07 December, 2013
Zaphod's just zis guy, ya know?
According to Gag Halfrunt, anyway.
Much the same can be said of Nelson Mandela. Mr Mandela, a former terrorist/freedom fighter (delete according to taste), provided a valuable service in brokering a relatively peaceful exit for the increasingly unsustainable apartheid regime in South Africa, a situation the end of which could easily have become a bloodbath.
For that act of wisdom we owe the late Mr Mandela our thanks and respect. But the current simpering worldwide apotheosis of the man is deeply unpleasant, not quite — yet, at least — as actively frightening as the mass hysteria following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but this reaction, for example,
is unconscionable. Today, the football premiership, presumably all of it, held "one minute's applause" in memory of Nelson Mandela at the start of the match. Forgive me for the perhaps cynical thought that one minute's applause was ordained rather than the more usual one minute's silence in the hope of drowning out possible negative interjections from the off-message.
To be honest, I'm more interested in whether Jacob "Showerhead" Zuma, and Julius Malema — the latter currently out of favour but I don't think we've heard the last of him — are going to behave themselves now the reproving shadow of Tata Madiba is safely out of the way.
Much the same can be said of Nelson Mandela. Mr Mandela, a former terrorist/freedom fighter (delete according to taste), provided a valuable service in brokering a relatively peaceful exit for the increasingly unsustainable apartheid regime in South Africa, a situation the end of which could easily have become a bloodbath.
For that act of wisdom we owe the late Mr Mandela our thanks and respect. But the current simpering worldwide apotheosis of the man is deeply unpleasant, not quite — yet, at least — as actively frightening as the mass hysteria following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but this reaction, for example,
is unconscionable. Today, the football premiership, presumably all of it, held "one minute's applause" in memory of Nelson Mandela at the start of the match. Forgive me for the perhaps cynical thought that one minute's applause was ordained rather than the more usual one minute's silence in the hope of drowning out possible negative interjections from the off-message.
To be honest, I'm more interested in whether Jacob "Showerhead" Zuma, and Julius Malema — the latter currently out of favour but I don't think we've heard the last of him — are going to behave themselves now the reproving shadow of Tata Madiba is safely out of the way.
# posted by Edwin Greenwood @ 19:31 
