Nelson Mandela, presente!
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/ethan-vesely-fl ... ente/12716 ]
December 5, 2013 from Fellowship of Reconciliation:
Nelson Mandela, a personal hero whose smiling face watches over my desk and one of our world's foremost champions of human rights and dignity, died today.
For peace and justice activists committed to nonviolence as the "only" means for social change, the model of liberation movements that include armed resistance, such as the African National Congress (ANC) that Mandela led for decades (much of the time from exile or prison), is complex and controversial.
Bill Sutherland and Matt Meyer's "Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle, and Liberation in Africa" (2000, Africa World Press) -- [ http://amzn.to/1iEnlTK ] -- is an outstanding resource for considering this debate. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes in the book's foreword, "By challenging us to better understand concepts often seen as opposed to one another -- like nonviolence and armed struggle -- [the authors] help to focus our attention on the larger struggles we still must wage, united: for economic justice, for true freedom and equality, and for a world of lasting peace. ... The policies of the new South Africa help explain our responses to the violence of the past, such as our constitution that guarantees human rights, coexistence, and development opportunities for all, irrespective of color, race, class, belief, or sex."
As a pacifist-rooted interfaith organization committed to the transformative power of nonviolence, FOR has long sought to engage this ideological dispute. A short while ago, I spoke to George Houser, 97, who as a FOR staffer in the 1940s and '50s led the U.S. solidarity movement with emerging African liberation struggles. In a low voice, George expressed his deep sorrow at the news of Madiba's death.
George cofounded the American Committee on Africa in 1953, and served as its executive director from 1955 to 1981, through the era when most African nations shed their colonial powers. He worked with ANC leaders from Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo to Nelson Mandela, and in an interview for the landmark book "No Easy Victories" (2008, Africa World Press) -- [ http://amzn.to/1bkZSRU ] -- said the following:
"After Sharpeville, 1960, the picture changed because Pan African Congress (PAC) and the ANC had been nonviolent organizations, and they made a decision after the Sharpeville Massacre of March 1960 -- because the government banned the ANC and the PAC, and they had to go underground.
Tambo -- Oliver Tambo, whom I knew well and worked with, left South Africa. We invited him over; he came over in 1960 and toured around the U.S. The whole situation changed after the Sharpeville Massacre, and the ANC went underground and decided that the armed struggle was the way they should go.
"I contend, however, that what really brought the change in South Africa was not the armed struggle, which was never equal to what the government had, but international pressure, sanctions and all that sort of thing which we helped work on here. And also the internal struggle in South Africa, the boycotts and the strikes and such that took place within South Africa while the ANC was banned and other movements arose."
This summer, FOR continued to engage these questions and themes in a series of articles on President Mandela's life and legacy by grassroots South African and U.S. anti-apartheid and social justice activists.
We invite you to read these articles now and post your comments, and also encourage new submissions for potential publication:
* "Reflecting Mandela: A Disposition of Reconciliation and Restoration" by Kelvin Sauls, pastor of Holman United Methodist Church, Los Angeles CA
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/kelvin-sauls/re ... tion/12229 ]
* "Reflections on the Life of Nelson Mandela" by Donna Katzin, executive director of Shared Interest
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/donna-katzin/re ... dela/12231 ]
* "Nelson Mandela: A Prophet for the 21st Century" by Ruby Sprott, chair of the Riverside Church's Mission and Social Justice Commission
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/ruby-sprott/nel ... tury/12252 ]
* "Nelson Rohlilala Mandela: Living Legend of a Leader" by Wilma Jakobsen, rector of Saint Jude's Episcopal Church, Cupertino CA
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/wilma-jakobsen/ ... ader/12255 ]
* "Nelson Mandela, Oscar Lopez Rivera, and the Charge of Terrorism" by Nozomi Ikuta, co-chair of the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience project
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/nozomi-ikuta/ne ... rism/12265 ]
* "Nelson Mandela: A National Agenda for Inclusion and Democracy"by Anita Kromberg and Richard Steele, South African members of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/anita-kromberg- ... racy/12298 ]
* "Nelson Mandela and Stand My Ground" by Diane Porter, past C.E.O. of National Training Laboratories
[ http://forusa.org/blogs/diane-porter/ne ... ound/12334 ]
A few weeks ago, I wrote, "I will never forget meeting Nelson Mandela during his first U.S. visit" -- [ http://forusa.org/blogs/ethan-vesely-fl ... tutu/12553 ] -- referring to his visit to New York in 1990 soon after his release after 27 years of imprisonment by the apartheid state. As a young human rights activist, Madiba was a shining light to me of the power of stalwart resistance to white supremacy and institutional racism. He continues to do so today, as I join the world in saying, "President Nelson Mandela, presente!"
