Barackface

Thursday, July 10, 2025

10: Immigration

Africa, in the words of a Brookings Institution research paper from January, “is increasingly recognized as the next frontier for global economic growth. Its potential is vast, characterized by diverse natural resources, a burgeoning youth population, and untapped innovation.” ........ And in recent years it’s also become a battleground for global influence in the U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry—a battleground on which analysts say China appears to be winning through consistent development investment, security engagement, and media charm. ........ “Chinese success in Africa is perhaps partly due to the failure of US foreign policy, which ranges from outright disrespect to moralistic treatment,” wrote Chinese political scientist Wenfang Tang in the South China Morning Post in 2024, compared to “the Chinese approach of treating Africans as comrades and business partners.” ......... In an effort to combat China’s growing influence and set the U.S.-Africa relationship on a stronger footing, Trump invited his counterparts from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal to the White House on Wednesday to discuss commercial opportunities as part of a diplomatic pivot he characterized as “from aid to trade.” ........ “We treat Africa far better than China or anybody else,” Trump asserted during the meeting. ........ In turn, Trump responded: “Thank you. And such good English. Such beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated? Where?” ........ When Boakai answered that he learned the language in Liberia, Trump responded: “That’s very interesting. Beautiful English! I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.” ........... An unnamed Liberian diplomat told CNN that he found it “a bit condescending.” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D, Texas) said it was “peak ignorance” in a post on X. “Trump never misses an opportunity to be racist and wrong, and every day he finds a new way to be embarrassing,” Crockett wrote. “I’m pretty sure being blatantly offensive is not how you go about conducting diplomacy.” .......... English is the official language of Liberia, a country of 5 million people on Africa’s western coast that was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society (ACS), which aimed to resettle freed slaves, and declared independence in 1847. ........... In mid-February, he bypassed an Indian reporter’s question after remarking, “I can’t understand a word he’s saying. It’s the accent. It’s a little bit tough for me to hear that.” .......... “It’s a beautiful voice and a beautiful accent,” he told an Afghan reporter earlier the same month, twice again using what seems to be his favorite adjective. “The only problem is I can’t understand a word you’re saying.” .......... And just last month, Trump told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, “you speak such good English … very good, very good.” ........... “It’s pretty much universal,” sociophonetician Nicole Holliday told the Washington Post in 2016. “You can go anywhere in the world and ask who speaks the ‘bad’ version of the language — and invariably, it’s the people who are marginalized, who are rural, poor, or belong to religious minorities.” ........... studies show that people “tend to rate their own dialects as very pleasant.”

Trump never misses an opportunity to be racist and wrong, and every day he finds a new way to be embarrassing.

Asking the President of Liberia where he learned English when it’s literally the official language is peak ignorance.

I’m pretty sure being blatantly offensive is not… https://t.co/Jhvf9dvqZE
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) July 9, 2025

Trump's Approval Rating Plummets
Judge blocks Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship
Trump administration returns to trade, tariff chaos — and no new deals
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov floats a “new concept” to halt Ukraine conflict at meeting with counterpart Rubio in Asia The Kremlin has maintained cordial relations with the Trump administration despite the stalled ceasefire talks, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's best chance for having sanctions lifted in his lifetime is to use Trump to broker a deal with Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin). ....... 'Putin gives us a lot of shit. If you want to know the truth, he's always very nice, but it turns out that's irrelevant,' the president said this week. ......... the US only has 25% of the missiles it needs to meet its strategic goals after recent deployments depleted stockpiles in the Middle East and experts say it will take years to fully restock. ........ In a parallel meeting in Rome of the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC25) Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg met with Zelenskiy to discuss options for rebuilding the country if the war should end.

Economist warns Wall Street of big mistake over Donald Trump But as Wolfers warns, premising financial decisions on the assumption Trump will backtrack underestimates the centrality of tariffs to his economic agenda. ......... "Everyone has gotten used to this dance where Trump says something outrageous and then walks it back," Wolfers said on Wednesday. "And I think much of Wall Street is betting yes, he's saying big numbers and making big threats. But their bet is he's not going to follow through."

