DIPLOMACY
SIMON BARBER: With love from the US, a Xhosa-speaking bag lady with a difference
Trump’s pick for ambassador to SA has deep connections with his family
If you covet a new $20,000 handbag, face it, you’re not going through the eye of the needle. If, on the other hand, you can seduce others into parting with that kind of cash for fripperies, yours may be a useful talent. That is how I look at Lana Marks’s nomination to be the next US ambassador to SA. Some see it as another example of President Donald Trump’s crass contempt for Africa. More probably, it was his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, wanting to do something nice for a friend (of both himself and of Israel). Also, I imagine he and Ivanka would like an agreeable billet next time they visit the Cape. The appointment’s motive, though, is less important than what Marks herself does with it. Trump has made some ghastly picks: the bozo he sent to Germany who declared it his mission to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe”. The poltroon he chose for the Netherlands, a former Republican congressman who denied telling inflammatory lies about Muslims only to have Dutch journalists...
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