Nelson Mandela has died

[Gandalf]

I think most people respect that Mandela stood up against a hideous system and eventually managed to become President himself, but that doesn't mean that his legacy as actual President should be swept under the carpet.

Watching American CNN yesterday was a massive exercise in double standards and hypocrisy. They had war criminal Blair fawning away, Bush of course got his Tweet in, and EVERY person was waffling on as though Mandela was a saint. There was not a single mention of Mandela's violent past, there was not a single criticism of his tenure as President. Now I am not saying anyone needs to raked over hot coals, but a little balance should be the order of the day in a news network and there was none. The only place I see balancing the sheet is The Real News and of course nobody will see that as it isn't selected via remote control.

Furthermore, the kinds of people in 'mourning' were the same people that had Mandela on terrorist lists until 2008, the same people who ignore the apartheid in occupied Palestine, the same countries that actively supported apartheid South Africa. That for me is the most galling aspect of it all.

My final observation is that you are going to have Mandela, like Luther King, put into saint mode and have the content and meaning of what they believed hidden under the carpets. Racial equality is important, but the true message of Luther King was warning against US militarism and wealth inequality. These two things are worse than ever before and yet every year that gets lost under the innacurate notion that race is not such a massive issue in American society. Mandela was typically scornful of the West as a younger man and later somewhat sold out, but that was what Mandela was about. When you get old, you want a quiet life, but the younger Mandela and the message within is something being totally ignored by the mainstream media right now. It will likely vanish into the ether like the main tenets of Luther King.

[Spicoli]

Rest in peace Mandela. It was the Jerry Dammers and Specials spin off song that brought him to attention in 84'. Yeh, revolutionary and rebel who resorted to violence and was no saint early on against an oppressive violent authority, and became leader of a nation...sound familiar? The company he kept and the means to an end sought were no worse than some of our own leaders at one time or another. He wasn't a Saint, and neither are we. Might just be me, I think John Brown might of had the right idea given the circumstances!