Nelson Mandela RIP

[Admiral Yi]

Who's rewriting it?

Apartheid had lots of useful idiots in the West. We know this. But it's not a political point now.

It wasn't much of a political point at the time either.  What was more to the point was to the point was the Cold War and South Africa's strategic minerals and location.

[Sheilbh]

Who's rewriting it?

Apartheid had lots of useful idiots in the West. We know this. But it's not a political point now.

It wasn't much of a political point at the time either.  What was more to the point was to the point was the Cold War and South Africa's strategic minerals and location.

What do you mean by not much of a political point at the time?

[Admiral Yi]

What do you mean by not much of a political point at the time?

I mean there were not any supporters of apartheid qua apartheid.

[Sheilbh]

I mean there were not any supporters of apartheid qua apartheid.

I think that's a bit problematic.

There were also a number of bigoted politicians who sympathised with the apartheid regime and rationalised that support. As I say they didn't necessarily support apartheid but they were useful idiots. They also used Cold War politics to really marginalise and attack anti-apartheid campaigners who were treated very dismissively, in this country at least.

Also I think the tack you take does down conservative figures who, even in the 80s, were on the right side of this - such as Newt Gingrich or Mitch McConnell.

[schaksen]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/obama-selfie_n_4419349.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

I considered posting that myself... this link in the piece is gold http://selfiesatfunerals.tumblr.com/

[Eddie Teach]

I fully expect Fidel Castro to get some love around here as well when he passes away, PDH.

What's your beef with Castro?! He ask for your help, you turn him down & then you get angry when he turns to the only other option.

Cry me a river.

America's beef with Castro is that expatriated Cubans in Florida are a powerful voting bloc. Their beef with Castro probably has something to do with their property being expropriated and having to start over from scratch...

[Savonarola]

Now let us praise famous men, with sign language:

Interpreter for deaf at Mandela memorial service was a fake, advocates for deaf say

JOHANNESBURG - He made waves with his arms, touched his forehead and reached out with an embracing motion. And as the official interpreter for the deaf watching the Nelson Mandela memorial event on Tuesday, he stood right behind the world's most powerful leaders including President Obama.

And he was a fake, advocates for the deaf say.

Web sites and radio shows here were flooded with condemnations of the African National Congress-led government and the organizers of the Mandela memorial event at FNB Stadium in Soweto for failing to figure out whether the man who claimed to be interpreting for the deaf was simply waving his arms around.

"Please get RID of this CLOWN interpreter, please!" Bruno Peter Druchen, head of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, tweeted during the memorial event at a stadium in Soweto.

[Read a transcript and get analysis of Obama's speech]

"ANC linked interpreter on stage is causing embarrassment amongst deaf ANC supporters. Please get him off," added Wilma Newhoudt, a deaf member of the South African Parliament and vice president of the World Federation of the Deaf.

But the man remained on stage and on Wednesday his performance became the focus of a new storm of criticism. People who phoned an afternoon radio call-in show said that it showed inept hiring, insensitivity to the deaf, and a serious security lapse on the part of the event organizers. And, they said, it marred the solemn event by distracting attention from Mandela and the world leaders who came to pay tribute to him.

It was not immediately clear who the man was or how he got on stage. According to the Associated Press, Collins Chabane, one of South Africa's two presidency ministers, said the government is investigating and "will report publicly on any information it may establish."

White House officials directed questions about the interpreter to the South African government, but gave no indication there were concerns about President Obama's security arising from the discovery.

"I think the point is that he apparently was not translating him into anything, but was enjoying the opportunity to be on the stage," Josh Earnest, the principal deputy White House Press Secretary said Wednesday at the daily briefing. "It would be a shame if a distraction about an individual who's on stage, in any way detracted from the importance of that event and the importance of President Mandela's legacy."

It was the latest controversy in a week devoted to remembering Mandela. President Jacob Zuma was booed by the crowd at the FNB stadium, rain kept "overflow" stadiums largely empty, and on Wednesday lines of people waiting to see Mandela's body in state snaked their way through a hot, jam-packed parking lot while a single security check point slowed progress.

Many viewers of the Tuesday event noticed that the man was using the same gestures over and over again. Druchen tweeted that the man "is not using sign language at all."

Sign language interpreter Francois Deysel tweeted, "please can someone ask the interpreter to step down from stage, it is embarrassing and making a mockery of our profession."

