and squabbles over fees.
In the serious UN environment, the simplistic rhetoric of a leader like Trump rings even more hollow than the toot of his horn over privileges. If that is the best that the grent America has to offer, the world’s little people may think, then we had better keep grouping together to come up with solutions in the line with the old saying that two heads are better than one.
The wealthy United States has been a mainstay of the United Nations influential in spreading security across the world. UN resources will be sorely depleted without a generous US contribution that helps develop new markets for US corporations. But the Trump doctrine of selfish greed benefits no one. Banded together, the world’s little people will figure it out.
Maybe they’ll find a way to tap US corporations or political might, perhaps by showing them that a leader like Trump makes America a lonely place indeed. As the song says, one is the loneliest number ..
Source by Helen Fogarassy