In peace,
Ethan Vesely-Flad
Director of Communications
Fellowship of Reconciliation
--
FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION
Working for peace, justice and nonviolence since 1915
P.O. Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960
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President Nelson Mandela, presente!
8 posts
• Page 1 of 1
President Nelson Mandela, presente!
by Oscar » Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:07 am
Last edited by Oscar on Sat Dec 07, 2013 5:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy - Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Bl
by Oscar » Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:49 am
Nelson Mandela: Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Blair – Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy
[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/nelson-man ... sy/5360539 ]
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, December 06, 2013
Accusing politicians or former politicians of “breathtaking hypocrisy” is not just over used, it is inadequacy of spectacular proportions. Sadly, searches in various thesaurus’ fail in meaningful improvement.
The death of Nelson Mandela, however, provides tributes resembling duplicity on a mind altering substance.
President Obama, whose litany of global assassinations by Drone, from infants to octogenarians – a personal weekly decree we are told, summary executions without Judge, Jury or trial – stated of the former South African’s President’s passing:
“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again ... His acts of reconciliation ... set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives.
“I studied his words and his writings ... like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, (as) long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him ... it falls to us ... to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love ...”
Mandela, said the Presidential High Executioner, had: “... bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”(i)
Mandela, after nearly thirty years in jail (1964-1990) forgave his jailors and those who would have preferred to see him hung. Obama committed to closing Guantanamo, an election pledge, the prisoners still self starve in desperation as their lives rot away, without hope.
The decimation of Libya had no congressional approval, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan’s dismembered. Drone victims are a Presidential roll call of shame and horror and the Nobel Peace Laureate’s trigger finger still hovers over Syria and Iran, for all the talk of otherwise. When his troops finally limped out of Iraq, he left the biggest Embassy in the world and a proxy armed force, with no chance of them leaving being on even the most distant horizon.
Clearly learning, justice and being “guided by love” is proving bit of an uphill struggle. Ironically, Obama was born in 1964, the year Mandela was sentenced to jail and his “long walk to freedom.”
Bill Clinton, who (illegally, with the UK) ordered the near continual bombing of Iraq throughout his Presidency (1993-2001) and the siege conditions of the embargo, with an average of six thousand a month dying of “embargo related causes”, paid tribute to Mandela as: “a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation ... a man of uncommon grace and compassion, for whom abandoning bitterness and embracing adversaries was ... a way of life. All of us are living in a better world because of the life that Madiba lived.” Tell that to America’s victims.
In the hypocrisy stakes, Prime Minister David Cameron can compete with the best. He said:
“A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a towering figure in our time; a legend in life and now in death – a true global hero.
... Meeting him was one of the great honours of my life.
On Twitter he reiterated: “A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time.” The flag on Downing Street was to hang at half mast, to which a follower replied: “Preferably by no-one who was in the Young Conservatives at a time they wanted him hanged, or those who broke sanctions, eh?”
Another responded: “The Tories wanted to hang Mandela.You utter hypocrite.”
The two tweeters clearly knew their history. In 2009, when Cameron was pitching to become Prime Minister, it came to light that in 1989, when Mandela was still in prison, David Cameron, then a: “rising star of the Conservative Research Department ... accepted an all expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa ... funded by a firm that lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime.”
MORE:
[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/nelson-man ... sy/5360539 ]
[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/nelson-man ... sy/5360539 ]
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, December 06, 2013
Accusing politicians or former politicians of “breathtaking hypocrisy” is not just over used, it is inadequacy of spectacular proportions. Sadly, searches in various thesaurus’ fail in meaningful improvement.
The death of Nelson Mandela, however, provides tributes resembling duplicity on a mind altering substance.
President Obama, whose litany of global assassinations by Drone, from infants to octogenarians – a personal weekly decree we are told, summary executions without Judge, Jury or trial – stated of the former South African’s President’s passing:
“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again ... His acts of reconciliation ... set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives.
“I studied his words and his writings ... like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, (as) long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him ... it falls to us ... to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love ...”
Mandela, said the Presidential High Executioner, had: “... bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”(i)
Mandela, after nearly thirty years in jail (1964-1990) forgave his jailors and those who would have preferred to see him hung. Obama committed to closing Guantanamo, an election pledge, the prisoners still self starve in desperation as their lives rot away, without hope.
