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| Mandela in 1994, returning to his cell of 27 years on Robben Island. |
"Invictus" is a short Victorian poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
I managed to watch the movie Invictus last night, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. A very inspiring movie about Nelson Mandela and the South African Rugby team. Cried most of the way through it, I am in awe of this wonderful man and his ability to inspire others to greatness. The movie is named after the above poem that Mandela read and drew strength from whilst in detention on Robben Island for 27 years.
A MUST see movie. I saw it on the TV, they repeat so often it may be possible to still catch it on the TV or ask the DVD man to get you a copy. I watched it with my 8 year old daughter who loved it too, although she missed the last 30 mins because she fell asleep. First words from her at 6am this morning were, "What happened at the end of the movie?"
Please let us remember that as great a man as he has been in later life, he was a terrorist who killed innocent people in his former life.
ReplyDeleteYes he has been forgiving, but he has both a past and has been weak in insisting on integration in South Africa. Please visit the country a few times before thinking that Mandela led from the darkness into the light!
Thanks for your comment. Some would say he's a freedom fighter I suppose it depends where you come from. He was arrested and charged for sabotage and civil disobedience and sentenced to a life in prison. Why was he not charged with murder? The real reason was Botha and white South Africans was terrified of him and the ANC. The movie is about a certain period of South Africa's history - has he acheived the utopian lifestyle one expects a new president to magic up, no, far from it. Could anyone?
ReplyDeleteI've been to South Africa. I was there during his inaugeration as president. Not in Pretoria but in J'berg. The atmosphere was not unlike the carnival in Rio. But the underlying feeling and facts were grim from the very start of his presidency. Villas for the whites with dobermans, 10 ft high walls with barbed wire on top, 99% of the white South Africans armed and the hungry, angry blacks from Soweto living in wooden huts with no running water or electricity. It's a black country if they want to flush it down the toilet it's up to them but we (I'm a Brit) have no right to come in, laud ourselves around and enslave them. Perhaps the whites 'approach' was wrong.
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ReplyDeletei followed this up with 2 further posts / responses - do you just choose to publish the ones you agree with?
ReplyDeletei love your blog, but as a first time contributor had expected you'd be open to full/frank discussion!
Dear Anon, I swear never received any more comments, it's possible with the blogger website under renovation that they've just vanished into cyberspace.
ReplyDeletePlease send again. I love debate and full/frank discussion even if I don't agree with it or lose badly at it :OD
The only time I don't publish is if the comment has unnecessary expletives, mentions nuking or killing (yes had one of those) or tells me how boring Kuwait is (makes my time wasted).