I Didn’t Know Donald Trump Was A Real Person

December 11, 2015December 11, 2015 / Adeola / 2 Comments

Just imagine a Donald Trump-presidency and a gun-for-all American society. I say a Swedish prayer for all American people, May The Wind Be Your Way..!

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola_dec_2015

With the title of this essay, l have not lied.

If you think it is funny or ridiculous, you have a right to that feeling especially if you know who l am.

If you choose to continue to read after this point, try to have an open mind and be objective.

I followed American politics for a while especially when Barack Obama became a candidate for the White House. Before the presidential election in 2008, l got a request from a media organisation probably based in the United States to write an opinion about Barack Obama.

So l did a series of online interviews with some people in Nigeria right from my base in Sweden. The results were 3 articles on Obama and the 2008 American presidential election in general.

The media group known as Vote2008 Takeaway has since pulled down all the publications or maybe they moved the websites. I cannot be sure which.

I started to tune down my interest in American politics after Obama’s victory. I read about all the opposition to Obama’s policies from the republican side. Not that l was very pleased with Obama himself. The last straw was when American drones started to take away lives around the world. I zoomed away from American politics.

Later on, l started to hear the name Donald Trump more often. I must have heard it in connection to the 2008 election and probably did not pay attention to it.

The reason l have not paid attention to the name is because for some (probably strange) reasons l was connecting the name to something about THE SIMPSONS.

I don’t know or recollect how that happened. But it happened so.

For once l never thought Donald Trump would turn out to be a real person.

I mean my CNN channel disappeared from my free cable network and l hardly tune in to Aljazeera after l was unable to get a reply from one of their correspondents after making some enquiries on a subject matter. I felt dumped because l just helped them with one of their programs by participating in a recorded Skype-video conversation.

Anyway one fundamental argument, as l reflect now, why l didn’t think that Donald Trump was a real person was because most of the things attributed to him don’t sound real. So l just laugh and thought whoever invented this comic character is crazily funny.

I also thought: what is the media getting at when they portray such a comic character?

Let me repeat, this is not a joke. There was a time l thought Donald Trump was not a real person.

Yes, l am a writer. Yes l write about Nigerian politics since 2001. And yes l am not ashame to say that in the early days l didn’t know that Donald Trump was real.

I have my priorities.

I didn’t think all the dumb characters portrayed in Simpsons or other cartons or comedies are real.

It was when it dawn on me that Obama’s second term is drawing to a close that l started paying attention again to some aspects of American politics especially the candidates vying for the White House.

By the summer of 2016, l’ll probably catch up with all that is obscure now.

But how did l discover that Donald Trump was a real person?

It is the same way l have checked my sanity over the years. I ask people unexpected questions. Even at meetings or gatherings l have asked questions or make comments off the mark just to do some reality checks.

One day l asked my wife-have you been hearing the name Donald Trump? She said yes. So who is he l asked? After our conversation, l finally came to terms that Donald Trump actually exists and that he is not just a character in the Simpsons.

My wife laughed, but it was in a good way. My sanity check was complete.

So, l finally discovered that Donald Trump was actually a real person.

Oh my..!

I couldn’t believe my ignorance. At my age..!

Still, l didn’t pay attention so close enough. Even after discovering that he is a real person. I mean, l thought the media had been unfair to him and that they must have attributed all those nonsense to an innocent man. There must be some of those stories about him that are exaggerated.

My line of thought was liberally, dilutedly objective: if a man is going to become the president of America in this century, he should at least not be dumber than Mr. Obama’s predecessor or McCain’s running mate.

I reasoned further, though l didn’t fancy Obama’s drones, Americans can still produce people who can show enlightenment, grasp of globalization and ability to discern between fishing in Alaska and hiking in Barcelona.

Does anyone remember Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate who does not even have an international passport? Sarah Palin l know. She was for real!

I thought that Donald Trump was a comic media invention that was developed to haunt Barack Obama. I thought it/he was a comic character and how l arrive at that reasoning will forever remain a mystery.

I can quite understandably and easily align with people who think that Donald Trump is dumb. I mean l didn’t even know he was a real person like Sarah Palin.

If 20 % of all the things attributed to him are real or correct as much as he is a real person, l am so sorry for all categories of American people.

In those days when l used to watch Jay Leno’s late night show, l ’d been taken aback several times when Leno went on the streets of America to ask people simple questions.

For some episodes, he asked sometimes very simple questions that sound like: who is the president of the United States? Amazingly some people don’t know, don’t care!

As l reviewed the Jay Leno’s shows that l watched and placed them side-a-side the emegence and rise of a presidential candidate like Donald Trump, my shock about the realness of Trump simply just disappeared.

I mean he is a leader in the race to the White House.

I can imagine that Jay Leno asked other questions like: where is Iraq? Some people would have answered, in Africa. I mean the US invaded a country that majority of her citizens do not know the location even if you give them a map.

The United States probably have the largest accumulation of ignorant people per total population on a global scale. Some will argue. I care less. But l wish they could do their research or possibly go deep into the villages and cities in America.

Hence when a character that should exist in a comedy suddenly turned out to be a real life leading presidential character in the US, you can get a better perception of where the world is heading in general.

On a global perspective, the world is in the hands of the wrong people. Are we for real?

Mostly l have read only the headlines since l discovered Donald Trump. That way, I have maintained my sanity since my wife explained to me who he is.

With all that l have to do, think or worry about especially if you love Nigeria and Africa like l do, adding the content of Donald Trump’s campaigns or useless speeches will amount to what the swedish people called slosseri med tiden. Go figure..!

