My opinion of the cause is I'm sure the same as everyone elses. But having seen the results of terrorist actions, I'm sorry but I can't agree with how he fought his cause. A colleague of mine had to pick up and exhibit over 600 body parts in the London bombings, ask him how he feels about terrorists. The cause was just, the method not so. It's easy to criticise from a far, especially many years later. Was it the only means of protest left, possibly. The white majority certainly committed atrocities that no one can condone. However, it's healthy to debate, less so to make petty remarks.
i do believe he had a just cause to fight against the racist white minority in his country ,who used brutal force often to suppress the majority, and he suffered more than most for it .RIP a great man. terriost ? never! a freedom fighter yes
Erm, so Mr Mandela wasn't a terrorist then? Odd, I suppose it depends on your own definition of terrorist.
sorry, nutty. You cannot compare the London bombing event with the death of a great man. I was involved with the bombings and am lucky to be alive. I have also been bombed by other sources in my past which were also not really very nice. I would happily put up with both of these events to take away a smidgins of pain or suffering that Mandela suffered...
So what makes him a terrorist? From what I've read he had no knowledge of it?.. Unless those Dutch racist cnuts wanted it!
I like to look at things with an open mind, and I am making a huge assumption here, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't Zulus non-whites? I seem to recall reading something about Mr Mandela giving the OK for slaughtering thousands of Zulus just prior to ab election in the early 90's? I wonder what colour the three kids were who were killed when he authorised the ANC to set of a bomb in the 80's? One of several he instructed were set in fast food joints in SA.
He had a more than just cause, and eventually he and his country got it right, however, it is not wise to gloss over his history and proclaim him a great man without looking into it and forming your own opinion. All IMHO.
Am I the only one not really interested.! Oh well I guess it will give the TV news something to bang on about for the next few weeks
Because they have blood on their hands and have not come clean about what they have done or know. The are also totally lacking in any class whatsoever.
I've worked quite a bit in SA before and after his release. It sounds a bit perverse but it is a better country to work in now even if it is less secure, sometimes the price is worth paying. Don't believe that Nelson eradicated racism in SA, it is still there to a greater degree. Thankfully a younger generation than us cynical old bastards decided they don't want to live with the shit from our generation, you can see the same in Northern Ireland, (been there a bit too) and it has got to be better than what went before. I don't know if he was a great man, history will judge that not the media or ill informed opinion from people who have no direct experience. All I know is that the South Africans I know, and me, prefer it now to what it was. OGR
you made the statement not me. back it up with your reasoning so back in the day mandella was different because there was no blood on his hands. .???? isnt that the same for gerry adams...????
Northern Ireland was not a police state - or it certainly wasn't until the IRA started The Troubles. The Republican minority were oppressed to an extent, and to fight that oppression was a just cause. However, NI is a part of the UK which is a democracy. Going round to policemen's houses and shooting them in the face in front of their wives and kids is no way to fight for your cause. There are God knows how many other ways of doing things. That was not the situation in apartheid South Africa, which was a police state. The two places just aren't comparable. In any case, disliking someone for their views or possibly even their religion (dodgy that one) - if that is indicative of an abhorrent culture, seems to be, for all its glaring faults, slightly less depraved than instantly disliking someone for the colour of the skin they were born with. In addition, Catholics were a minority in NI, blacks a majority in SA. To legally disenfranchise a huge section of society, in a country they were born in, is inadmissible. In this respect, apartheid SA was very similar to Nazi Germany and its treatment of the Jews. It's just that the Nazis went one further and exterminated them. Catholics in NI were not the subject of legislation - unless someone wants to tell me something I don't know.
thanks for that view glid. I like mandella. I dont know much about his beginnings as the press never talk that much about that period and i confess to knowing little of it and only the later good he brought after his time in captivity. just interesting how terrorism / violence (however you want to describe it) can be broken down into categories of acceptable and unnaceptable reading through different views on here... sadly some think asking for justification of a view is perverse
What I said was the GA and MM lack class. To which you reply "so what is a classy terrorist". This is a non sequitur. What I also said was "Because they have blood on their hands and have not come clean about what they have done or know."; Note the use of the word 'and'.
