Ten weeks that shook the world [ Financial Times ]

The flava:

On many fronts, and with deliberate haste, America is vaporising its soft power. It takes less than a quarter to besmirch a brand that took a quarter of a millennium to build. How long would it take to repair? Last week, Myanmar was hit by its worst earthquake in decades. Chinese and even Russian aid teams were on the ground within days. Having dismantled USAID, American assistance has yet to arrive. At home, Trump plans to deport more than 300,000 Venezuelan refugees into the maw of the brutal regime they fled. 

None of the world’s huddled masses are welcome in America with one exception — white South Africans. As Trump shuts down agencies and consulates around the world, his administration is establishing processing centres for white Afrikaner “refugees” in Pretoria, who he claims are victims of racial discrimination by South Africa’s Black majority government. In case anyone misses the point, his administration is erasing the contributions of non-white Americans from Pentagon websites, the Arlington cemetery and the Smithsonian museum. Martin Luther King Jr is out. The names of defeated confederate generals are back. Science research projects are being scoured for banned words, such as “equity” and even “women”. 

All of this is being done in the name of meritocracy. America’s new guard are almost all white, all male, and mostly unqualified to lead the great departments they are vandalising. It is not just foreigners who are remaking their plans. American scientists are looking for jobs abroad. Trump has presented the rest of the world with a giant poaching opportunity. . . .   

The article:

https://www.ft.com/content/510069b5-75e5-4f1d-b382-56217f3866bb