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That could help to explain why, when I listened to the acceptance speech delivered by Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, I felt detached. In fact I felt great emptiness. I understood the words and their meaning, and I was even able to analyze what these words would mean to the world, were this forceful man to be elected to the highest office in the most powerful country on Earth. But for a while, inside, I felt nothing; absolutely nothing, except, perhaps, exhaustion.
Outside my window was a great mass of water, separating the historic Penang Island from the rest of Malaysia. Cargo ships were majestically sailing to and from the nearby port, and it was raining heavily.
I was watching Donald Trump's speech live on Al-Jazeera. There was hardly any choice available, as in this suddenly pro-Western country, there were no international alternative channels, for which I work for, available - no RT, no Press TV, and no Telesur.
Trump spoke and spoke, much longer than was expected. Whenever cameras showed people listening to his speech, I felt a sense of déjà vu, that I had witnessed all this on many other occasions. Like when Obama was speaking and thousands of people were, religiously, as if in a trance, moving their lips, whispering 'yes we can'... like when George W. Bush was being sworn in. Like...
The Messiah has arrived! Oh, that need for a religious experience, which is so omnipotent in the United States. The evangelical, religious Trump, defending 'little people'! How lovely, honest and unexpected. Bravo!
Comment: Brexit: Let the UK do itself in