international law: Nelson Mandela, revered statesman and anti-apartheid leader, dies at 95

link:  http://news.yahoo.com/nelson-mandela-dies-214057711.html

nelson mandela has passed away due to some complications with a lung infection.  he was 95 years old.  he had led a very adventurous and divided life.  not everyone agreed with his views, and he has been a very controversial figure over the past years.

to me, it will be interesting to watch how much hype there is over his death.  i'd like to compare it to whitney houston.  it just blew my mind how many people stood up and honored her, when she was just a singer.  i bet he doesn't get as much hype.

abby keele
12.05.2013

so, it's been a few days, and just based of my own memory, this does seem to be less of a loss to our world, or at least the u.s., than whitney houston.  honestly, in my own facebook feed, i had more about paul walker than i did about nelson mandela (says a lot about my friends.  i may reconsider my list).  i tried looking up stats about how many tweets per second there were about these things, and i found that that information is hard to get.  i wonder how the news companies get it to report it.

but, my purpose is not to take away from the life and actions of mandela.   my wanting to make this comparison stems from a curiosity that i have had for a while about why we honor those in our culture who actually do not contribute to society, a bit more than we do those individuals how have contributed.  i want to understand why our world is more worried about a dope head recording artist who overdosed than their neighbor who fought in the war for our freedoms. 

i want to know these things, because they disturb me.  i don't want to live in a society like that.  it leads no where good.  it's a dangerous path.  i wonder if i can understand it, if there is a way to get our priorities back.  i hollered out at work that mr. mandela had died and the 22 year old in the cubicle next to me asked who he was. 

now, i'm not professing to be a mandela expert, or an expert in anything international really.  if this class has taught me anything, it has made me aware of how internationally ignorant i am.  but really?  we don't even talk about this guy?  regardless of if you believe he was a good guy or a bad guy, he had a real impact on a whole section of the world.  doesn't he get a chapter or something?

and end rant.

abby keele
12.07.2013