The decimation of Libya had no congressional approval, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan’s dismembered. Drone victims are a Presidential roll call of shame and horror and the Nobel Peace Laureate’s trigger finger still hovers over Syria and Iran, for all the talk of otherwise. When his troops finally limped out of Iraq, he left the biggest Embassy in the world and a proxy armed force, with no chance of them leaving being on even the most distant horizon.
Clearly learning, justice and being “guided by love” is proving bit of an uphill struggle. Ironically, Obama was born in 1964, the year Mandela was sentenced to jail and his “long walk to freedom.”
Bill Clinton, who (illegally, with the UK) ordered the near continual bombing of Iraq throughout his Presidency (1993-2001) and the siege conditions of the embargo, with an average of six thousand a month dying of “embargo related causes”, paid tribute to Mandela as: “a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation ... a man of uncommon grace and compassion, for whom abandoning bitterness and embracing adversaries was ... a way of life. All of us are living in a better world because of the life that Madiba lived.” Tell that to America’s victims.
In the hypocrisy stakes, Prime Minister David Cameron can compete with the best. He said:
“A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a towering figure in our time; a legend in life and now in death – a true global hero.
... Meeting him was one of the great honours of my life.
On Twitter he reiterated: “A great light has gone out in the world. Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time.” The flag on Downing Street was to hang at half mast, to which a follower replied: “Preferably by no-one who was in the Young Conservatives at a time they wanted him hanged, or those who broke sanctions, eh?”
Another responded: “The Tories wanted to hang Mandela.You utter hypocrite.”
The two tweeters clearly knew their history. In 2009, when Cameron was pitching to become Prime Minister, it came to light that in 1989, when Mandela was still in prison, David Cameron, then a: “rising star of the Conservative Research Department ... accepted an all expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa ... funded by a firm that lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime.”
MORE:
[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/nelson-man ... sy/5360539 ]
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Nelson Mandela and Nonviolent Resistance
by Oscar » Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:32 am
Nelson Mandela and Nonviolent Resistance
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nel ... esistance/ ]
By Peter Hart December 6, 2013
People who were closely watching the corporate media tributes to Nelson Mandela had to assume that certain aspects of Mandela's life would be forgotten. Here's one example, from CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria (12/5/13):
[ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... om.01.html
BLITZER: Fareed, we're remembering Nelson Mandela, a world leader who made such, such a change, not only in South Africa, but, indeed, he inspired so many people around the world.
ZAKARIA: Absolutely, Wolf. I mean, you remember, this is a man born in 1918, born when the Sun never set on the British empire, and lived a long life, and was part of a kind of tradition of nonviolent resistance to colonial power and colonial oppression that was part of the Indian independence movement. He was greatly inspired by Gandhi, by the nonviolent struggle.
If you're familiar with Mandela's life story, you know this is misleading. Yes, Mandela initially pursued nonviolent resistance. But he led the armed wing [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tance.html ] of the African National Congress, a shift in strategy that Mandela and others believed would be more effective in their struggle against racist apartheid. It was that violent resistance that landed him in prison. In 1985, Mandela was offered a conditional release [ http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event ... ase-prison ] if he were to renounce violence; he refused.
Hours later on CNN, former Time editor Rick Stengel offered [ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... cl.01.html ] a more realistic assessment of Mandela's views:
One of most interesting things he ever said to me was this idea of nonviolence. Remember, we compare him to Gandhi, we compare him to Martin Luther King. He said: "I was not like them. For them, nonviolence was a principle. For me, it was a tactic. And when the tactic wasn't working, I reversed it and started" –that's a very important difference.
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nel ... esistance/ ]
By Peter Hart December 6, 2013
People who were closely watching the corporate media tributes to Nelson Mandela had to assume that certain aspects of Mandela's life would be forgotten. Here's one example, from CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria (12/5/13):
[ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... om.01.html
BLITZER: Fareed, we're remembering Nelson Mandela, a world leader who made such, such a change, not only in South Africa, but, indeed, he inspired so many people around the world.
ZAKARIA: Absolutely, Wolf. I mean, you remember, this is a man born in 1918, born when the Sun never set on the British empire, and lived a long life, and was part of a kind of tradition of nonviolent resistance to colonial power and colonial oppression that was part of the Indian independence movement. He was greatly inspired by Gandhi, by the nonviolent struggle.
