Salahuddin Haider
TRUMP’s America, as they have begun to call it now, need to be judged from different angles—first from the viewpoint of a Pakistani living here since long, and secondly as to how American themselves feel about him and his policies. Both these angles weigh heavily in his favour. Media, CNN especially may have its own axe to grind, and intellectuals viewpoint can vary from person to person or groups to groups, but the end result is pluses far outweigh the minuses.
As for discrimination against Pakistani settlers, the point has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It is more of a propaganda by extremists, out to vitiate atmosphere and goodwill that has pervaded this vast land of 325.7 million, according to 2017 figures. Evidence of deliberate discrimination is hard to find, and background interviews with Pakistani immigrants portray a satisfactory situation. Gun culture, like for so many years, remain under discussion even today, perhaps with greater intensity now than before, but it all stems from unchecked proliferation of arms and ammunition in the country which fans adventurism in younger generation.
This is backed by facts and figures. In last few months, there had been over 200 gun firing incidents on streets and schools. In one Florida school,21 souls perished, for no rhyme or reason. Calling it extremist will be unjust, for, such incidents are more of adventurism, demanding deeper, dispassionate probe. Pakistanis are living happily here, small incidents of ill-treatment could only be categorised as personal vendetta, rather than community or state feeling—far from it. Nothing of the sort. America is still a very tolerant society, where service to humanity continues to be the most powerful factor of daily life.
As for America itself, a recent article confirms that statististics, out this month are spectacular. The growth in the economy is accelerating. Last month, more than 223,000 new jobs – almost 50,000 more than economists had projected. The inflation rate has held steady at around 2 percent. The unemployment rate is down to 3.8 percent – a level not seen in decades. And, a lot of those years were pre-recession. That means the current rate is even better than in past “good times.” Significantly, unemployment dropped in 305 of the 338 major urban areas characterized by chronic unemployment – especially in minority communities.
Both the Black and Hispanic unemployment rates have reached historic lows, although inner city minority unemployment remains above national averages. The current dollar Gross Domestic Product – America’s economic growth has run over 3 percent for the past quarter and hit 4.2 percent in the most current report – a level that critics not long ago said was totally unattainable in the short run. In fact, they predicted that the GDP would not even reach 3 percent in the foreseeable future. You must give the Never Trump Democrats and the media credit for persistence.
Even after the Trump presidency has been in office for a year and a half – and been in the transition period for another two months – the unbridled left keeps insisting that all this spectacularly good economic news is merely the continuation of the Obama policies.
Of course, as each day goes by and the numbers keep improving across the board, the Never Trump folks are losing credibility – a credibility they never deserved in the first place. The economy is actually in better shape than most people may realize because the anti-Trump press uses every shoddy journalistic gimmick to spin negativism into every bit of good news. If job creation is higher than expected and unemployment is at record lows, the press will dwell on slower progress in increasing income levels or the number of people who have fallen off the unemployment rolls during the Obama administration but still need jobs – and even those numbers are improving.
