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Hildegarde Manzvanzvike Correspondent
Lockdown! Shutdown! Trending terms in Zimbabwe, the United States and France, with varying backgrounds and meanings.

But, “only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted and human love will be seen at its highest. Live in fragments no longer,” as E.M Forster says in Howards End.

In the West, lockdown has largely been a result of terrorism, with both the US and France being heavily hit in the past year.

Last Thursday’s horrendous attack in the French resort town of Nice while people were celebrating Bastille Day has seen France upping its latest mode of mourning — lighting up the Eiffel Tower complete in national flag colours. Since the Chrlie Hebdo attack, This Flag has shot to fame in France.

In the US, the ruling by the Supreme Court on same sex marriages on June 26, 2015 saw the unthinkable as the White House was illuminated in rainbow colours — flag symbol for gays, and not the constitutional Stars and Stripes.

Now connect that to the likes of Evan Mawarire’s Damascene moment regarding the Zimbabwean flag, long after Munya Chidzonga popularised this symbol of nationhood on the reality TV show Big Brother, and you understand why accusations about the third force manipulating social media are not easy to brush aside.

It’s time that the flag as a symbol is critiqued.

But, I digress.

If the biblical giant Goliath had known the historical fact that the mighty can fall, and sometimes do so unpredictably, he would have never dared fight David, the 17-year-old Hebrew boy who felled him with a stone.

Goliath was too egotistical, wrapped up in his self-worthiness and invincibility.

On July 10, the world paid little attention to a story, which was among the millions that daily pass through the Internet mill, titled: “Bahamas tells young men to exercise caution with US Police.”

The Bahamas, is one of the many tiny Caribbean islands, with an estimated population of 321,834 and its size is about 13,878 square kilometres. But they did it, and made history in the process.

You might laugh at them, but as Vernor Vinge says, “Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.”

For decades, the United States has issued travel alerts and warnings to its citizens intending to travel to what they deem hot spots – developing nations in particular.

These alerts and warnings, though sometimes genuine, have also severely damaged the tourist industries of many countries.

That is why governments worry when the US in particular, issues them unilaterally.

This year alone, it has issued travel alerts to Europe, Haiti, Nicaragua and Laos.

It has also issued travel warnings to Ethiopia, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Iraq, Mali, Kenya, Yemen,Turkey, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Libya, Somalia, North Korea, Philippines, Chad, Mexico, Central African Republic, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Colombia, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Burundi, Algeria, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso and El Salvador.

According to information posted on their public affairs website, they issue travel warnings in order for their citizens, “to consider very carefully whether (they) should go to a country at all. Examples of reasons for issuing a travel warning might include unstable government, civil war, ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks . . . Travel warnings remain in place until the situation changes; some have been in effect for years.”

Travel alerts are issued “for short-term events . . . Examples of reasons for issuing a travel alert might include an election season that is bound to have many strikes, demonstrations, or disturbances; a health alert like an outbreak of H1N1; or evidence of an elevated risk of terrorist attacks.”

In an unprecedented move, the Bahamas government wrote on its website on July 8: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has taken a note of the recent tensions in some American cities over shootings of young black males by police officers . . . We wish to advise all Bahamians travelling to the US but especially to the affected cities to exercise appropriate caution generally. In particular, young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate . . . Do not get involved in political or other demonstrations under any circumstances and avoid crowds.” (mofa.gov.bs <http://mofa.gov.bs>)

It noted that men in particular should be careful in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Castille were respectively, gunned down by police.

The Bahamas was followed by two tiny Middle eastern nations — United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. New Zealand also did the same.

Why? Because, one too many black US males continue to be shot down by the police, and this sometimes leads to violent protests.

Racial profiling also remains a stain on the United States’ human rights record. With 2016 being an election year, firebrands like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raise further questions about the state of democratic institutions in the US.

According to a Reuters report of July 10, the United Arab Emirates, using language similar to that used by the State Department, called on its students and other citizens in the US to be cautious: “Please be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid crowded places when possible. Exercise particular caution during large festivals or events, be alert and stay safe,” the statement from UAE embassy read. So too Bahrain, and so too New Zealand.

If it had been big nations like China or Russia, this would have made real big news. That is the value gap between big and small, rich and poor.

But for those that reported on it, one got the feeling that they were gleefully saying the US was being made to taste its bitter medicine. One report said, tables were turning as small nations were asking the world’s most desired destination to answer for its actions.

For a number of online observers — mostly Americans — it was a big embarrassment, something they could not countenanced, and an unexpected reaction coming from such tiny nations.

Well, nothing is forever.

Wrote one reader: “Irony. We are fast becoming a third world country. Tables are turning. Soon there will be American refugees going overseas and natives of those countries will be telling Americans to go back to where they came from.”

Terry Underwood said, he was actually “surprised these warnings weren’t in place a long time ago!”

And Obadiah Owens weighed in: “It has always been the United States to issue travel warnings to other countries and now other countries are issuing warnings about us.

“You know things are bad when the country the world wants to come to is now a place many fear. We are that alcoholic and drug addict who has a serious problem and will only sobriety when we admit to ourselves we have a problem, and start a 12-step plan to recovery.”

But it was Bill Fulton whose remark sounded not only grim, but also supremacist: “At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the government of Somalia issued warnings to its citizens traveling to the US.”

So, it is true that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones?

LouriSiller of South Texas Vocational Technical Institute summed it up very well: “We should be proud living in this country. Instead, I’m nervous, becoming afraid in leaving my house, scared living in a big city and not being financially capable of relocating even though I don’t think it will make a difference relocating anywhere in the US with all this hate going on.”

What should African states do, since they have borne the brunt of these duplicitous travel alerts and warnings?