RIP Nelson Mandela

Duderonomy

Damn.

Guzzo

Duderonomy said:

Damn.

Not sure if Damn is the right word, the man was 95 and had been in truly bad health the last few years.

Rest in Peace to a true agent of change in the world.

dj_cityboy

R.I.P damn

Horseleech

I'm glad he lived to such an age considering he spent 27 years of his life in prison.

RIP.

willie_fugal

RIP!

one of the biggest global impacts of any single person in the last quarter-century

batmon

Thank You for your efforts.

LaserWolf

RIP

Da Vinylmentalist

Rest In Peace Mr.Mandela.

DocMcCoy

Changed the world, lived to 95, died peacefully surrounded by his family. RIP.

fishmongerfunk

bassie

Nelson Mandela Park Public School, 440 Shuter Street, Toronto

At Nelson Mandela Park Public School, we are committed to building a "Culture of Caring" that allows all of our students to reach their maximum potential. Our "Culture of Caring" means:

We care about quality teaching and learning for all of our students;
We care about having high expectations for all of our students;
We care about social justice, and making our world a better place.

LoopDreams

I remember seeing him speak as a kid, formative stuff for sure. In a way I'm glad he's finally passed, what a life. One of the pillars of the modern age for sure.

LazarusOblong

As admirable a person as has lived during my lifetime.

I read today that years of forced labor in limestone pits ruined his tear ducts to the point that when he finally got released he couldn't cry.

Today hundreds of millions cried for him.

motown67

A true revolutionary. After dramatic changes in government and society many people get caught up in hate, resentment, revenge, and fear. Mandela was bitter as well about apartheid yet he felt like he had a larger goal to achieve after he was freed which was to transform his country. Mandela showed that he hated the system and not the people.

DocMcCoy

motown67 said:

A true revolutionary. After dramatic changes in government and society many people get caught up in hate, resentment, revenge, and fear. Mandela was bitter as well about apartheid yet he felt like he had a larger goal to achieve after he was freed which was to transform his country. Mandela showed that he hated the system and not the people.

This.

What many people overlook about Mandela is that, although he eventually moved nearer to the centre, he was effectively still a communist for quite some time after he was freed. It's therefore conceivable that SA could have gone the same way as many other countries where there's been a communist revolution; "Right, lads, today's order of business - who are we putting up against the wall first?" He wasn't about that at all, not even after Afrikaner extremists got a patsy to murder Chris Hani. He could have turned around at that point and said, well, it's obvious that you people can't be trusted and you need to be brought under control. Instead, he praised the Afrikaner woman who witnessed the murder for stepping forward, and emphasised that the focus should be on justice and not revenge. He walked it like he talked it.

Flomotion

DocMcCoy said:

motown67 said:

A true revolutionary. After dramatic changes in government and society many people get caught up in hate, resentment, revenge, and fear. Mandela was bitter as well about apartheid yet he felt like he had a larger goal to achieve after he was freed which was to transform his country. Mandela showed that he hated the system and not the people.

This.

What many people overlook about Mandela is that, although he eventually moved nearer to the centre, he was effectively still a communist for quite some time after he was freed. It's therefore conceivable that SA could have gone the same way as many other countries where there's been a communist revolution; "Right, lads, today's order of business - who are we putting up against the wall first?" He wasn't about that at all, not even after Afrikaner extremists got a patsy to murder Chris Hani. He could have turned around at that point and said, well, it's obvious that you people can't be trusted and you need to be brought under control. Instead, he praised the Afrikaner woman who witnessed the murder for stepping forward, and emphasised that the focus should be on justice and not revenge. He walked it like he talked it.

Amnesty were never able to officially campaign for his release because of the nature of his conviction - he was a tough firebrand in his day.

b/w Mandela's release was one of those once in a generation JFK moments - I think everyone remembers were they were when they heard that news.

parallax

What an amazing life. He was truly a great man of vision whose power seemed to come from a gentle love for all people. He broke an unjust system with his words and ideas, then mended his nation the same way. He was and still is one of my heroes.

LaserWolf

Flomotion said:

Amnesty were never able to officially campaign for his release because of the nature of his conviction - he was a tough firebrand in his day.

Did not know this. Googled. Thought this was interesting:

Amnesty International adopted Nelson Mandela as a "forgotten prisoner" following his arrest and conviction in 1962 for alleged passport violations. In 1964 he spoke in his own defense at the famous Rivonia Trial and explained why he had chosen to organize an underground army (MK) and plan a campaign of violence directed towards the end of overthrowing the apartheid regime. Mandela's open avowal of chosing to use violence to further political ends caused a split within the ranks of Amnesty International, which at the time was very much smaller than it is now. One group advocated continuing to work unconditionally for Mandela's release, while the other urged that AI should adhere to its own principle and restrict it's efforts for unconditional release only to those political prisoners which they termed "prisoners of conscience" -- those who had neither used nor advocated violence. This would exclude Mandela from POC status, but would enable AI to continue to work on his behalf in terms of fair trial, and against the possibility of the death penalty.

