Donald Trump will self implode and I hope history will judge him harshly - Christa Ackroyd

As the mist swirled above his head I was overcome by a sense of peace and gratitude for all I am lucky to have in my life.

Friendships old and new, family near and far and above all good health and a sense of purpose.

Together with a friend whom I first met more than forty years ago we climbed to the top to gaze in wonder at the scene high in the mountains of an island just off the coast of Hong Kong overlooking the South China sea, our final destination on our adventures, some shared, some journeyed alone.

There was a palpable sense of peace – of calm.

Buddhist monks walked among the grounds of the monastery below. Young and old stood in front of the 112 foot high statue.

A young couple prayed together, his hand on her pregnant stomach. An elderly couple stood side by side in silence before exchanging a glance of mutual love and respect.

Others simply walked around the base in quiet reverence before entering the spiral staircase which took you slowly upwards inside his head. As if you were invited to think his thoughts.

Some were Buddhists obviously, others like us were just there to soak up an atmosphere of pure peace and serenity which is to be found in this quiet unassuming religion.

Just 30 years old and constructed of bronze as a symbol of peace, Big Buddha is one of the largest seated buddhas in the world.

It was built to represent the harmony between humanity, nature, and religion. A harmony under threat.

I like the Buddhist religion with its core principles of compassion, non violence and equality and a belief that what you sow in this life you will reap in the next.

It is rooted in the here and now with the message we should never look to the past but always live in the present – and be thankful.

So as we crossed back on the train into bustling Hong Kong, with its energetic street life, its vast buildings, its waterfront light and sound show, and its pavements bustling with people, yet never threatening, it seemed a fitting end to both our journeys and a reconnection after so many years for our last day before boarding a plane home.

That was until we turned on the television as we began to pack for our return to reality.

You don’t need me to analyse Donald Trump’s rambling, incoherent and bullying speech to world leaders meeting in Davos. Plenty have done that.

It was the very antithesis of all we had just experienced. From zen to xenophobia in one not so easy lesson.

And forgive me if you think me patronising, but let me give you the true definition of xenophobia having just given you my experience of feeling zen in the Buddhist sense of the word.

Xenophobia is the deep-rooted fear, hatred, or contempt of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign and strange.

Rooted in the Greek words xenos (stranger) and phobos (fear), it manifests as prejudice, discrimination, and hostility toward individuals based on their perceived status as outsiders, threatening national or cultural identity.

And that, my friends, is Donald Trump in a nutshell. That and petulance, power, greed and an inability to not only read the room but to show any empathy to those who do not fit his narrative.

My first thoughts, like so many when he said NATO had done nothing for his country apart from staying back behind the frontline in Afghanistan, were for our British soldiers who lost their lives fighting after the atrocities of 911 in support of America against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

And this lecture from a man reported to have dodged the draft five times.

It was pitiful. But to so many painful and disrespectful.

People like Monica Kershaw from Bradford who buried her only son, 19 year old Christopher, when he died alongside four others from the Yorkshire regiment and one from the Duke of Lancaster’s trying to safeguard the border between Helmand and Kandahar and whose bodies I witnessed being repatriated amidst tears and anguish.

Disrespectful to 21 year old Corporal Liam Riley from Killamarsh in South Yorkshire whose family, like Monica, raise funds for the thousands injured doing the same, fighting alongside their ally when the United States invoked article 5 requesting just that in the one and only time it has been invoked in history.

And for so many others who answered the call and paid the ultimate sacrifice from countries around the world.

Liam Riley trained alongside Prince Harry before he went to the front line, who described him as a legend and a honour to work alongside when he died.

And while we are on the subject of Harry, if you ever wondered why he needed to find his much maligned freedom, perhaps it was for this moment when unshackled by the constraints of his Royal status he was among the first to answer Trump’s outrageous lies when he declared: “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”

I care not about the President’s threats to take Greenland, run Venezuela, buy Canada, impose and then reduce or lift tariffs, that is simply garbled ramblings and hot air and for others in higher positions than I to countermand.

I care deeply about the slur on human sacrifice for the good of the world and yes that includes the two people who have died after being slaughtered defending their constitutional rights to be on the streets to protest about the unhinged, untrained tactics of Trump’s bully boys in ICE, put there here to stir up hatred and division with the sole aim of bringing more power through fear to a man who shames his country and shames world values.

But I refuse to be bowed. He is here now.

But he will be gone and history will judge him harshly I hope, as long as world leaders step up, as so many are now doing, and refuse to engage in his rhetoric. Trump will self implode.

He is hopefully doing so now as those in his own country and elsewhere are waking up to his sham tactics. I simply pray that he will go, if not quietly, at least without inflicting even more harm on others.

In the meantime I leave you and him with one of my favourite teachings of Buddha.

“Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."