My greater sympathy goes to all those who have suffered persecution, rejection and extreme discrimimation in the hands of Donald Trump-the real character.

Just imagine a Donald Trump presidency and a gun-for-all American society. I say a Swedish prayer to all American citizens (by birth or naturalization), May The Wind Be Your Way..!

aderounmu@gmail.com

2015 Most Wanted Report

January 3, 2015January 4, 2015 / Adeola / Leave a comment

If the calls for the trial and imprisonment of George Bush Jr. for example cannot be found in the report for 2014, maybe a call for pardon or amnesty (and not a justification) for Charles Taylor will not be out of place as well.

All men are equal and what is good for the goose ought to be good for the gander.

2015 Most Wanted Report

By Adeola Aderounmu

The Human Right Watch Report for 2015 is one of the most anticipated world reports of the year. It will read 2015: The events of 2014.

What keen observers will be hoping to read will not only be the events of 2014 but more accurately the revelations of 2014. This means that known but hidden/classified reports covering the human rights violations of the United States and her allies during recent wars and occupations of other countries will be expected to make the reports.

In 2014 the United States, was described as having medium risk of human rights offenses and she ranked 139th among the 197 countries. The ten worst countries were

10. Nigeria

Yemen

Myanmar

Iraq

Afghanistan

Somalia

Pakistan

The Democratic Republic of Congo

Sudan and

1. Syria

The conditions that made these ten countries the worst places in 2013 were largely unchanged in 2014.

For example the Syrian civil war with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East still places Syria and Iraq amongst the worst places to be born in 2014. Religion despite all its rites of morality unfortunately also remains the most dangerous tool when brothers set out to kills their own kinds.

Boko Haram kept its hold on North Eastern parts of Nigeria and continues to control many local government areas in Borno and neighboring states. The terror group remains specialists in abducting and raping young girls. With Boko Haram, slave trade and human trafficking are kept alive in the Sahara.

The rise and successes of Boko Haram may stall the February elections in certain places in Nigeria. This may be so significant that it may result in the postponement of the elections with expected mayhem and escalation of the drums of war.

In Southern Nigeria it appears Mr. Jonathan has equipped his local militants with weapons from Norway, South Africa and Pakistan in readiness for war. The Nigerian military on the other hands is ill-equipped and had forfeited many grounds and weapons to Boko Haram.

In the 2015 Human Right Watch Report, Nigeria will be presented not only as an extremely corrupt country but a geographical region where human rights violations are rife and face escalation.

The rest of the world will not be disappointed with the established activities of the Taliban. Their yearlong crimes in 2014 culminated in massacre of 132 school children in Peshawar.

But back in the United States, there were more provocative revelations about the roles of the United States military in Iraq and Guantanamo. The revelations have heightened the call for the trial of George Bush a former president of the United States and some of his military chiefs.

Apart from the war crimes there were serious internal challenges in 2014 that rightly positioned the US as a serious contender as one of the countries with the worst human right violations in 2014.

The extra judicial killings that have been watered down for several decades reared their ugly heads and took on a non-suppressive dimension in 2014. It will be unfair to blame this awareness on media hype. I do not agree that the media blew the unfortunate events out of proportion. It is just the right thing to do rather than remaining silent when a persistent evil repeats itself with clear precisions.

Human Right Index 2014

No amount of media hype will be excessive to seek justice and redress for the killings of Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, Kajieme Powell, Vonderrit Myers Jr and Antonio Martin just to mention a few that got our attention in recent months. Who knows exactly how many John, Jane and Baby Does went down in the US in 2014?

There are quite a handful of images and videos emanating from the US and going viral on the social network that depict in extreme situations daylight executions of colored people by white cops.

The 2015 Human Right reports will be of interest, a waiting thriller perhaps.

The place of the killer drones is hard to define but it has come to represent a form of repressive, excessive force, large unaccounted for. The American killer drones under Mr. Obama widen the stretch of international war crimes.

The world is waiting. Where will the US be? Based on current knowledge and events, will the authors miss the position of the US among or near the ten worst countries? Shall we be distracted to Russia, Ukraine and North Korea as a reprieve?

More so the double standard of rating human right abuses is condemnable.

What makes Charles Taylor suitable for prosecution / jail term based on human right abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone but the presidents of the United States and the Prime Ministers in Britain unsuitable for prosecutions despite all the war crimes committed on their behalf around the world?

Charles Taylor is serving a 50 year jail term for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone and Liberia. His arrest, detention and trial brought about a weird diplomatic drama among many countries including Nigeria, Liberia, the US, Britain and the Netherland.

Charles Taylor spoke of injustice early in his trial because he pointed out that George Bush and Dick Cheney are guilty of the same crimes he was accused of. All his other lines of defense also fell flat.

The world is watching closely again. The United States is expected to be among the worst countries in the world where human rights violations became an issue. This view is shared by several independent human right observers.

It is expected that Human Right Report will be clear on highlighting how different forms of torture were used in Abu Dhabi, Guantanamo and so on.

The world is waiting to read the report about the innocent American citizens who fall to police bullets everyday on home soil without recourse to justice.

So many things are unclear. For example, there are more colored people in jails for crimes related to drug possessions but the white population has the larger percentage of drug users. The tilted nature of criminal prosecutions in America does not favor the African-Americans.

The Human Right Watch report for events of 2014 is under a special watch light.

The reports of the watch dog will be closely monitored. If the calls for the trial and imprisonment of George Bush Jr. for example cannot be found in the human right report for 2014/2015, maybe a call for pardon or amnesty (and not a justification) for Charles Taylor will not be out of place as well.

All men are equal and what is good for the goose ought to be good for the gander.

aderounmu@gmail.com