happy b-day madiba!

this post is whole-heartedly devoted to Nelson Mandela. he celebrated his 90th birthday on friday and you couldnt turn on the radio, tv, open up the newspaper, or have a casual lunch without hearing or talking about mandela. even this morning, the radio stations were still all over the man's birthday. i felt truly blessed to be here and get to share the moment with south africans; you could tell that they are extremely proud of their madiba, and rightfully so.

a couple months ago during the height of the most recent "xenophobic" violence, i remember talking to several south africans who were completely ashamed of their country and countrymen for perpetuating such heinous crimes against fellow africans; some even apologized on others behalf. well, this weekend, rather than being ashamed, south africans truly have a reason to be proud. of their country, country-man, and fellow africans. what madiba was able to accomplish after 27 years in prison and the way he was able to inspire africans of all kinds and bring out the best in all, is truly something to cherish. so many people shared their experiences of meeting madiba or shaking his hand, and even people that had never met the man spoke of how their lives had been touched, nonetheless. i wished i had my own memory of mandela. i only know that were it not for him, and his courage, hope, and perseverance, i probably would not be here at this time.

my only concern, amidst all the hype and praise and celebrations is that, while south africans are proud of their living legend, they are rapidly forgetting what he stood for, what he worked for, and what he was prepared to die for. I'm reminded of another defining moment of my (and lots of people's) lives. 9/11. after the attack on the WTC, i remember students everywhere searching for meaning and what lessons to take from this. how to move forward. i remember writing a paper about it, but im not sure i came up with any conclusions. we looked for guidance, but were only told to go shopping. i hate shopping. 7 years later, i'm afraid we've taken very little if any lessons away from the disaster. all of his life, and particularly after he was released from prison and subsequently became president of the republic of south africa, mandela reminded all people that "true reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past". he said: "Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all." i wonder how he really feels when he surveys the political and social landscape of south africa today. i am concerned that the country risks losing the dream espoused by madiba. i am concerned that i've missed the lessons.

i'm just gonna end this post with some of my favorite madiba quotes:

"Let us never be unmindful of the terrible past from which we come that memory not as a means to keep us shackled to the past in a negative manner, but rather as a joyous reminder of how far we have come and how much we have achieved. The memory of a history of division and hate, injustice and suffering, inhumanity of person against person should inspire us to celebrate our own demonstration of the capacity of human beings to progress, to go forward, to improve, to do better.

"There is enough reason for cynicism and despair. But then we should take heart from our own experience and performance. Let us refrain from chauvinistic breast-beating; but let also not underrate what we have achieved in establishing a stable and progressive democracy where we take freedoms seriously; in building national unity in spite of decades and centuries of apartheid and colonial rule; in creating a culture in which we increasingly respect the dignity of all.

"In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many. We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to belief in the goodness of people.

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

"Let freedom reign.

"The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!

"God bless Africa!"

well, momma okunade left earlier this week and all i have to show for it is a clean flat, lots of good food in my refrigerator, and peace of mind while i drive (my mom, who's normally tense when others are driving, was even more tense, cluthcing on to the brake for dear life and probably holding her breathe the whole time; promise i'm not that bad a driver). thanks mom.

the week was really busy, so i didn't get a chance to take time off and hang out with mom, but during the weekend we did find out where humankind originates (right here in the caves of jo-burg!...) and where humankind asserts its domination over all other species (at carnivore, the meat/game eaters' heaven). in other words, on sat we went crawling through the cradle of mankind caves and museum (my mom did it in a dress and heels...impressive):

and then we went to have lunch/dinner at this restaurant called carnivore, where they just keep bring you all kinds of meat until u put ur flag down. we had crocodile, antelope, kudu, ostrich, alligator, and the boring ones, chicken, beef, pork, etc. i was soo disappointed cuz people told me about having zebra and i was really looking forward to it, but they brought out no zebra. and when i asked them they told me they had none. too bad, i'll have to go back soon. anyway, we were both pretty full for the next 2 days:

check out the rest of the pics: here

in other news: i don't normally follow british politics that much (except for occasionally watching the absolutely hilarious british parliament session on c-span), but i just have to comment on the british foreign minister, david miliband. this dude must be one of the stupidest guys around, in my opinion. i say this on one basis only. he's here in sa, basically trying to drum up support for his zim solution. btw, he's pretty much alone in this solution he's preaching. this solution includes the following: disregard the run-off elections (fair enough) and recognize the march election, declare morgan tsvangirai as the president of zim and depose bobb mugabe (hmm...). this is stupid. thats the best way i can put it. here's the issue: if you legitimize the results of the march elections, then you MUST legitimize the rules under which those election results were received. the rules of the elections say that a candidate must get higher than 50% to win the presidency, otherwise there will be a run off. now im not defending bobb by any means (neither, btw, do i think morgan would be that great a person/leader), but i'd like to defend rational thought. now a better position would be to reject both elections and results as flawed and call for new elections or some kind of unity government. but accepting the results of one election, while making up new rules by which these results should be judged doesnt really make sense, does it. thank britain, once again, for your strong and useful insight into african politics.

back to the us: apparently b-obama is anti-dumb. check it out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/opinion/10collins.html?hp

also, what's up with all the craziness about b-obama moving to the centre? this is politics 101. plus he never claimed that he wanted to be president solely for lefties (see his 2004 convention speech). i like how the economist put it: (along the lines of) The real issue is that barack has not moved far enough to the center..."Mr Obama needs to embrace centrism as a matter of conviction rather than flirting with it as an instrument of political expediency."