Nelson Mandela has passed away

[Reader]

Link for picture above:

Schoolchildren hold candles near a giant portrait of Mandela in Chennai, India. Photograph: Arun Sankar K/AP

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/nelson-mandela-pictures-of-the-day-updates

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

South African government details official observances in Mandela's honor

By NBC News staff

The South African government on Saturday released an updated schedule of official observances in honor of the late President Nelson Mandela, culminating in a state funeral a week from Sunday.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane released the new details and said that the government would work closely with Mandela’s family “to ensure that all events conform to the family’s wishes and are culturally compliant.”

The official events honoring Mandela, who died on Thursday at 95, begin on Sunday, when the government will observe a national day of prayer and reflection “in which South Africans will celebrate the life of Mandela and his legacy in places of worship, homes and communities,” Chabane said...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...s-honor?lite?__source=xfinity|mod&par=xfinity

 

[badhorsie]

A lion of a man, you are free now forever Madiba

[video=youtube;AgcTvoWjZJU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJU[/video]

 

[arielilane]

Mandela's jailer praises the anti-apartheid icon

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — He was with Nelson Mandela during all those years the anti-apartheid icon was imprisoned on Robben Island. And, like millions around the world, he has been hit hard by Mandela's death.
Yet this South African was not one of Mandela's fellow prisoners. Christo Brand was his jailer.
http://news.msn.com/world/mandelas-jailer-praises-the-anti-apartheid-icon


“Difficulties break some men but make others.” (From a letter to wife, Winnie Mandela, from Robben Island, February 1975)


Thank you, Mr. Mandela. Rest in Peace

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Tons of photos of the memorial service at this link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-gather-South-Africa-remember-president.html

 

[Trident]

Tons of photos of the memorial service at this link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-gather-South-Africa-remember-president.html

Loved the pics. The president's wife looked very charming, IMO.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Interpreter at Mandela event: I was hallucinating

ALAN CLENDENNING and JUERGEN BAETZ, AP
1 hour ago

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- The man accused of faking sign interpretation while standing alongside world leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial service said Thursday he hallucinated that angels were entering the stadium, suffers from schizophrenia and has been violent in the past.

Thamsanqa Jantjie said in a 45-minute interview with The Associated Press that his hallucinations began while he was interpreting and that he tried not to panic because there were "armed policemen around me." He added that he was once hospitalized in a mental health facility for more than one year.

A South African deputy Cabinet minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, later held a news conference to announce that "a mistake happened" in the hiring of Jantjie...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20131212/MANDELA_INTERPRETER_AP/?cid=hero_media


Mandela memorial interpreter asks forgiveness, calls himself champion

By Ed Payne, CNN
updated 8:27 AM EST, Thu December 12, 2013

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update 8:23 a.m.]

The sign language interpreter widely ridiculed for his performance at the Nelson Mandela memorial spoke Wednesday with CNN's David McKenzie. "For the deaf association, if they think that I've done a wrong interpretation, I ask forgiveness," Thamsanqa Jantjie said. But he said he has long been "a champion of what I've been doing." He also said he is schizophrenic...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/12/world/africa/mandela-memorial-fake-intepreter/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Violent sign language interpreter's access to Obama triggers investigation

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor

The vetting of a sign language interpreter who got within three feet of world leaders including President Barack Obama during Nelson Mandela's memorial was being investigated Thursday after organizers admitted they were unaware of his violent history of schizophrenic episodes.

Thamsanqa Jantjie, 34, was accused of gesticulating gibberish during Tuesday's service. Members of the deaf community said his movements did not resemble any recognized form of sign language and some groups accused him of being a "fake."

Jantjie told Johannesburg's Star newspaper he started hearing voices in his head and hallucinated while at the Mandela event, resulting in gestures that made no sense and outraged deaf people around the world...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...igation?lite?__source=xfinity|mod&par=xfinity

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

December 11, 2013 at 11:48 am

World leaders bow, pray at Nelson Mandela's casket

Christopher Torchia and Jon Gambrell
Associated Press

Pretoria, South Africa — World leaders and thousands of South Africans on Wednesday filed past the flag-draped casket containing the body of Nelson Mandela, having a final look at the anti-apartheid icon in the amphitheater where he was sworn in 19 years earlier as the country’s first black president.

Some made the sign of the cross, others simply gazed at Mandela’s face through a glass bubble atop the coffin at the Union Buildings, the government offices in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.

Mandela was dressed in a black and yellow patterned shirt, a trademark style that he adopted as a statesman. His eyes were closed. His white hair swept up from his forehead...

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131211/NATION/312110029#ixzz2nGqkFYZH


December 12, 2013 at 8:18 am

Nelson Mandela's body lies in state for second day

Associated Press

Johannesburg — For a second day, droves of mourners filed past the body of Nelson Mandela on Thursday as it lay in state in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.

Mandela’s casket was in the amphitheater at the Union Buildings, the seat of government where Mandela was inaugurated as the country’s first black and democratically elected president in 1994...

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131212/NATION/312120057#ixzz2nGpwAdiG

 

[Elley Mae]

"What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium ... I start realizing that the problem is here. And the problem, I don't know the attack of this problem, how will it come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me," Jantjie said.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131212/DAAKPE1G0.html

and then there's that

 

[Elley Mae]

A South African deputy minister said Thursday that the man who turned out to be faking sign language as an interpreter for the deaf during Tuesday’s memorial event for Nelson Mandela did not speak English very well and worked for a company that has “vanished into thin air.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...352-11e3-91b3-f2bb96304e34_story.html?hpid=z3

bbm, Seems that understanding the language you are signing would be required.