Video clips show that this wasn't the man's first performance. He was the interpreter at the ANC's Mangaung policy conference in the Free State last year. He interpreted the controversial song "Shoot the Boer" led by Zuma during his election campaign. When Zuma said people would run, the man pumped his arms up and down. Often his gestures were the same as Zuma's. (Boer is a term for white Afrikaners.)


Druchen observed that the phony interpreter "knows that the deaf cannot vocally boo him off. Shame on him!"
 
Interpreters are not unusual in multilingual South Africa, where large groups of people speak either English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa or other African languages. Druchen recommended that sign be made the country's twelfth official language.

Sign language interpreters and others in the United States and around the world also expressed outrage at the incident.

"We, along with many other organizations, are disappointed with the process that selected the interpreter that was shown on camera for the Mandela service, and feel that a great disservice was done to both the South African signing community, and the international signing community," the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Inc., based in Alexandria, Va., said in a statement.

The World Association of Sign Language Interpreters, based in Australia, said: "This situation stresses the need for continued public education about the formal training required to be a qualified sign language interpreter and the need for interpreter and deaf associations to collaborate on pressing governments for standards."

The National Association of the Deaf, based in Silver Spring, Md., said interpreters must be vetted.

"Each country has its own national sign language and sometimes even regional sign languages," the association said. "In the United States, we use American Sign Language (ASL) while in South Africa, most people use South African Sign Language (SASL), which is distinct and uses different signs than ASL. We, at the NAD, cannot assess the qualifications or fluency or lack thereof of the interpreter in this video, but are informed by the South African deaf and hard of hearing community that this interpreter is not legitimately interpreting in SASL."

One expert in the United States who reviewed video of the event said problems with the purported interpretation were easy to see.

"When I watch him, he appears to be doing a lot of repetitive hand motion. It doesn't look like any natural sign language to me," said Melanie Metzger, chair of the department of interpretation at Gallaudet University, a prominent school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington D.C. "What he's doing is not matching the speaker. He's not interpreting the speaker."

Metzger said another tipoff was that the man onstage used minimal facial expressions. Authentic interpreters around the world, she said, make extensive use of eyebrows, cheeks and other parts of the face to communicate in sign language.

It wasn't sign language.  It was the hand jive:

Merkel and Harper and Cameron
Doin' that hand jive just for fun
Jacob Zuma sent them all in a run
When he did the hand jive with his machine gun

Hand jive, hand jive, do that crazy hand jive

[garbon]

I was thinking earlier between the Obama bit, the fake signer, the booing at Zuma and Desmond Tutu getting his house robbed...who knew it would be such an exciting event?

[Jacob]

Cats & Dogs! Together!

Or at least Republican and Democrat presidents, together: http://www.policymic.com/articles/76375/8-photos-you-didn-t-see-from-obama-s-trip-to-south-africa

[11B4V]

Cats & Dogs! Together!

Or at least Republican and Democrat presidents, together: http://www.policymic.com/articles/76375/8-photos-you-didn-t-see-from-obama-s-trip-to-south-africa

I dont see the problem, unless you believe the hype or are a ideological Kool-aid drinker. Ex-prez club is quite unique and bet they have a blast when they reporters arent around.

[Ed Anger]

Cats & Dogs! Together!

Or at least Republican and Democrat presidents, together: http://www.policymic.com/articles/76375/8-photos-you-didn-t-see-from-obama-s-trip-to-south-africa

I dont see the problem, unless you believe the hype or are a ideological Kool-aid drinker. Ex-prez club is quite unique and bet they have a blast when they reporters arent around.

Except for Carter. What a buzzkill.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. I get the impression most British ex-Prime Ministers don't really get on. I can't imagine Brown and Cameron are friendly, I think Major hated Thatcher who was also loathed by Heath. I doubt Blair and Brown are even civil, though I imagine Blair will always try to keep in touch with whoever's in power. Major and Cameron get on very well though.

[11B4V]

Yeah. I get the impression most British ex-Prime Ministers don't really get on. I can't imagine Brown and Cameron are friendly, I think Major hated Thatcher who was also loathed by Heath. I doubt Blair and Brown are even civil, though I imagine Blair will always try to keep in touch with whoever's in power. Major and Cameron get on very well though.

Sounds like they take themselves to seriously.

[CountDeMoney]

Except for Carter. What a buzzkill.

James Earl Carter, Jr knows you hate him, and he hates you right the fuck back.

[Eddie Teach]

He should have stuck to the noble profession of farming peanuts.