Thank God for Shitholes!

You got to thank Donald Trump for having a unique ability for coming up with delicious sound bites for journalist. The occupant of the Oval Office set of a storm of protest and howls of anguish when he allegedly complained that the US was constantly getting migrants from “Shithole” countries like Haiti and much of Africa. He is alleged to have added salt to the wound by asking why the US couldn’t get migrants from Norway.

The left wing complained that the Donald was being a racist crack pot by insulting countries that are predominantly inhabited by black people and wishing that migrants were whiter. The fact that Donald has some racist tendencies should surprise nobody and the fact that he’s willing to exploit the inner racist in everyone should be no surprise either. The Trump supporters took the opposite view that Donald was merely expressing what every White American feels, namely the fact that America needs to get a grip on its immigration.

Both sides miss the key point. Donald is not incorrect when he describes certain countries as “Shitholes.” If the countries that he mentioned were not “shitholes,” they wouldn’t be producing people who are obsessed about leaving. It’s common sense – people do not leave countries which they believe offer them opportunities to prosper – they leave countries that they believe are screwing them merely for committing the simple sin of getting up in the morning. Haiti and much of the African continent produces immigrants who are desperate to leave because life for the majority is pretty shitty and the leaving is considered an opportunity for a better life. Norway does not produce migrants because the people are so well taken care of, there’s simply no need to try and make a life elsewhere.

Having said that, the talented businessman called the Donald has failed to see an obvious point about people from “Shithole” countries – namely the fact that they make the best type of citizen. When people leave “Shitholes,” they achieved a mindset where they believe that the country they are running to is inevitably better than the one they are leaving and so they are inevitably psychologically inclined to do more for the country that they are trying to get into.

Hence, you find that migrants will gladly work the jobs that the locals won’t do and they will do the jobs at lower rates and longer hours. The “Shit” jobs in the US are inevitably done by people from “Shithole” countries like Mexico, in the UK it’s the “Pakis” and the “Poles,” and here in Singapore, I guarantee you, you will not see a native-born Singaporean on a construction site. In the restaurant I work at, we have people from other parts of the world begging for a job and that the poorest Singaporean won’t do.

It's a blessing to work here when .........

It’s not just the doing to shitty jobs that make people from Shithole countries an asset. They’re also more likely to be well behaved because they know they’re rights in the host country aren’t great and they have an innate sense of gratitude to the country that provided them with salvation. I cannot keep stressing the fact that till date, there has been no terrorist attack committed by migrants from Shithole countries. The bombings in London were committed by second generation British citizens who had spent their entire life in the UK.

This is where you came from.......

I think of my wife, who has a Vietnamese passport. To her, Singapore is heaven. It’s “MY COUNTRY.” During the last election, she told me that I was NOT TO VOTE ANYONE ELSE OTHER THAN THIS GOVERNMENT. As a native Singaporean who has a legal obligation to die for his country, I don’t think Singapore is as great as the tour guides make it out to be. While I respect successive Singapore governments for doing a relatively good job, I think my vote does get taken for granted.

Whenever I look at the different classes from elsewhere, I realise that it’s the people from “Shithole” countries that love Singapore for being Singapore. The people from “Non-Shitholes,” countries or the people “with skills we need,” tend to love Singapore for the good life that they have. The love for the country is in proportion to the size of the expat package.

The Donald was well aware of the fact that people from “Shithole” countries make the best workers when he was a businessman. He’s smart enough to realise that they also make the best scapegoats when you’re a politician. If only he’d actually pretend to be half as smart as he claims to be by quietly encouraging people from Shithole countries to come into America despite what he tells his supporters. He should even hire them to make life difficult for their former fellow countrymen knocking the door at the border (Just ask anyone of Indian decent who compare the treatment they get from White immigration officials and officials of Indian decent in the UK).

The other point that seems lost on the Donald is the fact that if you want to stop people from “Shithole” countries from coming in, you need to have a foreign policy that makes these countries less shitty. Let’s look at the Middle East, which is home to brutal dictators who have crushed their people. Think of the likes of “Saddam Hussein,” or “Hosni Mubarak,” who were happily brutalizing their own people with the blessings of the US Government. As one writer in the Financial Times said during the Arab Spring, “They don’t hate us because we’re free; they hate us because we supported the people who crushed their freedoms.” Haiti would be considerably less of a shithole if the US stopped backing the likes of the Duvalier’s.

Leaving aside the support for bad leaders in other places (a sin not limited to the US), one of the best ways to ensure that countries become shitholes, is by promoting protectionist trade policies. Basic economic theory shows that free trade and the free movement of money is beneficial to everyone. Yes, there are losers in globalization but on the whole, people win. While parts of the US have suffered with the moving of heavy industry to places like China, the US has remained the world power by moving into newer industries that pay better wages than the industries that were lost. Contrary to popular belief, China’s rise has helped the US – just ask the small college towns that are fighting to get students from China.

While Donald is complaining about people from Shithole countries, President Xi is trying to make his neighbourhood less of a shithole by pumping money into places like Cambodia, Sri Lanka and so on. As one South African I sat next to on plane said, “They are building infrastructure in Africa and the people are getting fed.”

Countries that don’t like “Shithole” countries around them shouldn’t focus on Shitholes. When you become obsessed with a shithole, you become a shit. Better to focus on exploiting the people from Shithole countries for your benefit and making the Shithole countries less shitty.