Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma

Director General of Health, Ministry of Health, Samoa. Hon Prof, University of Otago. Views are my own.

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

President #Lula wants to auction off the mouth of the mouth of the #AmazonRiver for oil drilling, where no one could contain a spill. Millions of people and countless species are on the line. Let’s stop the poison before it spreads 🤮 https://t.co/EXFrbzZalA

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

Civilians in Gaza are under fire again, with 970 people killed in 48 hours - including women and children. Western governments are complicit and profit from this mass murder -- and we're pushing to stop arms sales to Israel. Add your name now! https://t.co/yKpNdRM8iK

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

One of my duties as Director General of Health is to scan the horizon for threats to our country's health security.
RFK Jr. Spread Anti-Vax Misinformation Before Measles Outbreak https://t.co/FSiRusJG58 via @democracynow

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

@ukrainiansquad Samoa

[Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree]

I'm going to post this video every day until the election

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

I just took action with @AFTunion: Add your name: Stop JD Vance’s attacks on educators. Take action here: https://t.co/w3h4EmXPQ7

[Yasmina @yasminalombaert]

President Zelenskyy made it clear what he thinks of Trump’s 24 hour solution to end the war.

“So, everybody will be happier.
If one person in the world and Donald Trump can stop the war during 24 hours, the question is what’s the price and who will pay. I don’t mean that’s it’s his idea to push us to pay.
But if you want to do it in 24 hours, the simple way is to push us to pay. It’s understandable how. It means just stop and give and forget.

Sanctions out, everything out. putin will take the land. putin will have a victory for his society. We will never go on this. Never! And there is no guy in the world who can push us to do it.” the president said.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

GOP Sen. Mitt Romney: “I will not be voting for President Trump. I must admit that I find sexual assault to be a line I will not cross in the people I select to be my president.”
(February 2024)

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

Reaffirming not to put all eggs in one basket
https://t.co/Kx1GuOWSJC

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

Gynecological Oncology Team's Visit To Samoa Highlights Value Of Partnership In The Pacific Region https://t.co/SlR7XNpZ2X

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

Samoa dengue fever cases on the decline https://t.co/MahxmFtVtH

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Nate White, a British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

@ukrainiansquad Samoa

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

@DefenceU We need to guarantee Ukraine wins against a bigger aggressor by sending more arms and to send in NATO or European troops to assist.

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: Fox News admitted that Trump will pander to his ultra-wealthy billionaire friends by giving them massive tax cuts. Retweet so all Americans see.

[Pacific Community @spc_cps]

#PacificPeoples l Build-up to the #13thFestPAC... Traditional leaders at their first talanoa this week. Bringing the leaders together will be an important way forward for sustainable development, & regional engagement through traditional leadership. #PacificCultures #13thFestPAC

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

PRESS RELEASE – NUS launches Bachelor of Health Science Programme - EIN Presswire https://t.co/usdafZSQKw via @ein_news

[Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma @aekeroma]

@ukrainiansquad You are also fighting to protect the freedom of every other neighbouring country from aggression and tyranny.

[Business Ukraine mag @Biz_Ukraine_Mag]

“I come from the world’s oldest parliament to address the world’s bravest.”

British PM Rishi Sunak began his address to the Ukrainian Parliament today with an epic first line that captured the historic significance of his speech

Video of full address: https://t.co/S8EZFnufR9

[Megyn Kelly @megynkelly]

This is the greatest video I have seen all day