Robert Hampton

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10th December 2013

On Mandela
Posted by at 10.57pm | No responses | In the News

In case you missed it, Nelson Mandela died on Thursday. I’m not going to try and write a lengthy blog about him, but I did want to point you all towards the speech Mandela made at his 1964 trial. BBC News has an edited version of it. Read the whole thing, but this passage, towards the end, stood out for me; a perfect summary of what Mandela stood for.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

There are many parts of the world where that ideal is far from reality and despots and tyrants still rule. Even in supposedly democratic societies, those ideals are threatened every day, often by politicians and leaders who claim to have our best interests at heart. We definitely need more people like Mandela in this world who are prepared to stand up for democracy, no matter what.

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