|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 6, 2013 16:32:30 GMT
So, the old fella has finally cashed his chips in. Not a bad old age all things considered though! But......A view from the Old Quarry. Well my view is, there can be little doubt that Mandela was a great man. He was most certainly a very brave man, he was also a very kind and forgiving man, and clever man too. I rather doubt that Africa will see his kind again. And that my friends, could be the problem. I have family in SA, and I told my B in L before he went that in my opinion, the future of the whole country relied on the heartbeat of one man. Now that heartbeat has stopped and although I hope that I'm wrong, I fear that SA will gradually sink into the sort of corrupt and undemocratic place that Zimbabwe has become. In fact I can't think of a single country in the whole of that dark continent that isn't either corrupt, tribally divided, ungovernable or a combination of them all. Pffttt...if you think that many western politicians do corruption, well those Affs deffo wrote the manual on it!  But...you'd be forgiven if you didn't realise that the old fella had passed, 'cos there has hardly been a word about it on the liberal lefty news channels has there?  Nope....any moment now I expect to turn on the beeb news, and find a black border around the screen, Elgar's requiem playing softly in the background and Bill Turnbull in morning suit with black tie, sat next to a sobbing Susanna Reid. (YCNMTU)  Hmmmm, a wicked thought just crossed my mind (not far to go). Won't it be interesting to compare reactions when another great man of the 20th century punches his ticket. Mikhail Gorbachev is getting on a bit now innit. Gorby arguably set free and democratised far more people than Mandela did, he too was a very brave and very clever man who was arrested (briefly) for his beliefs before he was set free.  Of course, Gorbachev and the people that he freed were predominantly white european folk, so probably that don't count. Y'see here in Leicester, we have a Mandela Park and a statue of Gandhi, but as hard as I look, I so far can't find either a Cromwell Park or a statue of Churchill. Strange days indeed! But, to be fair there is some good news, this only broke yesterday. We are getting a brand new park on the North side of the city. The person that it's being named after was in the city this week. So...I hope that some of you will visit my fair city one day, and enjoy a leisurely stroll along the Martin Luther King trail that's in our spanking new "Reverend Jesse Jackson" park.  Truly folks....you could not %$<&#=+g make this up. |
|
|
|
Post by nob on Dec 7, 2013 17:37:05 GMT
They usually die in threes so two more famous people to go.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 7, 2013 17:45:33 GMT
Well,well,well! Over twenty four hours have passed, and not a single response.........my flabber is gasted! Yep, I didn't think that I would ever see the day when the drinkers here would be struck dumb with that awful pc disease. It's true, there is a lot of it around, some would say it's almost reached epidemic proportions, and just as the plague was originally spread by infected rats, this pc disease has been spread by infected lefties. I did however think that our drinkers had developed an immunity. Seems I was wrong!  He left like one that has been stunned
and is of sense forlorn.
A sadder but a wiser man
he rose the morrow morn.(The ancient mariner)edit...apologies to Nob, crossed posts. |
|
|
|
Post by uncleub on Dec 7, 2013 18:37:34 GMT
Didn't he use to be part of a terrorist organisation.. |
|
|
|
Post by duyuthinkysaurus on Dec 7, 2013 18:50:52 GMT
Yep like some of those now running Northern Ireland!