If you're familiar with Mandela's life story, you know this is misleading. Yes, Mandela initially pursued nonviolent resistance. But he led the armed wing [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... tance.html ] of the African National Congress, a shift in strategy that Mandela and others believed would be more effective in their struggle against racist apartheid. It was that violent resistance that landed him in prison. In 1985, Mandela was offered a conditional release [ http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event ... ase-prison ] if he were to renounce violence; he refused.
Hours later on CNN, former Time editor Rick Stengel offered [ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... cl.01.html ] a more realistic assessment of Mandela's views:
One of most interesting things he ever said to me was this idea of nonviolence. Remember, we compare him to Gandhi, we compare him to Martin Luther King. He said: "I was not like them. For them, nonviolence was a principle. For me, it was a tactic. And when the tactic wasn't working, I reversed it and started" –that's a very important difference.
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NYT Mocking Mandela . . .
by Oscar » Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:36 am
NYT Takes Mandela's Death as a Chance to Mock His Fight to Free His Country
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nyt ... s-country/ ]
By Jim Naureckas December 6, 2013
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote his paper's obituary for Nelson Mandela (12/6/13). [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world ... d=all&_r=0 ]
As you might have guessed, it glosses over the CIA's role in helping the apartheid government catch Mandela (Extra!, 3-4/90): [ http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/c ... s-capture/ ] "Upon his capture he was charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport" is all the depth he goes into, although the Times (6/10/90) [ http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/10/world ... rrest.html ] has in fact covered this little-known story in the past.
You have to ask yourself: If the secret police of an ostensibly democratic society helped put someone viewed as one of the great heroes of the past century in prison, isn't that something the public ought to know about?
Keller did go into more detail about Mandela's armed efforts to overthrow the apartheid state, seemingly in an effort to belittle them:
Mr. Mandela's exploits in the "armed struggle" have been somewhat mythologized. During his months as a cloak-and-dagger outlaw, the press christened him "the Black Pimpernel." But while he trained for guerrilla fighting and sought weapons for Spear of the Nation, he saw no combat. The ANC's armed activities were mostly confined to planting land mines, blowing up electrical stations and committing occasional acts of terrorism against civilians.
Mandela, as it happens, went into great detail [ http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/speeches/mandela.php ] at his 1964 trial–where he was convicted of sabotage, not "acts of terrorism against civilians"–about the African National Congress' decision to abandon its commitment to nonviolent resistance and turn to armed struggle, a phrase that does not actually require scare quotes. This decision was made, Mandela explained, in order to prevent the opposition to white-minority rule from devolving into random acts of terrorism:
Firstly, we believed that as a result of government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable, and that unless responsible leadership was given to canalize and control the feelings of our people, there would be outbreaks of terrorism which would produce an intensity of bitterness and hostility between the various races of this country which is not produced even by war. Secondly, we felt that without violence, there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the government. We chose to defy the law.
MORE:
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nyt ... s-country/ ]
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nyt ... s-country/ ]
By Jim Naureckas December 6, 2013
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote his paper's obituary for Nelson Mandela (12/6/13). [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world ... d=all&_r=0 ]
As you might have guessed, it glosses over the CIA's role in helping the apartheid government catch Mandela (Extra!, 3-4/90): [ http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/c ... s-capture/ ] "Upon his capture he was charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport" is all the depth he goes into, although the Times (6/10/90) [ http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/10/world ... rrest.html ] has in fact covered this little-known story in the past.
You have to ask yourself: If the secret police of an ostensibly democratic society helped put someone viewed as one of the great heroes of the past century in prison, isn't that something the public ought to know about?
Keller did go into more detail about Mandela's armed efforts to overthrow the apartheid state, seemingly in an effort to belittle them:
Mr. Mandela's exploits in the "armed struggle" have been somewhat mythologized. During his months as a cloak-and-dagger outlaw, the press christened him "the Black Pimpernel." But while he trained for guerrilla fighting and sought weapons for Spear of the Nation, he saw no combat. The ANC's armed activities were mostly confined to planting land mines, blowing up electrical stations and committing occasional acts of terrorism against civilians.
Mandela, as it happens, went into great detail [ http://www.rfksafilm.org/html/speeches/mandela.php ] at his 1964 trial–where he was convicted of sabotage, not "acts of terrorism against civilians"–about the African National Congress' decision to abandon its commitment to nonviolent resistance and turn to armed struggle, a phrase that does not actually require scare quotes. This decision was made, Mandela explained, in order to prevent the opposition to white-minority rule from devolving into random acts of terrorism:
Firstly, we believed that as a result of government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable, and that unless responsible leadership was given to canalize and control the feelings of our people, there would be outbreaks of terrorism which would produce an intensity of bitterness and hostility between the various races of this country which is not produced even by war. Secondly, we felt that without violence, there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the government. We chose to defy the law.