Maddow Blog | Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship blocked by federal judge
How tariffs will be a weapon for countries to put the squeeze back on Trump and his red-state allies several countries that have lingering unresolved disputes with the U.S. could return to a tested and familiar practice: putting the squeeze on red states and GOP-held districts. ......... “You know when products like Kentucky bourbon are in the headlines, you know something's going on” ......... Agricultural imports were a top target: America’s northern neighbor took aim at dairy products, poultry, and a wide range of foodstuffs. China did the same with a particular focus on U.S. soybean exports. .......... China’s soybean duties will have the greatest impact in Illinois, a blue state — and the only solidly-Democratic state in the top 10 soybean producers in the country. The remaining nine lean Republican with the exception of Minnesota, a battleground state that typically votes Democratic in presidential elections. ......... Especially as the congressional midterm elections near, and Republicans shift their attention to defending thin majorities in each chamber. ......... During Trump’s first term in Washington he attempted a similar reorientation of the global trade order, though on a much smaller scale. Yet his efforts were met with outright threats of tariffs microtargeted to states from which GOP congressional leaders hailed as well as the reddening swing state of Florida .......... “We will put tariffs on Harley-Davidson, on bourbon and on blue jeans — Levis,” then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declared in March of 2018. ...........

And there’s still no signs yet of the kind of major onshoring of manufacturing or supply chains which top administration officials have presented as the end goal of the new U.S. tariff regime.

.......... Experts fear that some industries, like pharmaceuticals, may experience players leaving the market entirely rather than attempt to reorient production — leading to possible product shortages.

Donald Trump’s Latest ‘Golden Age’ Move Is Wired For Chaos, Critics Fume
India, US hopeful of inking trade deal, but New Delhi firm on protecting key sectors
Joe Rogan ‘pushed Trump to back off on mass deportations’ at a dinner before slamming him over ICE raids Joe Rogan pushed Donald Trump to back off deporting migrant workers with no criminal records at a private dinner, just days before slamming the president over the “insane” raids by ICE agents. ....... The podcast host, whose endorsement is credited with helping Trump secure the presidency, dined with him and UFC boss Dana White on June 30 ....... “There’s two things that are insane,” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “One is the targeting of migrant workers. Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up [at] construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?” ......... Prior to the private dinner with Trump, Rogan had stated that the aggressive push for deportations of migrants was not what voters had “signed up for.” ......... “The Trump administration, if they’re running and they say, we’re going to go to Home Depot and we’re going to arrest all of the people at Home Depot, we’re going to construction sites and we’re just going to, like, tackle people at construction sites, I don’t think anybody would have signed up for that,” Rogan said, on June 18. ........ “I got myself into a little trouble because I said I don’t want to take people away from the farmers,” the president said at a rally in Iowa last week, before adding that
he was working on legislation that would allow undocumented workers in the farm and hospitality industries to remain in the U.S.
.......... After admitting that some long-time workers had been “thrown out, pretty viciously,” the president added: "We can't do it. We've got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties." ........ However on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be “no amnesty” for migrant farm workers........ “The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100 percent American participation,” she said. ....... Rollins suggested that able-bodied U.S. citizens, who are the recipients of Medicaid benefits, could serve as an alternative to migrant labor.

Signal. https://t.co/IT6vNLUPfj
— mike hobart (@theemikehobart) July 10, 2025

World War III Is Unnecessary
Grounded Greatness: The Case For Smart Surface Transit In Future Cities
The Garden Of Last Debates (novel)
Deported (novel)
Empty Country (novel)
Trump’s Default: The Mist Of Empire (novel)
The 20% Growth Revolution: Nepal’s Path to Prosperity Through Kalkiism
Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy
The $500 Billion Pivot: How the India-US Alliance Can Reshape Global Trade
Trump’s Trade War
Peace For Taiwan Is Possible
Formula For Peace In Ukraine
A 2T Cut
Are We Frozen in Time?: Tech Progress, Social Stagnation
The Last Age of War, The First Age of Peace: Lord Kalki, Prophecies, and the Path to Global Redemption
AOC 2028: : The Future of American Progressivism

