Americans – a few months ago, your president said something along the lines of “watch what’s happening.”
We are watching.
And what we’re seeing is a reminder — people are not their policymakers. Not in theory, not in practice, not anywhere in the world.
From where I’m standing, it’s hard not to see echoes. Not the same story, but a familiar shape. A reminder of what pressure, resistance, and turning points looked like a little over 30 years ago in South Africa.
The irony? Loud.
Pot calling the kettle black, broadcast in HD.
As you move through this moment — whatever it becomes — understand this: the world is watching. And not all of us are watching from a distance. Some of us recognise it. There’s a shared undercurrent in what people push back against, globally.
Because strip away the branding, the flags, the headlines — and people tend to be fighting for variations of the same thing.
Now let’s talk plainly.
Your president once asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” — referring to places like mine. That’s not interpretation. That’s on record.
He also directed his Secretary of State to look into South Africa, citing “large scale killing of farmers.” Again — not paraphrased, not exaggerated. Public statement.
And more broadly, the same voice has told people: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
So when we’re told to “watch what’s happening,” we do — with context.
And this Africa, yoh — when things go wrong here, they don’t pause to check your skin colour or your politics. Reality doesn’t filter itself through ideology first. It just… is.
So when those kinds of statements get made, from that level, it lands less like analysis and more like projection dressed up as certainty.
All that intelligence infrastructure — and still, at times, a noticeable absence of actual insight.
If we’re being honest — and we might as well be — Americans as people? Generally good people. Same as anywhere else. Complex, decent, trying to figure things out.
Leadership? Different conversation entirely.
Both can be true.
So as this plays out — however it plays out — just know there are people watching who aren’t rooting for chaos, but for clarity. For something better to come out of it.
Because we’ve seen versions of this before.
We know it’s messy.
We know it’s costly.
And we know the story only ever looks simple in hindsight.
All the best.