MORE:
[ http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/12/06/nyt ... s-country/ ]
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WATCH: Statement from Elizabeth May
by Oscar » Sat Dec 07, 2013 5:03 pm
WATCH: Celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela: Statement from Elizabeth May
[ http://elizabethmaymp.ca/nelson-mandela ]
On Thursday, December 5th, 2013 in Press Releases, Videos
On the occasion of His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s passing, Elizabeth May, Green Party of CanadaLeader and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, delivered the following tribute to the remarkable life and legacy of democratic South Africa’s first President:
- - - - -
Mr. Speaker, I would like to add a few words, not many.
We are gathered in a spirit of non-partisan grieving for someone we had the honour to call a fellow Canadian.
Nelson Mandela was marked by two extraordinary things, among many: moral clarity and moral courage.
We know he inspired us. With your permission, I would like to close this session with the words that inspired him, words written in 1888 by William Ernest Henley, which he recited over the 27 years he remained on Robben Island, imprisoned:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela, who captained that soul to the safest of harbours. God bless him, his memory, and all who loved him.
[Watch video online]:
[ http://elizabethmaymp.ca/nelson-mandela ]
“Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to social justice, democracy and peace. His moral clarity and moral courage will forever be an inspiration. Let no one imagine that in our struggles the obstacles are too large or the odds too long. Nelson Mandela’s triumph in moving from 27 years of imprisonment to becoming the president of a free South Africa stands for the reality that the impossible can be made possible.”
[ http://elizabethmaymp.ca/nelson-mandela ]
On Thursday, December 5th, 2013 in Press Releases, Videos
On the occasion of His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s passing, Elizabeth May, Green Party of CanadaLeader and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, delivered the following tribute to the remarkable life and legacy of democratic South Africa’s first President:
- - - - -
Mr. Speaker, I would like to add a few words, not many.
We are gathered in a spirit of non-partisan grieving for someone we had the honour to call a fellow Canadian.
Nelson Mandela was marked by two extraordinary things, among many: moral clarity and moral courage.
We know he inspired us. With your permission, I would like to close this session with the words that inspired him, words written in 1888 by William Ernest Henley, which he recited over the 27 years he remained on Robben Island, imprisoned:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela, who captained that soul to the safest of harbours. God bless him, his memory, and all who loved him.
[Watch video online]:
[ http://elizabethmaymp.ca/nelson-mandela ]
“Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to social justice, democracy and peace. His moral clarity and moral courage will forever be an inspiration. Let no one imagine that in our struggles the obstacles are too large or the odds too long. Nelson Mandela’s triumph in moving from 27 years of imprisonment to becoming the president of a free South Africa stands for the reality that the impossible can be made possible.”
- Oscar
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The real Mandela: Don't let his legacy be abused
by Oscar » Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:55 am
The real Mandela: Don't let his legacy be abused
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e37037.htm ]
The real Mandela: Don't let his legacy be abused
By John Wight December 07, 2013 "Information Clearing House -
The manner in which Nelson Mandela's legacy is being misinterpreted and appropriated is an obscenity.
This has been brought into sharp focus in the immediate aftermath of his passing.
The driving force and inspiration of the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa, Mandela was a man driven by a fierce belief in justice as the universal right of all people ? regardless of race, religion, nationality or wealth. He stood utterly opposed to the notion that justice is a gift of the rich and powerful, either in South Africa or anywhere in the world. This makes it all the more nauseous to witness the likes of Tony Blair and David Cameron issuing public tributes to him. While Nelson Mandela was a champion of the dispossessed and oppressed throughout his life, people such as Blair and Cameron are servants of the rich.
Likewise, the sight of President Obama paying giving a public eulogy in Washington also reflects hypocrisy. The only thing that Nelson Mandela had in common with Barack Obama was the color of his skin. Other than that, along with Tony Blair and David Cameron, Obama is a moral dwarf compared to a man who endured untold privation and hardship during the struggle against apartheid, especially as Obama is the CEO of an empire the barbarity and violence of which is unparalleled in human history.
The current US President's visit to Robben Island earlier this year came at a time when prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo were engaged in a hunger strike, demanding an end to the harsh conditions they are subjected to. The fact that Guantanamo still exists at all as an offshore US penal establishment, where hundreds of prisoners are being held in a state of legal limbo, is an indictment of Obama's presidency. Worse is the drone war he has waged throughout the Global South, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including women and children.
