Raoul made the following comment:

>When Mandela makes those statements, he becomes the evil guy, doesn't he?
>A man who spent 29 years in jail in a country that knew apartheid, a man
>who understood that non-violence was a better way to achieve reconciliation,
>a man who won the Nobel Peace prize deservedly...

I actually think Mandela is a great man but the comment about non-violence
needs to be clarified. Here is some biographical information concerning
Mandela:

>In January Mandela leaves South Africa illegally to attend a
>freedom conference in Algeria and to scout for military training
>facilities for Umkhonto members and raise funds from African states.
>While away he personally undertakes a course of military training and
>resolves that the funding drive should be extended to Western and
>socialist nations. Following his return in July he is arrested for leaving
>the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducts his own
>defence but is convicted in November and jailed for five years with
>hard labour.
>
>Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the
>ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the
>use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to
>involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from
>doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
>Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years'
>imprisonment with hard labour.

My wife is South African (I'm American). I've been to South African
many times and actually saw Mandela once in Cape Town. Mandela
and F.W. de Klerk acheived a political miracle when they successfully
transitioned South Africa from white to black rule (I did not think
it was possible and that genocidal civil war was unavoidable). Both
men deserved the Noble Prize for achieving the impossible.

However preamble aside, Mandela was no man of peace or champion of
non-violence. I was told (it could be wrong) that the action which
triggered his being tossed in jail was the Umkhonto we Sizwe began
planting bombs in trash cans next to bus stops. I've waited for buses
in Johannesburg so I'm less than sympathetic towards people killing
Joburg bus riders.

The white South Africans (Afrikaaners) are not evil. However many of
them are racists and the Afrikaaners as a whole can be bloody stupid
and pig headed. It's a tragedy that they flushed their country down
the toilet by letting this stupid racism thing get out of control.
South Africa used to be a great place to live (Not any more!).

Gary