The Mandela myth

Schoolchildren are currently being taught - rightly - the legacy of Nelson Mandela and his message. What they are not being told is how Mandela and the African National Congress had campaigned for armed aggression against the tyrannical Apartheid regime, and how his widow Winnie was not beneath executing (in rather gruesome fashion) a few duplicitous blacks who spied for their White oppressors.

A legend is made up of many elements. The new film about Mandela, providentially released around the time of his death, may put these things into focus. His is just one name of many (such as Steve Biko, Oliver Tambo and Desmond Tutu) who fought for the freedom of a fair and just South Africa, but who ultimately has become the one talisman of the cuase.

Yalta and Syria....the big bear still growls

I'm currently reading the final volumes of Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War, and how he, Stalin and Roosevelt set up the tentative agreement that the United Nations would preside over future world safety - but that any initiative by the council to invade a country would have the power of veto by any one of "the big five": the US, the UK, France, and (later) China. And of course, Russia.

This uneasy agreement still has its ructions today, with Vladimir Putin vetoing any intervention by the UN into Syria. Where innocent Poles suffered under Stalin, so innocent Syrians are suffering under Putin's Russian-supplied chemical weapons.

The last Frost report

In Roman times it became the tendency to execute messengers of bad news. Such a thing would never have happened to David Frost, who became as valuable to the news as the news itself.

Not just the reporting of it, but also the observance, and the comment. The satire boom on television owes a huge debt to him. It is also testament to his career that films and dramas such as Frost/Nixon were made about him. But Sir David had his own cinema career too. In The V.I.P.s  in 1962 he cheerfully stalks Orson Welles's film director (vaguely based on Orson Welles himself.)

A King among men

Watching parts of Martin Luther King's famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington (50 years ago today), I was struck by the extraordinary inner calm and quiet authority of the man. Plenty of other great speakers have seized the chance to impose their personality and the ego on the occasion (Kennedy included), but King's very carefully well worked words transcend such things, for what is in a sense, one of the greatest sermons in history.

The words still resonate today, something which his spiritual successor Barack Obama, may try to emulate but could never imitate.

Good Things: 27.

Ties!

Smartness and elegance combined - though clearly not a fashion among the G8 leaders! Would one of have them have dared upset the balance of power by dressing a little smarter?

Ah, now that's better. Our world leaders would do well to follow the example of their Foreign Ministers.

The King is gone, long live the king...

This little story seems apposite, after Beckham Snr's retirement from soccer.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/brooklyn-beckham-joins-qpr-academy-095056258.html

Angel's Advocate: Stuart Hall

So now Stuart Hall is the latest culprit in the witch hunt for 70s TV stars being hunted down for their indiscretions. A character, both off camera - alas - as well as on it.

And of course, he was the frequently red-faced laughing host of It's a Knockout.

His duplicitousness speaks for itself, but so do his sports commentaries. Immediately after his Radio Times column was cancelled, with the BBC still squirming from the embarrassment of Jimmy Savile, they rolled out a much duller, by-the-numbers sports columnist in his place with a much duller, by-the-numbers tone. Hall's radio reports for BBC Sports were far and away more entertaining and informative about the game than anyone else.

I shall miss him.

Blade runner with an edge

For those of us who remember Oscar Pistorius's outraged reaction in an interview given immediately after this shock defeat to Brazilian Alan Oliveira in the Paralympics last year, there was always that hint of slyness and egomania brimming away underneath.

He is not the first South African sporting hero to come under such a cloud either - there was cricket captain Hansie Cronje who infamously accepted bribes to alter the course of a Test match, as well as fast bowler Makhaya Ntini who spent some time in prison for rape.

If O.J. Simpson's example is anything to go by, Oscar Pistorius is in for some painful few months (or years) ahead.

Good Things: 26

Shops

Those that are still with us at the moment.


 

Oh God

My initial shock and disappointment of Pope Benedict's resignation is tempered on reflection. It's actually quite a noble and conscientious decision (and perfectly legal in Canon law) to step down, and Benedict himself well knows the effects of old age and deteriorating health, as witnessed by the declining years of his predecessor John Paul II.

First the UK tows the line with gay marriage. Now the Pope himself has resigned.

And then that very evening, St. Peter's basilica was struck by lightning. Is it not just me that's upset about this, but someone else too?!