Double standards, hypocrisy and distorted narratives of our history

US President Trump’s administration is in the midst of cracking down on persons whom he describes as illegals, drug traffickers and rapists

The world’s richest man–Elon Musk–was last week fighting a pitched battle with his one-time best pal–US President Trump. A fallout between the world’s richest man and the most powerful politician in the world. A battle between wealth and political power.  Trump was angered by Musk’s portrayal of his signature tax and spending bill, which the tech billionaire saw as adding to the US budget deficit and would saddle Americans with “crushing” debt. He even called for the impeachment of the President.     

Trump, in turn, called Musk a big-time drug addict and claimed Musk’s criticism was rooted in his concerns that the bill would eliminate a tax credit for electric-vehicle owners that benefited Musk’s Tesla. He also threatened to cancel his (Musk’s) government contracts, which have an estimated value of $38bn (£28bn) and called for public scrutiny of Musk’s government contracts, imperilling his business empire

By Thursday, Musk was singing a different tune. He claimed regret for the posts he made. Obviously, fears of a budget deficit saddling Americans with “crushing” debt are secondary to personal business interests. Separately, US President Trump’s administration is in the midst of cracking down on persons whom he describes as illegals, drug traffickers and rapists. Targeted persons are of Latin American origin who come to the US in search of employment.

The US President has unleashed three groups of armed federal government troops to round up these so-called illegals. No arrest warrants are issued. No one is informed where arrested persons are held. Many of these unfortunates are sent to prisons in third countries. Their next of kin are not informed of their whereabouts.  

During the past two weeks, the Los Angeles Police Department has arrested over 400  protestors. The vast majority of whom are held for failing to leave protest sites in defiance of law enforcement authorities. The Trump administration claims around 140,000 people had been deported as of April 2025.

It brings to mind the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in August 1972 by then-President Idi Amin. Amin ordered the expulsion of his country’s Asians, giving them 90 days to leave the country. He accused them of disloyalty, non-integration, and commercial malpractice, while defending his actions as “giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans”. 

Sadly, at one time in our history, we too expelled numbers of our citizens of Indian origin under a pact with India – the Sirima-Shastri Pact.

The UK and Western European countries accused our government of ethnic cleansing and violation of human rights.

Yet none of these ‘defenders of human rights whether it be the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland or Norway, condemn what is taking place in the US. 

Israel, during the past months, has killed over 52,000 Palestinians. Doctors confirm Israeli snipers are targeting Palestinian children. Yet the West and the US continue supplying Israel with unlimited quantities of arms and ammunition.

What is sad, however, is that even today, a majority of our people tend to believe the US/European narrative of history and current events. We have been brain-washed by our colonisers who portray themselves as paragons of virtue and twist facts to portray ‘natives’ as savages.

It is difficult to pinpoint an exact figure for the wealth Britain extracted or destroyed in our country. What’s clear is that the colonial period significantly impacted the island’s economy to its detriment. 

The clearing of large trees in the hill country to open large plantations resulted in the silting of waterways, which up to this day, result in frequent floods and landslides. The British also damaged our ancient irrigation schemes, which turned us from a rice-exporting country into one dependent on imports. The damaged irrigation systems led to the creation of stagnant pools of water, creating mosquito breeding grounds and the spread of Malaria. 

To quell the Kandyan rebellion, the British killed all male heads of families.  In turn, this led to families fleeing deep into forests and the commencement of slash and burn agriculture, which to this day continues to deplete our forest cover. Our women and girls were raped

Unfortunately, history taught in our classrooms is that of the victories of colonials and the supposed development they brought to our countries. What is needed is a written history chronicling coloniser violence and the destruction they brought to our country.