Nelson Mandela
 

Now there was a leader, a real leader who was head and shoulders above our present crop of posturing nobody's.Rest in peace a noble man, who forgave in order to achieve his greatness.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

Damn right ... In terms of his nobility, his courage, his determiation, and his commitment to what is right, he was a force of light in a dark century ... a giant striding among pygmies.

Nelson Mandela
 

R.I.P. Nelson if anyone deserves that their future after death would be in some heavenly paradise I suspect it could be you .

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

Whoa there a minute Less.

Mandela was the head of MK the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence, mobilising terrorist bombings, planting bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

RIP Mr Mandela.


I knew somebody would point this out ;)

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

It is valid point though.
Always was amazed they awarded a Nobel Prize to a terrorist leader.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

O.K. the guy did much good after, people seem to forget what came before. or ignore it.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

Fair point, but as they say one mans Terrorist is another's Freedom Fighter.

To be fair the the BBC, they did mention him taking up arms and embracing violence, only briefly.

All that said, if your race was being suppressed by a Minority state with extreme violence, would you not fight back?

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

I agree - the pacifist's way worked for Ghandi, but some regimes (apartheid) only get the message when violence is returned.
From what I have read about Ghandi, he was no saint either ;) , but in a non violent way, of course.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

By using that analogy, the IRA would also have been freedom fighters, Theres a big difference to me to fighting the system n those in power, to slaughtering the innocent.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

Every man has a past.....and there are many revered men who started out badly.
That he eventually made a difference in the world is what should be remembered and taken account of.
He paid for his transgressions. He learned to be a diplomat, a man who could bring change.
His life was anything but a cake walk.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

Could not agree more Cashy.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

I don’t really see this cheerful kindly old man who converted from a selfless humble freedom fighter that the current eulogies would have us swallow.
The cloud that they would have us believe he is sat on up there irrefutably smells of cordite and blood and he is now reunited up there with his other fellow "freedom fighters" Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and President Suharto of Indonesia to name but two.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

No I totally agree- It doesn't override the good he did, but a lot of people seem a bit unrealistic where Mandela is concerned.

Re: Nelson Mandela
 

It is not compulsory to believe everything that the media tell us.