... especially if you depend on the corporate media for your news. The unending adulation on NPR is absolutely sickening. The front page of the oh-so-politically correct Charlotte Observer features a half-page color photo of the saint of multiculturalism. But not the one below:
Here's a dose of Mandela reality, courtesy of The Miltonian:
The hero of the anti-apartheid struggle was not the saint we want him to be. The image of Nelson Mandela as a selfless, humble, freedom fighter turned cheerful, kindly old man, is well established in the West. If there is any international leader on whom we can universally heap praise it is surely he. But get past the halo we’ve placed on him without his permission, and Nelson Mandela had more than a few flaws which deserve attention. He signed off on the deaths of innocent people, lots of them Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists. Here are some highlights -Church Street West, Pretoria, on the 20 May 1983 -Amanzimtoti Shopping complex KZN, 23 December 1985 -Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, 17 March 1988 -Durban Pick ‘n Pay shopping complex, 1 September 1986 -Pretoria Sterland movie complex 16 April 1988 – limpet mine killed ANC terrorist M O Maponya instead -Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, 20 May 1987 -Roodepoort Standard Bank 3 June, 1988 Tellingly, not only did Mandela refuse to renounce violence, Amnesty refused to take his case stating “[the] movement recorded that it could not give the name of ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ to anyone associated with violence, even though as in ‘conventional warfare’ a degree of restraint may be exercised.”
I wonder if the media can overlook President Jacob Zuma in the days to come? From what we know about him, he'll put their ideological blindness to the supreme test.