Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
HAITIANS AND AFRICANS have reacted angrily after US President Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as “shithole countries”, with many accusing the US president of racism and ignorance.
The 55-nation African Union condemned the remarks, while a statement from ambassadors of all countries from the continent at the United Nations demanded a retraction and apology.
The Haitian government also reacted angrily, as some media reports said that Trump singled out its citizens during the meeting by asking: ”Do we need more Haitians?”
Hours later, Trump denied ever saying “anything derogatory” about the people of Haiti.
“Made up by Dems,” he tweeted. “I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians!”
But the government of Haiti – which yesterday marked the eighth anniversary of a devastating earthquake that killed at least 200,000 people – declared itself “outraged and shocked” by the “racist” slur.
Denials
Trump tweeted a convoluted denial early yesterday about the comments allegedly made on Thursday at a White House meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform.
“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,” Trump said, apparently referring to the remarks quoted by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
But Democratic Senator Dick Durbin – who was present at the meeting – publicly pushed back, saying Trump had repeatedly used “vile and racist” language.
Thursday’s White House huddle was held to discuss a bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country, restrict the green card visa lottery and boost border security, in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young people known as “Dreamers” from deportation.
Trump scrapped an Obama-era program that gave the 800,000 young immigrants legal protection, setting a March deadline for Congress to offer a fix – though it has been reinstated by a court, for now.
After lawmakers raised the issue of protections for immigrants from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador, the president reportedly demanded to know why the United States should accept immigrants from “shithole countries,” rather than – for instance – wealthy and overwhelmingly white Norway.
African Union
Trump’s reported comments also drew a unanimous condemnation from the African Group of UN ambassadors, which said it was “extremely appalled” at the “racist and xenophobic remarks.”
The group called for a retraction and apology, and also expressed concern at what it described as the “growing trend from the US administration” to “denigrate the continent and people of color.”
The State Department was left scrambling to contain the damage, with a top official saying that – while Trump denies using the language attributed to him – diplomats had been briefed to convey Washington’s respect if summoned to explain themselves, as they were in Haiti and Botswana.
US missions went into damage control mode. The embassy in South Africa said the United States “deeply respects” the people of Africa, and “there has been no change in our dedication to partners & friends across the continent.”
Furious
Trump’s language triggered a barrage of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Cedric Richmond and House Judiciary top Democrat Jerrold Nadler said they would seek to introduce a censure resolution against Trump next week.
“We have to show the world that this president does not represent the feelings of most of the American people,” they said in a statement.
The resolution could be embarrassing for Trump if Republican leaders of the lower house allow a vote on it.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 Democratic presidential rival, took to Twitter to blast his “ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesn’t look like him.”
Some Republicans were also plainly unhappy, with House Speaker Paul Ryan describing the reported comments as “very unfortunate” and “unhelpful.”
Mia Love, a Utah congresswoman of Haitian descent, called them “unkind” and “divisive” while South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only black Republican senator, said if Trump really did use those words, it would be “disappointing.”
In praise of Martin Luther King
In an oddly-timed coincidence, the US president signed a declaration honouring slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr yesterday, three days before the federal holiday celebrated in his honour.
Ignoring shouted questions about the mounting firestorm over race, the president paid tribute during a ceremony to the reverend’s “peaceful crusade for justice and equality.”
Nevertheless, the uproar has revived attention on previous remarks by Trump that have ignited accusations of racism.
Trump earned national political prominence by promoting the falsehood that Barack Obama, America’s first African-American president, was not born in the United States.
He has characterised Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” repeatedly questioned the loyalty of Muslim immigrants, denounced NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem in protest at police brutality against African-Americans, and made questionable comments about a violent white supremacist rally.
Trump’s remarks had a particularly glacial reception from Norwegians, whom he reportedly upheld as shining examples of the immigrants he wants to come to America.
“The only thing that would attract me to emigrate to the US is your vibrant multicultural society. Don’t take that away,” declared Jan Egeland, a former UN under-secretary-general and the current head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Trump’s latest comments provided ample fodder for talk-show hosts.
South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of “The Daily Show”, described himself as an offended citizen of “South Shithole” and also criticised Trump’s preferred choice of Norway for immigrants.
“He didn’t just name a white country, he named the whitest – so white they wear moon-screen,” he said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
When you call a climate emergency and then pump millions into the emissions spewing beef sector. Typical FG talking out of both sides of their mouth
@tofu for tea: You’re right. Ban farming in this country altogether. Put a few hundred thousand people out of work. And import all our meat and dairy products at a hugely inflated price. Thatl show em.
@tofu for tea: So lose jobs, put people out of work.. send more people abroad to never return, and importing beef is what you want?
