that we all must make. Where that is, no one knows but we will all find out for ourselves one day.
Still millions are now mourning his passing, untold millions weeping tears that he is gone.
The people of South Africa have taken to the streets to sing songs about him.
Recordings of his speeches are everywhere you look. His face is on a thousand tee shirts and posters.
Nelson Mandela started his effort to overthrow the South African Apartheid regime as a terrorist: he
ended his efforts by becoming president.
His work was not done though; far too many South Africans still lived in absolute poverty. Far too
many had little or no access to the basics of life, food, water, electricity, medicine.
There is a lot left to do.
It is sometimes said that a person remains alive as long as someone still remembers them.
We live in the information age. Our memories are no longer mortal. We have videos, digital recordings,
photographs or audio recordings. Many born after the death of JFK or Martin Luther King have memories
of them because they have watched the speeches; they have heard the words and seen the men.
Mandela will be the same, he will remain part of the social consciousness as long as people remember
him and they will remember him as long as they can watch recordings of him, hear him and read his words.
So as those who come after him choose to ignore him and return to a system where the Apartheid is
not based on skin colour but on wealth, they are going to be haunted by his living words.
It is in this way that his intentions, his aims and his desires will remain fresh in people’s minds.
His work was to end poverty, to make sure that the people of his nation were lifted out of the slum
and the dust and given lives as free as possible from hunger and suffering.
Which is why it is sad that in a nation with 13 million people surviving on £1 a day or less, where millions
need the charity of other countries simply to feed their families we have the president spending tens
of millions on his personal palace.
Mandela’s words will continue to be heard across Africa and across the world in the same way that
Martin Luther King’s words “I have a Dream” still resonate.
Here in the UK we have crocodile tears a plenty. Politicians queuing up to praise Mandela and to say
how he has been an inspiration.
Our Prime Minister took time out from his busy day to say how he regarded Nelson Mandela as a hero
of our time, "A great light has gone out in the world”
A man who fought and suffered in an effort to bring an end to inequality and poverty in South Africa
being hailed as a hero by a man who has done so much to return Inequality and poverty to the UK.
As we have figures release reporting that as many as 21% of the UKs population are in poverty our Prime
Minister takes to the media to sing the praises of a man who dedicated his later life to ending poverty.
In a few weeks the politicians will turn to other things, Mandela will be forgotten by the media.
But we live in the information age. His words, like the words of others, will live on. Children not yet born
can listen to great speeches from men who cared greatly that people not be judged by the colour of their
skin or condemned to a life of crushing poverty by a wealthy few.
Cameron and his flunkies cannot delete Mandela’s words anymore than they were able to delete all of
the many promises made by Tories that they then ignored or broke upon coming to power.
Every day, as more people suffer, as more people go cap in hand to a food bank or worry about turning
on a radiator or light. The words of Mandela will be heard.
In the nation of Mandela’s birth 13 million people live in absolute poverty while their leader lavishes large
sums on pet projects and jobs for his cronies.
Here in the UK 13 million people live in poverty while our leader lavishes large sums on pet projects and
jobs for his cronies.
Mandela’s living words will be heard for many years yet to come because his work is not yet complete.