By Alex Roberts
And again with the bullshit; every day it is some other thing that really grinds my gears and sends me careening off the walls during respectable political conversation. The latest iteration of this deep-seeded loathing is the continued notion that somehow Donald Trump and his inane perpetual moronic babble are somehow ‘elevated’ above ‘those African countries’.
After this week; Americans have lost that very pedestal that they just can’t help but stand: that their ‘official and formal inquiry’ has any less of the circus nature of an ICC case- with none of the consequences on the other end.
One of the very things that was most acutely laid at the feet of the Ocampo Six during the International Criminal Court proceedings several years ago was the not-so-subtle-but-is-it-provable allegations of witness tampering and intimidation. Witnesses allegedly disappeared; key figures in testimony suddenly had a ‘change of heart’; subtext laden speeches were made and cheered upon.
The key in all of that was subtext, something that Kenyan leadership is…not exactly known for.
But now this, this strange week or so within which King Fucklewitz the Orange himself during live testimony, objectively and unequivocally threatened witnesses. On multiple occasions.
Could you imagine the sanctions if Uhuru ever said something so blatant on Twitter? Someone in Denmark would surely sign a vague form that would make it seem as though they never helped support his regime in the first place, the UN would write a letter (strongly worded) with condescending phrases like upholding moral responsibility and 21st Century sustainable development, members of the British High Commission would sign statements of disagreement from the back of limousines, attendants of bourgeois cocktail parties in Karen could keep not giving a shit and sending money in expensive envelopes to orphaned elephants (to make a difference).
The proof is on Twitter for the world to see, not on a lost tape recording or in the annals of the mind of a forgetful witness.
So what will come of it? When the man in orange comes out and shouts threats from his white-power tower of power, all is well and consequences aren’t to be found.
When politicians in East Africa do it (allegedly, of course, we wouldn’t dare insinuate anything against such upstanding and morally altruistic political leadership who definitely aren’t doing anything to further in-debt their nations to China) they are policed by the ICC.
If African leaders can be treated as children, the question must be raised, why does a fuck-wit child like Trump get any different treatment?
Maybe not for the consequence, sure, everyone knows that Uncle Sam will come for anyone’s neck for a quarter century who dares fuck with them for a day, but at least in conversational tone; public discourse among the international community; on the airwaves of prominent thought in global affairs.
Instead, one ugly double standard continues. So the next time an American (even myself, as I obviously tend to pontificate) starts to condescend about political leadership be quick to remind them that the man in the White House is publicly threatening witnesses, that it could easily have consequences for the leaders of non-global superpowers and to kindly fuck off and vote.