|
|
|
|
Post by petersmyth1 on Dec 8, 2013 0:45:59 GMT
Well,well,well! Over twenty four hours have passed, and not a single response.........my flabber is gasted! Sorry to have gasted your flabber ratarse but alive or dead Mandela did not influence my life, or probably the majority of squatter's lives as well, so why do you expect a sudden out burst of obituaries to a man who played no part in our lives? Yes I know he was an outstanding figure in S. African politics, quashing apartheid and all that but that was an African problem not a UK problem. Tell me again ratarse why a British forum should be singing Mandela's praises? He did sod all for me. |
|
|
|
Post by nob on Dec 8, 2013 9:02:09 GMT
Im just not interested in the man one bit. But im sick of hearing about it on the news.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 8, 2013 10:03:52 GMT
Well,well,well! Over twenty four hours have passed, and not a single response.........my flabber is gasted! Sorry to have gasted your flabber ratarse but alive or dead Mandela did not influence my life, or probably the majority of squatter's lives as well, so why do you expect a sudden out burst of obituaries to a man who played no part in our lives? Yes I know he was an outstanding figure in S. African politics, quashing apartheid and all that but that was an African problem not a UK problem. Tell me again ratarse why a British forum should be singing Mandela's praises? He did sod all for me. Well Smudger, before I waste my breath telling you anything, would you be so good as to point out, where it was in my post, that I suggested that anyone should sing Mandela's praises, or even type an obituary for the fella? I'll hang around while you do that .....  |
|
|
|
Post by arch on Dec 8, 2013 12:36:02 GMT
I suppose the fella paid the price with the best years of his life, doing summat he believed in. I aint judging him good or bad. There are people over there, who I judge to be evil, still alive that shouldn't be.  |
|
|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 8, 2013 13:32:01 GMT
I got a bit of a surprise this morning when the Andrew Marr prog came on, I was happily munching on my bacon, and that utter prat Neil (we're all right) Kinnock appeared on the screen. Now normally, it's my usual custom when he appears to either turn the tv off, or at least mute the sound, 'cos as you no doubt know, that Welsh boyo will not use two words, when a thousand words will do!  But as I said, I was busy scoffing my brecky. So he was being quizzes about meeting Mandela (boyo was an anti apartheid campaigner) and predictably, Marr mentioned the Maggie Thatcher once described Mandela as a sort of terrorist. Well, much to my absolute surprise, boyo said "Well, strictly speaking, in the context of that time, he was!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Boyo went on to say how Mandela formed the armed resistance wing of the ANC, planned bombings etc etc ... but it was all in the best possible taste.(crosses legs) Anyway, since him and his family got filthy rich off the backs of our EU taxes, old Boyo seems to have softened his views on certain things. Amazing what money can do innit. I'll have to ask Alan about it sometime!  |
|
|
|
Post by nob on Dec 8, 2013 15:08:49 GMT
Lets see if Winnie comes out of the woodwork for the other 5Million dollars she reckons her old man had when they divorced. |
|
|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 8, 2013 18:07:18 GMT
Not surprisingly, on my rugby forum there are several Saffa posters. A few of them have been saying that it's time to get out, before the real bloodbath begins.
They live there....they know what's been happening to white farmers in SA.
Wiki
|
|
|
|
Post by uncleub on Dec 8, 2013 22:28:07 GMT
 Might be time to man the old mission at Rorks Drift again.
|
|
|
|
Post by nob on Dec 9, 2013 9:04:45 GMT
In 1980 a factory in SA did a recruitment drive from our factory, there was a number of takers and in 1980 quite a few were lured by the thoughts of a life In the sun and villas with pools. In reality I think was bars on the doors and drive about with the car doors locked.
Anyway they are starting to come back now, people call the NHS but all these ex pats come back when they start to get aged.
I just hope this toss pot government don't start throwing money at SA to aid it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ratae on Dec 9, 2013 11:44:54 GMT
Very true Nob. Back in my motor cycling days, I had a pal called Basher (B.Asher was his name) Smashing lad, he was a toolmaker at the BUSMC factory in Leicester. Anyway, he got married and then emigrated to SA to work at their plant in Port Elizabeth. This would be around 1965. In 1980 I got a knock on my door and there stood my old mucker Basher. He's come home, and in a conversation with a friend of his cousins, my name had cropped up. He was told where I worked and that's how he tracked me down. Anyway, I was overjoyed to see him and he came in and we started chatting, I immediately realised that summat wasn't right with him. He'd developed emphysema. The care he could get for this disease in SA was pathetic, fortunately Basher had the good sense to keep on paying his UK national insurance stamp while he was in SA Here they looked after him brilliantly, gave him and his family (2 kids) a council house, nurse called in each day and supplied him with those oxygen thingys they need. Sadly, he deteriorated very quickly. Died about 4 yrs later. I sometimes see his son, lovely lad who owns the funeral parlour opposite the Tigers ground. The daughter is a nurse in Market Harborough. Happy days tearing the roads up with Basher and the lads. |
|
