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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Unprepared and unplanned: Ramaphosa is the real villain of Budget debacle GalleryUnprepared and unplanned: Ramaphosa is the real villain of Budget debacle
African National Congress (ANC), Corruption, Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump, EFF, Finance, Finance Minister, John Steenhuisen, South African Politics
Unprepared and unplanned: Ramaphosa is the real villain of Budget debacle
Imagine a democratic country where members of the governing party called each other "Comrade"; where its Cabinet members were split between democratic centrists and socialist ideologues. Its high-spending government presided over a low-growth, high-unemployment economy, and it faced headwinds from being over-borrowed in a weakening currency and from external foreign shocks over which it had [...]
Budget battles and the bond market: The true cost of political posturing
"Talk is cheap, money buys the whiskey" is a true and informed adage. And this does not refer to the rise in "sin taxes" on booze likely to be introduced on Wednesday afternoon when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana unveils his budget in Parliament. Instead, it applies to the cheap talk from various politicians. SA "will not [...]
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ANC’s foreign policy stance resulted in the current crisis with the US GalleryANC’s foreign policy stance resulted in the current crisis with the US
African National Congress (ANC), American Politics, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, gaza, GNU, Hamas, International Politics, South African Politics, Trump, US elections
ANC’s foreign policy stance resulted in the current crisis with the US
Eminent American historian Timothy Snyder wrote in the introduction to his short book On Tyranny, "History does not repeat itself but it does instruct." The subtitle of his work, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, is helpful in navigating the current crisis which has engulfed SA-US relations, now at their worst point since 1986. In I986, the [...]
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SA’s regional supremacy, once unquestioned, is dented – perhaps irreparably GallerySA’s regional supremacy, once unquestioned, is dented – perhaps irreparably
African National Congress (ANC), American Politics, Donald Trump, Gwede Mantashe, International Politics, Israel, South African Politics, US elections, World Politics
SA’s regional supremacy, once unquestioned, is dented – perhaps irreparably
"Trump derangement syndrome" is a political condition whose etymology is traced to the late conservative commentator and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer. He defined it, first in respect of another Republican president, George W. Bush, as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency - nay – the very [...]