OPINION

Contract be damned

Re: "Rubio makes debut trip abroad to Panama", (BP, Feb 3).

The phrase "My word is my bond" implies that a man's word is as good as when he signs his name on a piece of paper.

Such was the case with the Panama Canal Treaty when the United States ceded control of this lucrative waterway, allowing Panama to take it over on Dec 31, 1999.

However, when even a signed contract can be rescinded on the flimsiest of excuses, such as by claiming that China controls the port because Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings operates it, that seems somewhat feeble and heavy-handed.

The company says on its website that "the Hutchison Ports network of port operation comprises 53 ports spanning 24 countries".

That seems to be a fair choice as Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1999, and the concession was given to the Hong Kong conglomerate, long before President Donald Trump arrived on the scene.

Fentanyl fantasy

Re: "Trump says tariff 'pain' will be worth the price", (World, Feb 2).

Donald Trump's zealous MAGA fans are doubtless thrilled that they "may feel economic 'pain' from his tariffs on key trading partners". They did, after all, vote for higher egg prices, right?

But Mr Trump's excuse is specious. In order to implement his economically costly tariffs, Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, asserting the United States' drug problem, especially the deadly desire for fentanyl, justifies such an act to force China, Canada, and Mexico to reduce the supply of the drug.

But that ignores the salient point. China is not forcing Americans to use drugs, nor are Canada or Mexico. The United States has a serious drug problem because millions of Americans are desperate to use drugs.

They are so desperate to avoid the reality of life in the United States that they will even risk their life using fentanyl. Something is seriously amiss, diseased even, in US society that so many feel that sobriety is to be so avoided.

If Mr Trump were genuinely concerned about the drug problem, he would be looking to discover those reasons driving people to drugs that are literally killing many.

If US citizens are no longer demanding to buy such drugs, they will cease to be imported for the simple economic reason that drug suppliers, whether big pharma or criminal gangs, will not waste money providing a product that is not in strong demand.

America's drug problem is exactly that: America's drug problem. He should start solving America's drug problem where it in fact exists: at home in the United States of America, not in China or Canada or Mexico or other foreign lands.

Ethnic cleansing

Re: "Trump's Gaza stunner builds on expansionist aims", (Online, Feb 5).

The proposal by Donald Trump to deport all Palestinians from Gaza is preposterous. It amounts to ethnic cleansing and would be worse than the Nakba of 1948 when the state of Israel was forcefully created.

I knew that Trump is unstable, but this, together with his other crazy policies, proves he is totally unhinged.

As for Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump is his ventriloquist, and together, they will commit genocide if they go ahead with this cruel, crazy plan.