Out of all the foreign policy tit-for-tats to have - why has President Trump picked South Africa? Why is he concerned about minority white farmers who speak Afrikaans in the rural areas of a continent that's not a strategic priority for the USA?

Robyn Curnow is South African, lives in Atlanta, Georgia and she was CNN's Africa correspondent for many years. She has known the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa since the 1990's when he was part of Nelson Mandela's team. She has also interviewed many American Presidents.

She offers a unique perspective - understanding the instincts on both sides - after a fractious Oval Office meeting between the South Africans and the Americans.

There is good reason, Robyn says, why Trump has honed in on the death of white farmers in South Africa. And the South Africans need to tread carefully as they try to manage a transactional US President - without falling back into familiar ideological defiance rather than much-needed realism.

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Business schools across America should run an MBA course on corporate succession and the Catholic Church says Robyn Curnow who's covered the Vatican.

The ease of transition from one leader to another is smooth and seamless. And it's a key part of the enduring nature of the Vatican's well-oiled machine.

Pope Francis to Pope Leo, and the others that came before them for hundreds of years, are chosen by their peers (or the Holy Spirit, if you so wish) to lead the church (corporation) and to keep it profitable and with a steady supply of customers (parishioners and the faithful.)

As the new Pope shook hands with world leaders this past weekend, I thought; why do Popes matter in an increasingly secular world?

In times of change... what stays the same? The Catholic Church.

In time of change... what offers leadership continuity? The Catholic Church

That stability is is both the church's strength, and weakness.

The tension is always there. A push for innovation and modernity ... with the pull to preserve the thousands of years of ritual and dogma.

One part of the leadership continuity is the choosing of a new papal name... a name that harkens back to the past while supposedly giving us a clue as to the future.

Listen to this week's episode about Leo the new papal lion, the meaning of his name and the time I named a cheetah after a pope (we like big cats on the show.)

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What happens to our stuff when we die? The estate of Robyn Curnow's late neighbor has been up for sale next door. Antique bargain hunters and second-hand vultures have been 'shopping' the contents of the couple's house.

Strangers streamed through the neighborhood carting off everything the elderly couple owned, loved and collected for decades. Tupperware, silver, mattresses were all carried out of their front door for a few dollars.

Everything was sold off to the lowest bidder.

The odd-couple relationship between America and China is founded on American consumerism and Chinese productivity. There are deals, or not, on the table over realigning Washington and Beijing's trade.

Watching the garage sale next door made Robyn Curnow think about tariffs and the stuff we buy.

Quality versus Quantity and the things we leave behind

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YOUTUBE

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