On its merits, President Trump's acceptance of a few dozen South African white farmers as refugees easily conforms to the legal requirements for acceptance as refugees.
It's likely that Trump enjoys the screaming from the left, as he is forcing them to live by its own rules that it set itself on refugees -- every refugee welcome, which means white ones, too.
But the fact that Trump did take these farmers in, when other presidents just ignored them, and the South African government is clearly enraged raises the second interesting possibility that somebody's sacred cow is getting gored, and Trump is goring it.
After all, aren't refugees either from war zones such as Ukraine, or else fourth world hellholes -- places like Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Haiti, Cuba, Somalia, Yemen, Burma, North Korea, Syria? Nasty pariah states.
By taking in refugees from South Africa, Trump is implicitly announcing that South Africa is in Yemen's or Somalia's league -- a dump, an s-hole country no one would go to who didn't have to go to, a place with travel warnings and sorry tourist stories.
Which pretty much goes against South Africa's vision of itself -- as a rising superpower on the global stage, a nation with clout, wealth, and influence.
Over the last several years, South Africa has promoted itself this way, particularly with its loud noisy campaign to make the BRIC the BRICS with its entry into the club.
According to Google AI, which gives a good summary of the conventional wisdom:
Blah, blah, blah. In reality, they are producing refugees, same as some place like Syria, a third world hellhole. And like such countries, they have only the crummiest of allies.
Its choice of partners include Russia, China and Iran, and in particular as Russia's pawn.
According to GIS Reports Online:
Some in the international community have expressed mixed reactions to South Africa’s position within BRICS. Concerns are rife about the bilateral relations South Africa has built with authoritarian BRICS members such as Russia, China and now Iran.
Since Pretoria failed to condemn Moscow following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, South Africa’s relationship with Russia has come under scrutiny. Mr. Ramaphosa’s administration has been criticized by American diplomats as well as South African civil society for its close ties with Russia, but has still maintained its “non-aligned” posture. In defiance of the ANC’s position toward the Kremlin, and before becoming its coalition partner, the leader of the main opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), undertook a fact-finding trip to Kiev, demonstrating solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
In the leadup to the 2023 summit, the African National Congress (ANC)-led administration under President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated its loyalty to the BRICS alliance by again refusing to condemn Russia. He went so far as to question the basis of the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s order to arrest Russian leader Vladimir Putin on South African soil if he attended the summit. South Africa’s diplomats controversially claimed that the ICC’s order interfered with South Africa’s sovereignty, and arresting him would be a “declaration of war."
Besides this, the South African government has sought to pariah-ize Israel, bullying the tiny state for resisting genocidal terrorists and putting out an arrest warrant for its prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, according to GIS:
Pretoria brought Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges that the country might be involved in acts of genocide in Gaza. This move was in direct defiance of the U.S., who saw the court route as unfavorable toward attaining lasting peace in the region. South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, also opposed the government’s stance on Israel, which they saw as hostile and condoning the militant Hamas.
Speaking of 'genocide.'
Trump used that word on them yesterday, probably for this very reason. Back at you, South African rulers.
Besides economic influence, which is not great, by the way, as investors flee as their farmers are physically fleeing, Trump struck a blow to something they have been wielding like Gollum's 'precious,' -- their moral authority on the global stage.
According to Google AI again, summing up what is out there:
South Africa, particularly since the end of apartheid, has been viewed as possessing significant moral authority, especially in Africa and internationally. This stems from its successful transition to democracy and the role of its leader, Nelson Mandela, in promoting reconciliation and human rights. However, some critics argue that South Africa's moral authority has been eroded by its actions and stances on certain international issues.
- Factors contributing to South Africa's moral authority:
The country's shift to majority rule and its commitment to a non-racial, democratic society earned it widespread recognition and respect on the global stage.
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- Mandela's leadership during and after apartheid, his emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation, and his global image as a symbol of hope and justice have significantly contributed to South Africa's moral authority.
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- South Africa's constitution, known for its extensive protection of human rights and its emphasis on equality, has been praised as a model for other countries.
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Actually, they don't have any moral authority at all now -- they are out creating refugees, foolishly following the Zimbabwe or Hugo Chavez model of stealing other people's land in the name of 'social justice,' which in the end will create another Zimbabwe.
Here they are hailing the signature of the 'Expropriation Law' with a slew of socialist lies:
ANC views this law as a progressive and transformative tool to advance land reform in ways that enable inclusive economic growth and social cohesion. By unlocking access to land, the legislation will promote the development of sustainable human settlements, enhance agricultural productivity for emerging farmers, and enable urban land development to address spatial inequality. This is a direct response to the needs of millions of South Africans who have been excluded from land ownership and access to natural resources for far too long.
This law is a critical step towards fulfilling the vision articulated in the Freedom Charter, which declared, “The land shall be shared among those who work it.” It reflects the ANC’s commitment to achieving economic justice and creating a South Africa where all citizens enjoy equal access to the nation’s wealth and resources.
Here is a part of the ruling ANC (now part of a coalition after a group of crazed leftists broke off to form their own parties) party platform:
Accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing.
Recent history shows that the exact opposite will happen, not in the least due to the destruction of property rights, which ends all access to capital and title deed, the twin pillars to actual development, as Hernando de Soto wrote in "The Mystery of Capital."
Like Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez, they really believe that stealing other people's land will provide "food security" and improve "agricultural production." Chavez used to talk about this all the time.
When I visited rural Venezuela in late 2005, I was shown with my own eyes by blogger Daniel Duquenal just how disastrous that land expropriation was -- how once productive farmland had been turned into a total wasteland.
A hallmark of a third world dump is to follow Venezuela's 'model,' which not surprisingly, is creating more refugees, the very refugees President Trump just recognized as refugees.
People have been fleeing that country for years, and a recent New York Times report noted this as if nothing were wrong with it, and farmers' grievances were somehow exaggerated.
But the refugees are real, according to textbook legal definitions.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' website:
Under United States law, a refugee is someone who:
- Is located outside of the United States
- Is of special humanitarian concern to the United States
- Demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group
- Is not firmly resettled in another country
- Is admissible to the United States
A refugee does not include anyone who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
If they're out there getting tortured, raped, and murdered and the government is doing nothing, and worse still, effectively endorsing it with "kill the Boer" chants by whipped up politicized mobs, then there is no doubt the case of refugee status has been met, as long as the other qualifiers are there, too.
If they create refugees, they aren't first world, let alone first rate as a nation. They are another Somalia, and now Trump has just driven that point home. They no longer have status as a credible state. With these refugees accepted, Trump has let it be known that this is a country any credible country should steer clear of.
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