But even for the rest of us, the danger of misinterpreting Nelson Mandela's legacy is clear. Regarding him solely as the benign and universally loved elder statesman that he certainly became in his later years would be a travesty. When engaged in the struggle for the freedom of his people, Nelson Mandela was a lion who refused to countenance any compromise when it came resisting the evil of apartheid. As a consequence he was widely reviled by many of those who are now seeking to outdo each other in eulogizing the man upon his death.
In the UK, Thatcher and the Tories regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, while the current Prime Minister, David Cameron in 1989 accepted an all-expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa while Mandela was still in prison, funded by a firm that was lobbying against the trade and economic sanctions that played a key role in finally bringing apartheid to an end one year later. Cameron's visit was manna from heaven for an apartheid regime desperately seeking allies around the world at the very point when its legitimacy was crumbling.
While we're at it, it would be immoral to airbrush from history the peoples and nations that stood with Mandela and the ANC when their struggle wasn't the cause celebre it later became in the West. Prime among those is Fidel Castro, the first leader Mandela visited after being released from prison in 1990. Cuba's role in defeating the South African apartheid forces in Africa in the late 1980s Mandela always acknowledged as a seminal moment in the destroying the myth of white superiority.
Mandela said of Cuba's solidarity with his people:
The former Soviet Union supplied the ANC with money and weapons at a time when the West was a strong supporter of the apartheid government in South Africa, as did the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
During a speech he gave in Libya in 1999, just before retiring from political office, Mandela said:
"Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro... Cuban internationalists have done so much for African independence, freedom and justice. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious imperialist campaign designed to destroy the advances of the Cuban revolution. We too want to control our destiny... There can be no surrender. It is a case of freedom or death. The Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. "
"It was pure expediency to call on democratic South Africa to turn its back on Libya and Qaddafi, who had assisted us in obtaining democracy at a time when those who now made that call were the friends of the enemies of democracy in South Africa. Had we heeded those demands, we would have betrayed the very values and attitudes that allowed us as a nation to have adversaries sitting down and negotiating in a spirit of compromise. It would have meant denying that the South African experience could be a model and example for international behavior."
Nelson Mandela and everything he stood for was once vilified and despised by many of those who are now paying tribute to him upon his death. In this regard, history doesn't lie.
- - - -
John Wight is a writer and commentator specializing in geopolitics, UK domestic politics, culture and sport.
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e37037.htm ]
The real Mandela: Don't let his legacy be abused
By John Wight December 07, 2013 "Information Clearing House -
The manner in which Nelson Mandela's legacy is being misinterpreted and appropriated is an obscenity.
This has been brought into sharp focus in the immediate aftermath of his passing.
The driving force and inspiration of the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa, Mandela was a man driven by a fierce belief in justice as the universal right of all people ? regardless of race, religion, nationality or wealth. He stood utterly opposed to the notion that justice is a gift of the rich and powerful, either in South Africa or anywhere in the world. This makes it all the more nauseous to witness the likes of Tony Blair and David Cameron issuing public tributes to him. While Nelson Mandela was a champion of the dispossessed and oppressed throughout his life, people such as Blair and Cameron are servants of the rich.
Likewise, the sight of President Obama paying giving a public eulogy in Washington also reflects hypocrisy. The only thing that Nelson Mandela had in common with Barack Obama was the color of his skin. Other than that, along with Tony Blair and David Cameron, Obama is a moral dwarf compared to a man who endured untold privation and hardship during the struggle against apartheid, especially as Obama is the CEO of an empire the barbarity and violence of which is unparalleled in human history.
The current US President's visit to Robben Island earlier this year came at a time when prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo were engaged in a hunger strike, demanding an end to the harsh conditions they are subjected to. The fact that Guantanamo still exists at all as an offshore US penal establishment, where hundreds of prisoners are being held in a state of legal limbo, is an indictment of Obama's presidency. Worse is the drone war he has waged throughout the Global South, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including women and children.
But even for the rest of us, the danger of misinterpreting Nelson Mandela's legacy is clear. Regarding him solely as the benign and universally loved elder statesman that he certainly became in his later years would be a travesty. When engaged in the struggle for the freedom of his people, Nelson Mandela was a lion who refused to countenance any compromise when it came resisting the evil of apartheid. As a consequence he was widely reviled by many of those who are now seeking to outdo each other in eulogizing the man upon his death.
