‘I won’t visit America again!’

Tite:

Welcome back, Mo. Hope you had a nice time in America. This present America is not the America you used to know. Things have changed. As soon as we landed there the immigration isolated those with Muslim sounding names for special drilling.

Was it that brazen or are you just adding your own salt and pepper?

Indeed it was worse. I was literally taken apart as I was taken inside a room to strip to my underwear. I have never felt more violated in my entire life. All in aid of what? They’ll tell you they have to strip you to make America more secure. But was America less secure when they didn’t probe into my underwear?

Sad. I know how you feel. One doesn’t really appreciate the full horror from merely reading about the new immigration rules in the media.

It is simply terrible. I have been going to America at least once a year in the last 22 years. Never have I been made to feel so unwanted as this last time.

But what about the people? Surely everybody couldn’t have caught the rabies of discrimination?

The American society is seriously polarised. The divisions are deep. Believe me, it’s worse than PDP versus APC. For the first time Americans are divided on racial and religious lines. I noticed that right away and felt sorry for that country.

Does the Trump administration bother about how its discriminatory rules are affecting decent people?

I don’t think they can be bothered because their perception is based on illogic. I saw this coming as soon as Trump won the election. But I didn’t know he was as sick as he is now demonstrating. Sick? How? Have you forgotten that Harvard law professors diagnosed Trump as mentally unstable? They talked about his ‘grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality’… And it’s all clear for all to see now.

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You’ve never liked Trump anyway. I don’t have to like him. True, I’m no fan of his, but I think he’s going to take America down the slippery slope of thoughtless war and hate and destruction and self-destruction. I am not alone in saying this. There were at least 80 top executives from other African and Asian countries who attended that conference with me. Most of them said they would not attend any conference in the US again and that the organisers should think of running an Asian or African edition of the conference because they will never willingly subject themselves to the kind of humiliation they experienced on entering America this time.

If the feelings are so deep, then it might even negatively affect tourism.

Of course, who wants to spend hard-earned dollars to buy humiliation?

I’ve heard people describe Trump as narcissistic. I know he is a very rude person but maybe narcissism is a bridge too far.

Mo:

Then you haven’t taken time to review his personality properly. The American Psychiatry Association has a nine-point checklist for narcissism. That organisation says if someone displays just five of the traits, that person has Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Usually a narcissistic person has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognised as superior without commensurate achievements).

He or she is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love. A narcissist believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions). He requires excessive admiration. He has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations …

It’s beginning to sound like a bio of somebody I know.

The person is also interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of people. He lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognise or identify with the feelings and needs of others. He is often envious of others or believes that others are envious

Tite: Mo: