Mandela's Twenty Years of Freedom

It doesn't seem that long ago. I remember that Sunday afternoon, watching it happen live on the BBC, straining for the first glimpse of a man who came to help symbolise all the arguments against South Africa's brutal apartheid regime.

It hasn't all been good. The moral downfall of his then wife Winnie, the struggles that continue to plague South Africa with regards to HIV/AIDS, poverty, and crime, but significant progress has been made and Mandela deserves the respect and admiration for his invaluable contribution towards peace and prosperity and opportunity for all in a multi-racial South Africa.

The downfall of apartheid was also part of a greater change for good in the World. One of the best stories concerning this was former Beirut hostage John McCarthy's account of being allowed to watch the 1990 Oscar's ceremony with Brian Keenan (watching television was okay, but news was forbidden) and their jaws dropping when they heard one celebrity say "Who would have thought six months ago that the Berlin Wall would come down and Mandela would be released from prison!" The late 80's and 90's saw some long standing brutal governments either topple or face the beginning of the end, whether in South Africa or Eastern Europe and we should never forget what those freedoms mean