Goodness, gracious me! What a stunning shock. Devastating blow!
Yes of course, I refer to Trump being elected the 45th President of the United States of America. You may well ask what it means to this Sri Lankan woman living so far away from the US of America and just a mere person.
That this cat may be, but she was interested in the American election and the pre-voting meetings, debates and prognoses and polls predictions. She was sure Hillary Clinton would win and if any one mentioned the impossible – that of that showy maverick beating her, she hissed her feline disdain and snarled ‘Never! That will never happen.’ And then it happened. BBC reporting was closely followed with the heart and spirits sinking lower and lower.
Why so? Because it was a blow to all women around the world. But then again, it proved that very many Americans have nothing upstairs.
Two ordinary Americans say their say
So we four women who were together watching TV through the 8th night agreed on this and that Americans were voting against Establishment.
International analysts adduced it to a vote against Establishment but with the qualifier ‘political.’ Yes, it seemed to be that Americans were tired of politics and die hard politicians.
They voted for an untested man and maybe, according to this cat’s dire prediction, they will rue the day they used their vote against the experienced, sensible, clever woman - Hillary.
I had the shock and despair expressed in an email received from a woman in the States. I quote her: “What a day! This was really, really hard to wake up to, to go through and to come to terms with. I was afraid latterly that this may be a possible outcome, though previously it seemed like a slim chance of happening. I was so keyed up last night, that after the first two results of KY and IN fell to the Republicans, I decided it was better to knock off the TV and just settle in to sleep. Only to sit up wide awake at 2.00 am and turn on the TV for a quick peek to see what had happened. At which point CNN mentioned that a victory had yet to be declared and Clinton was not going to address her supporters.
That was the alarm bell indicating that the outcome was indeed going to be the unthinkable. I turned off the TV and stared in the dark, unable to sleep. It is frightening to think what the next four years are going to be, what direction the country’s course will be set and what repercussions we will reap as a result.” She went on to say that whoever she spoke to expressed deep depression and of course surprise. She also says that a young group of schoolchildren walked on a certain Avenue in Manhattan shouting “Trump is not our president”. By night there were large groups marching not only in Manhattan but in Oakland and Chicago and Pennsylvania.
Another from Georgia wrote: “We are all in shock here over the election. It seemed Hillary had a comfortable lead but all predictions were proven wrong. I found it too stressful to watch the results last night when they started to get disappointing, so I turned off the news and watched something else and then went to sleep. Woke up to the headline that Trump had won.
Local stunner
The mood here is very subdued. Georgia was thought of as a competitive state but stayed Republican as it has since after the Carter years. The Democrats couldn’t even win some of the States Obama won four years ago. If this were SL there would be reports of people having heart attacks or committing suicide after a result like this!”
But Trump’s speech after knowing he had won was so different from his speeches on the campaign trail which had been overloaded with rhetoric; poisonous with personal darts and so expansive with promises. He was said to be racist, bigoted and misogynistic. Much more descriptive epithets were loaded on him. But who knows, he may change. This cat forecasts he will never be elected a second time and that even his four year stint may be reduced - Impeachment?! One of the hundreds of protest marches that occur almost daily has caused much concern, a division of opinion and struck an ominous note. I refer to the sit down protest of disabled soldiers and policemen. From sitting down and seeking immediate payment of pensions, some moved to marching. There surely were riotous intruders because the police had to intervene with water cannon and such like. This gave material for loud mouths to shout “foul” and “is this the way to treat people who gave their lives and limbs to save the country?” This cat remained unmoved. She abhors protest marches and thinks, rightly or wrongly, that problems have to be solved through negotiation. Also disabled armed forces should not resort to this type of twisting the arm of the government.
Then came a stern reprimand from the President and a fact making its way through the electronic media. A certain JO politician was an inciter along with two Buddhist monks. Their aim: to destabilize the government and push it to the brink of disintegrating. Fat hope, this cat spits out. The instigators of the protesters to become unruly should be apprehended and dealt with suitably.
They deserve to be named, shamed and punished severely. What these instigators did is a graver insult to those who saved the country, than the police controlling them.
- Menika