Just watching the news on telly. Nelson Mandala has finally passed away. World would be a better place if we had more people like him (and that Thatcher had the cheek of calling him a common terrorist and the BBC this evening just described as a freedom fighter, such is politics).
Rather than being sad 🙁 , lets celebrate his life 🙂 : [url]The Specials - Nelson Mandela - YouTube[/url]
RP
Rarely does life give us a man with incredible principles who is willing to stand up for them. Such a man was Nelson Mandela. He gave the world so much, his wisdom seemed to come from the infinite. A special person indeed.
Wangari Maathai was another such person, also a [url]Nobel Peace Prize winner[/url]. Both fought against the odds and came through with flying colours.
May he now rest in Peace.
Very glad that he was recognised while still alive for his greatness as a fine human and a great leader who acted with integrity and strength of character
Invictus, the film portrays the man and the leader very well. They might show it one of these days.
Thank god he has had a happy and long life.
Rip madiba.
I always remember the first time I flew into Africa (I worked as cabin crew). It was 1973. A woman in the hotel shop in Nairobi asked me where I was traveling to and I replied Johannesburg. "Oh you must not go there - all white people are going to be killed."
That was not the only time I heard that. A friend left S Africa when she was speaking to one of her servants one day and said, "You wouldn't kill me, would you?" "Oh no Madam, I'm going to kill Mrs Smith next door and her cook is going to kill your family."
To me, the greatest thing that Nelson Mandela did was to stop any idea of revenge and a blood bath after the death of Apartheid. He and Desmond Tutu and the way they turned the thought of a persecuted people away from revenge and towards forgiveness and reconciliation was nothing less than miraculous.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
? Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
God bless you Nelson Mandela!
An amazing human being with a wicked sense of humour. After he stepped down as South African leader Mandela described himself as an unemployed pensioner with a criminal record 🙂
It strikes me that, although Mandela is known for being a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician, he shares a link with Gandhi. They were both political and spiritual....Gandhi being a Hindu and, in Mandela's case, a Methodist. Also when Gandhi was a lawyer in South Africa, he first employed nonviolent civil disobedience there!
Whilst it is true that Mandela was angry up to the time he was sent to prison, it was there that he mellowed. (27 years is a very long time!) Gandhi had humility, i.e. he had conquered his ego and the same can be said of Mandela. I was listening on the radio to tributes to him from those that had met him. His humility is very much in evidence. It's a wonderful polarity that both empowerment and humility can inspire and galavanise others.
What a marriage that is - of politics and spirituality. In my view, that is the type of leadership we need!
Here are some of his most inspiring quotes....
[url]Inspiring Mandela Quotes[/url]
This is my favourite quote of his.........
My message to those of you involved in this battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea! Close down the death factories. End this war now!
There's a reflective article about Mandela in the Christian Science Monitor which I thought you might enjoy reading:[url]Mandela's gift of grace - CSMonitor.com[/url]
Interestingly, while he was imprisoned for 27 years, he was only allowed two international newspapers, one was the New York Times and the other was the Monitor. In 1990, after his release, he had a tour of the USA. He gave a speech in Boston on the Saturday evening when he arrived there and early the next morning, surprised everyone at the Christian Science Centre in Boston, walking around and asking to be shown the inside of the church. he met the editor of The Monitor and said:
"The Christian Science Monitor was well known to me during my 27 years in prison. It continues to give me hope and confidence for the world's future."
"We need a world without distinction among peoples," Mandela said. "We are all children of God."
I like to think that at least one of his daily newspapers might have helped influence his transformation from angry and idealistic young man to the deep spiritual leadership based on forgiveness and equality that later shaped not only the man, but the country.
Today is Mandela's memorial service. From what I have heard about him since his death, it seems evident that his forgiveness (re. his time in prison) is a prominent characteristic that is highly admired about him.
Yesterday I got an email from an artist friend of mind. She was with him whilst she sculpted his image for Madame Tussauds (here in London). She said that he had a special presence - putting you at ease - that she had only ever witnessed twice before....once in the presence of Anwar El Sadat (Egyptian president) and also with the Dalai Lama.
Finnaly He is leaving us:(
The body of Nelson Mandela was driven to his final resting place in the village of Qunu, where he was raised. He was the greatest man in this century.
He was the greatest man in this century.
I'd agree with one of the greatest (although mostly of last century).
I can't help thinking, however, that the media circus has been more about engendering the kind of sentimentality that keeps newspaper and TV editors comfortable than about who Mandela was or what he did.