In the UK, Thatcher and the Tories regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, while the current Prime Minister, David Cameron in 1989 accepted an all-expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa while Mandela was still in prison, funded by a firm that was lobbying against the trade and economic sanctions that played a key role in finally bringing apartheid to an end one year later. Cameron's visit was manna from heaven for an apartheid regime desperately seeking allies around the world at the very point when its legitimacy was crumbling.
While we're at it, it would be immoral to airbrush from history the peoples and nations that stood with Mandela and the ANC when their struggle wasn't the cause celebre it later became in the West. Prime among those is Fidel Castro, the first leader Mandela visited after being released from prison in 1990. Cuba's role in defeating the South African apartheid forces in Africa in the late 1980s Mandela always acknowledged as a seminal moment in the destroying the myth of white superiority.
Mandela said of Cuba's solidarity with his people:
The former Soviet Union supplied the ANC with money and weapons at a time when the West was a strong supporter of the apartheid government in South Africa, as did the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
During a speech he gave in Libya in 1999, just before retiring from political office, Mandela said:
"Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro... Cuban internationalists have done so much for African independence, freedom and justice. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious imperialist campaign designed to destroy the advances of the Cuban revolution. We too want to control our destiny... There can be no surrender. It is a case of freedom or death. The Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. "
"It was pure expediency to call on democratic South Africa to turn its back on Libya and Qaddafi, who had assisted us in obtaining democracy at a time when those who now made that call were the friends of the enemies of democracy in South Africa. Had we heeded those demands, we would have betrayed the very values and attitudes that allowed us as a nation to have adversaries sitting down and negotiating in a spirit of compromise. It would have meant denying that the South African experience could be a model and example for international behavior."
Nelson Mandela and everything he stood for was once vilified and despised by many of those who are now paying tribute to him upon his death. In this regard, history doesn't lie.
- - - -
John Wight is a writer and commentator specializing in geopolitics, UK domestic politics, culture and sport.
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WATCH: Pilger: Apartheid Did Not Die - (1998)
by Oscar » Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:19 pm
WATCH: John Pilger: Apartheid Did Not Die - (1998) Video
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e37035.htm ]
Apartheid Did Not Die is a 1998 Carlton Television documentary, written and presented by John Pilger, which was directed and produced by Alan Lowery, which provides analysis of South Africa's then new, democratic government.
Apartheid Did Not Die, presented by John Pilger, provides analysis of South Africa's then new, democratic government.
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e37035.htm ]
Apartheid Did Not Die is a 1998 Carlton Television documentary, written and presented by John Pilger, which was directed and produced by Alan Lowery, which provides analysis of South Africa's then new, democratic government.
Apartheid Did Not Die, presented by John Pilger, provides analysis of South Africa's then new, democratic government.
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First Nations awaiting anti-apartheid's dividend
by Oscar » Mon Dec 16, 2013 11:31 am
First Nations awaiting anti-apartheid's dividend
[ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 41641.html ]
By: Don Marks Posted: 12/14/2013 1:00 AM |
As I watched Canada pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, it reminded me of the difficulties this country had supporting the end of apartheid and its role in setting up the whole system. The indigenous people of South Africa and the First Nations share a unique relationship. And there is an important lesson to be learned here.
The system of apartheid Mandela opposed confined the indigenous people of South Africa to homelands, required them to obtain special passes to leave those homelands, and they were denied the right to vote. If this sounds familiar, it is not only because Indians in Canada were confined to reserves, required passes to leave their homes and could not vote until 1961.
In the 1940s, South African government officials were given tours of Indian reserves, which served as a model for homelands, and they studied Canada's Indian Act in laying the groundwork for the apartheid system.
Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years and was elected South Africa's president in 1995 in its first free, democratic vote. Instead of seeking vengeance, Mandela established a truth and reconciliation commission that allowed people to come forward and tell their stories, including tales of horrific wrongdoing, and they were given amnesty. Canada based some of our Truth and Reconciliation Commission on that model.
But the Indian Act remains, as do some key differences between the majority and minority relationships in the two countries. Indigenous people make up the vast majority in South Africa while native peoples are the minority here. Mandela maintained there should be no difference based on race while First Nations people retain special status and certain rights based on treaties.
The rationale behind the arguments of both indigenous groups are obvious. Black South Africans protested against the special rights and privileges the minority white population had under apartheid and had much to gain by treating all peoples equally. First Nations people in Canada are a distinct minority whose rights have been trampled often by the majority throughout history; it is in their best interests to protect certain rights that are inherent and protected by their sovereignty established through legislation and treaties.
