Mandela's Statue

I had an interesting exchange with a character called "Mrs Buckett" on an Internet discussion board, centred on "Whether Mandela deserved his statue".

My view being that Mandela neither requested nor lobbied for a statue and for the very fact that he was subject to rabid, ignorant scrutiny from pea-brained, mealy mouthed and sometimes deranged commentators, I wish he wasn't given the bloody statue in the first place.

Some of the conversations centred around funding for the statue as well as his so-called terrorist past. I thought to post this to correct a few things:

a. The statue is being funded by an Independent foundation not by British Tax-payers;

b. Mandela did found Umkhonto We Sizwe, the paramilitary arm of the ANC, whose purpose was to attack Military targets. Umkhonto We Sizwe however descended into Internecine violence and some acts of terrorism, however this was after Mandela was imprisoned and there is no evidence that Mandela supported some of their plainly extreme acts. It may be argued that the rationale for UWZ was terrorist, but I guess its difficult to take a position what with the violence Blacks were subjected to daily in South Africa at the time, which gave rise to Armed Resistance, I guess by the same token the French Resistance were terrorists then.

c. Mandela's wife rather than Mandela was responsible for the bullying campaigns by some extreme elements of the ANC and this was the reason for the break-up.

d. Mandela was never cited for corruption whilst President and though undoubtedly he handed over to the buffoon Mbeki, his government actually included elements of the old apartheid regime- Frederick DeKlerk et al. There is no saying what would have happened to South Africa, if Mandela had mishandled the governance.

Just thought I'd clarify this, by the way about Mbeki, this has to be one of Africa's tragedies- firstly a Deputy who's accused of raping a HIV-positive lady and a Health Minister who feels that Anti-Retrovirals don't work and recommends Beetroots, Olives, Garlic and Lemon juice instead, as well as Mbeki who believes the HIV threat is overrated and described AIDS activists who criticised his idiotic Health Minister- (nicknamed rather aptly- Dr "Beetroot" Shabalala) as wild animals.

Well, sometimes the contrary view has merit but please lets criticise fairly, okay Mrs Slop-Buckett?