March 09, 2010

You're No Good, Winnie, And You Never Were

I see where Winnie Mandela is back in the nooz, this time accusing Nelson of selling out:

Nelson Mandela has been accused by his former wife of betraying South Africa's black population.

In a savage attack, Winnie Mandela said he had done nothing for the poor and should not have accepted the Nobel peace prize with the man who jailed him, FW de Klerk.

The 73-year-old said her ex-husband had become a 'corporate foundation' who was 'wheeled out' only to raise money for the ANC party he once led.

She also said, "Boy, have I got a necklace for that guy."

Okay, I made that last part up.

I was in college at the People's Glorious Soviet of Middletown during the height of the Divest, Now! craze, when mock shanty-towns were going up around campus.

I had two basic worries about the movement. One was that in the context of the then-serious Cold War between us and the Soviets, the geopolitical danger of the Russian Bear picking up a new "client" state on the southern tip of Africa necessitated that America do nothing imprudent that would cause a collapse of the S.A. government and allow Ivan to waltz in.

The other, related, concern was that regardless of what anyone thought about Nelson Mandela himself, the group behind him contained a great many radicals, villains, megalomaniacs and loose cannons in its senior ranks, starting with Winnie her own self.

I aired both of these views at the time and caught a considerable amount of flak for them.

Well, the Soviets collapsed, of course, before my first worry could be proven legitimate or not. But my second worry has, I think, been more than justified since then.

Posted by Robert at March 9, 2010 04:03 PM | TrackBack
Comments

To recall the practice: "Necklacing" was binding the victim's hands behind him with barbed wire (or chopping them off), putting a tire around his neck and filling the open portion with gasoline, and burning him alive. Winnie Mandela condone the practice.

Posted by: kmr at March 9, 2010 08:17 PM

I'm confused. The lefties wanted S.A. banned from the global community over its racism. Fair enough, racism is bad. But now the lefties want us to engage with countries such as Iran & North Korea, whose practices are just as bad. So why the difference?

Posted by: rbj at March 10, 2010 09:35 AM

There was a shantytown on the main quad at North Carolina the spring semester of my senior year, right through my graduation. Ruined the scenery. I convinced some freshmen to spray paint graffiti on the shanties. I vaguely recall that it was something clever and anti-divestment, but I can't remember now exactly what it said.

Posted by: ChrisN at March 10, 2010 10:32 PM
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