Nelson Mandela ,freedom fighter or terrorist

There seems to be a divided opinion between members as to whether he was an out and out terrorist who deserved to be locked up for life or a freedom fighter against apartheid .Personally i feel that the means justified the end .


Maybe a mod might want to move some posts from the RIP thread into this one

[dilli-theclaw]

Is this going to get a vote?

Originally Posted by dilligaf1701

Is this going to get a vote?

Hadn't planned on it ,i started this thread as a more appropriate one than the RIP thread to debate his legacy and the means by which it was achieved

[dilli-theclaw]

Fair enough.

[TheDaddy]

Can I suggest a title change

Famous nice black man dies now give it a rest

Says rod Liddell

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/rod-lid...nto-overdrive/

Ah, Rod Liddell - the Speccy's home-grown Glenn Beck.

Never knowingly not sensationalist......

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Ah, Rod Liddell - the Speccy's home-grown Glenn Beck.

Never knowingly not sensationalist......

Guess that's a no then

Not a huge fan of rod myself but in this case he has a point imo

Mandela was always going to be a huge story. His funeral will probably in the largest of it's kind since, what, Kennedy maybe? Or was Churchill's funeral after that?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Damien

Mandela was always going to be a huge story. His funeral will probably in the largest of it's kind since, what, Kennedy maybe? Or was Churchill's funeral after that?

Yes it's a huge story I get that but to relegate huge swathes of the east of England being washed away to barely a byline and how many more people are they going to wheel out that knew him, they've got to be running out soon considering he spent a quarter of his life locked up plus the way politicians are jostling to prove they knew him best/ miss him most is making me nauseous.

[spreadsheet]

can this thread be merged with the one from this summer? - where Kymmy elucidated some factual and enlightening views on the subject or is it the Orwell 1984 thing again

---------- Post added at 23:08 ---------- Previous post was at 23:02 ----------

Originally Posted by Damien

Mandela was always going to be a huge story. His funeral will probably in the largest of it's kind since, what, Kennedy maybe? Or was Churchill's funeral after that?

Churchill died in 1965 and I have a churchill crown still! it was the same Winston Churchill who ordered troops to fire live rounds into the miners in Llanelli if my memory serves me correctly (can't be arsed going into wikipedia this time of day) - so don't start on him being some kind of religious figure either - it was communism Churchill didn't like - the Nazis (National Socialism) were not an issue

Mandela was a man that moved with and was happy to incorporate change when it suited him he was a terrorist as time and circumstances changed he recognised more could be done with words then by the gun. There is no definitive answer one way or the other he was equally comfortable being either as the times demanded. I'm also repressing the gag reflex with the political sideshow going on but what do we expect from professional plastic politicians sincerity has long been devoid from all of them.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by spreadsheet

can this thread be merged with the one from this summer? - where Kymmy elucidated some factual and enlightening views on the subject or is it the Orwell 1984 thing again

---------- Post added at 23:08 ---------- Previous post was at 23:02 ----------



Churchill died in 1965 and I have a churchill crown still! it was the same Winston Churchill who ordered troops to fire live rounds into the miners in Llanelli if my memory serves me correctly (can't be arsed going into wikipedia this time of day) - so don't start on him being some kind of religious figure either - it was communism Churchill didn't like - the Nazis (National Socialism) were not an issue

Is that the thread where she said he prevented a bloodbath and possible civil war? That'd be the same Churchill who advocated using poison gas on troublesome natives and I think you'll find he did have a massive problem with national socialism long before it was fashionable (don't be fooled by the title either, the nazis were in no way socialist, they were it's ideological opposite). It doesn't really matter though the good both of them did vastly outweighs bad imo

[Nidge41]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Mandela was a man that moved with and was happy to incorporate change when it suited him he was a terrorist as time and circumstances changed he recognised more could be done with words then by the gun. There is no definitive answer one way or the other he was equally comfortable being either as the times demanded. I'm also repressing the gag reflex with the political sideshow going on but what do we expect from professional plastic politicians sincerity has long been devoid from all of them.

"BOOM", and there you have the brutal truth.

[alferret]

Considering I started the negativity in the RIP thread guess I may as well post here too. Wouldn't want to upset the party line again by posting in the other thread!
My opinion.....
Nelson Mandela was the head of a terrorist organization before he was incarcerated, he may have never actually pulled the trigger but he ordered someone else to do the deed.
I neither like or dislike the man, I don't know him nor would I want to. But to honour someone who did what he did would and is in my opinion hypocritical.
As kymmy has said in the other post things are worse now for the poor, De Klerk started it the change, Mandela gets the praise.

[progers]

I can recommend the film "Mandela, the long walk to freedom" it's brilliant, then you can make your own minds up.

It's released on January 3 2014