With the announcement of the death of this old boy comes the information that he was imprisoned for 27 years but no press report gives any details. I know he was one of the people who helped eliminate apartheid in South Africa along with F.W. de Klerk, who were both awarded the Nobel peace prize for their efforts (a good thing, but de Klerk does not have a student union block named after him - not trendy?), but I also hear that he was a co founder of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. Normally the heads of similar organisations are hunted down & eliminated by Western powers rather than raised to the status of gods so can someone tell me why I should accept this?
A part of me feels that to cover such a man with platitudes is a trendy thing to do, like supporting gay marriage, rather than suggesting he was anything less than a saint & going against what I feel are perhaps a little brainwashed opinions?
Before anyone puts a label on me I will add that the father of one of my best friends, Alan Haigh, wrote a book "South African Tragedy" in 1963 which resulted in the family being expelled from the country. My friend was allowed back in the '70s & lives there still. I have visited. He loses his job in corporate insurance in January.
He was imprisoned for organizing terrorist activities. He is a good terrorist because he fought against aparthied, which all good people were against. Ben Gurion who was responsible for many peoples' deaths is also a good terrorist because the State of Israel is supported by the US and Britain. Jasser Arafat is a bad terrorist if you are an Israeli but a good terrorist if you believe that the Palestinians have had their land stolen from them. It really depends on your political viewpoint as to whether a 'terrist' is a good one or not.
It's one of those never-ending debates, there is no justification for apartheid. I was also in South Africa before the release of Mandela in the 80s and there is no justification for terrorism either. Mandela refused to renounce terrorism as he said it was justified.
We could have the same debates and substitute the MK (ANC) for the IRA (Sinn Fein) or Al Quada (not sure what their respectable face is called), depends if you believe killing and maiming innocent bystanders is the best way to change things.
NB - Looking up the correct spelling of Sinn Fein, I found this, speaks volumes to me!
Good point Mark. I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough on the subject to pass comment although my gut instinct tends to agree with your sentiments. The truth is almost certainly lodged somewhere between terrorist & would be saint. Give the regulars here a chance to recover from the Walley/Jew/Jung/whatever debacle & you will surely get more "interesting" views than I can offer. This one could have some legs!!