Nelson Mandela; the third celebrity passing of 2013

Described by Obama as “Influential, courageous and profoundly good”, Nelson Rolihlala Mandela has passed away at the age of 95 due to pneumonia complications. For the past 3 months he was in a vegetative state and had difficulty in speaking. He joins Margaret Thatcher and Paul Walker as the third celebrity passing of 2013.

Whereas Paul Walker was famous for starring in 6 out of 7 Fast & Furious movies (death by car crash), Margaret Thatcher was famous for reducing the British budget deficit and overall debt by cutting governmental spending and increasing taxes, and improving essential services such as electricity;water and transport  by stripping away the power of the Trade Unions and privatizing (removing government control) the aforementioned industries (thus improving them through competition).  Like with anyone, there will be those who hate; with Walker it will be the haters of Fast and Furious movies and with Thatcher it will be the Labour party (who stood up for the national industries but bankrupted Britain through excessive spending) or the ignorant and opinionated Liberal Democrats (who are blocking Britain's recovery by offering free services while the economy is still trying to shrink its deficits as opposed to widen them).

Nelson Mandela was the First President of the Independent South Africa between 1994 and 1999. Before this, South Africa was under control of Britain 1806-1961 and even after independence, had many Dutch 'whites' (that were 'below' the British) controlling the land and oppressing the 'blacks' since 1652.
Only with a combination of the 1974 Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith (giving equal rights to Colored people) and 1983 Constitution Act (allowing Colored people to run for Parliament and Presidency) could Mandela run for President.

Mandela's controversy is in the form of his 28 years in Prison. Mandela supported the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a militant group backed by the South African Communist Party. The MK was the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) and was responsible for 193 acts of Sabotage on government posts; machines; power facilities and crops, the 1983 Pretoria Church Street bomb (19 deaths and 217 injuries),1985 Amanzimtoti bomb (5 deaths and 40 injured), 1986 Magoo’s Bar bombing (3 dead, 69 injured), 1986 Newcastle court bombing (24 injured), 1987 Johannesburg court bombing (3 dead, 10 injured), 1987 Johannesburg command centre bombing (1 dead, 68 injured), 1988 Roodepoort bank bombing (4 dead, 18 injured), 1988 magistrate bomb detonation (3 dead),1988 Ellis Park bombing (2 dead, 37 injured), and attacks on Wimpy diners due to them being British.  In addition to this, there were anti-tank land mines planted by the MK in Northern Transvaal that killed approximately 24 people. At a minimum (judging by the figures present on Wikipedia), 424 people were killed under the MK and 483 injured.

The point however, is neither the death count nor the fact that Wikipedia was used; it is that Mandela fought against the oppressors and spent time in jail for what he did.  Mandela was not a terrorist, he was a freedom fighter. The differences are defined below:

Terrorist: Unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population in pursuit of political or social goals

Freedom Fighter: fighters in wars of national liberation against foreign occupiers or against oppressive domestic regimes they seek to overthrow

Whereas a freedom fighters are against foreign occupation or oppressive regimes, terrorists aim to strike fear into others and not generally oppressed. 
If Mandela is considered a terrorist because he attacked white nationalists in a nation where blacks were enslaved, segregated and treated as second class citizens (see statistics below- Stanford University), then many of the ‘heroes’ in history were ‘terrorists’

King James I could be considered a ‘terrorist’ as he was the one who started colonising the Americas (and killing many Native Americans); as were his successors.

America’s Founding Fathers (including President George Washington) may have been ‘freedom fighters’ against the British but they kept black slaves and considered them second class citizens.

Queen Victoria’s Empire was expansionist and racist (see below), she was technically a ‘terrorist’ due to the number of people that died fighting her expansionism

War hero Winston Churchill could be considered a ‘terrorist’  as he fought in the Second Boer War against the Dutch,French,Germans,Russians and Americans in Swaziland. In addition to this,  he had no qualms about using poison gas in Iraq against the Kurdish ‘freedom fighters’ in 1919 when Britain and the Arabs took over Iraq from the Ottomans and the Turks.

Bhagat Singh is a ‘freedom fighter’  but he killed British policeman John Saunders (who killed his friend Lala Lajpat Raj as he demanded Indian independence) and threw bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly, shouting for, and demanding, the British treat Indians with respect.

Some of these individuals could be considered dictators. A dictator has the facets of a terrorist but is already in charge so his/her actions are only justified if the ‘freedom fighters’ are wrong in what they are doing. At the end of the day, whereas a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘freedom fighter’ differ in that terrorists do not fight for freedom (after all, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah want to wipe secularism from the face of the Earth), a ‘dictator’ is only evil if you disagree with his views. The  'racism' with many of these people should be given some sort of allowance as almost everyone was racist before Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Vallahbhai Patel (so yes, even Indian Gandhi was racist toward 'Blacks') opened their eyes.

Mandela is not a terrorist and deserves to rest in peace. A touching post by boxing legend Muhammad Ali (a man who does not even speak in public due to Parkinson’s disease) shows how much he admired him,

“What I will remember most about Mr. Mandela is that he was a man whose heart, soul and spirit could not be contained or restrained by racial and economic injustices, metal bars or the burden of hate and revenge. He taught us forgiveness on a grand scale. He inspired others to reach for what appeared to be impossible and moved them to break through the barriers that held them hostage mentally, physically, socially and economically. He made us realize, we are our brother's keeper and that our brothers come in all colors”