“CHAPTER FOUR: A NEW DAWN
THE DAY THAT DREAMS CAME TRUE – THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION
For a shining moment on a brilliant day, the country that had been disowned by the world became its favourite child.
At the Presidential inauguration at the imposing Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africans of different races, strangers in so many ways, came face to face with the gulfs their history had created…togther with the means to bridge them.
Nelson Mandela opened with the words:
“We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall…a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
The new President urged forgiveness in Afrikaans, a language viewed by many black people as ‘the language of the opressor’: “Wat is verby is verby.” (‘what is past, is past’).
So let us now work together to make this country a great country. However, be patient. Riches will not come overnight and could take as long as a decade. There is no easy road to freedom. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.
We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward.”
To resounding applause and cheers, the new President of the Republic of South Africa closed with the words:
“The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is now upon us.”
United States Vice President Al Gore endorsed the bright light,
that was the spark of hope in the birth of a new nation:
“This inaugeration ceremony of your new President has been a resounding success for South Africa, and an example to the world of potential race reconciliation. However, the pressure is now on the citizens of South Africa to become a shining example to disasters in other countries, like Mozambique, Angola, Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia and the like (and now especially Iraq, Somalia, and Sudan). The nation that was pariah will now become a beacon of hope to the world. It will allow us the opportunity to hope in a world, which often crushes hope”,
(as adapted from a report in the Argus, May 11th 1994 by Shaun Johnson, Kaizer Nyatsumba and Chris Whitfield)
thanks, mom (your spirit will live on forever)
* * *
“Violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.” So eulogises Robert Kennedy after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in April 1998.
ISRAEL
The political process can and needs desperately to change.
The leaders need new horizons and the critical issue is having the political will to reduce violence on both sides. More freedom of movement will reduce poverty.
This in turn will give rise to a new dawn of security and stability…for everyone, people and nations.
LESSONS ISRAEL (THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD) MUST LEARN
The military approach can never be productive in the long term. On the moral scale it was a disaster, as the endemic cycle of violence only serves to feed hatreds that are already too fierce. You can’t use bullets and rockets to solve what is essentially a social and political problem. The solution, which we all agree is peace will never come from the barrel of a gun.
“I am what I am because of what we all are.”
from LOVE, DREAM, BELIEVE (FAITH), PEACE
LOVE DREAM
BELIEVE PEACE
The 20th century’s most remarkable humanitarians. Take inspiration from the African concept ‘ubuntu’. Each book is founded on the work and example of one of the 20th century’s most remarkable humanitarians. Royalties to Tygerburg Children’s Hospital and Philani Clinic in Cape Town, the beautiful ‘mother city’ of South Africa.
“And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
Jesus’s words in John 8:32
*
Our goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity (through raising the collective consciousness) and offer a compelling alternate vision for the world – one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness from which it emerged.”
- craig (as adapted from Wahid, former president of Indonesia)
(Our goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity, and offer a compelling alternate vision of Islam, one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness from which it emerged.”
Wahid, former president of Indonesia)
* *
“Some people come into our lives, stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts.”
To live on in hearts we leave behind
is not to leave at all.
What can I do?: If all of us make a small ripple, this would turn into a torrent.
“Success is being the YOU that you want to be.”
“There are are only two ways to live life”, wrote Albert Einstein. “One is as though nothing were a miracle. The other is though everything were a miracle.”
“Some men see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’.
I dream of things that never were and say: ‘Why not!’”
- Robert Kennedy
“And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
- TS Eliot (‘Four Quartets’)
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- Dr Martin Luther King Junior
To build a better world,
although you are small,
just build a better you.
