Statesman. Freedom Fighter. Terrorist.

Amen

All true.

Iconic.

You forgot, responsible for the demise of South Africa.

Well, to be fair, the demise of the version of South Africa you wanted. Not sure everyone would see it your way...

Nope that would have been the Brits, the Dutch & the Afrikaans Nationalists. Mandella was a product of the policies and actions of those people.

He was responsible for our awareness and a beacon for the oppressed.

LOL.

You lot make me laugh.

And you make me sick

He was no different than Osama Bin Laden. I don't see anyone calling him a hero.

Murderous terrorist that deserved to be hung at the time for sabotage and espionage, but due to the good nature of the then white government, they spared his life.

What a silly mistake.

OK, my turn to LOL!

Biggenz, until you can get a sense of perspective, it is very hard for others with less of a personal axe to grind to take what you say as anything other than blinkered ranting.

Who's ranting? I'm merely stating facts old boy.

Are you totally deluded, or just a second rate troll??

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

"In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself".

"If you're arguing on the Internet and use a sheep metaphor then you're wrong"

Me, just now.

Baa

To be fair Mr Einstein was never a great human rights activist now was he?

A man.

Not evil personified nor a paragon of virtue.

It is possible to recognise his flaws and his achievements.

Now Winnie on the other hand...

And that was why he was such a great man.

*** With my Mod hat on, can I remind everyone that this thread has the potential to stray into lockdown territory quite quickly. I for one don't want to see that, so please can contributors be mindful of the forum rules? Thanks ***

Stuff politics. RIP, 95 year old gent.



I won't hear a single word said against that cute little hunny loving chap.

You've got to think that the reason he was a great man was for, you know, the breakthroughs in theoretical physics.

If 'not being a human rights activist' was the only requirement for greatness then even you'd count as a great man.

I don't really know anything about him other than the fact he's now dead and a song called "Freeeee Nelson Mandela" to be honest here. My bad.

Google him then....educate yourself!

Something you obviously haven't done.

I too couldn't give an informed comment on the man but I do find it very difficult to form an opinion on people like this after the event. It was the same with Maggie Thatcher.

Because they are such iconic people and seem to provoke such strong feelings in people it seems that everything you read or hear is almost certainly very biased one way or another.

Maybe not, but you can identify the key points in his life without too much of a political slant.

So you have no real knowledge of his life or past, yet you are quick to defend him?

What, is it purely because he was black?