Canada publicly opposed the racist apartheid system while it did business with the white rulers of South Africa. Pierre Trudeau's government sympathized with the anti-apartheid push, but Canadian companies were invested in South Africa, enjoying the benefits of cheap black labour.
Trudeau supported the international arms embargo against South Africa but did not enforce it. In the early '70s, the Montreal Gazette discovered the RCMP trained South African police in para-military liaison and intelligence-gathering.
It wasn't until Brian Mulroney stood up and publicly chastised world powers that were opposed to Mandela's African National Congress that this country started to take a strong stand against the racism of apartheid. Still, it was difficult to endorse the ANC because of fears it would establish a communist regime.
When Ottawa wanted a guarantee the ANC would follow pro-capitalist policy, critics maintained that was the economic engine driving the apartheid-like system for the benefit of private profit at the expense of human rights. As things turned out, Mandela stressed the need for co-operation with his "white brothers and sisters" who controlled the economy, trade and the military, and travelled throughout the world to re-establish trade relations and gain badly needed capital from countries such as Japan and the U.S.
Whether or not Canada was slower than it should have been in coming out strongly against apartheid, this country has always been cautious to gauge world opinion before it acts. When it comes to First Nations rights, however, Canada reacts much more quickly whenever our status as "a great place to live" is lowered because of the conditions First Nations people live in.
The lesson to be learned in all of this?
MORE:
[ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 41641.html ]
[ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 41641.html ]
By: Don Marks Posted: 12/14/2013 1:00 AM |
As I watched Canada pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, it reminded me of the difficulties this country had supporting the end of apartheid and its role in setting up the whole system. The indigenous people of South Africa and the First Nations share a unique relationship. And there is an important lesson to be learned here.
The system of apartheid Mandela opposed confined the indigenous people of South Africa to homelands, required them to obtain special passes to leave those homelands, and they were denied the right to vote. If this sounds familiar, it is not only because Indians in Canada were confined to reserves, required passes to leave their homes and could not vote until 1961.
In the 1940s, South African government officials were given tours of Indian reserves, which served as a model for homelands, and they studied Canada's Indian Act in laying the groundwork for the apartheid system.
Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years and was elected South Africa's president in 1995 in its first free, democratic vote. Instead of seeking vengeance, Mandela established a truth and reconciliation commission that allowed people to come forward and tell their stories, including tales of horrific wrongdoing, and they were given amnesty. Canada based some of our Truth and Reconciliation Commission on that model.
But the Indian Act remains, as do some key differences between the majority and minority relationships in the two countries. Indigenous people make up the vast majority in South Africa while native peoples are the minority here. Mandela maintained there should be no difference based on race while First Nations people retain special status and certain rights based on treaties.
The rationale behind the arguments of both indigenous groups are obvious. Black South Africans protested against the special rights and privileges the minority white population had under apartheid and had much to gain by treating all peoples equally. First Nations people in Canada are a distinct minority whose rights have been trampled often by the majority throughout history; it is in their best interests to protect certain rights that are inherent and protected by their sovereignty established through legislation and treaties.
Canada publicly opposed the racist apartheid system while it did business with the white rulers of South Africa. Pierre Trudeau's government sympathized with the anti-apartheid push, but Canadian companies were invested in South Africa, enjoying the benefits of cheap black labour.
Trudeau supported the international arms embargo against South Africa but did not enforce it. In the early '70s, the Montreal Gazette discovered the RCMP trained South African police in para-military liaison and intelligence-gathering.
It wasn't until Brian Mulroney stood up and publicly chastised world powers that were opposed to Mandela's African National Congress that this country started to take a strong stand against the racism of apartheid. Still, it was difficult to endorse the ANC because of fears it would establish a communist regime.
When Ottawa wanted a guarantee the ANC would follow pro-capitalist policy, critics maintained that was the economic engine driving the apartheid-like system for the benefit of private profit at the expense of human rights. As things turned out, Mandela stressed the need for co-operation with his "white brothers and sisters" who controlled the economy, trade and the military, and travelled throughout the world to re-establish trade relations and gain badly needed capital from countries such as Japan and the U.S.
Whether or not Canada was slower than it should have been in coming out strongly against apartheid, this country has always been cautious to gauge world opinion before it acts. When it comes to First Nations rights, however, Canada reacts much more quickly whenever our status as "a great place to live" is lowered because of the conditions First Nations people live in.
The lesson to be learned in all of this?
MORE:
[ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 41641.html ]
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