The WTO Is Broken — Let’s Reform the UN and Rethink Global Trade from the Ground Up

The WTO Is Broken — Let’s Reform the UN and Rethink Global Trade from the Ground Up

The World Trade Organization (WTO)—once the cornerstone of multilateral trade—has all but collapsed. Fragmented by power politics, rendered irrelevant by regional trade blocs, and bypassed by unilateral tariff wars, the WTO no longer serves its foundational purpose.

There is little point trying to revive it in its current form. The 20th-century trade order it was built to manage no longer exists.

Instead, the world must look forward and architect a new, just, and inclusive global trade framework—starting with a reformed United Nations. And we now have a compelling proposal for how to do that.

🌐 A Reimagined United Nations: The Foundation of the Future

The blog post Imagining a New United Nations lays out a visionary formula for reorganizing the UN:

Total Voting Power = 40% GDP Share + 40% Population Share + 20% Equal Vote (1/195 per country)

This model would replace the outdated, veto-driven Security Council structure with a weighted, fair, and dynamic system—one that reflects today’s economic and demographic realities.

In such a reformed UN:

Every country would have a seat at the table.
Votes would reflect real-world contributions and needs.
There would be no unilateral blocks or vetoes.

This is the forum where a new global trade architecture should be debated and built—from the ground up.

📘 A Blueprint for a Just Trade Future

The book Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy offers a roadmap for how such a new trade system could be shaped:

Moving beyond exploitative bilateral deals and toward equitable multilateralism
Ensuring fair terms of trade for developing nations
Recognizing digital goods, data, and labor mobility as core trade categories
Integrating environmental, labor, and human rights standards into all agreements

Trade must not be just about tariffs and quotas. It must be about people, ecosystems, and shared prosperity.

🧳 Migrant Labor: The Trade Issue We Don’t Talk About

One of the most urgent and under-addressed aspects of global trade is migrant labor.

Trade today is not just in goods and capital—but in people.

Workers move across borders to fill labor gaps, send remittances home, and drive growth in both sending and receiving countries. Yet international trade regimes have almost entirely ignored this reality.

The Gulf countries—like UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar—offer an instructive model. These nations don’t offer citizenship, but they do acknowledge the structural need for large-scale migrant labor and have built legal frameworks to manage it.

Likewise, countries like the United States, Germany, and Japan face labor shortages across key sectors: agriculture, construction, elder care, tech. Migrant workers already keep these economies running—but often under harsh, exploitative, or undocumented conditions.

It's time for migrant labor to be treated as a core pillar of global trade, with clear, humane, enforceable frameworks.

🤝 A Reformed UN: The Right Place for These Talks

Why should this conversation happen within a reformed UN?

Because only the UN can host truly global, multilateral, and inclusive negotiations
Because issues like climate-linked displacement, refugee labor, and remittance flows cut across borders, sectors, and continents
Because decisions made in the WTO—or in G7 boardrooms—have historically excluded the very people they affect the most

A restructured UN—with no veto powers, fair vote distribution, and legitimate representation for every country—can be the arena where we:

Redefine labor mobility as a regulated trade category
Create worker protection treaties as trade commitments
Ensure sending and receiving countries both benefit and share responsibility
Establish global frameworks for fair wages, portability of benefits, and legal status

🚀 Trade as a Tool for Shared Human Dignity

In the 21st century, trade should no longer be a race to the bottom. It should be a mechanism for:

Alleviating poverty
Closing inequality gaps
Enabling climate adaptation
Creating meaningful employment—both at home and abroad

If we reimagine trade with migrant workers, small producers, and frontline communities at the center—not just corporations and nation-states—we have a chance to build something radically better.

✨ Conclusion: From the Ruins of the WTO, a New Vision

The WTO may be broken beyond repair. But that gives us a once-in-a-century opportunity.