 

[Tugela]

A South African deputy Cabinet minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, later held a news conference to announce that "a mistake happened" in the hiring of Jantjie...

Reallly? Ya think?

This whole thing has been so absurd and bizarre that it is hard to believe that it really happened. It was like a skit from Saturday Night Live, but only for real.

Maybe he should start looking for an agent to get his movie deal done. This has just got to be a movie!!

 

[Tugela]

"What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium ... I start realizing that the problem is here. And the problem, I don't know the attack of this problem, how will it come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me," Jantjie said.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131212/DAAKPE1G0.html

and then there's that

Good to know that there was a crazy person acting crazy right next to your president while he was giving a speech, and nobody did anything about it.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Nelson Mandela funeral: What to expect

About 4,500 people will attend funeral on family farm, followed by smaller burial

Author: By Laura Smith-Spark and Robyn Curnow CNN

Published On: Dec 13 2013 07:17:46 AM EST Updated On: Dec 13 2013 07:59:34 AM EST

QUNU, South Africa (CNN) -
Ten days of mourning for South Africa's anti-apartheid icon and former leader Nelson Mandela will come to an end Sunday with his state funeral.

After Tuesday's vibrant, if rain-drenched, memorial service, followed by three days of public viewing of the former president's casket in Pretoria, the burial itself will be a slightly more private affair.

Here is how CNN expects events to unfold, based on information from the government and sources involved in planning for the funeral -- although plans may change because of weather, security and other factors...

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...pect/-/1719418/23466786/-/yr75pi/-/index.html

 

[Elley Mae]

Good to know that there was a crazy person acting crazy right next to your president while he was giving a speech, and nobody did anything about it.

bbm, not just that but also,

Beyond Obama and Ban, the government says the following leaders will speak:

— Brazil President Dilma Rousseff;

— Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao;

— Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba;

— Indian President Pranab Mukherjee; and

— Cuban President Raul Castro.

http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-names-speakers-mandela-ceremony-164545730.html

surely he signed(pretended to) for the other speakers too.

 

[Leilei]

He faced rape, theft, murder, and kidnapping charges as recently as 2003. And I've seen a video of him doing the same "interpreting" for Zuma last year. Great googly moogly, who thought that selecting this guy would be a good idea?

http://www.enca.com/south-africa/interpreter

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Marlee Matlin Knew Nelson Mandela Interpreter Was Fake: "I Was Offended"

Zach Johnson, eonline
7 minutes ago

Marlee Matlin is none too impressed with Thamsanqa Jantjie, the South African sign language interpreter who performed at the Nelson Mandela memorial earlier this week. Jantjie told CNN on Thursday, Dec. 12, that he suffers from schizophrenia, "which is controllable," and stands by his work.

The Switched at Birth actress appeared on the network's Erin Burnett OutFront on Wednesday, Dec. 11. Speaking through a sign language interpreter, the TV star said she was shocked when she realized Jantjie was making up his own signs. "I 've been to South Africa before and I can understand some of the South African sign language. But I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute. This isn't anything. ' It was almost like he was doing baseball signs. I was appalled...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20131213/b490547/

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

December 15, 2013 at 10:37 am

South Africa buries Mandela

Christopher Torchia /Associated Press

Qunu, South Africa — Anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela was buried in his home village on Sunday after a funeral that mixed ancient tribal rituals with a display of the might of the new, integrated South Africa.

Military officers, both black and white, rolled Mandela’s flag-draped coffin to the family burial plot in the village of Qunu. Formations of planes and military helicopters, South African flags flapping from the bellies, flew over the green hills where thousands of mourners had gathered.

Unlike a public memorial service on Tuesday at a stadium that was rife with problems, the funeral and burial — broadcast on many TV channels — went smoothly, although behind schedule. The ceremonies mixed solemnity with joy at Mandela’s accomplishments, lasted all morning and into the afternoon and were fit for African royalty. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, is descended from royalty...

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131215/NATION/312150014#ixzz2nZCpP2aV


Mandela laid to rest in Qunu, ending a journey that transformed South Africa

By Faith Karimi and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, CNN

updated 12:28 PM EST, Sun December 15, 2013

(CNN) -- With military pomp and traditional rituals, South Africa buried Nelson Mandela on Sunday, the end of an exceptional journey for the prisoner turned president who transformed the nation.

Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood village of Qunu.

Tribal leaders clad in animal skins joined dignitaries in dark suits at the grave site overlooking the rolling green hills.

As pallbearers walked toward the site after a funeral ceremony, helicopters whizzed past dangling the national flag. Cannons fired a 21-gun salute, its echoes ringing over the quiet village...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/world/africa/nelson-mandela-qunu-funeral/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

 

[coastal]

He would have loved this:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...bly-wrong-with-this-nelson-mandela-billboard/

>>>snip

A billboard dedicated to Nelson Mandela accidentally used a photo of actor Morgan Freeman...

"The billboard was erected on the side of a road in the southern city of Coimbatore as part of memorials across India and the world to Mandela, who died on December 5...

(article continues)

<<<snip