….riiiiight
@Damien: in a world of climate breakdown people can’t carry on as normal, you do realise that? There is a need to seriously cut back on meat and dairy both for the planet and our health
@tofu for tea: FG should putting in concrete plans to transition farmers into cultivating more crops and protein rich foods. Teenagers these days are moving away from meats, beef in particular. Problem is FG only think as far as the next election.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: totally agree, we need innovative solutions, not more of the same
@tofu for tea: People just need to travel less, the amount of fuel burnt on an atalantic flight is far more damaging than eating a steak once a day for a few years.
@tofu for tea: People have lived in full health and to a ripe old age on a diet of meat and dairy products for generations. If you read every health food article and ticked off every single food that was supposedly bad for you. Then your daily diet would consist of certain types of fruit and water.
@Damien: it’s not about even if it’s healthy for you or not though at this stage. It’s about saving the planet. More efficient methods of transport and techniques in agriculture (and what we grow/produce).
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: Growing more crops instead of beef isn’t really the best solution. The fertility levels of Irish soil varies a lot, the land to the east and south of the shannon are more suited to tillage, and produce a much higher yield than the west of the country. In the wetter climate west of the shannon, grass is the best crop for the area, hence why we have so many beef and dairy farms in Ireland. Also, in general, replacing beef farms with tillage is not a simple solution, and also comes with extra risks. Grass land does not get many pesticides sprayed on the land, unlike cereals and veg. Soil erosion is another factor.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: Skynet will have defeated the human resistance by 2029. I’m going to eat and drink well before the machines take over.
@Do the Bort man: I know, it’s a complex problem. The soggy land of Connacht isn’t suited to much only rearing sheep. I previously would have been against genetically modifying food but it could be a necessity in years to come to sustain the population of Africa and for us to produce crops we never would have. Either that or have greenhouses everywhere.
@Damien: that’s 10 solid years of leisure ahead of you, Damien. All the best!
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: Just hoping Mayo win Sam before they take over.
@Damien: there are 70,000 full time farmers in Ireland.
Stop eating beef, save the Planet
@Charles McGuire: 2% of global emissions are from air travel.
20% of irish emissions are from farming.
@tofu for tea: Vegans are worse for our health than meat.
@Charles McGuire: 225 pounds of greenhouse gas per cow per day, thats 246,000 pounds in 3 years.
159,000 pounds produced by a plane from dublin to new york.
You sir are wrong.
@ciar0: There are 137,000 registered farms in Ireland. There are many part time farmers as well .
@Damien: there are 70,000 full time farmers, solely relting on farming income.
Even includong labourers and contractors its a long way shy of your figures
@ciar0: it’s 30% from irish agriculture. We produce 1000% of our own needs so it’s roughly 3%for feeding our population. EU is 4.32% and America 2.8% but they use gm which gives them an advantage. Globally it’s 18%. Mainly due to deforestation to produce palm oil. Ironically being anti beef farmer will drive down price and put traditional family farming practices which are practically carbon neutral according to bbcs truth on climate change program out of business and encourage higher intensified farm units which are anything but.
@Damien: don’t worry, Damien. You won’t have to wait long…….this is our year….
@Doubtchya Boy!: go back to proper farming, tillage, cattle and sheep. Farmers are afraid of hard work these days.
@tofu for tea: how many jet engines are in the air flying right now?
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: Get those pesky annoying Rossies out of the way on Saturday week first. They’re carried away after beating Leitrim already.
@Damien: feckin Rossies always get carried way, the poor lads. You have to lose a couple of All Irelands before you get your licence to get properly carried away.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: I’ve being told by their supporters that they have the best 6 forwards in the country, for the last 10 years apparently.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: beef is high protein
@Damien: let them believe that shur. Feel bad taking all hope away from them. Although they’ve had a decent showing the last few years tbf to them.
@Ole dan tucker: serious? I thought they were just blubbery fat .
@ciar0: so what percentage of global emissions is created by the 20% of Irish farming emissions
I’ve huge sympathy for the beef farmers but should taxpayers money be used to rescue a failing private enterprise? This move is subsidizing the low price that is charged for beef in the supermarkets and the even lower prices paid to farmers. If a fair price was paid for beef that reflected the cost of producing it then subsidies would not be needed.
@Sean: good point. You could level that charge at a lot of food in this country. It’s effectively subsidised. We need to start sourcing food from local markets and taking away some of the buying power from big supermarkets.
The problem is, people don’t really care about our fellow citizens at all. if you had an Irish steak and a Brazilian steak side by side in Lidl, people will always buy the cheapest item, regardless of where its from. Its the same with veg, people will buy imported veg from the multinational at a below cost price, while ignoring the home grown veg, and the carbon footprint the imported veg left to get to Ireland, and in the next breath, they will blame the Irish famers for climate change…..
@Do the Bort man: That’s not true.
@Do the Bort man: Farmers are not solely responsible for climate change but they contribute more than their fair share.
Likewise polluting rivers, not all their fault but a lot of river pollution is down to farming.
Exporting live animals is cruel but hey once a farmers gets a few quid to subsidise income from his full time job thats ok
@Do the Bort man: not necessarily, I’d pay a few euros more for good quality Irish beef.
