JaseyBoi Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 So after a raging debate on facebook i decided to ask the good people of Aberdeen.. was Nelson Mandela a terrorist or a good egg.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Owl PhD Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 Margaret Thatcher said he was a terrorist but at the same time she was friends with Pinochet. This automatically means he was a good egg. #davebait 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paranoid Android Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 He was obviously a good man. No one lives a perfect life; Anyone citing some bad thing he did to say he was a bad person is just being an awful contrarian cunt. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ca_gere Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 I know next to shit-all about South African history (as do 90% of anyone who is commenting on the man's death online) but i'm pretty sure he was a lot of good and a wee bit of bad. Bad at governing but good at everything else. Like, he had no clue what to do with his country's natural resources, would get hospitals and schools built by 'calling in favors' here and there rather than properly planning infrastructure, etc. Sounded like he was up for fecht back in the day too. But, he redefined what it meant to be South African and was a symbol of hope and all that. So yeah, he was a bit more of a hard-cunt than Ghandi, less clever than Abe Lincoln but more likeable and 'of the people' than almost anyone else you could compare him with. Definitely a top-10 world figure like 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted December 7, 2013 Report Share Posted December 7, 2013 I'd give him a 9 out of 10. He misses out on top marks because it sounded like he was in a sleeper hold when he talked sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monster Zero Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 David Brent named his dog after him so he must rate pretty highly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Fenig Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 (edited) I know next to shit-all about South African history (as do 90% of anyone who is commenting on the man's death online) but i'm pretty sure he was a lot of good and a wee bit of bad. Bad at governing but good at everything else. Like, he had no clue what to do with his country's natural resources, would get hospitals and schools built by 'calling in favors' here and there rather than properly planning infrastructure, etc. Sounded like he was up for fecht back in the day too. But, he redefined what it meant to be South African and was a symbol of hope and all that. So yeah, he was a bit more of a hard-cunt than Ghandi, less clever than Abe Lincoln but more likeable and 'of the people' than almost anyone else you could compare him with. Definitely a top-10 world figure like Edited December 8, 2013 by Max Fenig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedo 808 Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 I don't really care enough to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teabags Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 I don't really care enough to know.fantadtic contribution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 More proof that Bob Knight is a cunt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirsten Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 NM: A GBOL ATB 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedo 808 Posted December 8, 2013 Report Share Posted December 8, 2013 More proof that Bob Knight is a cunt. It was me who voted that up. Don't thank me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monster Zero Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 All the Facebook love-in stuff bugged me. I bet some folk had a link to 'Free Nelson Mandela' on You Tube at the ready at all times since he went into hospital.But having read a lot of the stuff in the papers over the past few days, my admittedly pretty low knowledge of the man was filled out a bit and my thought remains as it was - a good guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester1470 Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 Mark Steel's thoughts on him made good reading:http://marksteelinfo.com/tributes-have-flooded-in/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 He's no Bono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest E.C Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 RIP Nelson Mandela. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyboy Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 Odd that people aren't aware of him, or are taken aback by the accolades (though I'm in Poland atm and am not noticing all that much). I recall his release and election being sufficiently massive for my primary teachers to talk to us about it and it's probably the first political affair I can remember. He was surely one of the most famous men in the world throughout the '90s, but I think any coming-out-of-the-woodwork feel to the press on his death is perhaps due to the fact he's been pretty reclusive the last decade or so. Also, perhaps his star has faded a bit because the things associated with him - the ANC, the South African presidency, have pretty much gone to shit, and the euphoric optimism that greeted his release/election hasn't really been borne out. Regards the "terrorist" label, on the one hand Mandela unilaterally turned the ANC away from non-violence but he did so towards the bloodless sabotage of things like electricity pylons and was in any case pretty promptly locked up; the "typical" terrorism to which Thatcher referred (I think a relative handful of bombings and more frequent necklacing of suspected informants) was committed a decade or two into his prison stretch by another generation of militants. On the other hand, I think it's interesting that the ANC and Mandela were very atypical terrorists in that they nevertheless had pretty broad and uncontroversial support internationally despite (?) any terrorist methods. I recall reading a book by Chomsky recently where he did his usual thing of pointing out US acts of "terrorism" as exemplars of just that, and then arguing that the ANC should be called something other than "terrorists" because he happened to agree that the ends justified the means in its case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colb Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 Margaret Thatcher said he was a terrorist but at the same time she was friends with Pinochet. This automatically means he was a good egg. Meh - Mandela was pretty friendly with Gaddaffi and Castro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waltz Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 How is there even a debate about his? He was a key figure in bringing down one of the most wretched policies in world history. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ca_gere Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 I don't really care enough to know. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyboy Posted December 9, 2013 Report Share Posted December 9, 2013 (edited) How is there even a debate about his? He was a key figure in bringing down one of the most wretched policies in world history. Not sure what the debate the OP referred to was about, but I imagine it had something to do with the ANC engaging in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing (pretty horrific, tbh) as well as occasionally just blowing up civilians. As I said Mandela had long been jailed at the time but was still a nominal leader, and retook the reigns of the same organisation when he got out. He also took the ANC towards violent resistance in the first place, albeit the destruction of infrastructure rather than actual killing. Much as I agree he was an amazing and dogged freedom fighter, and one of the very finest among so many post-colonial leaders in the latter 20th century, in terms of his presidency and governance I think he failed to deliver the kind of society he talked about, beyond just getting universal suffrage. Edited December 9, 2013 by scottyboy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Milner Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 The suggestion that he was a terrorist is one that stems from the ANC's actions when he was in prison, and the milder actions of the ANC before he went to prison which is what he got jailed for in the first place. There are tonnes of people out there who just see him as a terrorist, but the fact of the matter is he was fighting apartheid, whether terrorist methods were used or not, it's hard to see any other way they could have reached their ends with out the acts that they used in order to make a stance. But he was definitely a good egg, after being released from prison he denounced the acts of the militant ANC and his younger self and asked not to be put on a pedestal, as he himself didn't consider himself to be perfect. But he truly believed in equality, he didn't seek revenge for what he had gone through after prison, he was humble and forgiving which is the true nature of himself and his politics. So he has to be credited for that over the acts he committed when he was a young man. And yet your man David Cameron wanted him hanged, what position does that leave you in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teabags Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 No he didn't. Where are you getting that from?'yon poster floating about facebook I'm guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaseyBoi Posted December 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Yeah i have also seen the pictures of David Cameron wearing a hang Nelson Mandela T-shirt while people around him had banners and posters... I also read that how can a guy be so bad for 55 years ..Then so good for 44 years and still be seen as a saint. His wife ive read is a bit of a dodgy mare anaw.... I read One article that actually claimed some of the necklacing and bombing were direct commands from Nelson... True or false i have no idea but there is so much reading out there regarding his bad side and his Organisations terror tactics... Im neither a lover or hater of the guy myself like...Just so many contradictory stories regarding his early years (the first 55 years) . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester1470 Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 And yet your man David Cameron wanted him hanged, what position does that leave you in? It's an unsubstantiated claim, the claim states that Cameron was a member of the federation of Conservative students, something there isn't actually any proof of as apparently Cameron didn't really get involved in politics at any level until he was a bit older (the posters came out when he was 19), that being said the second claim, that Cameron took an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa in 1989 while working on policy for the Conservatives, and that it was paid for by a lobbying company that opposed sanctions, is true. Many Tories opposed sanctions during the 1980s, something a lot of them - including Cameron - have publicly stated they regret since then. There is plenty of reason to hate Cameron enough without these false accusations against him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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