The will of the people halts for no wall

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Times such as these allow you to talk about walls, and specifically the walled will of the people.

It was, after all, the will of the people that assured Donald Trump becoming President of America. How this happened no one will really know.

Everybody is speculating, but speculation is of little use. It’s like kissing a frog hoping it will turn into a prince. It is like trying to speculate about the real reason behind the student uprisings in the Rainbow Nation, or what the EFF’s agenda is when it comes to the white folks.

And, yes, what happened in America is of concern to us, considering there are more than 600 American companies in America coupled with the fact we trade with this superpower and if the dollar catches a nervous twitch then the Rand tumbles.

So, yes, it does matter, and if it doesn’t matter, then why was everybody talking about?

At times when I heard that Trump was leading the race I felt like Alice who had fallen down the rabbit hole, or Edmund who had stepped through the wardrobe into the mythical land of Narnia, and then at times I also felt like Neo who discovered the Matrix was not all that it appeared to be.

Believe it or not, Trump is the President of the world’s greatest superpower that has the capacity to remind us that total annihilation is a mere nuclear button away.

In a country of great minds, sporting roughly a population of 360 million people, it seems the will of the people has spoken loud and clear.

Of course, now the talk of the town is that the only thing worse than 9/11 (Twin Towers) is 11/9 (date of the election results).

There are already fears the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is in danger. This is a United States trade act, enacted on May 18 2000 as Public Law 106 of the 200th Congress.

AGOA has since been renewed to 2025. The legislation significantly enhances market access to the US for qualifying sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

Political analysts Dr Somadoda Fikeni and Dr Tom Wheeler have also warned Africa was not top of Trump’s agenda, something he made clear during his election campaign.

So we will just have to wait and see. Again, what happens in America does matter to us here in the deep south.

Many may not know it but November 9, 1989 was also the day the Berlin Wall fell.

During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West.

In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on August 13, 1961.

Then, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West.

Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.

And so, the will of the people spoke loud and clear, as they started to tear down the wall. It caught the media’s attention across the world, as almost 30 years later many celebrated their freedom.

At times I have wondered if the people who dismantled the wall were not singing along to Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, with part two of this rock opera being a protest song against rigid schooling in general and boarding schools in the UK.

By the way, the single, as well as the album The Wall, were banned in South Africa in 1980 after the song was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting racial inequities in education under the apartheid regime.

Since we are talking about walls, I am sure you can conclude that since Trump is President, he is of course looking to build another wall that reminds me of the Berlin Wall.

This will separate Mexico and the USA, in the attempt to stop illegal immigrants and therefore apparently curb criminal activities. And it seems America will pay for it.

I am sure many companies in America will not take it lightly that their new president is about to put a stop to a lot of cheap labour.

I therefore find it very ironic that the one who is proposing to build a wall won his victory on the day that many celebrated the fall of a wall decades earlier. Go figure,

And yes, it is all about the will of the people, and here in South Africa the will of the people spoke loud and clear during the municipal elections when the DA captured a few key metros.

The same chorus of voices has now been raised like a wall of defiance, demanding new leadership following the State Capture report, Nenegate, the Nkandla saga and Guptagate.

One thing that history teaches us is that eventually the collective will of the people will be heard and the will of the people will triumph, even if it means tearing down a wall.

So the government in South Africa needs to take note as poor service delivery, widespread corruption and the lack of basic needs continue to cripple the welfare and prosperity of the masses.

Yes, even the people in this country will not for long tolerate the bricks in the wall that keep the wall of incompetence and blatant disorder erect.