Nelson Mandela

[Abigail]

I have to do a presentation on Nelson Mandela's speech An Ideal For Which I Am Prepared To Die which he read out at his trial in 1964 for tutor. I have the abridged version from the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatspeec...059076,00.html

I think I get the gist of it, how Mandela and the ANC/Umkhonto we Sizwe wanted equality for every race in South Africa and resorted to violence and guerrilla warfare to further their cause.

I think there is a deeper/further meaning to this speech which I am missing. I've highlighted what I think are the main points but I've never really been any good at reading between the lines in texts. Can anybody help me?

Also, is what happened in SA during 1960 - 1964 comparable to what was happening in America with black segregation around the same time?

Last question, what is Marxism? I've wiki'd it but I don't quite understand what it's saying.

[StarsOfCCTV]

I've got a sheet on it, that's quite good, if you still need it I can scan it and post it?

[Abigail]

Thanks. I'm ok now, I've got it sorted. It wasn't too bad. If anything I over-prepared, there was only a few other people that had done as much as me. Thanks anyway

[Meh]

The person that Margaret Thatcher called a terrorist is the same person we honour today. Is one mans terrorist anothers freedom fighter?

The parallel with the civil rights movement in America is that Martin Luther King's philosophy of non-violence isn't what forced the Govts hand. The plain choice was either they gave in to MLKs demands or the nationalist Malcolm X, who advocated violence, was the alternative.

Amazing to thing that just 40 years ago, blacks were fighting for their human rights in America, let alone civil rights.

[Perdita]

Security has been tightened at a South African hospital amid speculation over the health of former President Nelson Mandela, who was admitted on Wednesday.

Police were called to control traffic at the Johannesburg building as a scrum of journalists grew outside.

His foundation said Mr Mandela, 92, was merely undergoing routine tests.

The ruling ANC party called for calm, urging South Africans "not to press any panic buttons".

Children at a local school have hung messages of support outside the Milpark Hospital.

Speculation
The South African liberation hero - known affectionately among South Africans by his clan name, Madiba - has appeared increasingly frail on his infrequent public appearances since retiring from public life in 2004.

His last public appearance was at the football World Cup closing ceremony last July.

Privately his friends have warned that his health has begun to deteriorate more rapidly in recent months, says the BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg.


Local school children urged Mr Mandela to get well soon
Media speculation about his health is increasingly frenzied.

Police are checking visitors' cars at the hospital entrance to make sure there are no journalists hiding inside.

Journalists' cars were lining the streets and snarling up the traffic, prompting irate outbursts from other drivers, reports said.

Several of Mr Mandela's family members, including his wife Graca Machel, were seen visiting the hospital on Wednesday night.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation insisted Mr Mandela was "in no danger and is in good spirits".

It said he was undergoing routine tests, though South African media report he is being seen by a lung specialist.

"He is a 92-year-old and will have ailments associated with his age and the fact that he stayed the night should not suggest the worst," the African National Congress spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday.

"We urge people not to make unfounded statements, let's remain calm and not press panic buttons because there is no reason to do so."

He said any change in Mr Mandela's circumstances would be communicated.

Earlier this month, a report circulated on social network Twitter that the elder statesman had died.

It was condemned as malicious and insensitive by the ANC.


BBC News

[Chloe O'brien]

Nelson Mandela discharged from hospital in South Africa

South African former President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from a hospital where he spent two nights.

Surgeon General Vejaynand Ramlakan said Mr Mandela, 92, was suffering from ailments that were common in people his age but was in good spirits.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe - using Mr Mandela's clan name - said: "Madiba is well."

South Africa's liberation hero flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Wednesday for a check-up.

Friends and family visited him amid tight security at Milpark hospital on Thursday.

On Friday Mr Ramlakan said Mr Mandela had suffered a respiratory infection, but was responding well to treatment and would be receiving home-based care.

"To us he is stable, but will be subject to intense monitoring," he told reporters.

"Medically, at present, there is no need to panic," he added.

After Mr Mandela's discharge, an ambulance surrounded by a police convoy drove him towards his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton.

During South Africa's apartheid regime Mr Mandela was jailed for 27 years. While imprisoned at Robben Island he had tuberculosis.

He became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and stepped down after one term in 1999.

Correspondents say he has seemed increasingly frail since retiring from public life in 2004.

His last public appearance was at the football World Cup closing ceremony last July.

[Perdita]

Millions of South African schoolchildren sang happy birthday to Nelson Mandela as he turned 93 Monday, while politicians and ordinary citizens did charity work to support his call to do good.

For the third year, at the request of his charitable foundation, July 18 is observed as Mandela Day, recognised by the United Nations as a global call to volunteer for good causes for 67 minutes -- representing each year of Mandela's life in active politics.

