(Happy Birthday!) Mandela's journey to 90 amazes

[struggle4progress]

By Nathan Crabbe
Sun staff writer

Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 18, 2008 at 12:29 a.m.

Nelson Mandela celebrates his 90th birthday today, a lifetime in which he made the transition from anti-apartheid leader to political prisoner to South African president.

"Given his life, it's really somewhat amazing that he's turned 90," said Hunt Davis, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Florida who specialized in South Africa.

Mandela led the fight against his country's policies of legal segregation and was jailed for crimes committed as part of that struggle. After 27 years in prison, he was released and led the country through its shift into a multi-party democracy.

"He has been a major figure and one of the great political and moral forces, certainly in the league of the Gandhis of the world," said Winston Nagan, a UF law professor and human rights advocate who is a native of South Africa ...

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080717/NEWS/203739744/-1/news03&title=Mandela_s_journey_to_90_amazes

[FarrenH]

1. I miss Madiba

now that he has mostly retired from the public eye. He promised us a break from the sectarian politics of South Africa's past and the the big man politics prevailing in Africa and he delivered. Along with his allies and the grudging complicity of his past enemies he ensured we have one of the most liberal constitutions in the world.

Now we have the bitterly disappointing President Mbeki, an AIDS denialist who whistles while our neighbour burns, a presumptive successor to Mbeki who seems to be the puppet of various interest groups and a youth wing of Mandela's party led by illiterate populists who use violent and threatening language in reference their political opponents.

The only positive thing I have to say about SA politics right now is that our democratic institutions appear to be intact. And I think we owe that to Mandela and others who worked so hard to build the foundations of a truly democratic state a decade ago.