RIP Nelson Mandela

[Icebot]

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has just passed away.

[Raph's Girl]

At least he lived a full long life...even if 27 years of it was in jail.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20461287,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

[Jester]

Sad news, but his was a life well lived.

[MikeandRaph87]

I just logged on to post this. It is not much surprise considering his poor health the last three months and living to 95. An international inspiration whose legacy will be lasting for generations beyond his own life.

[BubblyShell22]

Yep, heard about this yesterday. He will definitely be missed. I was surprised he held on as long as he did with his illness. May he rest in peace.

[Storm Eagle]

R.I.P. indeed.

[ZariusTwo]

A great man who fought for ideals in a conflicted age and lived to see the dream accomplished. Not a whole lot have that experiance.

[Roland]

R.I.P. Nelson Mandela.

[BubblyShell22]

A great man who fought for ideals in a conflicted age and lived to see the dream accomplished. Not a whole lot have that experiance.

Very true. And not a lot of people take the initiative to do what he did during his life.

[triplexxx]

I doubt I could imagine experiencing nearly as much as he did, not to mention going through the transition of martyr to president to legend, of course I'm sure many wouldn't want to either, but he and all who cherish his memory sure got a lot to be proud of for him, RIP Nelson Mandela.

[TheCanadiandrome]

R.I.P he will be missed

[Refractive Reflections]

I just watched a 60 Minutes piece on Nelson Mandela, but not about the "man of history", but Mandela the human being, father, husband, cellmate, and friend as 60 Minutes describes here.

This news piece brings a much richer story of just how much personal and family sacrifice he and his family had to make for the progression of South African society. It reveals the tender and increasing sharpness of affection had for his wife and children (through letters being received and sent only allowed every 6 months) in the midst of so much political and civil combativeness throughout that time.

One can't help but feel sympathetic for his youngest daughter Zindzi, when she didn't see him when he was captured during her toddler years, and finally got to see him again when she was 15 years old! Even though she's grown up, you can see how raw those emotions still are, when she said back then that she wanted "an ordinary family", but that his father still chose political activism or the struggle over his family. One can tell that she also sacrificed her childhood, in a way, so that other children to come could have better ones.


Mandela was winning the love and admiration of, well, just about everyone. But he couldn’t hold on to the woman he had adored for 40 years, his wife Winnie. They were divorced in 1996. And his daughter Zindzi?

Bob Simon: Whenever he had to choose, your father chose the struggle over his family. Did that make you angry?

Zindzi Mandela: Oh, yes, it did. Of course it did. I would get hurt. I would get angry, especially when I was younger. I mean I grew up-- wanting my father to come back home, wanting to be an ordinary family. I don't know what that was like to have a father, you know, to tuck me in at night.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nelson-mandela-in-his-own-words/

I highly recommend seeing the video clip, of the several layers of sacrifice the entire family shared that isn't always easily noticed from a quick, hindsight perspective.

Edit: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/how-mandela-tried-to-soothe-the-wounds-of-war/
This is an extra clip of how Mandela attempted to reconcile the county after so much brutality, another good clip to check out when it can be so easy to forget how horrendous things really were back then.

[ObiWanFan4life]

R.I.P. Mr. Mandela, he will be missed. For what it's worth, he lived a long and productive life.

[Plasticplayhouse]

Sad news, but his was a life well lived.

yes, well lived indeed. wish there were more people like him in this world.

[Refractive Reflections]

Wow... it looks like there a few who just don't have any limits in exploiting the dead, even if it is during Nelson Mandela's Memorial Service.

If in case you didn't know, the Mandela Memorial Sign Language Interpreter was a fake (and he's done this type of thing before apparently):
http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/7470-mandela-memorial-sign-language-interpreter-was-a-fake
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nelson-mandela/10510473/Fake-interpreter-performs-nonsense-sign-language-throughout-Mandela-memorial.html

It's ironic that if it wasn't for Nelson Mandela, this guy wouldn't have been permitted in the first place to even share the same stage with these world leaders, in order to have the possibility in executing such a scam.

[BubblyShell22]

Yep, just heard about this yesterday, and today he claimed that he's been doing this for years and that at the time of the memorial, he was having a schizophrenic episode. Frankly, I don't think anyone like that should even be allowed near world leaders as you never know what they may do.

[Refractive Reflections]

I find his excuses a little too convenient considering that some in the deaf community were saying that this man's "signs" were constantly repetitive during the service, Inside Edition was showing how last year he made the same gibberish sign language, plus as you mentioned before BubblyShell, why would the South African government risk having someone like that near world leaders?

In addition look at what the South African government dug up:

The South African government on Thursday admitted a "there might be a mistake, where other people might not have understood the interpreter," acknowledging that Jantjie was "not a professional sign language interpreter."

"But I don't think he was picked up from the street," said Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister for women, children and persons with disabilities, stating that he may have had problems with English or been tired.

Bogopane-Zulu also admitted that the government could not track down the company Jantjie worked for.

"We spoke to them wanting some answers and they vanished into thin air," she said.

"It looks like they have been cheating all along."

...

Cara Loening, director of Sign Language Education and Development in Cape Town, labelled him a "complete fraud" whose signing looked like someone "trying to swat a few flies away from his face and his head".

Asked why he didn't just leave the stage, Jantjie said that, given the historic importance of the event, he felt compelled to stay even though he could not hear or concentrate properly.

"Life is unfair. This illness is unfair," he said.

"Anyone who doesn't understand this illness will think that I'm just making this up."

http://news.yahoo.com/mandela-memorial-sign-language-interpreter-39-fraud-39-004855924.html


He said these events included political press conferences and the funeral of Albertina Sisulu, the widow of anti-apartheid activist and Robben Islander Walter Sisulu.

He refused to explain details of his qualifications and referred such questions to the company that booked him for the event, a company he called SA Interpreters. Not a lot is known about that company.

AP journalists who visited the address that Jantjie provided for SA Interpreters found a different company there where managers said they knew nothing about the firm.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said Thursday that government officials have tried to track down the company that contracted Jantjie for the memorial service but that the owners "have vanished into thin air."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/12/mandela-sign-language-interpreter-thamsanqa-jantjie/3995875/

Yeah... he's looking more and more like a con-artist here.

[BubblyShell22]

Yep, definitely. I took sign language in college as one of my electives, and I could tell that the signs he was making were just being repeated over and over again. Also, with sign language, you also have to have certain facial expressions that go along with the signs, and he wasn't really doing that.