Let’s rebuild global trade inside a reimagined UN, grounded in fairness, democracy, and shared humanity.

Let’s start that conversation now—with bold ideas, a new formula for governance, and a clear north star:
A global economy that works for all.

Author: Paramendra Bhagat
Advocate for democratic multilateralism and author of “Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy”
#UNReform #GlobalTrade #MigrantLabor #WTOFailure #RethinkingTrade #GlobalGovernance

WTO अब अतीत की बात है — अब समय है UN में सुधार कर एक नई वैश्विक व्यापार व्यवस्था गढ़ने का

विश्व व्यापार संगठन (WTO)—जो कभी बहुपक्षीय व्यापार का आधार स्तंभ था—आज टूट चुका है। शक्ति की राजनीति, क्षेत्रीय व्यापार समझौतों और एकतरफा टैरिफ युद्धों ने इसे अप्रासंगिक बना दिया है।

अब इसे पुराने स्वरूप में पुनर्जीवित करने का कोई औचित्य नहीं है। जिस वैश्विक व्यापार प्रणाली के लिए इसे बनाया गया था, वह दुनिया अब रही ही नहीं।

अब समय आ गया है कि हम आगे की ओर देखें और एक नई, न्यायपूर्ण और समावेशी वैश्विक व्यापार व्यवस्था तैयार करें—जो कि एक पुनर्गठित संयुक्त राष्ट्र (UN) के मंच पर आकार ले।

और आज हमारे पास ऐसा करने का एक सटीक प्रस्ताव भी मौजूद है।

🌐 पुनःपरिकल्पित संयुक्त राष्ट्र: भविष्य की नींव

ब्लॉग पोस्ट Imagining a New United Nations में एक दूरदर्शी फॉर्मूला दिया गया है:

कुल मतदान शक्ति = 40% GDP हिस्सा + 40% जनसंख्या हिस्सा + 20% समान वोट (प्रत्येक देश को 1/195)

यह मॉडल पुराने, वीटो-आधारित सुरक्षा परिषद को एक संतुलित, निष्पक्ष और गतिशील प्रणाली से बदलने का आह्वान करता है।

ऐसे पुनर्गठित UN में:

हर देश की आवाज़ सुनी जाएगी
वोटिंग वास्तविक वैश्विक योगदान के आधार पर होगी
कोई भी देश अकेले सब कुछ रोक नहीं सकेगा

यही वह मंच है, जहां से हमें नई वैश्विक व्यापार प्रणाली की नींव रखनी चाहिए।

📘 एक न्यायपूर्ण व्यापार भविष्य के लिए ब्लूप्रिंट

पुस्तक Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy में यह दिखाया गया है कि यह नई व्यापार प्रणाली कैसी हो सकती है:

शोषणकारी द्विपक्षीय सौदों से हटकर न्यायपूर्ण बहुपक्षीय ढांचे की ओर बढ़ना
विकासशील देशों को व्यापार में समान अवसर देना
डिजिटल सामान, डेटा और श्रम को व्यापार की केंद्रीय श्रेणियों में शामिल करना
व्यापार समझौतों में पर्यावरण, श्रमिक अधिकार और मानवाधिकारों को अनिवार्य बनाना

अब व्यापार केवल टैरिफ और कोटा तक सीमित नहीं रह सकता। यह होना चाहिए मानवता, पर्यावरण और साझा समृद्धि के बारे में।

🧳 प्रवासी श्रमिक: व्यापार का वह पक्ष जिसे नजरअंदाज किया गया

आज का व्यापार केवल वस्तुओं और पूंजी का नहीं, बल्कि लोगों का भी है।

लाखों लोग बेहतर आजीविका के लिए सीमाएं पार करते हैं, पैसा अपने देश भेजते हैं और वैश्विक अर्थव्यवस्था को गति देते हैं। लेकिन अंतर्राष्ट्रीय व्यापार व्यवस्थाओं ने इस सच्चाई को लगभग पूरी तरह अनदेखा किया है।

