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What gives South Africa?

The world is sometimes a great place. Sometimes though, you just have to shake your head and wonder. It is strange sometimes when a nation forgets its past so easily. South Africa seems to be having an episode of amnesia right now it seems. You see, this old withering man who ran away from oppression to seek refuge elsewhere and make a political case for his people while in exile wanted to enter South Africa to talk about Peace. And South Africa said no. Because his presence in South Africa "would not be in South Africa’s best interests." What was that again?

How could the presence of a Nobel Peace Laureate, a religious leader, and lets not forget, someone who many believe is a living god, in your country not be in your best interests? What kind of crap ass grass are you people smoking out there? And, in case you forgot, this man won a prize for PEACE for god's sakes. Whatever god you believe in, whether he looks like his holiness, whether he or she had 8 hands or whether he was nailed to a cross and died for your sins as it were.

What bothers me more is that while de Klerk and Bishop Tutu have voiced their disgust and displeasure with this action, and the organisers of the conference have wisely canceled the event, the other Nobel Laureate and South African leader, heck, world leader, Nelson Mandela hasn't uttered a peep in public about this issue. What the hell man? You were the poster child of fighting oppression and succeeding. I think you have an obligation to express your views in public; you've done that before when Thabo Mbeki suggested AIDS was not an illness or of Robert Mugabe's madness in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Unless you agree with the South African government's stance?

Not so long ago, the powers that be in South Africa considered democracy as a system applicable to those who were white. Not so long ago, if your name was Nelson Mandela, you probably hung out in a prison for believing in political equality. Not so long ago, if your name was Nelson Mandela, you won a Nobel prize for Peace. Not so long ago, there was such a thing as apartheid.

Some of us did trade with you during those times. Some of us pretended De Beers wasn't really South African. Some of us probably have relatives who have gold probably mined somewhere in Johannesburg or Kimberly or elsewhere during those dark times. But we never forgot you or forgot to give your leaders respect. We never forgot what the words 'Soweto' and 'uprising' put together meant. We never forgot the day when you were welcomed back on the international stage to play at Eden Gardens in a place once called Calcutta... you know that place where another Nobel Peace Laureate who was Indian and Albanian worked to uplift the unfortunate ones toiling by the Howrah bridge. Would you have said no to her?

I'll give you that not all Nobel Peace Laureates are created equal. Putting someone like Yasser Arafat or Henry Kissinger in the same category as your venerable Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr or the ICRC may not make sense, but they are still people (or organisations) of a certain standing. I have heard people say that Kissinger is a war criminal, that Arafat was a terrorist who got lucky... and who knows, maybe there is some truth to that. But all these people were awarded something from a fairly level headed organisation for works of peace. Not because of any of their other extra curricular activities or for what they believed in. It is worth noting that one man, who to me is the epitome of peace, was never awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

Anyway, I am not even sure what the right term is for what I feel. Let down is one. Disgusted is another. Angry? Sure. We do know what is good and what is bad. I realise everyone and every culture has different definitions of what is good and what is not. Some of us think that taking a life as punishment for a heinous crime is heinous, but on the whole, we can agree on what is right and what is not. Denying someone like the Dalai Lama a visa to enter your country to hang out with other Nobel Peace Prize winners is wrong. Not speaking out about it is wrong.

How would his presence hamper you? Do you think he's going to run around and burn a Chinese flag and yell Free Tibet outside the Chinese embassy in Pretoria? Is he going to claim KwaZulu-Natal for the Tibetan people or something? No. He's going to come there, hang out with other Nobel Laureates, crack a joke or two with Desmond Tutu and probably do some good for South Africa.

What good has come out of this action? You've got a lot of publicity. Not very good I am afraid. What trade benefit are you going to get from China for this? And why say something stupid like this has nothing to do with China? Its like a gambler saying he doesn't have a gambling problem or an alcoholic saying he doesn't have a drinking problem. Who believes that lame statement anyway? No one buys it. And you look bad for putting money over common sense and the right thing.

Fix it please. There are such things as right and wrong. And if you can't figure out which this is, let me tell you: its wrong. You of all people, who have suffered enough and been treated like second class, barely human bantu types, should know better than to make this mistake.

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