Nelson Mandela has died

[Beanz]

Age 95. The great man has passed on. Died peacefully at home.

[chinchekked]

RIP to whom most consider a great man.

[Xwetie]

celebs are dying as flies lately
Nelson Mandela dies at 95', Respect where it's due... that's 5 miles an hour faster than Paul Walker.

[OumaFan]

What a life.

Actually just finished his autobiography a few days ago, really great memoir.

I would say very sad, but I honestly feel that's a bit of a cliche in this case. He lived 95 years, and packed about as much into a life as you possibly can. Watching the news, I like the celebration aspect going on. A life to be celebrated.

[greynotsoold]

Am I wrong? I understand that he was put in prison because he intended to blow up a school bus full of children. Is that correct?

[Violent Demise]

Who the fuck cares? Fuck him. They consider this clown great just cuz he was incarcerated? I know a lot of muthafukkas incarcerated. Some for life. Would not call them great

[smashup]

To a certain extent he was a terrorist was he not?

Cue the facebook RIP brigade (none or which knew him)

[Gandalf]

I respect him for saying that the society of the time was wrong and for being political about it. My only disappointment was that when he was President his impact was largely compromised by national debt and international finance. In essence it meant he adopted the same kinds of hideous policies adopted by extremists in America and the UK; thus the so called 'terrorist' as labelled by Thatcher actually become somewat akin to a reflection of the hideous creature who would call him a terrorist; at least in terms of actual policies as President. South Africa today is still a country with blacks much poorer than whites, has serious problems violent crime, and has massive inequalities of wealth. I have a hard time reconciling anyone becoming President and after all the struggle not standing up for what is right. The Western blackmailers kept the old system in as long as possible and then when change had to come, they made sure they kept it in their interests. In that sense Mandela was used a little like a puppet. Probably a very decent man, but politically very vulnerable and manipulated.

[smashup]

A Terrorist is a Terrorist

The hero of the anti-apartheid struggle was not the saint we want him to be.

The image of Nelson Mandela as a selfless, humble, freedom fighter turned cheerful, kindly old man, is well established in the West. If there is any international leader on whom we can universally heap praise it is surely he. But get past the halo we’ve placed on him without his permission, and Nelson Mandela had more than a few flaws which deserve attention.

He signed off on the deaths of innocent people, lots of them

Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists. Here are some highlights

-Church Street West, Pretoria, on the 20 May 1983

-Amanzimtoti Shopping complex KZN, 23 December 1985

-Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, 17 March 1988

-Durban Pick ‘n Pay shopping complex, 1 September 1986

-Pretoria Sterland movie complex 16 April 1988 – limpet mine killed ANC terrorist M O Maponya instead

-Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, 20 May 1987

-Roodepoort Standard Bank 3 June, 1988

Tellingly, not only did Mandela refuse to renounce violence, Amnesty refused to take his case stating “[the] movement recorded that it could not give the name of ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ to anyone associated with violence, even though as in ‘conventional warfare’ a degree of restraint may be exercised.”

[Gandalf]

There is a lot of truth in what you say Smashup, but if we are going to use the word terrorist for anyone that will use violence against others, then we can't just use the term to describe the people we oppose, we have to use the term to describe our own elected leaders too. Britain and America have international terrorists walking free and the public were complicit in reelecting known terrorists. I agree with you that a terrorist is a terrorist and once you have blood on your hands, the label has to stay. I don't think having the veil of political power excuses one from being a terrorist.

My own criticisms of Mandela are only down to what I think was an ineffective stint as President. Mandela was supposedly extremely left wing, but to look at his impact and legacy, you would never have known it. South Africa was heavily in debt and at the mercy of the Western economic/political gangsters, but I wish he would have just resisted. In doing so South Africa would remain a pariah state and just be treated like Cuba and in that sense might have been a futile mission, but looking at South Africa today, it is what it is because the bankers/investors got what they wanted. The world needs more socialists with humanist values at the helm of political power. Unfortunately the system is rigged to isolate and sanction anyone who resists Western imperialism.

[Andre]

Got to give him his dues, he must of been a tough prick to have done a life term and still lived till 95 not many get to do that.

[Andre]

Who the fuck cares? Fuck him. They consider this clown great just cuz he was incarcerated? I know a lot of muthafukkas incarcerated. Some for life. Would not call them great

I suppose the biggest difference is the muthafuckers you know and the ones you dont wont be comming out to become the next the president of the US.

Like Miles says though, Mandela was the ideal puppet president.

[El Kabong]

The media and the world should tell the entirety of his story. A man who was frustrated and resorted to violence and then only after years in prison realized the flaws of his actions and sought peace.


This is a time to learn lessons about his life not to hold him up as a saint.

[El Kabong]

Also it was so refreshing to hear President Obama talk about someone OTHER than himself for a change....oh wait he didn't do that at all.

Everything relating to Mandela was "I, Me, My" even his fucking tweet "honoring" Mandela was ridiculous it was a quote by Barack Obama with a picture of Obama in Mandela's prison cell

[superheavyrhun]

Well, based purely on my twitter feed, it is depressing to see people who were 'truly shocked' and saddened at the death of Paul Walker making jokes about 'Has someone died? lol' when Mandela dies.
@smashup - It's easy to use the two wrongs don't make a right argument, but how much longer would apartheid have continued without the second wrongs that helped to bring the situation to its head and de Clerc having to bow to international pressure to end apartheid.

There's no such things as saints and as they say history is written by the winners, so there's no doubt that the negatives will be downplayed and the positives will be held up for all to see.