When America sneezes

When America sneezes the whole world catches cold. It is attributed to an Austrian aristocrat, a Prince and definitely a word genius of those years, Klemens Wenzel Fürst von Metternich. Before and after the Napoleonic era he was an international diplomat of no little repute. He is among those credited with the fall of Napoleon dominance in Europe and beyond and crafting of the Metternich system. It was a system adopted by major European conservative powers against revolutionary movements, forces of nationalism in order to uphold the balance of power.

In fact, he meant that "when France sneezes, the whole of Europe catches cold." Of course another wordsmith crafted it otherwise. Hence the more popular" when U.S. sneezes the whole World catches cold."

Donald Trump's rise to the world's highest political power has left even the political scientists dumbstruck. In America as seen by the world, a bigot of whatever color is an alien that's to be alienated like brother to Idi Amin Dada fighting for the U.S. Presidency. It's mind boggling even to the most conservative Americans of Republican inclination. As the mother crusader against social evils like racism none really understand the real mandate of the U.S. President-elect.

We are left wondering, world over whether the end of the universe is really nigh given the character of President Trump. It ceased being an American headache the moment he hit the 270 electoral votes threshold before Mrs. Clinton and now the prophecy believers are counting and predicting days to the apocalypse. Now we can never guess what is really brewing in the mind of President Trump with the power to make or break the world. Just as his campaign rhetoric sounded ultra and extreme American we wait to see his African policy directions.

The only nearest and most darling of Africa was President George Bush Jnr with Pepfar and additional aid in a billion dollars towards Tuberculosis and malaria. He also intervened in electoral fiasco in Kenya's 2007-8 post-election violence and Ivory Coast’s. Africa headed in the right direction but the grand corruption is killing its otherwise high potential economy.

A collective body of the progressive Africa should pray that being a republican coming into power in a dispute like his earlier predecessor Bush Jnr, Trump should rise above and befuddle his critics on both sides of the aisle. He should at least make some noise about graft so that the status quo rises from the business as usual gobbling table. We know that American reverence has ebbed due to it revelation of corruption in its government. But still, it can sneeze and we realize that we are about to catch its cold whenever it sneezes. We end up much affected by the cold than Americans themselves.