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Mandela takes action against London gallery
Honduras News.Net
Saturday 5th July, 2008
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has decided to take legal action against an art gallery in London for selling sketches it says are his.
Mr Mandela’s law firm, Chuene Incorporated, have stated Mr Mandela has no connection with the artworks under display at the Belgravia Gallery in London.
Many of the sketches are scenes from Robben Island, where Mr Mandela spent most of his time in prison during apartheid.
In 2005, Mr Mandela filed a lawsuit against his former lawyer Ismail Ayob for allegedly selling fake art works bearing his name.
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james tangren
07-07-08, 07:43 AM |
Mandela takes action against London gallery
I am no racist. Please donât make me one!
â A protest to the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
Boasting to have the âfinestâ constitution in the world and the worldwide revered liberation icon Mr. Nelson Mandela, South Africans, especially the blacks, are not a horde to shy away from praising themselves a so-called ânonracialâ ârainbow nationâ of âdemocracyâ and âfreedomâ. But from an outsider â living here for the last thirteen years and in whose upbringing modesty is deemed the virtue of man and hence the nation ââs point of view the truth on the ground could not be further from the claim.
From the recent nationwide grassrootsâ xenophobia attacks of foreign nationals to the Labor Minister Membathisi Mdladlana and spokespersons for the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu)âs strong stance against the Pretoria High Courtâs ruling to declare that ethnically Chinese South Africans, who qualified for citizenship before 1993, qualify for benefits in terms of the 1999 Employment Equity Act and the 2004 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act which have defined “black people” as a generic term for “Africans, coloureds and Indians” but failed to specifically mention Chinese, who under apartheid were classed as coloured, and not to mention the infamous kill-for-Zuma public speeches made by Mr. âPresidentâ of the ANC Youth League and Mr. âSecretary generalâ of the COSATU, have painted a, naked, ugly, picture of a nation far from being nonracial, democratic, and âfreeâ. Did I forget to mention the crime situation?
Donât lie to me, South Africa!
You have inherited, and more so â learned, all the vices but none of the good from your ex colonial maters and wasted no time to put them into practice. You are arrogant when pointing fingers to your neighbors for being unkind and undemocratic to their people, and shameless considering the barbaric xenophobia attacks on innocent foreign nationals, brutality of crimes against your own, and last but not the least the various veiled and overt hate speeches made by your grassroots leadership as well as the government ministers.
Let truth be told: you donât deserve Nelson Mandela â for all you have done is against what he has been standing for; and in this context, your constitution is nothing but a piece of scrap paper. So far as I see you as a nation have not had much to be proud of.
Now, letâs talk a little about the SABC â its MorningLive programs, and the prime time News.
Immediately after the High Courtâs ruling on the predicament of the ethnical South African Chinese the anchor, who is now on her maternity leave, and her successor of the MorningLive wasted no time to let their thinly veiled dissatisfaction be known to the public by selecting only the in-coming letters spewing out sentimental statements against the ruling. By doing so they have let their standpoint well read by anyone who had the misfortune to watch their shows.
As the official mouthpiece of the nation, particularly as a propaganda machine (please donât further kid me, denying such disposition that is associated with national broadcasters anywhere in the world!), the insinuation of those individualsâ conduct can only be interpreted as well-thought-through and deep-intentioned.
In the west, which most of the South Africans â especially the intellectual type always try to look up to, insinuation of the media has become the single most powerful and well-used weapon under the protection of the âfreedom of speechâ act for the well-positioned few to send their messages, be it xenophobia or other hidden political agendas and in this case a racist opinion, through to the willing public in the hope to ignite emotional and physical reaction to the fine tune of their own ideologies. What has happened in the SABCâs MorningLive program is a blatant display of ignorance of the history and racial-motivated injustice, equivalent to the notorious refutation of massacre endured by the Jewish people in the World War Two.
Shame on you, MorningLive!
