Posts Tagged ‘Nelson Mandela’
Defining decade: How did you stand for Palestine?
“Every generation is judged by a certain issue…. In the 60s there was the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement here in America, the 80s it was apartheid in South Africa…. we are all going to be judged, we all have to answer to this issue of Palestine, this is the defining issue of our time..
Letter of Pink Floyd Roger Waters to Neil Young and Rolling Stones: Boycott concerts in Israel
Posted on: July 18, 2014
Letter of Pink Floyd Roger Waters to Neil Young and Rolling Stones: Boycott concerts in Israel
Rock Against Racism
The story behind “that selfie”: Barack Obama, British David Cameron, Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt
Posted on: December 15, 2013
The story behind “that selfie”: Barack Obama, British David Cameron, Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt
Roberto Schmidt posted:
So here’s my photo, which quickly lit up the world’s social networks and news websites.
The “selfie” of 3 world leaders who, during South Africa’s farewell to Nelson Mandela, were messing about like kids instead of behaving with the mournful gravitas one might expect.
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pose for a picture with Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt next to US First Lady Michelle Obama during the memorial service for South African former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg. (AFP Photo / Roberto Schmidt)
In general on this blog, photojournalists tell the story behind a picture they’ve taken.
I’ve done this for images from Pakistan, and India, where I am based.
This time the picture comes from a stadium in Soweto, and shows people taking a photo of themselves. I guess it’s a sign of our times that somehow this image seemed to get more attention than the event itself. Go figure.
I arrived in South Africa with several other AFP journalists to cover the farewell and funeral ceremonies for Nelson Mandela. We were in the Soccer City stadium in Soweto, under a driving rain.
I’d been there since the crack of dawn and when I took this picture, the memorial ceremony had already been going on for more than two hours.
From the podium, Obama had just qualified Mandela as a “giant of history who moved a nation towards justice.” After his stirring eulogy, America’s first black president sat about 150 metres across from where I was set up. He was surrounded by other foreign dignitaries and I decided to follow his movements with the help of my 600 mm x 2 telephoto lens.
So Obama took his place amid these leaders who’d gathered from all corners of the globe. Among them was British Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as a woman who I wasn’t able to immediately identify.
I later learned it was the Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. I’m a German-Colombian based in India, so I don’t feel too bad I didn’t recognize her! At the time, I thought it must have been one of Obama’s many staffers.
Suddenly this woman pulled out her mobile phone and took a photo of herself smiling with Cameron and the US president. I captured the scene reflexively.
All around me in the stadium, South Africans were dancing, singing and laughing to honour their departed leader. It was more like a carnival atmosphere, not at all morbid. The ceremony had already gone on for two hours and would last another two.
The atmosphere was totally relaxed – I didn’t see anything shocking in my viewfinder, president of the US or not. We are in Africa.
(AFP Photo / Roberto Schmidt)
I later read on social media that Michelle Obama seemed to be rather peeved on seeing the Danish prime minister take the picture. But photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.
I took these photos totally spontaneously, without thinking about what impact they might have.
At the time, I thought the world leaders were simply acting like human beings, like me and you. I doubt anyone could have remained totally stony faced for the duration of the ceremony, while tens of thousands of people were celebrating in the stadium.
For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural. I see nothing to complain about, and probably would have done the same in their place.
The AFP team worked hard to display the reaction that South African people had for the passing of someone they consider as a father. We moved about 500 pictures, trying to portray their true feelings, and this seemingly trivial image seems to have eclipsed much of this collective work.
(AFP Photo / Roberto Schmidt)
It was interesting to see politicians in a human light because usually when we see them it is in such a controlled environment. Maybe this would not be such an issue if we, as the press, would have more access to dignitaries and be able to show they are human as the rest of us.
I confess too that it makes me a little sad we are so obsessed with day-to-day trivialities, instead of things of true importance.
