[Marxism] FW throws 70th birthday bash in Cape Town

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The overthrow of South African apartheid was an event of truly
transcendent significance. People who don't live in South Africa,
or haven't visited there, such as myself, cannot even begin to
imagine how significant that is. Racism is so central to the life
of the United States that we can hardly begin to appreciate how.
This explains the continuing support with the African National
Congress receives from the black majority of that country. Yet...

The fruits of the liberation struggle has not been distributed
evenly among the black majority. The bargain which the liberation
forces made with the apartheid regime saved bloodshed at the time
it was made, but the task of full liberation remains on the agenda.
This was graphically demonstrated in the picture submitted by the
South Africans to the Academy Awards this year, and which won the
Oscar.

I saw this movie just days ago. It gives you a powerful and deeply
depressing sense of the lives many of the poorest people have in
South Africa today. It also shows that there are a small layer of
blacks who are doing well, but their lives are at risk due to both
the endemic violence which is so wide-spread in the country and
the inability of the South African political system to bring about
profound change for the masses of people. It's hard to imagine why
the protagonist - he's hardly a hero  - begins to turn his life in
a positive direction. For most of the setup of the film, we see a
man, actually, he seems more of a boy in a man's body, behaving as
a criminal sociopath. Not once in the course of the picture does a
smile ever crack this young man's face. You also get a sense of
how far South Africa has NOT travelled, even though the apartheid
system has been dismantled. The movie gives you an indication of
the the squalor which obviously persists for a massive proportion
of the population. The key to the young lead character's reversal
-- redemption would be too strong a word for it -  are childhood
experiences, some of which are shown, others only indicated. The
film ends as tragedy is avoided, and the life of the protagonist,
as well as the rest of the population, surely have a long way to
go toward a more general resolution. A terrific movie.

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468565/
ROGER EBERT:
<http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/REVIEWS/
60308003/1023>
PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2006/03/south_africa_ab.html
===================================================================

FW throws 70th birthday bash in Cape Town
Clare Nullis    
18 March 2006 09:16
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O252611DC

South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk, threw a 70th
birthday party on Friday attended by fellow Nobel laureate Nelson
Mandela, the man he freed from prison as apartheid crumbled.

"Around the world people recognise you as a historic peacemaker and
nation-builder," Mandela said.

Another South African Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, was among the 200 guests who showed up at the celebratory
dinner at a Cape Town hotel. Former US president George Bush also was
invited, but did not attend.

The architects of South Africa's multiracial democracy were relaxed
and jovial as they posed for photographers. De Klerk declared that he
had "no regrets" about his life's work -- including ending all-white
rule and the reign of his National Party.

Tutu said that De Klerk occupied a "special niche in our history" for
releasing Mandela and legalising the African National Congress.

"His readiness to negotiate with the liberation movements, for
whatever reasons, undoubtedly saved our land from being overwhelmed
by the bloodbath so many feared or predicted," Tutu wrote in a
message to The Associated Press.

"He should be saluted for those epoch-making initiatives and we wish
him God's richest blessings on his 70th birthday," Tutu declared.

De Klerk's birthday is on Saturday.

He took over as president from the hardline white nationalist PW
Botha in 1989 and stunned the world six months later by freeing
Mandela after 27 years in prison. He then engaged in negotiations
that ended white-minority rule by his National Party and saw Mandela
elected South Africa's first black president in April 1994.

His efforts won him a share of the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in
1993, and cost his National Party its place at the pinnacle of power.
He served as deputy president in a power-sharing government led by
Mandela, but quit the post in 1996 and resigned as party leader a
year later, saying he wanted to help the National Party break with
the past.

He left the renamed New National Party in 2004 after the party --
which had lost nearly all its voter support -- said it would merge
with the ruling ANC.

Since then he has kept a low political profile. He and his wife live
on a wine farm about 60km from Cape Town.

Far from retiring, he set up the London-based Global Leadership
Foundation in March 2004 to try to promote peace, democracy and
development. He also heads the Cape Town-based FW De Klerk
Foundation, which tries to further understanding in "multi-community
countries."

The foundation's website says it is deeply committed to the
continuation of "the miracle" of South Africa's peaceful and
democratic transformation, which "sets an example for the rest of
Africa; and provides hope and inspiration for divided societies
throughout the world".

At the same time, De Klerk is a dogged defender of the rights of the
white, Afrikaans-speaking minority, deemed most responsible for the
evils of apartheid. His foundation recently announced plans for a
constitutional rights advisory centre for those who felt
discriminated against by affirmative action and black economic
empowerment.

But De Klerk has no regrets about the reforms he masterminded.

"The new South Africa is a much better place now than had we tried to
cling to a system which had become morally unjust," he said in a 2004
interview with The AP. "I am positive about our future."

De Klerk had a highly publicised spat in 1999 with the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, which investigated apartheid-era
atrocities. He refused to apply for amnesty from the commission and
was criticised by its chairperson, Tutu, for insisting he was unaware
of widespread torture and brutality by government security forces
when he was president.

Tutu once called De Klerk "a small man lacking magnanimity and
generosity of spirit".

In his written tribute on Friday, Tutu said that De Klerk "did blot
his copybook somewhat" with his performance before the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission but said he would be eternally grateful
that De Klerk ousted PW Botha and so paved the way for change.

"South Africa was very fortunate, indeed blessed, that it was Mr de
Klerk who was heading the National Party when he did and not his
intransigent, stubborn, finger-wagging predecessor," Tutu wrote. -
Sapa-AP


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