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Friday, November 26, 2004
 
From: iafrica.com
(gratefully acknowledged)
JOHANNESBURG

Madiba a favourite among Africans



Posted Fri, 26 Nov 2004
Former South African president Nelson Mandela is the most popular
world player among the people of Africa,
SABC radio news reported on Thursday...

According to a BBC-SABC-Markinor poll, which surveyed more than
7500 people in 10 African countries, 90 percent of urban Africans
interviewed said they liked Mandela the most…

Fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and US President George W. Bush
are the most disliked international figures among Africans.





The poll also found that most Africans appeared to have a very different
view of themselves, their countries and their continent compared to Western perceptions. Despite Western perceptions of Africa being plagued by fighting,
famine and disease, most Africans are proud to be associated with the continent,
and see themselves as peaceful, polite, kind and hard-working.




I too love you, my beloved Africa!


 
From: iafrica.com
(gratefully acknowledged)
JOHANNESBURG

Madiba a favourite among Africans



Posted Fri, 26 Nov 2004
Former South African president Nelson Mandela is the most popular
world player among the people of Africa,
SABC radio news reported on Thursday...

According to a BBC-SABC-Markinor poll, which surveyed morepen. but for now i will take it one step at a time. step at a time.

Sunday, November 14, 2004
 
Acquittal
In happier days

A little late, this news of the acquittal of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
A woman of the people, who loved much, suffered much, took part in the struggle
against apartheid, made many mistakes, got through many humiliations, and
in July 2004, was finally acquitted of a jail sentence for innumerable charges.

Her political career is finished, though the "little people of Soweto" still grant her
a political love. They understand what it meant to be a beautiful woman,
a most attentive mother, the wife of a great and wonderful prisonner, and yet,
to stand alone in the midst of untold apartheid pitfalls.

From CNN Johannesburg Bureau Monday, July 5, 2004

PRETORIA, South Africa

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former South African president
Nelson Mandela, has escaped a prison sentence after an appeal court judge
overturned theft convictions.
The judge in Pretoria also on Monday suspended a three-and-a-half-year sentence
on the former leader of the African National Congress women's league, for fraud.

In explaining his decision to throw out the theft convictions and set aside
the jail term for fraud, Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann of the Pretoria high court said
the "crimes were not committed for personal gain," but added that
"dishonesty in high places cannot be tolerated" either.



"mother of the nation "discredited", in deep trouble

Wrapped in a shawl on a cold, wet day, Madikizela-Mandela seemed calm
at Monday's hearing and showed little reaction to the verdict.
Outside the court though, scores of supporters cheered at the news.
Despite a string of legal troubles, Madikizela-Mandela remains popular among
poor black South Africans who regard her as a defender of the downtrodden.

She was sacked from the ANC-dominated government in 1995.
Madikizela-Mandela resigned from parliament and abandoned
her political career after her conviction last year.

Yet she said to Desmond Tutu and the world, standing before the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission:



Who are the superiors, the authorities, of any kind who ever said: "I made mistakes,
I am sorry!?" You have to be great to acknowledge failures. Winnie did it.


 
November 11th

St Martin of Tours

He was born in what is now Hungary in 316 son of an officer in the Roman army.
He soon felt called to the life of Christ and served a term of imprisonment as a
conscientious objector who felt that military service and Christianity were incompatible

After his release there occurred the famous incident, which took place near Amiens,
when he gave half his cloak to a beggar who was shivering with cold. He realized
that the poor beggar was no one else but Yeshua. He became a disciple
of St Hilary at Poitiers and was baptised.
From 360 onwards, Martin devoted himself to the monastic life; so he became a Monk .
He was then chosen Bishop of Tours by popular acclaim at Marmoutier.



Martin saw monasteries as a way of promoting rural evangelisation.
He himself was a most assiduous Bishop, carrying out frequent visitations.
Martin's followers panicked when he told them he knew he was near death,
but the saint entrusted himself to the Lord's will in the words:
"Lord if your people still need me I do not refuse the work; let your will be done".
He died on November 8th., 397.



Sulpicius Severus first met Martin of Tours he was stunned. Not only did the bishop
offer him hospitality at his residence -- a monk's cell in the wilderness instead of a palace --
but Martin washed Sulpicius' hands before dinner and his feet in the evening.
From that visit, Sulpicius became Martin's disciple, friend, and biographer.
Little is known of many of the saints who died in the early years of Christianity
but thanks to Sulpicius, who wrote his first biography of Martin before the saint died
and who talked to most of the people involved in his life, we have a priceless record
of Martin's life.

Martin is our model of sharing, of justice for everyone…
the rich are a bit less rich and they feel better
and the poor are a bit less poor and they, too, feel better!


Friday, November 12, 2004
 
Arafat

He may have made mistakes, we all do…
Some will remember him by his errors of judgement

Other, the majority, will remember the "old Man"
by his life long commitment to the palestinian people



Mandela speaks



"Yasser Arafat was one of the outstanding freedom fighters
of this generation, one who gave his entire life to the cause
of the Palestinian people," Mandela said in a statement.

"It is with great sadness that one notes that his and his people's dream
of a Palestinian state had not yet been realised.
"We trust that in these times of sadness and loss, the commitment
to finding a just and lasting settlement will be redoubled on all sides,"
Mandela said.

Thabo Mbeki speaks

Describing Yasser Arafat as one of the giants of the twentieth century,
SA president Thabo Mbeki said it was important for him
to be at his memorial service in Cairo on Friday….
He said it was important that the Israelis and the Palestinians
continued working together to solve the crisis in the Middle East.




He said the legacy Arafat had bestowed on Palestinians was the hope he gave to
"millions of downtrodden and despised, by instilling
in them the knowledge and consciousness that despite

current difficulties, they hold the gift of freedom in their hands".

Mbeki then flew to Cairo with the South African delegation,
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad and Rev Frank Chikane,
director-general in the office of the presidency.

African National Congress spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama
remembered Arafat as a "long-standing comrade".

Mbeki said the government and people of South Africa
would continue to help find a lasting solution to the Middle East conflict.




Monday, November 08, 2004
 
Bush comes back (04.11.04)

He was always there, haunting, terrorizing all his ennemies:
the terrorists. Amongst them the dark skinned people,
arab looking people belonging mostly to what he calls the rogue states,
that is Bush's judgement! But:

"…the U.S. (and, sometimes, its allies) has ... behaved as the biggest rogue state,
ignoring international laws and norms and acting only in the richest American's interests…"
in Publishers Weekly by Noam Chomsky

Isn't the american people aware of Washington's rogue bahaviour?
No apparently not because Bush says he's a Christian. A religious man!

He even said "God speaks through me!" (the Lancaster New Era, on July 16, 2004.)

Who is God's only WORD? Yeshuah! That WORD means LOVE. Nothing else.

"Bush uses religion to justify his penchant for violence, which is manifest
in nothing so much as his glib use of the word "evil." Once an enemy is demonized,

transcendent risks can be taken to destroy that enemy.
We see this apocalyptic impulse being played out in Iraq today.
If in order to obliterate "evil" it proves necessary to obliterate a whole society -- so be it." (Carlos Stouffer)



Jesus had wept over Jerusalem (Luc 19:42)
Jesus weeps over Washington, Irak, over our own beloved little planet
and its people "born to be happy and to love as they pass by…"

We can but weep with Jesus. And continue the struggle
so that His spirit may live…