@Mushy Peas: so do I, but the majority of people don’t give a dam where their food comes from, they just care about the price. Then they can’t understand why these “rich” farmers are complaining about falling farm incomes.
@Sean: i presume as a hard pressed taxpayer in dublin i can look forward to some reductions in the price of a burger in a pub or burger joint now – ive noticed they have been steadily creeping up in recent years – imagine 11.50 for a burger in some places – i presume there are some benefits to subsidized beef ?! What — there arent ? What – rip off republic continues to squeeze middle income taxpayers to help farmers but there no benefits – f@@@ that
While i have no doubt that many farmers could benefit from such support, this has all the hallmarks of FG making sure their core vote stays with them.
There must be an election on the way.
@Dave Doyle: you mean you haven’t seen any of the 50 million posters beautifying our wonderful country ?
@Seriously stunned: you mean the ones that have faded and had to replace because they took the typically tight FG route of buying cheap posters instead of the proper UVA and UVB protected ones??
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer:
Maybe they are biodegradable……
@Patrick Nolan: well that’s a lot of waste replacing biodegradable ones with more expensive uva and uvb protected ones. Symptomatic of FG policy-find the cheap option, it fails and end up paying more in the long run.
During the recession there wasn’t 50 mil made available to the self employed and were treated with scorn
In about a months time, after the election, the farmers could be asking, “what about the 50 million?”, and creed could be saying “what 50 million?”
Farmers always want something for nothing. Its too wet I need money. Its too dry I need money.
I cant sell the milk I produce I need subsidies.
Moan moan moan.
@ciar0: and we all want our food for next to nothing as well. I’m not going to bat for farmers, but average farm incomes are fairly shite and most people wouldn’t do it.
But we still need to eat, so where do we get our food from? We’re slitting our own throats by artificially keeping food prices low for the all-consuming consumer.
If we weren’t all getting screwed by financial cartels, we could afford to pay a decent price for food. And farmers would get their fair share.
@jamesdecay: 100% correct James.
From constant adjournment of court cases to fatten legal profession salaries and Garda overtime to insurance cartels to temporary usc to inflated mortgage interest rates and so on and so on. But never discussed on clickbait “news” pages or on fine gaels personal tv channel rte.
@ciar0: just like the homeless…..
I have worked for, and am surrounded by farmers all my life… if its not prices its the weather they are crying about.. they are subsidised for everything they do by the EU. No other industry is as well looked after. Every tractor I see on the road is top of the line John Deere. None of them are old.
Contrast this 50 million that the government WILL give with the lady on the Joe Duffy show yesterday whose child has SMA and WILL die from it, if the Dept of Health don’t approve the purchase of a certain drug. There are only 23 children in Ireland with this condition and the parents have been looking for the drug for years.
This country and government have things all backwards in my opinion.
@Johnny Rielly: Only one thing you can do so Johnny —–Buy a piece of land yourself and start farming. I feel confidant that with your knowledge you’ll make a huge success of it.
@John Mc Donagh: You won’t buy it, you will be outbid by other farmers who also receive handouts from the taxpayer but still want more land. Better inherit one. No commercial rates, multiple handouts, no need to worry like other private enterprises do about finding markets for your produce, just protest when prices drop even if nobody wants it.
Do not set up your own cooperative to build your own factories to process your own beef, if you do – flog it when someone waves a cheque in your face.
Where’s the fishermen’s money??
I’m no fan of the beef industry but for those of us that recall the pork dioxin ‘crises’ about 10 years ago you may remember that a compensation fund of €195m was made available to the ‘industry’ for a few days of lost production. I guess that the beef lobbyists to FG don’t have the same weight as the pork lobbyists had with Minister Brendan Smith FF back in the day……..just saying
@Frank Jones:
The pork barrel is bigger than the beef barrel!
Jesus how is this helping climate change??
@Marianne: by speeding up the process of eliminating humans, so the earth can start again without them.
Betcha that the big beef barons will try to grab it all. Needs to be carefully administered!!
The farmers that heckled Leo in cork were well rewarded. Fair play to them…. but had they been protesting against hospital over crowding, homelessness,housing crisis, or the many other scandals involving this FFG government the story would not have been as kind as it was to the farmers.
It might interest some people to know the average income of suckler farmers last year: €11,670
The support could be worth €1250 per farmer.
Food must always be in oversupply. Otherwise people could not go to work. The implications of oversupply is the primary producers get a very poor price and could not continue to invest in producing what they do. Only the best countries in the world are sufficiently organised to support its primary producers. For the rest, it’s a subsistence existence. In real terms, food in Ireland and the EU is both cheap and plentiful. Support for primary producers has worked very well for everybody.
Great to be part of EU.
So the govt can come up with 50m in a heart beat here but nothing for Tralee IT who owe a miserly 10m. Meanwhile I have to travel to work on a 10 year old cie bus every morning with over 5 million miles on it. What an absolute load of b@110x.
have your say