- There are plans to erect a giant statue of Nelson Mandela,
65 metres (over 200 feet) high, in the city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
This sculpture would be bigger than the Statue of Liberty in New York!
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- Communist countries have loved to idolize their leaders,
conferring near-godlike status upon them after their deaths. Historically
and officially, Communism despised all religion, but lost no time in creating
a religion of its own: the religion of the State itself. And the gods of
this State religion were its leaders and founders, to whom the masses were
required to pay homage. Vladimir Leninís corpse was set up in public
to be virtually adored. Russians in their hundreds of thousands would line
up to file slowly and reverently past his see-through casket, to gaze adoringly
at his mortal remains. Giant statues of Lenin, Stalin and other Communist
'heroes' were erected all over the vast Soviet Union.
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- More recently in Turkmenistan, which used to be part
of the Soviet Union and is (like the rest of the old Soviet republics)
still ruled by Communists (for Communism never died in the USSR), the dictator
Niyazov had a giant, 40-metre, golden rotating image of himself erected
in the capital Ashgabad.
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- But South Africa looks set to outdo even such attempts
at deifying Communist rulers, with its planned massive statue of Nelson
Mandela. Nothing has been said so far about casting the statue in gold,
or making it revolve on its base, but wait, these are still early days.
In South Africa today, when it comes to the bizarre, the sycophantic, anything
is possible. More days than not, we who live here feel as if weíre
living in a giant madhouse.
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- For the time being, the Port Elizabeth city council has
had to shelve their plans for this so-called ìStatue of Freedom.î
Reason: a battle over prime property. But not for long, according to the
head of the ìStatue of Freedomî committee, who said: ìThe
project continues. The dispute might delay the whole waterfront, but we
believe the statue will go onî (The Mail and Guardian, July 16 2004,
as reported in The Witness, July 17). So it would appear that this monstrosity,
this idol of an idol, will be erected on the Port Elizabeth waterfront?
That will certainly cast a shadow - very literally - over the sunny beaches
of the 'Friendly City.'
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- South Africa is a country in turmoil. It is unraveling
at the very seams. Crime is out of control, with the country being rated
as the most violent on earth outside of a war zone. Millions are jobless
and starving. The health, education, and other departments are in terminal
decline. Racist ìaffirmative actionî is driving tens of thousands
of skilled workers to emigrate. Genocide is being waged against the country's
white farmers. Corruption at every level is wreaking havoc with the economy.
The countryís once-excellent infrastructure is falling apart. A
First World country has very definitely become a Third World chaotic mess.
And in the midst of all of this, there are these plans to erect an image
to Nelson Mandela, the perceived god of Africa!
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- What exactly has this man done to deserve such a status?
What exactly?
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- Today, as I write this, it was Mandela's 86th birthday.
The news reports were full of scenes of people everywhere, including very
young children, singing his praises, sending him cards, and saying things
like, 'We love you!' and 'Thank you Mr Mandela!'
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- But what exactly should he be thanked for? What great
exploits has he done, to deserve such frenzied, hysterical adulation?
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- His life before prison was spent as a terrorist; and
once he became president, what happened? South Africa spiraled downwards
into near-anarchy and ruin. He has done none of the things that make a
man truly great. None. Nothing. Zero. He has, like every Communist leader
before him anywhere in the world, taken his country down the path of collapse.
And yet he is idolized the world over. Such is the utter gullibility of
the vast majority of people today. They believe what they are told to believe.
They have believed a lie.
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- Hence the planned giant image. And when it is erected,
the next giant step towards the full deification of Nelson Mandela will
have taken place. The Mandela myth will be even more firmly enshrined in
the hearts and minds of millions the world over. The world will continue
to gasp with admiration and to sing his praises. But almost no one seems
able ñ or willing -- to discern the obvious: that in truthÖ
the Emperor has no clothes.
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- The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, made a giant image
of gold, and commanded that all men fall down before it and worship it
(Dan.3:1-7). If this image to Mandela is ever erected, will the day come
when South Africans will be required to worship before it? Does that sound
too far-fetched? In North Korea, the Communist dictator demands to be worshipped
as a god.
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- The Oxford Dictionary defines worship, among other things,
as: 'to adore with appropriate acts, rites, or ceremonies; to regard with
extreme respect or devotion; to honour; to regard or treat with honour
or respect; to salute, to bow down to.'
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- Given the already almost-godlike status conferred on
Nelson Mandela by a fawning world, can we be certain that bowing down to,
saluting, and regarding with extreme respect or devotion, will not be required
at some point in the future?
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