The nation's 12.5 million schoolchildren sang "Happy Birthday" before starting class Monday, with television and radio stations urging the nation to join in the special rendition of the song, given an African twist by a local composer.

"This week there will be no extra mural activities. You will spend that time going to charities to do your charity work. It is only appropriate as a school to devote 67 minutes of our time in his honour," Les Lambert, principal at Johannesburg's Rosebank primary school, told his 500 students.

Kabelo Masemola, 10, said he wished Mandela a long and happy life.

"He must relax and must not get sick. He must live long."

Tributes also came from world leaders, with British Prime Minister David Cameron saluting Mandela's legacy during his visit to South Africa on Monday.

"President Mandela is an inspiration to the world, and as we celebrate his birthday and look back at just how far South Africa has come, so I believe we can look forward with confidence to an even better future for South Africa and her people," Cameron said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to observe Mandela's call to carry out volunteer work.

"Everybody remembers and, indeed, needs an inspirational figure who has played a signal role in their lives. Nelson Mandela has been that role model for countless people around the world," Ban said.

Mandela spent his birthday with his family at his childhood village Qunu in the Eastern Cape province, said Sello Hatang, spokesman for his foundation.

His grandson, chief Mandla Mandela said the family would give blankets to elderly people around his nearby birthplace of Mvezo.

"We'll be ensuring that at least our elderly citizens are looked after and taken better care of, but we are also having kids from the school in Mvezo that will be cleaning the community because we want to ensure that we preserve our area," he told national broadcaster SABC.

Similar activities were underway around the country, as South Africans cleaned and painted schools, orphanages and clinics, while others donated food, clothes, books and toys to charity.

Villagers in Qunu laid stones in a ritual to mark places of spiritual or historical significance at Mandela's primary school, where he started his education at age seven.

President Jacob Zuma, who planned to visit Mandela in Qunu after meeting with Cameron in Pretoria, used the occasion to call for greater efforts to end poverty.

"We have achieved a lot, but we must still work further to eradicate poverty and improve especially the lives of children, because Madiba loves them so much," Zuma said, using Mandela's clan name.

Increasingly frail with age, Mandela was last seen in public just before his 92nd birthday, when he and his third wife Graca Machel made an appearance at the football World Cup final in Johannesburg.

As South Africa's first black president, Mandela is revered for having ushered in democracy and for his personal sacrifices in fighting the apartheid regime.

On his release in 1990, he led negotiations that paved the way to elections in 1994. He used his warmth, dignity and self-deprecating humour to help heal racial divisions and opened a process of reconciliation.



Happy Birthday, Nelson

[Perdita]

Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition in hospital, officials said on Sunday, leaving millions of South Africans fearing the worst.

The 94-year-old former president has been hospitalised four times since December but this is by far the gravest report on his health.

Mandela was taken to a hospital in Pretoria just over two weeks ago with a recurring lung infection but was said to have rallied after a few days.

"The condition of former president Nelson Mandela, who is still in hospital in Pretoria, has become critical," the South African presidency said.

President Jacob Zuma and African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa visited Mandela on Sunday evening, the statement continued. "They were briefed by the medical team who informed them that the former president's condition had become critical over the past 24 hours."

Zuma and Ramaphosa met Mandela's wife, Graça Machel, at the hospital and discussed the former president's condition.

Referring to Mandela by his clan name, Zuma said: "The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands."

The ANC, the party that Mandela served throughout his political career, said it noted with concern the update on his condition.

Jackson Mthembu, its national spokesperson, said: "We welcome the work being done by the presidency to ensure that South Africans and people of the world are kept informed on the state of Madiba's health.

"The African National Congress joins the presidency in calling upon all of us to keep president Mandela, his family and his medical team in our thoughts and prayers during this trying time."

It emerged on Saturday that the ambulance that took Mandela to hospital on 8 June broke down. CBS News reported that Mandela had to be transferred in winter temperatures to another ambulance after waiting on the side of the road for 40 minutes.

On Sunday, the presidency addressed the issue, stating that Zuma and Ramaphosa were assured by doctors that "all care was taken to ensure that his medical condition was not compromised" when the engine trouble developed.

Zuma said: "There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care. The fully equipped military ICU ambulance had a full complement of specialist medical staff including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses. The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest. There is no truth at all in that report."

Zuma appealed to the nation and the world to pray for Mandela, the family and the medical team attending to him during this "difficult time".

[tammyy2j]

Former South African President and anti-apartheid revolutionary hero Nelson Mandela has died at his Johannesburg home. He was 95.

RIP

[Perdita]

http://www.soapboards.co.uk/forums/s...ela#post793907 Already a thread on him