Trump makes us slump

"THEY come to America" exulted Neil Diamond in song, "travelling far, on the boats, on the planes, they come to America, to a new and shiny place, freedom's light burning warm, never looking back again".

- By Ravi Perera

Some even came by winning the lottery conducted by the United States Government, carrying the loot from their poor countries.

Neil Diamond wrote this song in the late 1970s; the super power mantle had crossed the 'big pond' from Great Britain to America early that Century and by the '70s she was locked in a gigantic rivalry with Russia for global dominance. History vindicated America, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the final decade of the 20th Century, came the 'end of history' as a famous historian suggested. 'Hitherto history is the history of class struggle', the Communist Manifesto had declared loftily.

It is trite to say that America is a country of immigrants, save for a microscopic native population, the rest are all immigrants, the oldest no more than three centuries (the native tribes had crossed the Bering Strait before history!)

The immense land was blessed; a rich soil and plentiful resources. The future is not set in stone, it has to be created by willing hands and a pioneering spirit. From a tired Europe to a promised land, the immigrants were escaping difficult economic circumstances or oppression, including religious persecution. America also had a considerable African slave population, a damnable legacy of that era (even our Kings are said to have had slaves, typically, not in the farms, but in the palace).

Destined for greatness