Posted on 11/10/2009 10:36:51 PM PST by myknowledge
The UN General Assembly has declared July 18 "Nelson Mandela International Day" to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader's contribution to peace.
A resolution adopted by consensus by the 192-member world body on Tuesday calls for commemorations every year starting in 2010 on July 18 - Mandela's birthday - to recognise the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's contribution to resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation.
By adopting the resolution, General Assembly President Ali Treki said the international community was expressing its appreciation for "a great man" who suffered for the sake of people everywhere.
Mandela, 91, led the fight against apartheid in South Africa as head of the African National Congress' armed wing. He was convicted of sabotage and other crimes and served 27 years in prison. When he was freed in 1990, he supported reconciliation and helped lead South Africa's transition toward multi-racial democracy.
Mandela became the country's first president to win in a fully democratic election and led South Africa from 1994-99. He is celebrated today as an international statesman and continues to speak out on human rights and other global issues.
The resolution recognises Mandela's "leading role in and support for Africa's struggle for liberation and Africa's unity, and his outstanding contribution to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa".
It also acknowledges his "contribution to the struggle for democracy internationally and in the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world".
US diplomat Laura Ross said the United States was founded on the belief that all people were created equal and saw in Mandela "a hero and kindred spirit".
Tanzania's UN Ambassador Augustine Mahiga called Mandela "a visionary leader" and an "icon of social freedom" whose life has been the ultimate definition of peace, both in South Africa and throughout the world.
Perhaps Mandela's most outstanding contribution to world peace, he said, was his call for reconciliation with South Africa's white oppressors, an example that should be emulated by all.
Stompie has his own wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stompie_Moeketsi
Ah, yes, South Africa, at one time one of two Constitutional Republics left in the world. Granted South Africa had racial problems, but was that any reason to completely destroy their Constitution?
Gosh, that leaves only one Constitutional Republic left in the world. Well, we can’t have that if we are to have a World Government!!
Wonderful man. (Pffffttttt!) I’ll burn a tire to celebrate and tack up a picture of Marx on the rifle range.
how ‘bout a Ronald Reagan day?
freed 100s of millions
no peace prize yet
Somebody has messed up big time, so maybe heads will roll, or should I say be necklaced.
There, I added the subtitle.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Mine too......damn govt's ruin everything.
What are you talking about?
If you’re suggesting that the blacks now subjugate the whites in South Africa, you’re mistaken. If you’re suggesting the poor now subjugate the rich in South Africa, you’re mistaken.
People did not live more prosperously in apartheid South Africa, and they certainly had fewer rights. You did not lay out a coherent argument below.
Considering the history and goals of the u.n., I think this is a highly appropriate gesture.
Next I expect Pol Pot appreciation day.
That's what I suggest. Political hacks of the ruling party seizing farms from whites, for one teeny example? Gun "control," for another, to keep down resistance to the state? A continuing revolution of "affirmative action" to seize businesses and wealth for favored ethnic groups, for a third? If that's not subjugation, it will do until the real thing comes along.
If you’re suggesting the poor now subjugate the rich in South Africa . . .
It's never the actual poor subjugating anyone. It's the gangsters who claim to speak for the poor.
People did not live more prosperously in apartheid South Africa, and they certainly had fewer rights.
Black and white South Africans I know would disagree with you. There are protected, armored enclaves of the very rich, as there were before. But for ordinary people, the situation is very different. It is not to endorse a racially divided legal system (which I don't) to observe that the Afrikaaners, in their compulsive way, enforced the law reliably. There were three different sets of laws, but within that, there was order that allowed people to live and work without everyday fear.
Under physical chaos, pretentious language about "social justice" or how bad things were in the old days means nothing. Where there is no rule of law, there are no rights and no prosperity. South Africa is, for example, the rape, burglary, and car-jacking capital of the world. The level of predation and disorder afflicting the ordinary, productive people in the country is the result of corruption by the local parties, whose civic culture contains no concept of the objective rule of law. This reflects the larger-scale rule of the country by a criminal gang with a seat at the UN.
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