nelson mandela

[empip]

Mandy greased the wheels of the transition from racial to economic apartheid.

http://tinyurl.com/nn247g5

... the ANC in exile had, in effect, done a deal with prominent members of the Afrikaaner elite at meetings in a stately home, Mells Park House, near Bath. The prime movers were the corporations that had underpinned apartheid...

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[Deluks]

So he did some bad things when he was younger?
He also did 27 years as a result, served under a racist government no less. But instead of letting himself become a broken man, he came out and changed the country for the better.
There are a minority of whites in S.A. that would disagree with this, but they'd do well to remember how their country and their existence in it, came about in the first place.

 

[gas112]

unemployement up from 5 to 50 percent
2 rand to the dollar to 10 to dollar .
highest murder rate in the world .
one of the worlds highest hiv /aids rates
Country corrupt and nearly bankrupt.
Thousands still killed in tribal disputes but his tribe in the powerful places .
Reporting of whites being killed banned

Yep SA certainly is a better place now

 

[Deleted member 63160]

So when gerry adams and martin mcguiness who had the same aims as mandela die and where responsible for death and carnage of thousands on these islands die you will feel exactly the same as you do for mandela ???

Clearly not. White terrorists are murdering bastards whilst black ones are lovely freedom fighters. Don't you know noffink about equality??

 

[Deluks]

SA has always been a ****hole, only rich white's think of it through rose tinted glasses cos they were living in a sanitised, segregated 'holiday camp' part of the country.
Things didn't get worse, all that happened is that the upper classes had their eyes opened.

 

[jockscott]

Credit where credit's due though,, I thought he were sh*t hot in the Shawshank Redemption.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Apartheid was a terrible thing, Mandela fought to free his people from this highly discriminative society, his peaceful protests were met by deaf ears, so in the end he had to do what anyone would do take to arms, peace in N.ireland did not come about without carnage, there is a high cost to peace unfortunately, many innocent victims have to sacrifice their lives.

remember the unjust poll tax, people in Trafalgar square to took to violence as opposed to peaceful marches, because Thatcher failed to take any notice of their anger at that unjust tax just like the new bedroom tax, people marched down and protested, but has the Government done anything about abolishing this another unjust bedroom tax, so what do you think will happen next? already that tax has cost many lives, several people have hanged themselves!

 

[EddieM]

he was just a social mirror, nothing special, i shall mourn him like i would my neighbour. he has his mirror in barak obama, a nothing, zero charisma, isolationist, nobody, very dull person.

Sorry the last bit of my rant was aimed at obama not mandela, obama, is truly IMHO a charmless man. (he speaks highly of me BTW!!) Goes without saying, I wish him an his family no harm whatsoever.

 

[DIYedboy]

I wonder whether the average black south African would be better off today if Apartheid/ the old regime was still in existence?

 

[DiscoDancer]

Apartheid in SA was dead already or dying whilst trying to remain on its feet, due to various sanctions and isolation. Several SA presidents attempted to reform apartheid when it needed elimating entirely.

Without Nelson Mandela's influence I think an armed struggle would have ensued, possibly an all-out civil war. As it was, there was a lot of violence before and during the transition period and only Nelson Mandela's leadership managed to keep a lid on it.

But you have to laugh at Bernard Ingham's (Maggie Thatcher's spokesman) statement:
"anyone who believed that the ANC would ever form the government of South Africa was "living in cloud cuckoo land"."

 

[nickso]

Apartheid in SA was dead already or dying whilst trying to remain on its feet, due to various sanctions and isolation."."

They manufactured a lot of their own stuff though. It provided jobs they no longer have.

 

[DiscoDancer]

I would agree that the industrial power of SA, at the time, allowed it to woo other nations (the other African nations) in order for the government to stave off the fall of apartheid. But it was purely a temporary reprieve.

The UN, and other nations independently, and the cost to the SA government of maintaining apartheid, brought about the inevitable fall of the regime.

I think it's sad that the Marxist and nationalisation ideaologies of Nelson Mandela (and the ANC) is now giving rise to further potential conflict in SA, caused by the capitalist aspirations of the very people that apartheid has enfranchised.

 

[transam]

SA will go the same way as Zimbabwe , just a matter of time took mugabe 20 years to balls it up

 

[jockscott]

SA will go the same way as Zimbabwe , just a matter of time took mugabe 20 years to balls it up

Ahh Zimbabwe.. Used to be called "the breadbasket" of South Africa. Look at it now. The natives have no idea how to farm. Mugabe gave all of the farms to his cronies and they've run them into the bloody ground.

 

[Brigadier]

I used to do a lot of training for an organisation which happened to have a large proportion of southern african engineers working for it.

I always remember one white guy (I'll caveat the next bit by saying that he was reputed by some of his colleagues to be very racist).

He was a proud Rhodesian - he vehemently disliked the idea of Zimbabwe. He used to visit every now and again, to catch up with people, at "home". He said that "the white man didn't take the rains with him" (whenever drought was cited as a reason for failed harvests).

The closest I've ever been to Africa is Tunisia, so I have no personal experience - I only pass on his words.