I was going to remark on your comparison, but I will refrain out of respect for Mr. Mandela.
A great light has gone out of this world.
May we all be blessed that others will carry this light forward in memory and deeds.
A very sad day, but also a day to remember all of the good accomplished in his name. He will be missed but not forgotten.
So, it’s very, very quiet here. Sad day.
Let’s hope the blue light fuckers keep it that way.
RIP Tata.
I get the sense most of the action will happen in Gauteng and the EC. St George’s only looked about 1/2 full for Tutu’s service this morning.
Looks that way. Houghton has a strong police presence.
The irony is that Mandela discouraged the use of lights and sirens. One of the big attractions of Cape Town is Zille’s prohibition on thuggish blue light behaviour. If only we could get some of that sanity in Gauteng.
There’s going to be a big event on the Grand Parade this evening; trains and buses into the city are running free of charge this afternoon.
23 years after being freed from prison, Nelson Mandela has been freed again; this time finding the ultimate freedom with Jesus.
Mandela was one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century. After so many years of unjust imprisonment, he could have retired to a life of seclusion and no one would have blamed him. He could have let hate and bitterness consume him, and though many people wouldn’t have liked it, they’d at least have understood it.
Instead he chose to continue changing South Africa for the better, and in so doing, changing the world. He can quite rightly be called the Father of the Modern South Africa.
He was adored by all who knew him, and admired from afar by those who didn’t have that pleasure. And he will never be forgotten.
Mandela was one the greatest heroes since the Enlightenment.
Back when it was obvious apartheid was imminently doomed - the writing was on the wall in the 80s - I, and I’m hardly alone in this, would never have believed the transition could have been made without a civil war. There’s just no way this can happen peacefully, I thought. Millions of blacks will want vengeance upon millions of whites who won’t hand power over and there will be riots and battles and white supremacist guerrilla groups and secession attempts and just geysers of blood. I was wrong, because of Nelson Mandela.
When they founded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission I thought it was the silliest idea I’d ever heard. You’re going to deliver justice by… by having a committee talking about it? Insane. The victims of apartheid would want hangings, and some hanging were called for, quite frankly. But it worked. Mandela was right.
He was right and he was successful because he was a man of strength and wisdom far, far beyond most people. His accomplishments were not circumstantial; he was truly and legitimately a greater man than others. If men like Nelson Mandela were commonplace we never would have needed a man like Nelson Mandela in the first place because the world would be a place of peace and harmony.
I pray we luck out and get a few more people like him.
I find it very interesting that the only time certain governments and their ruling class celebrate a victim of a prolonged and hideous oppression is when the victim – and, especially victims of a certain colour – choses non-violence to end the oppression.
I mean, the guys who produced this poster - http://i.stack.imgur.com/TeN0o.jpg - are still in UK Parliament or House of Lords. Luckily, most of them are dead including Iron Lady, but still … how can anyone subscribe to this theater of BS?
27 years in prison?
He could have been out in under a year if those same governments and their ruling class really wanted to make it happen. But they didn’t.
I find it quite amusing that many people who claim Nelson Mandela to be their hero or what-nor never question/-ed their own government actions w.r.t. South Africa’s apartheid.
For decades!
Mandela deserves a lot of credit-he didn’t drive the whites and Asians out (unlike Uganda, Zambia, Congo, etc.). Thus South Africa has a change of moving into the 1st world. Who would you rather have…Mandela or Mugabe? he choice is is obvious.
It also needs to be remembered, while we’re looking at the right side of history, that the U.S. helped put Mandela in prison.
It was the Cold War. The ANC was allied with the Communists (and still governs in coalition with them, I believe), and the USSR publicly supported them and opposed Apartheid. I recall Jesse Helms on the floor of the Senate warning that ending Apartheid in SA would lead to “minority rule, that is, Commernist rule!”
Shucks, who’d have thought Jesse Helms would see it that way?
Looks like “Cold War” had more magic than “Al Qaida”.
Well… I call BS on “Cold War” too.
That’s way too convenient, ignorant and quite frankly… evil.
Maybe this isn’t the place, newcomer.
Agreed.