What's The Truth?
And Nothing But The Truth
"They say Mandela's getting better, that he's worse and then that he's getting better again. Then we see them preparing his grave. What's the truth?Family survivors, heirs to a legend, those who bask in the vast international admiration and acclaim of someone notable who has distinguished himself by the nature of his universal humanity under dreadful duress, feel entitled to inherit that legacy, personally. Another family of a renowned figure, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., distinguished themselves too, by their naked ambition to inherit the mantle of their famous father, and to inherit the opportunity to enrich themselves by that connection.
"He's actually already gone. It is not possible to be on these machines for so long and still have a soul."
Nicholas Nehabeleng, Pretoria
Mandela is "not really alive. It's only machines. But I don't think his soul will actually rest until each and every one of us in South Africa has a dignified life."
Paulina Ledwaba, Pretoria
Ms. Ledwaba's anxiety for everyone in South Africa to lead a dignified life, is a noble enough aspiration. Everyone deserves the dignity of a life well lived. At the present time, Nelson Mandela, the world's outstanding figure, aside from the Dalai Lama, of tolerance and forgiveness, brotherhood and peace, is blessedly not conscious that his descendants are the cause of pain for South Africans who have no wish to see him continue suffering long after his will to survive has faded.
The family has other ideas, for the time being, assuring the gullible that all is well, and Mr. Mandela is recovering, not having a particularly bad day in hospital, on life support. They are invested in settling certain matters. With respect, for example, to removing the authority of the three men their father tasked to control the $2-million trust fund set aside for family needs. And to determine where Mr. Mandela will be buried, along with family members previously deceased.
This is important to some of them, particularly his grandson Mandla, hand-picked by the patriarch himself who would prefer they be interred in the village where he is chief. For wherever the burial takes place, that town, either his family plot or the ancestral village, will be set to gain enormous financial advantage through the allure of tourism, the wish of people to come, to pay their respects to a world-class legend.
But then they're not the only ones who are desperately attempting to take advantage of the opportunity to appear as the inheritor of Mr. Mandela's fame. South African President Jacob Zuma is invested in persuading South African voters that the mantle of Mr. Mandela has settled firmly on his own shoulders as head of the African National Congress. Going so far a few months back as to pose with the almost-comatose man, as though he was giving his blessing to Mr. Zuma.
President Zuma is not a popular figure. He has, in fact, been an utter failure as both a human being and a president of a country prepared to have its international and domestic interests advanced, but remains in deep stall. The economy needs a kick, an unwholesome number of young South Africans remain unemployed, the crime rate is rampant, poverty widespread. As a mentor, South Africans have a polygamist-rapist, a man content with widespread corruption.
The tides of time and man are so often anything but noble, and more's the pity.
Labels: Controversy, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Hypocrisy, Political Realities, Social-Cultural Deviations, South Africa
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 03, 2013
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