During Mandela’s memorial service in Johannesburg. (AFP Photo / Roberto Schmidt)
Note 1: Have you noticed that Roberto and Helle have the same name of Schmidt? And what Schmidt means in English?
Note 2: Apparently, it was the stony face of Michelle Obama that promoted these pictures…
Note 3: I acquired a new term in my dictionary: Selfie is to take picture of yourself using a smartphone…
Nelson Mandela’s Most Inspiring Quotes
Before his death, Nelson Mandela had already become a larger than life figure for his work ending apartheid in South Africa.
The legend often overshadowed the real Madiba: he was a guy who saw inequality in his world and worked to make it right.
Looking back at over 5 decades of his speeches and writings, we find a man who struggled to balance his duty to his family with his fight for his country, his moral drive to do what’s right with his personal pride.
The Daily Beast posted this Dec. 5, 2013
Madiba inspired people through his speeches and letters, particularly those he wrote during his 18-year imprisonment on Robben Island. Here’s a selection of his most inspiring quotes:
1. “If I had my time over I would do the same again, so would any man who dares call himself a man.” (After being convicted to five years hard labor, November 1962)
2. “I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.” (Statement during trial, 1962)
3. “I can only say that I felt morally obliged to do what I did.” (At the opening of his trial, April 20, 1964)
4. “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness.” (A letter written on August 1, 1970)
5. “Difficulties break some men but make others.” (From a letter to wife, Winnie Mandela, from Robben Island, February 1975)
6. “I came to accept that I have no right whatsoever to judge others in terms of my own customs.” (From his unpublished autobiographical manuscript, 1975)
7. “Great anger and violence can never build a nation. We are striving to proceed in a manner and towards a result, which will ensure that all our people, both black and white, emerge as victors.” (Speech to European Parliament, 1990)
8. Without democracy there cannot be peace.” (South Africa, May 9, 1992)
9. We are fighting for a society where people will cease thinking in terms of colour.” (March 8, 1993)
10. “When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.” (Interview for Mandela, 1994)
11. “Reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.” (December 16, 1995)
12. “I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.” (From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995)
13. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” (From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995)
14. “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” (From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995)
Facts and figures from Nelson Mandela’s life, set to the trailer from ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.’
15. “Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.” (From Long Walk to Freedom, 1995)
16. “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.” (Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, April 25, 1998)
17. “It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.” (South Africa, July 14, 2000)
18. “When people are determined they can overcome anything.” (Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 14, 2006)
7 Nelson Mandela Quotes You Probably Won’t See In The U.S. Media
Andrew Kaczynski posted in BuzzFeed this Dec. 6, 2013
7. On the U.S. war with Iraq:
“If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don’t care for human beings.”
6. On Israel:
“Israel should withdraw from all the areas which it won from the Arabs in 1967, and in particular Israel should withdraw completely from the Golan Heights, from south Lebanon and from the West Bank.”
4. Mandela on Castro and the Cuban revolution:
“From its earliest days, the Cuban Revolution has also been a source of
inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist-orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gain made in the Cuban Revolution. … Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro.”
3. Mandela on Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi (Qadgafi), his longtime supporter:
“It is our duty to give support to the brother leader … especially in regards to the sanctions which are not hitting just him, they are hitting the ordinary masses of the people … our African brothers and sisters.”
2. On the U.S. preparing to invade Iraq in a 2002 interview with Newsweek:
“If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace.”
1. On a Palestinian state:
“The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Seth Godin posted: “A legacy of Mandela”
Others can better write about Nelson Mandela’s impact on the world stage, on how he stood up for the dignity of all people and on how he changed our world.
For those that seek to make a change in the world, whether global or local, one lesson of his life is this:
You can.
1. You can make a difference.
2. You can stand up to insurmountable forces.
3. You can put up with far more than you think you can.
4. Your lever is far longer than you imagine it is, if you choose to use it.
5. If you don’t require the journey to be easy or comfortable or safe, you can change the world.