Then there is this Monday evening primetime program â âOne Year in Tibetâ, with the local prologue started as, âHas the Chinese suppressed the Tibetansâ¦â
What a, pre-concluded, rather statement-like, question! Of course â Yes! Why bother ask?
Because what followed is a, well-orchestrated, masterfully edited, sentimentally charged, and romantically flaunted, âdocumentaryâ insinuation! Have I said âinsinuationâ? Again!?
I am sorry to say the amount of anti-China and -Chinese sentiment of the âdocumentaryâ can only be matched by the level of mistranslation (put it mildly) of the dialogues, ignorance of the history, distortion of the facts, omission of the historical comparison of the past and present of Tibet in which the film was made. The monologue in the picture has abundantly showcased the western fear and bias towards the renaissance of the Chinese nation. Put such SABC broadcasting of this âdocumentaryâ into the context of the still very fresh memories of the sudden outburst of the Tibet riot and the ensuing Olympic Torch Relay protest saga in Paris, London, and San Francisco, the linkage between them was not hard to find.
I cannot help but ask: what are you up to, SABC?
While your western master controlled major news agencies have apologized â be it half-hearted, forced or thinly veiled â for the lies and distorted reports about their unsavory deeds in the anti-China rhetoric drive, has SABC ever reflected the way it copycatted the action by the predominant propaganda mouthpieces of the ex colonial masters? Though having rid off apartheid government and old colonial institutions, you are still a herd mentally colonized by your ex masters.
By the way you seem to have forgotten that China was one of the very few countries in the world overtly supported both theoretically and physically anti-colonialism on the continent as well as the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa since day one while most western countries, led by the US of A, and your ex-colonial masters took ANC as a terrorist organization. And only 14 years after the democracy prevailed in this country has United States government officially delisted Mr. Mandela and his comrades from that list. What a shame!
Though it is highly against my intelligence, I still hope those incidents are just a case of âindividual misjudgmentsâ and not a demonstration of the collective âwisdomâ of the whole SABC as a state institution. If so, I want to see the correction to these outrageous conducts.
If not, shame on you, SABC! In the forthcoming Beijing Olympic games your representatives on the ground probably will not find too many friendly Chinese faces.
By the way, the following facts (mind you: FACTS) are merely for your perusal in case you donât know about China; and I will try not to use too many adjective therefore:
China, the third largest country (proximately 960 millions square meters â seas not included) and the most populous nation (over 1.3 billion people) in the world the Year 2008 is actually the Year 4 705 â according to Chinese calendar;
The recorded written history of China is over 5000 years;
Chinese learned to write 6000 years ago;
Chinese writing was formalized 206-220 BC;
Those were the ages the ancestors of your ex colonial masters were still dwelling in wilds and caves as such;
The first Chinese literature achievement with historical proportion dated back to 221BC;
China is the country of poem â the achievement of her poets, together with the artists in various other fields such as painting, calligraphy, architecture, etc., has no surpass by any nation in the world, considering its volume, time span, and the overall influence to human civilization in general;
So too is Chinese philosophy, which includes Confuciusism, Taoism, and many others;
So too is Chinese warcraft that dates back to 2500 years ago, worldwide revered today;
So too is Chinese medicine, systemized over 1000 years ago long before western medicine took any shape, and still flourishing today, well beyond the boundary of China;
Chinese invented, among countless other things, the gunpowder, paper, printing system, and seafaring compass, which become the cornerstones of the modern world;
Today, China has the fastest-growing economy (9.7% rate annually since the 1970s);
the top ranking in high-tech competitiveness; $1.53 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, about $500 billion more than Japan, the next largest holder; produces more clothing, cement, gold and steel than any other country; 2.4 million university graduates in 2006, more than the U.S., Japan and France combined; alleviated within 20 years more than 300 million people from abject poverty, equivalent to 75% of the world totalâ¦
Promise, I can go on and on like this, without bringing in the prospect of the foreseeable future. But no, I need not to â because my point is up to now made clear:
As a Chinese (thank God I am not an ethnic South African Chinese and donât have to take the crab from anyone with paranoia syndrome and self-ingrained racial inferior complexion!) I have a lot to be proud of. Nonetheless, I am not a racist. And please, SABC and the people alike, donât make me one.
|
james tangren
07-07-08, 07:44 AM |
I am no racist. Please don’t make me one!
