On a street corner in New York City in September, a beggar had this message scribbled on a cardboard hanging around his neck: "Give me a dollar or I’m voting Trump." Quite a few passers-by saw the humour in the message and chuckled as they walked on.That was six weeks before the November election, which delivered Donald Trump to the White House.Not many would have bothered to take in the deep meaning concealed in the humorous request for cash. The election result shows that the beggar’s message was deadly serious.Here at home, we have reduced the largest ever number of our own compatriots and guests from the neighbouring states to such a state of poverty that they stand begging on street corners while the well-heeled cruise obliviously around them. Because of that, sooner or later, we will take collective punishment from these "forgotten masses".Trump has been ridiculed as a hopeless clown and demagogue, but his triumph over establishment candidate Hillary Clinton is a broader versi...
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