Althouse: "As the anti-apartheid icon fights for survival in a hospital, his family is clashing over where and how he is to be buried."

July 3, 2013

"As the anti-apartheid icon fights for survival in a hospital, his family is clashing over where and how he is to be buried."

"The squabble is playing out in newspapers, online and on TV, angering a nation gripped with grief and praying collectively for their beloved 94-year-old former president to remain with them longer."

In microcosm, the tragic decline from one generation to the next.

16 comments:

rhhardin said...: Each one better than the next, to take the optimistic view.; 7/3/13, 9:09 AM
Henry said...: Hopefully he will end up buried better than Ted Williams.; 7/3/13, 9:11 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Waxed up for viewing?; 7/3/13, 9:19 AM
n.n said...: Not decline. It's progress. They follow from the example set by their elders. In this case it is the redistributive change model.; 7/3/13, 9:24 AM
edutcher said...: Do to him what SEAL Team did to bin Laden.

For those curious, an alternate view of what Mandela wrought.; 7/3/13, 9:25 AM
ricpic said...: Ya think it would save Paula's butt if she hopped a plane to join Hussein at Mandela's bedside?; 7/3/13, 9:33 AM
Martha said...: Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and Baptist minister, to Jesse Jackson Jr., former Illinois U.S. Representative, now awaiting sentencing and facing possible 5 year sentence in a federal prison.

Progress.; 7/3/13, 9:43 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: edutcher's link compared Mandella to Washington, and more, his wife to Martha. The whole time I was thinking, of them and their future, move the bodies to de Klerk's front yard and through time extend a national cemetery from that.; 7/3/13, 9:46 AM
edutcher said...: Chip, reread that. Choom made that comparison.

The first 3 paras:

During his visit to South Africa, Obama compared Nelson Mandela to George Washington.

George Washington, unlike Nelson Mandela, was not a member of the Communist Party. Martha Washington had not been involved in murdering a 14-year-old boy or in urging the colonists to burn men, women and children alive by placing rubber tires around them, pouring gasoline on them and setting them on fire.

The American Revolution did not unleash a state of permanent lawlessness in which the quality of life declined drastically for everyone in the country and people went to sleep every night expecting to be murdered in their beds.

Not exactly hosannas.; 7/3/13, 9:57 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: What every elderly woman should do is give away your jewelry gradually, piece by piece, to various daughters and nieces, granddaughters and grandnieces, etc.

Do it in private, one on one.

Explain that it's a secret because the other girls want this piece but I want to make sure it goes to you.

Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.; 7/3/13, 10:03 AM
MadisonMan said...: Someone has to do it; 7/3/13, 10:05 AM
Gahrie said...: His family (especially Winnie) have always been a bunch of exploitive turds....now they are fighting about who will cash in on his body.; 7/3/13, 11:35 AM
Anonymous said...: The story of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement has been way oversold.

The standard of living as measured by health, economy, and safety has dropped precipitously in SA since the ANC took power in 1994 and continues to hold it.

I wouldn't want to argue for apartheid, but people are mostly worse off in post-apartheid South Africa. It's not a happy ending.

The constant celebrations of Nelson Mandela don't make up for it.; 7/3/13, 12:15 PM
William said...: Winnie Mandela received far more criticism for being unfaithful to Nelson than for advocating the burning to death of her opponents. At any rate, nowadays she's described as controversial and no further mention is made of her past crimes......Nelson Mandela is a brave and honorable man, but there's other dna in his children. At any rate, where are the Nelson Mandelas who stood up to Mugabe, Taylor, Amin, and the other tyrannical regimes in Africa. Why is white rule the only tyranny that inspires heroic opposition; 7/3/13, 1:03 PM
Swifty Quick said...: It's okay, Morgan Freeman can step into the role and probably improve upon it.; 7/3/13, 1:23 PM
Charlotte C said...: In microcosm, the tragic decline from one generation to the next.

We went from Mandela to Mbeki, whose denial of AIDS caused the premature death of a million South Africans, to Jacob Zuma the semi-literate polygamist, whose idea of democracy is "You have more rights because you're a majority; you have less rights because you're a minority. That's how democracy works,"

Cry, the beloved country.; 7/3/13, 2:36 PM