I am no racist. Please donât make me one!
â A protest to the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
Boasting to have the âfinestâ constitution in the world and the worldwide revered liberation icon Mr. Nelson Mandela, South Africans, especially the blacks, are not a horde to shy away from praising themselves a so-called ânonracialâ ârainbow nationâ of âdemocracyâ and âfreedomâ. But from an outsider â living here for the last thirteen years and in whose upbringing modesty is deemed the virtue of man and hence the nation ââs point of view the truth on the ground could not be further from the claim.
From the recent nationwide grassrootsâ xenophobia attacks of foreign nationals to the Labor Minister Membathisi Mdladlana and spokespersons for the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu)âs strong stance against the Pretoria High Courtâs ruling to declare that ethnically Chinese South Africans, who qualified for citizenship before 1993, qualify for benefits in terms of the 1999 Employment Equity Act and the 2004 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act which have defined “black people” as a generic term for “Africans, coloureds and Indians” but failed to specifically mention Chinese, who under apartheid were classed as coloured, and not to mention the infamous kill-for-Zuma public speeches made by Mr. âPresidentâ of the ANC Youth League and Mr. âSecretary generalâ of the COSATU, have painted a, naked, ugly, picture of a nation far from being nonracial, democratic, and âfreeâ. Did I forget to mention the crime situation?
Donât lie to me, South Africa!
You have inherited, and more so â learned, all the vices but none of the good from your ex colonial maters and wasted no time to put them into practice. You are arrogant when pointing fingers to your neighbors for being unkind and undemocratic to their people, and shameless considering the barbaric xenophobia attacks on innocent foreign nationals, brutality of crimes against your own, and last but not the least the various veiled and overt hate speeches made by your grassroots leadership as well as the government ministers.
Let truth be told: you donât deserve Nelson Mandela â for all you have done is against what he has been standing for; and in this context, your constitution is nothing but a piece of scrap paper. So far as I see you as a nation have not had much to be proud of.
Now, letâs talk a little about the SABC â its MorningLive programs, and the prime time News.
Immediately after the High Courtâs ruling on the predicament of the ethnical South African Chinese the anchor, who is now on her maternity leave, and her successor of the MorningLive wasted no time to let their thinly veiled dissatisfaction be known to the public by selecting only the in-coming letters spewing out sentimental statements against the ruling. By doing so they have let their standpoint well read by anyone who had the misfortune to watch their shows.
As the official mouthpiece of the nation, particularly as a propaganda machine (please donât further kid me, denying such disposition that is associated with national broadcasters anywhere in the world!), the insinuation of those individualsâ conduct can only be interpreted as well-thought-through and deep-intentioned.
In the west, which most of the South Africans â especially the intellectual type always try to look up to, insinuation of the media has become the single most powerful and well-used weapon under the protection of the âfreedom of speechâ act for the well-positioned few to send their messages, be it xenophobia or other hidden political agendas and in this case a racist opinion, through to the willing public in the hope to ignite emotional and physical reaction to the fine tune of their own ideologies. What has happened in the SABCâs MorningLive program is a blatant display of ignorance of the history and racial-motivated injustice, equivalent to the notorious refutation of massacre endured by the Jewish people in the World War Two.
Shame on you, MorningLive!
Then there is this Monday evening primetime program â âOne Year in Tibetâ, with the local prologue started as, âHas the Chinese suppressed the Tibetansâ¦â
What a, pre-concluded, rather statement-like, question! Of course â Yes! Why bother ask?
