Nelson Mandela Dead At 95 311
New submitter Emilio Hodge writes "Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, has died, President Jacob Zuma announces. He was 95." Mandela's death is covered by lots of news sources, of course, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
And now that he's dead... (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:What a great man (Score:3, Interesting)
Absolutely. Was he still considered a terrorist by the US, or did he live to see that finally set right?
Re:What a great man (Score:3, Interesting)
It's so much worse than just Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher calling Mandela a "terrorist".
When congress passed anti-apartheid sanctions, Reagan vetoed them, and then actively called the Senators before the veto override vote to try to convince them to let it stand. Congress went ahead and overrode the veto, giving Reagan one of his worst political defeats as president. It was the only time in the 20th century when congress overrode a president's veto of a foreign policy bill.
Reagan still refused to enforce the sanctions against the apartheid regime, asking South African President Botha to call congress himself and lobby to have the sanctions lifted.
Reagan's successor, George H W Bush, included in his platform a promise to enforce the sanctions to their fullest extent, which he ultimately did.
Mandela's legacy will ring out long after Reagan and Thatcher's have been relegated to the trash.
My own Mandela story (Score:5, Interesting)
When Nelson Mandela turned 70 there was quite a bit of coverage in the news here. He was still in jail, so I called Cape Town information, got the number, phoned the jail and left a message ("Happy Birthday!") for him.
The man who answered the phone sounded like he'd been on the phone a lot that day. He was also very careful to take down my name and where I was calling from. I suspect that until the government changed there would have been little point in trying to get a visa to visit South Africa...
...laura
Re:What a great man (Score:5, Interesting)
So, when Thatcher and Reagan participate in "bombing campaigns" it's "fighting for liberty" but when Mandela does it, they call it terrorism. Yes, that sounds like what you're saying.
Thatcher was "resorting" to her own campaign of violence in Ireland, and Reagan, disappointed that he didn't have a real war to fight, sent the marines to invade, uh, Grenada.
South Africa was enormously helped by the influence of Nelson Mandela. Both the UK and the US were left worse off by the influence of Thatcher and Reagan, (may they burn in Hell).
Re:1 of the greatest leaders our world has ever kn (Score:0, Interesting)
Sweet little Mandela eh?
He signed off on the deaths of innocent people, lots of them
Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist
wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had
pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising
terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places,
including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people,
including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK
terrorists. Here are some highlights
-Church Street West, Pretoria, on the 20 May 1983
-Amanzimtoti Shopping complex KZN, 23 December 1985
-Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, 17 March 1988
-Durban Pick ‘n Pay shopping complex, 1 September 1986
-Pretoria Sterland movie complex 16 April 1988 – limpet mine killed ANC terrorist M O Maponya instead
-Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, 20 May 1987
-Roodepoort Standard Bank 3 June, 1988
Tellingly, not only did Mandela refuse to renounce violence, Amnesty refused to take his case stating “[the]
movement recorded that it could not give the name of ‘Prisoner of
Conscience’ to anyone associated with violence, even though as in
‘conventional warfare’ a degree of restraint may be exercised.”
Re:What a great man (Score:5, Interesting)
Sanctions are basically a way to do something and be seen as doing something, without actually having to do something even more distasteful or controversial.
It's like wearing a "down with those guys!" tee-shirt.
It's a compromise between doing something utterly stupid like going to war and between losing all political support by being seen as a supporter of the other regime. Ie, Reagan opposed the sanctions and which caused a lot of people to erroneously conclude that he must have supported apartheid.
The political arithmetic isn't too hard. Your choices boil down to being seen as supporting the existing regime, ssupporting the opposition to the regime (ie, arming them, giving them money, etc), or sanctions. Of course there are nuances in between those extremes.
Re:What a great man (Score:3, Interesting)
OK, let's see. We had to fight a war that killed over half a million people to destroy slavery in a country of thirty million. That godless commie killed maybe a few hundred people in destroying apartheid in a country of fifty million. Wonder if a lesson lurks therein...
Larger than Life (Score:4, Interesting)
Nelson Mandela is a larger-than-life figure. The true hero, that sacrifices his life and gives all of his energy for a cause. He may not always have resorted to peaceful means, but when your opponents will not listen to reason and only speak the language of violence, the temptation to fight fire with fire runs high. Despite losing friends, witnessing the mercilessness and brutality of a police state and being treated less than human, he transitioned the unjust, abusive apartheid regime of South Africa into a free democracy for all.
South Africa is still a troubled country. But this is the product of decades of apartheid, that has created a huge divide between the rich and the poor, and ignoring the education and integration of most of its population. With these foundations, it is no wonder that poverty and crime still pose a huge challenge to South African society.
Nelson Mandela has done more than his part, much more than can be expected from a single lifetime. Rest in peace.