Last week Thursday (12/5/2013), one of the greatest historical figures Nelson Mandela, has passed away.
I have talked about Nelson Mandela in a blog post in 2010, which was officially 2 decades after Mandela was released from prison
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010/02/nelson-mandela-20-years-later.html
20 years ago, South African President Nelson Mandela was released from prison. He was in prison for 27 years for opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa. During the apartheid era, the natives of South Africa weren't allowed to vote, and lived under the same types of racist segregation laws that Martin Luther King protested against in the United States!
He later became the President of South Africa.
1) A historical background
Around the 1500's -1800's, the Europeans were looking for new lands to conquer. They conquered the Americas, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and large parts of Africa and Asia!
While the Europeans conquered major parts of Africa, they didn't send much people to settle there! Most Europeans had no desire to live in the jungles or deserts which covered large chunks of Africa.
However, South Africa was far below the equator and had a lot of good farmland. So the Dutch, and later the British settled there! Those 2 European groups even fought over land the African groups settled in centuries before!
The Europeans who conquered South Africa wanted all the good farmland to themselves. They also kept all the well-kept suburban lands to themselves.
They didn't allow the native South Africans to vote, or to enter European-dominated neighborhoods. Just like the Jim Crow laws in the southeastern US, those of African and European ancestry had to use separate facilities, attend separate schools, and couldn't marry each other!
Many native South Africans got tired of that. Nelson Mandela became a leader of the protest movement.
In 1962, Mandela was convicted of treason!
During the 1980's, after decades of struggle, the anti-apartheid protests have gotten more violent. Many felt non-violence has gotten them nowhere! The police has gotten more brutal! The rest of the world watched in horror, as South Africa was increasingly isolated from the rest of the world!
It got to the point where many white South Africans feared that if black South Africans don't get equal rights, things will get even more violent.
In 1990, South Africa had a new president F.W. De Klerk. Though he was once an apartheid supporter, he felt that things would get worse if apartheid was to continue.
FW De Klerk decided to release Mandela and all other political prisoners. Apartheid laws were repealed. All South African adults had gotten the right to vote!
1994 had the first multi-racial elections. Nelson Mandela won the presidential election. He was the 1st native South African President.
2) Some South Africans of European ancestry feared what would happen if the native South Africans took over.
In Zimbabwe, a country just north of South Africa, the British settlers and their descendants had apartheid laws there as well. Robert Mugabe led the armed resistance against white-domination of Zimbabwe.
When he became president of Zimbabwe, Mugabe tolerated and encouraged hate crimes against citizens of European ancestry. Mugabe took property away from European-descendants.
It was totally different under Nelson Mandela! Mandela wanted a multi-racial democracy! He wanted everyone to get along. He understood that South Africans of European ancestry didn't chose to have ancestors who stole African lands!
While Zimbabwe disintegrated under Mugabe, South Africa had prospered under Mandela.
While Mugabe wants to be Zimbabwe's dictator for life, Nelson Mandela chose not to run for re-election in 1999. He wanted the next generation to continue democracy in South Africa.
There are challenges in South Africa. It has one of the highest AIDS rate in the world. It does have a violent crime problem.
But things could easily have gotten worse. This is why leadership matters. Robert Mugabe is all about hate, grudges, grievances and revenge. Nelson Mandela is all about unity, tolerance, and reconciliation.
Also in 2010, I wrote a blog post about the World Cup that took place in South Africa, and how it improved the world's perception not only of South Africa, but Africa in general
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2010/07/world-cup-2010.html
Some doubted whether South Africa could be a good host to the World Cup!
There were delays in construction of many needed facilities!
There was the worldwide economic crisis!
There were concerns about the high crime in South Africa. Would it be safe enough for the fans?
The verdict is now in! The facilities were built in time, and there has been no violent incidents surrounding the games! There weren't many reports of fans getting robbed in the streets, nor were there any riots from the fans!
It was a major public relations victory, not just for South Africa, but for all of Africa in general!
It was a great show for a country that 2 decades ago, was a segregated country in which the descendant of European conquerors once denied basic civil liberties to the native population! It was a great show for a country that overcame its shameful past, and show a happy, united front where all its citizens can celebrate!
It was also great show for the continent of Africa. For too many outside of Africa, Africa is portrayed as a land of war, starvation, corruption, disease and poverty. THERE'S A LOT MORE TO AFRICA THAN THAT! Not every African country is at war, not every African is starving, not every African is poor! There's African entrepreneurs, Africans who can afford the same luxuries the average US citizen has! There's African cities with a great nightlife! There's many styles of African celebrations! While this should be common sense already, too many of the TV portrayals show the negative side of Africa! While people should be aware of the negatives occurring there, it shouldn't be the only thing people know about Africa!
This was why the World Cup 2010 was great for Africa's reputation! People from outside of Africa got to the see the African styles of celebrations, some of their great cities, and just seeing them have a good time! They see that Africa that isn't always at war, Africa that doesn't only have starving children begging for another day.
Most people in the world honored Nelson Mandela on their facebook/twitter/blog pages when the news came in.
However, there were still haters out there, most of them screaming that Mandela was a communist. They posted pictures of Nelson Mandela standing next to Fidel Castro. Yeah, Fidel Castro aided Mandela during his struggle against apartheid, but you know what? Joseph Stalin aided the U.S. against Hitler in WW2. The corrupt French monarchy assisted the Founding Father against the British rulers. When you're in a battle, sometimes you take help from whoever will help, even if they're not the most moral people around.
When Mandela took power, he embraced free markets, realizing that socialism has ruined other post-colonial African societies like Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe. Capitalist investments increased when Nelson Mandela took control of South Africa, and it has become one of the rising economic powers.
Now, are there struggles in South Africa. Of course. Poverty hasn't been eliminated, and the crime and AIDS statistic are too high. Those things were already problems during the apartheid regime, and they don't go away over-night. Improvements on those things take decades. But any reasonable person can say that Nelson Mandela prevented his country from going the route of nearby Zimbabwe, which had a similar colonial history, but a much worse post-colonial leader Robert Mugabe.
Former Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich praised Nelson Mandela in his website as well as his facebook page. He had angry response from the "Mandela's a communist" conspiracy crew.
Here is Newt Gingrich's response.
http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/
Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista’s prayers.
I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure.
So let me say to those conservatives who don’t want to honor Nelson Mandela, what would you have done?
Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was a regime which used secret police, prisons and military force to crush all efforts at seeking freedom by blacks.
What would you have done faced with that crushing government?
What would you do here in America if you had that kind of oppression?
Some of the people who are most opposed to oppression from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own country.
After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system, making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.
As Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.
Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Doesn’t this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?
Some conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.
Actually Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for blacks.
I would ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him defeat the British.
Finally, if you had been imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of them in a cell eight foot by seven foot, how do you think you would have emerged? Would you have been angry? Would you have been bitter?
Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as an astonishingly wise, patient, and compassionate person.
He called for reconciliation among the races. He invited his prison guard to sit in the front row at his inauguration as President. In effect he said to the entire country, “If I can forgive the man who imprisoned me, surely you can forgive your neighbors.”
Far from behaving like a communist, President Mandela reassured businesses that they could invest in South Africa and grow in South Africa. He had learned that jobs come from job creators.
I was very privileged to be able to meet with President Mandela and present the Congressional Medal of Freedom. As much as any person in our lifetime he had earned our respect and our recognition.
Before you criticize him, ask yourself, what would you have done in his circumstances?
AMEN to that!
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