Because what followed is a, well-orchestrated, masterfully edited, sentimentally charged, and romantically flaunted, âdocumentaryâ insinuation! Have I said âinsinuationâ? Again!?
I am sorry to say the amount of anti-China and -Chinese sentiment of the âdocumentaryâ can only be matched by the level of mistranslation (put it mildly) of the dialogues, ignorance of the history, distortion of the facts, omission of the historical comparison of the past and present of Tibet in which the film was made. The monologue in the picture has abundantly showcased the western fear and bias towards the renaissance of the Chinese nation. Put such SABC broadcasting of this âdocumentaryâ into the context of the still very fresh memories of the sudden outburst of the Tibet riot and the ensuing Olympic Torch Relay protest saga in Paris, London, and San Francisco, the linkage between them was not hard to find.
I cannot help but ask: what are you up to, SABC?
While your western master controlled major news agencies have apologized â be it half-hearted, forced or thinly veiled â for the lies and distorted reports about their unsavory deeds in the anti-China rhetoric drive, has SABC ever reflected the way it copycatted the action by the predominant propaganda mouthpieces of the ex colonial masters? Though having rid off apartheid government and old colonial institutions, you are still a herd mentally colonized by your ex masters.
By the way you seem to have forgotten that China was one of the very few countries in the world overtly supported both theoretically and physically anti-colonialism on the continent as well as the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa since day one while most western countries, led by the US of A, and your ex-colonial masters took ANC as a terrorist organization. And only 14 years after the democracy prevailed in this country has United States government officially delisted Mr. Mandela and his comrades from that list. What a shame!
Though it is highly against my intelligence, I still hope those incidents are just a case of âindividual misjudgmentsâ and not a demonstration of the collective âwisdomâ of the whole SABC as a state institution. If so, I want to see the correction to these outrageous conducts.
If not, shame on you, SABC! In the forthcoming Beijing Olympic games your representatives on the ground probably will not find too many friendly Chinese faces.
By the way, the following facts (mind you: FACTS) are merely for your perusal in case you donât know about China; and I will try not to use too many adjective therefore:
China, the third largest country (proximately 960 millions square meters â seas not included) and the most populous nation (over 1.3 billion people) in the world the Year 2008 is actually the Year 4 705 â according to Chinese calendar;
The recorded written history of China is over 5000 years;
Chinese learned to write 6000 years ago;
Chinese writing was formalized 206-220 BC;
Those were the ages the ancestors of your ex colonial masters were still dwelling in wilds and caves as such;
The first Chinese literature achievement with historical proportion dated back to 221BC;
China is the country of poem â the achievement of her poets, together with the artists in various other fields such as painting, calligraphy, architecture, etc., has no surpass by any nation in the world, considering its volume, time span, and the overall influence to human civilization in general;
So too is Chinese philosophy, which includes Confuciusism, Taoism, and many others;
So too is Chinese warcraft that dates back to 2500 years ago, worldwide revered today;
So too is Chinese medicine, systemized over 1000 years ago long before western medicine took any shape, and still flourishing today, well beyond the boundary of China;
Chinese invented, among countless other things, the gunpowder, paper, printing system, and seafaring compass, which become the cornerstones of the modern world;
Today, China has the fastest-growing economy (9.7% rate annually since the 1970s);
the top ranking in high-tech competitiveness; $1.53 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, about $500 billion more than Japan, the next largest holder; produces more clothing, cement, gold and steel than any other country; 2.4 million university graduates in 2006, more than the U.S., Japan and France combined; alleviated within 20 years more than 300 million people from abject poverty, equivalent to 75% of the world totalâ¦
Promise, I can go on and on like this, without bringing in the prospect of the foreseeable future. But no, I need not to â because my point is up to now made clear:
As a Chinese (thank God I am not an ethnic South African Chinese and donât have to take the crab from anyone with paranoia syndrome and self-ingrained racial inferior complexion!) I have a lot to be proud of. Nonetheless, I am not a racist. And please, SABC and the people alike, donât make me one.
|
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