I believe what is important about Mandela is that while he was in prison he evolved and moved away from violence towards a peaceful solution, quite unlike the transformation that occurred when Hitler was in jail. One man grew while the other stewed in his own hate and bile. Mandela is not a saint but he does point to the fact that we can all continue to spiritually grow throughout our brief existence on this planet.
Right, but the question is who is and is not doing the spiritual "growing". I say growth looks like refraining from giving undo praise and credit to a man that is responsible for the deaths of women & children. In other countries and cultures, a man convicted of committing similar crimes would never have gotten out of prison, no matter how many people sang songs and beat drums about it. In some countries & cultures, he would have been executed.
When people are talking about the "growth", it's a good idea to mention that it was the western, european culture and governmental system that gave Mandela the opportunity to "grow". He didn't save South Africa, South Africa saved HIM. The chinese would have executed him within the week, and imprisoned anyone that made an issue out of it. And many of the other African countries wouldn't even have given him a trial.
According to the article below, he is guilty of mass-murder. What do you think the victims and their families would have to say to all you cheerleaders, celebrating the life of the man that killed their father, mother, son, daughter? You people have some really crippled consciences, to be able to ignore mass-murder in order to feel good about a single "conversion". General Butt Naked converted too. So what? He ate human flesh, and ordered mass rapes of villages. The only reason why some of you people cannot condemn this man for the depraved criminal that he is, is because you have a different standard for him, and the continent that he was on.
On THIS continent, we would have dropped a hellfire missile on his house, killing him, his wife, his children, a couple of his neighbors and the guy from Dominos Pizza that just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. We'd have called all the excess deaths "collateral damage" and felt pretty good about the fact that we got rid of an extremely dangerous terrorist.
But standards are different for this one. It's been lowered. We voluntarily practice "affirmative action", even for mass murderers. No one is going around saying what a beautiful, spiritually grown person Bobby Sands was. He killed people on a different continent.
So lets all have a proper perspective here of what's what. The adage "I don't mind so much that you are pissing on my head, just don't expect me to tell people that it's raining." That's piss. Stop calling it rain.
Here's some more factual information for you cheerleaders to shake your pom-poms at:
http://thebackbencher.co.uk/3-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-nelson-mandela/
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.
