Classic British Flight Sim

Love Maggie or loathe her,I'd like to think that this is true.

While visiting the United Kingdom , Winnie Mandela was invited to a cocktail party which was also to be attended by Margaret Thatcher.

When Winnie saw the ex-prime minister on the other side of the room, she barged past everyone, spilling the drinks of several invited guests on the way.
Winnie elbowed her way to Maggie, stood brazenly in front of her and declared, "I hear they call you the Iron Lady!"

"I have been referred to by that name, yes," replied Maggie, peering down her nose at this impudent upstart

"And whom, may I enquire, do I have the honour of addressing?" asked Maggie icily.

"I am the iron lady of South Africa!" bragged Winnie, waving her fist in the air.

"Oh, yes," replied Maggie dryly. "And for whom do you iron?"
Touche! EricT

Talkin of which.. does anyone know how the old boy is doing? Not seen anything on the news for ages.. not seen any news for that matter

ATB
DaveB

Well Dave,
No recent update on his condition here. The latest on our news was about deceased relatives dug up re-buried, and then a court order to put them back where they came from. All to do with tourism apparently.

He had his 95th Birthday in Hospital yesterday

Cheers fella's

ATB
DaveB

Bless him. He's probably the man I most respect in the world. Having spent a lot of time in South Africa during apartheid, I hated the white supremacists and followed Mandela's incarceration as closely as I could and admired his stance. I read his autobiography: Long Walk to Freedom which moved me to tears with the grace and peace and forgiveness that he showed. And even when the regime were pleading with him to accept special privileges leading to freedom he stood firm for the principles of equality and freedom. Basically he sacrificed the best years of his life to achieve the chance for his people to be free of that awful yoke they lived under. And not only did they have to give in to him, he quite rightly became the first black president of his country. There is something very very special about him.

I was lucky enough to meet him once when he travelled on my aircraft from Johannesburg to London. I only had a brief chat to him but he was one of those people that give you their complete attention and speak to you as though you were the most important person to them at the time. He is one of three people that I have met and had such conversations with who emanate a presence, a warm gracious energy that makes you feel that they are very special. There was Mandela, Mother Teresa and Jackie Kennedy-Onassis.

Mandela is apparently relying on a machine to keep him alive but his family can't agree on when to turn it off.

Not many have achieved what he's done and when he passes I shall be watching his funeral and sending him all my respect.

And on a lighter note. There's a joke on Sickipedia at the moment. " My computer is taking so long to shut down that I've taken to calling it Nelson Mandela."

Ian

Ian, thanks for sharing and so very eloquently stated too! Mandela shows us that problems can be resolved peacufully and that is a lesson we can all benefit from.

Nigel²

nigelb wrote:Ian, thanks for sharing and so very eloquently stated too! Mandela shows us that problems can be resolved peacufully and that is a lesson we can all benefit from.

Thank you for that feedback, Nigel. I've got an awful habit of going off on an off-topic tangent and it all goes quiet and I'm never sure anybody's listening

Nice to know somebody listened to my thoughts about Madiba. Although there's always another side and the Apartheid regime would say that he was a terrorist. Depends where you view it from as to whether Sharpeville was state terrorism on a far greater level than the few small protest bombs planted by the ANC and who had the greater moral right and desperation. Mandela wasn't directly involved in violence and had always argued against it. He was a qualified and experienced solicitor which made him far more dangerous and why he had to be locked away and silenced. Ooops - I'm off again

Ian

There are all sorts of prejudice. Sad to say.

No judgement upon Eric's post. I couldn't help but laugh at the pun.

I do love a good pun.



Oh sorry...

airboatr wrote:No judgement upon Eric's post. I couldn't help but laugh at the pun.

Quite rightly and neatly brought to task, Joe

Sorry, Eric, for taking your black humour post into a different dimension. I did have a good giggle at it but rushed into a response to the other comments about Mandela. I'm guilty as charged (and as usual!) but in mitigation, m'lud, it was somebody else wot started it!

Keep 'em coming, Eric.

Ian