He was however a living legend and a hero to all those touched by his life.
Apartheid was such a horrible reality of injustice and hatred it could not stand, but, without Nelson Mandela would South Africa yet be free?
Having him leave the prison was a watershed for the world. It was a time in South Africa when people realized how oppressed they were. This release validated the oppression and it's lifting.
There is still work to do and I am confident it will be done. His work is still incomplete. The issue of economic inequity is a global problem. South Africa is not alone this time in their demands for a decent life, happiness and the promise of tomorrow.
6 DECEMBER 2013
Mourning the loss of a man (click here) who bridged South Africa's racial divide, many Africans hope their leaders today will be inspired by Nelson Mandela to heal another rift widening dangerously across the continent: the wealth gap.
"We need the next Mandela to fight for the poor," said Thomas Kozzih, 30, a community worker in Nairobi's Kibera slum - an expanse of metal shacks butting up against smart new flats that testify to Africa's new growth that has left many behind.
Nelson Mandela
1918 - Born in Transkei, South Africa
1944 - Joined African National Congress
1956 - Charged with treason, later acquitted
1962 - Convicted of sabotage and sentenced to 5 years
1964 - Sentenced to life in prison for plotting to overthrow the government
1990 - Released from prison
1991 - Elected president of ANC
1993 - Won Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Elected president of South Africa
1999 - Decided not to seek a second term as president
2004 - Retired from public life
2007 - Formed The Elders group
2011 - Briefly hospitalized for a chest infection
2012 - Hospitalized again,this time for gallstones
2013 - Treated for a recurring lung infection, dies on Dec. 5
"We have to get a person who is not after his own riches, a common man. The poor are marginalized," he said echoing the sentiments of Africans long used to the politics of "Big Men" who have lived in luxury as their citizens scrabble to eat....
The message of economic inequality is not just that of the Late President Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated the same. It is one thing for a person, a group to complain about social injustice, it is quite something else for great leaders across the decades to connect to the same social injustice of the people they lead. This is not a minor problem. It is a sustained problem for many peoples in the world, including those marginalized in the USA. The complaint of a world left in poverty is valid and our great leaders are correct.
Walmart doesn't even belong on the same page as the Late President, but, I have a feeling he would nod at this.
Walmart's profit in the third quarter of 2013 was $3.7 billion. $3.7 billion in ONE quarter of 2013.
Below is a graph of the obscene growth of PROFITS of Walmart. One might notice how the profit margin ticked up during 2008 while most of Wall Street lost significant income.
Adam Shell
USA TODAY
5:54 p.m. EST November 14, 2013
...In the fiscal third quarter, (click here) the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant posted net income of $3.7 billion up a modest 2.8% from the quarter a year ago. Earnings per share were $1.14, up 6.5%, and a penny better than expectations, according to Thomson Reuters....
A report in 2010 stated 10% of the American workforce or about 3.1 million people is employed by Walmart. Those employees provided obscene profits to Walmart. Walmart didn't do it themselves. Yet Walmart sees no moral obligation to employees to make their lives better rather than sending them to the local Social Services office.
Walmart can do better in providing a living wage to their employees, it simply loves to corner 'the cheap' market and won't budge from their entrenched wealth.
Macy's or is it JC Penny is having trouble staying afloat, one might want to ask why. Walmart does more than reinforce poverty in the USA, it costs those working in retail to lose their jobs when other retailers can't compete.
So the economic hardship of Walmart extends far beyond the poverty wages it pays, but, it's cost reaches into the USA Treasury and other large Wall Street retailers causing more Americans to enter into poverty, too. Isn't Walmart a great company? NOT !
When is enough profit enough? Never? It has to own the world of retail?
I feel no guilt in encouraging those receiving poverty wages to unionize and demand higher pay and better benefits. When Sears was on the lips of every American consumer, their employees had no trouble making a living in those stores.