खाड़ी देश—जैसे सऊदी अरब, यूएई, क़तर—इस मामले में एक सटीक उदाहरण हैं। ये देश नागरिकता नहीं देते, लेकिन यह सच्चाई स्वीकार करते हैं कि उन्हें प्रवासी श्रमिकों की जरूरत है, और उन्होंने इसके लिए कानूनी व्यवस्थाएं बनाई हैं।

इसी तरह अमेरिका, जर्मनी, जापान जैसे देशों को कृषि, निर्माण, वृद्ध देखभाल और तकनीक जैसे क्षेत्रों में श्रमिकों की भारी कमी है। आज ये देश प्रवासी श्रमिकों पर निर्भर हैं, लेकिन अधिकांश अनौपचारिक, असुरक्षित या अवैध स्थितियों में हैं।

अब समय आ गया है कि प्रवासी श्रमिकों को वैश्विक व्यापार में एक केंद्रीय विषय माना जाए, और उनके लिए स्पष्ट, मानवीय, और लागू करने योग्य ढांचे तैयार किए जाएं।

🤝 यह बातचीत एक पुनर्गठित UN में ही हो सकती है

यह चर्चा सिर्फ UN में क्यों हो?

क्योंकि केवल UN ही वास्तविक वैश्विक और समावेशी मंच प्रदान कर सकता है
क्योंकि जलवायु विस्थापन, शरणार्थी श्रमिक, और रेमिटेंस जैसी समस्याएं सीमाओं से परे हैं
क्योंकि WTO या G7 जैसे मंचों पर अक्सर वही देश निर्णय लेते हैं जिनका असर दूसरों पर होता है

एक ऐसा संयुक्त राष्ट्र जिसमें:

वीटो न हो
वोटिंग संतुलित हो
हर देश को वास्तविक प्रतिनिधित्व मिले

वहीं पर हम कर सकते हैं:

प्रवासी श्रम को एक नियोजित व्यापार श्रेणी के रूप में परिभाषित करना
श्रमिक सुरक्षा संधियाँ व्यापार समझौतों का हिस्सा बनाना
प्रेषण, वेतन, लाभ और कानूनी स्थिति पर वैश्विक मानक तय करना
प्रेषण व्यवस्था और सामाजिक सुरक्षा को सीमा-पार लागू करना

🚀 व्यापार: मानव गरिमा का माध्यम

21वीं सदी में व्यापार मुनाफे की दौड़ नहीं, बल्कि:

गरीबी उन्मूलन
वैश्विक असमानता को कम करने
जलवायु अनुकूलन
और गरिमामयी रोज़गार सृजन का माध्यम होना चाहिए।

अगर हम व्यापार को प्रवासी श्रमिकों, छोटे उत्पादकों और आम लोगों के दृष्टिकोण से देखेंगे, तो हम एक बेहतर, समावेशी और टिकाऊ प्रणाली बना सकते हैं।

✨ निष्कर्ष: WTO के टूटे ढांचे से उभरेगा एक नया विश्व

WTO शायद अब नहीं सुधरेगा।
लेकिन यह एक अद्वितीय अवसर है।

आइए हम एक पुनर्गठित संयुक्त राष्ट्र के मंच से
न्याय, लोकतंत्र और मानवता की नींव पर नई व्यापार व्यवस्था गढ़ें।

और उस वार्ता की शुरुआत हम आज करें—
साहसी सोच, नई वैश्विक शासन प्रणाली, और एक स्पष्ट लक्ष्य के साथ:
एक ऐसा वैश्विक व्यापार तंत्र, जो सबके लिए काम करे।

लेखक: परमेंद्र भगत
“Rethinking Trade: A Blueprint for a Just and Thriving Global Economy” के लेखक और वैश्विक न्यायपूर्ण शासन के पैरोकार
#UNReform #GlobalTrade #प्रवासी_श्रमिक #WTO_असफल #न्यायपूर्ण_व्यापार #वैश्विक_समृद्धि

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