This issue was debated at length at the 1964 congress in Canterbury England, and it was decided there in favor of the second position -- that is, not to make an exception for Mr Mandela. I would recommend that readers interested in the details and in the early history of Amnesty International should get ahold of a copy of Egon Larsen's --A Flame in Barbed Wire -- (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979). By the way, Amnesty International takes no official position on the justification of the use of violence. It only makes a distinction between those political prisoners who do and do not use or advocate its use as concerns its internal program of action on their behalfs.

President Mandela has long since acknowledged that Amnesty made its decision in good faith, and has thanked the organization for its work on behalf of thousands of other South African prisoners and detainees. On his first visit to America following his release he met with a group of AI members in Detroit who presented him with an Amnesty International T-shirt. I have a picture of him wearing this T-shirt and waving on the wall of my study.

So those of you who would like to raise this old chestnut again would do better to think twice about doing so. Wouldn't it be wiser to devote our attention to the world's current spate of human rights violations?

Morton Winston
Amnesty International USA, Board of Directors/South Africa
Coordination Group

LazarusOblong

What's wrong with this soundtrack?

Flomotion

LaserWolf said:

Flomotion said:

Amnesty were never able to officially campaign for his release because of the nature of his conviction - he was a tough firebrand in his day.

Did not know this. Googled. Thought this was interesting:

Amnesty International adopted Nelson Mandela as a "forgotten prisoner" following his arrest and conviction in 1962 for alleged passport violations. In 1964 he spoke in his own defense at the famous Rivonia Trial and explained why he had chosen to organize an underground army (MK) and plan a campaign of violence directed towards the end of overthrowing the apartheid regime. Mandela's open avowal of chosing to use violence to further political ends caused a split within the ranks of Amnesty International, which at the time was very much smaller than it is now. One group advocated continuing to work unconditionally for Mandela's release, while the other urged that AI should adhere to its own principle and restrict it's efforts for unconditional release only to those political prisoners which they termed "prisoners of conscience" -- those who had neither used nor advocated violence. This would exclude Mandela from POC status, but would enable AI to continue to work on his behalf in terms of fair trial, and against the possibility of the death penalty.

This issue was debated at length at the 1964 congress in Canterbury England, and it was decided there in favor of the second position -- that is, not to make an exception for Mr Mandela. I would recommend that readers interested in the details and in the early history of Amnesty International should get ahold of a copy of Egon Larsen's --A Flame in Barbed Wire -- (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979). By the way, Amnesty International takes no official position on the justification of the use of violence. It only makes a distinction between those political prisoners who do and do not use or advocate its use as concerns its internal program of action on their behalfs.

President Mandela has long since acknowledged that Amnesty made its decision in good faith, and has thanked the organization for its work on behalf of thousands of other South African prisoners and detainees. On his first visit to America following his release he met with a group of AI members in Detroit who presented him with an Amnesty International T-shirt. I have a picture of him wearing this T-shirt and waving on the wall of my study.

So those of you who would like to raise this old chestnut again would do better to think twice about doing so. Wouldn't it be wiser to devote our attention to the world's current spate of human rights violations?

Morton Winston
Amnesty International USA, Board of Directors/South Africa
Coordination Group

Really intersting - didn't realise they were still taking flak for this. I think AI made the right call - it would have shut a lot of doors for the organisation if they'd gone the other route. As far as members were concerned Mandela was always a prominent case and the campaining never stopped. In the 70s all the AI people we knew were active on that front although it still took until the mid 80s before the media got behind it.

LaserWolf

In the early/mid 80s I was in Seattle and joined the anti-apartheid protests when they started.
The consulate had been in an office downtown, but as soon as the protests started the consular closed up shop.
So protests moved to his home in some upscale neighborhood. (Can't remember where.)

Every week, maybe on Sunday, a few dozen of us would go to his house and march back and forth for a little while. Then a preselected few would go knock on his door. The police would come and arrest them for trespassing. Then we would all go home until next week.

The idea of boycotts/sanctions were just getting off the ground and we were identifying products (I remember frozen fish sticks) and companies doing business in SA.
Soon after that protests swept college campuses, and the divestiture movement took off and had a real impact.
I think one effect was US car companies stopped using chrome which came from SA.

I don't remember the AI controversy. I think AI's position on the SA government was clear.