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If you look around your country and see a lot of these, that would be one clue. But there are others.
It’s important in national and international affairs that the terms of statecraft be precisely defined. When making policy and alliances, the parties must at all times be rigorously clear about what is meant by such labels as “nuclear power,” “developing country,” and the like. Now, a new term of art just introduced by the President of the United States, “shithole country,” begs a proper definition. Let us fix that for ya. Here is how you tell whether a country qualifies for the new designation.
Exhibit One — Airports. If you have an airport, named for one of your most popular presidents, located just outside your largest city, in which earlier this month:
- Hundreds of people were stranded on airplanes unable to get to a gate for up to 20 hours;
- Baggage-handling machinery froze and failed, so that those lucky enough to get off their planes couldn’t get their bags;
- It was so cold in the terminal that hundreds of the people stranded there built ramshackle shelters out of discarded cardboard boxes (you know, like homeless people do), where some spent three days ;
- Two airliners collided on the tarmac;
- A water main break flooded one of the airport’s four terminals with three inches of water and required that all electricity to the terminal be shut off;
Then you might be living in one of those countries the President was talking about. Continue reading
