Tony Leon: New US Ambassador to SA “a flamethrower from Trump’s MAGA world”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9eEpGjsJkU
Tony Leon on trade, Trump, and diplomacy: What he’d do as ambassador
‘The metrics on which any embassy should be judged, in my opinion, is what have they done to the trade balance, has it improved on their watch,’ says the former ambassador and politician. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-podcasts/moneyweb-midday/tony-leon-on-trade-trump-and-diplomacy-what-hed-do-as-ambassador/
The ANC’s guide to gaslighting: From NHI to South African laws
Gaslighting - which derives its name from a popular 1930’s movie - is a psychological condition denoting a "form of emotional manipulation in which a person aims to have the victim question their judgement, perception and sense of reality by deliberately and systematically feeding false information". In turn, this leads - for the target of [...]
Caught in Trump’s crosshairs: Navigating diplomacy in era of protocol-busting populism GalleryCaught in Trump’s crosshairs: Navigating diplomacy in era of protocol-busting populism
African National Congress (ANC), Ambassador to Argentina, American Politics, Argentina, Donald Trump, International Politics, Nelson Mandela, Trump, US elections, World Politics
Caught in Trump’s crosshairs: Navigating diplomacy in era of protocol-busting populism
How does an ambassador navigate his way when sent to a country led by a protocol-busting, hard-charging populist and protectionist who ransacks state institutions, tears up international trade agreements and announces, at their inauguration, "we must not import a single nail"? This was precisely the situation I found myself in circa 2009 when I was [...]
Germany’s boldness vs SA’s missed opportunities: A tale of economic divergence
Kaput. That's one German word which has migrated into common English usage. It's defined as "ruined, broken, or not functioning". And it fits a lot of things here and in the world right now. Wednesday afternoon's budget, assuming there is one, will reveal the ruin in our public finances; the chronic missed growth, fiscal and revenue [...]
A new (dis)order: SA faces a world of pain in Trump’s global power play
More than 240 years back, when there was an actual war of arms, not words, between America and a European power, famous Scottish economist, Adam Smith, received an alarmist letter from a young MP. British parliamentarian John Sinclair wrote to Smith: "If we go on at this rate, the nation must be ruined (the author emphasising this [...]