In the last couple of days, I have been verbally attacked by a couple of white people from the American extreme far-right for disagreeing with the them on certain matters of opposing interest on this platform.

One of these (a white male) strangely believes he has the unfettered right to hurl insults on president Obama (his president) simply because he differs with him politically. I had to point it out to him that he appeared hell-bent on attacking and vilifying president Obama solely because he was black. However, he promised me that he would even redouble the amount of bile he was already spewing copiously onto the person of the president by posting more vitriolic material.

I have a problem with racist whites from the so-called first world who tend to be very ignorant about us in the much-despised ‘third world’. People in the west take what they read online or in print or watch on the news at face value. This is worsened by the western media houses which have a bad habit of selective reporting on events in outside their by fixating on miserable and depressing stories of malnutrition, war and HIV/AIDS in some parts of the ‘third world’ while ignoring positive stories in others. It is as though the whole ‘third world’ is one amorphous lump engulfed in corruption, hunger,disease, illiteracy, wars and homelessness.

Some of these maladies are, also, present in western countries but the western media and their research institutions would rather display the ‘third world’ as red spots when they seek to sensationalise and flavour their stories. We acknowledge problems exist but not in the form they are presented by the west.

Now, one of these American whites made reference to how modern slavery was still rampant in most of the ‘third world’ including Namibia, my country. A map showing areas in the ‘third world’ with a prevalence of modern slavery was bandied about but for some unfathomable reason the western (read ‘first world’) part of the map was lightly coloured (no incidence of modern slavery) while the ‘third world was heavily reddened (very high incidence). How insidiously dishonest!

 I had to point them to the fact that the problem of modern slavery is prevalent in the so-called first world, too, considering the fact that incomes and wealth distributions in the ‘first world’ are higher than in the ‘third world’ hence making clandestine slavery practices like forced labour, human trafficking and forced prostitution more common in rich western countries.

 My white interlocutors were still denying this fact which left me no option but to refer them to relevant web addresses containing such information. In the US, for example, forced labour and prostitution is prevalent but not practised openly for obvious reasons.

Needless to say, these ignorant yet arrogant whites never came back to me to argue the contrary after pointing them to that concrete evidence but kept their belligerent posture by calling me all sorts of names. I was told how uneducated I was considering I was from Namibia, a ‘beeping’ idiot, etc.

Then we progressed to another matter. The UN had recently supported calls for reparations to descendants of Afrikan American slaves who have suffered the iniquities of slavery for decades. I believe the United Nations was right in supporting such calls for reparations because they genuine and are meant to right the wrongs of the past in which black people’s dignity  was violated. White people then treated black people as part of their movable their property to the bizarre extent that a black person’s life was viewed as inconsequential and could be extinguished at the whims of their master. Black women then were at the pleasure of these white ‘masters’ to the level were even black married women could; in the presence of their powerless husbands, be called to the ‘master’s bedroom like it was the normal thing to do. 

This issue invoked anger in these fellows as they felt that black people in America today are better off than they were over a century ago. That they are far more fortunate than their Afrikan counterparts and thus the calls for reparations to redress the wrongs of slavery were actions of ungrateful people.

Mention was made of a certain Mr Sunga, who, I believe spearheads this noble crusade to have America own up to its past injustices. Mr Sunga was painted as a cantankerous character for initiating such unheard moves to take on the mighty America.

One of these ignorants even went as far as to suggest the the UN headquarters be relocated elsewhere outside America; maybe Afrika since the UN, he said, was anti-American. They went to imply that president Obama was in cahoots with UN to subvert America interests. These arrogant whites felt that since America was contributing immensely to the UN finances, the UN had no right to support such calls. I had to tell them that the location of the UN offices in Nrw York does not give America leverage to dictate UN initiatives and policy decisions around the world mandate.

The United Nations is a world body and cannot be seen to take sides. They are mandated to address world matters like armed conflict, political dispute resolutions, education, refugees, food security, etc.

If America or Iran is seen to have violated human rights the UN must address such without fear or favour. If Israel kills Palestinians, the UN must speak out in defence of  the victims of such atrocities regardlesd of whether Israel is an longtime ally of America or not.

It is an annoying fact that white people from the west labour under this fallacious notion that they know everything under the sun and that they are,  by default, entitled to lecturing those of us who live in the so-called third world on anything. However, the longer you interact with them, the sooner you discover how naìve they really are on their outlook of the outside world.

To these racist American whites referred to above or any like-minded whites for that matter, I have this to say to you:

You are not automatically possessed of sharp intellect or agency by your being white. You are not smarter than me just because you mother tongue is internationally spoken either.