Like most I never new Nelson Mandela, my knowledge of the man comes solely from reading and the media.
He may have been good to some and not so good to others but there is no doubt he was a man for the time in South Africa.
Most countries at various times will produce a Mandela, a person that stands out from the crowd, seemingly above the masses in thought and actions.
His elevation in South Africa came at a time where mediocrity in leaders was and still is the norm in the rest of the world hence his rise to fame world wide.
Australia can but hope that somewhere we have our Mandela, we desperately need to shed the current crop of mediocre self serving leaders that purport to have the interests of the country at heart.
Mandela obviously had faults, maybe large ones but he appears to have risen above these faults and demonstrated leadership rarely seen today.
SD

First sentence. For new read knew. Typo.
SD

Foxy that's a load of rubbish,how many "unarmed" black people were killed by the SA Police and Defence forces?
21,000 people died under apartheid, 92% of them were Black on Black killings, the killings attributed to the SA government also include battle casualties from the Koeverts and army incursions into neighbouring countries, some estimates put the death toll due to Police action in SA itself at 518. Now estimates
There's no such thing as an "unarmed" black protestor in South Africa, do these men look unarmed to you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rd7SJu0V4E

Here's that article again, 174,220 people died of violent deaths in SA between 1994 and 2000, between 1960 and 1990 there were 67 deaths in SA Police custody, in 2011-12 there were a staggering 932 deaths in custody.
http://thestringer.com.au/south-africas-tragic-deaths-in-custody-record-and-the-international-silence/#.UqGgCo0hY7Q

So here's your "White Privilege", note that poor Blacks are allowed in majority White squatter camps, if a White set foot in a Black area he'd be dead. Is this type of Apartheid OK with you?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFj0HdW2iDs

I've long been ambivalent about Mandela. I think the gist of the original post sums up quite well how I have resolved that ambivalence. His legacy must always take into account his history as a terrorist. While Foxy has a point, the victims of his terrorist organisation were not always the perpetrators of those atrocities. When one sees all white people as oppressors, as enemies, it is easier to rationalise indiscriminate violence against them.

Had Mandela died back then, he would have died a terrorist and rightly so. Regardless of his motives, his actions were wrong.

Mandela, to me, is a symbol of mankind's capacity for change. He is an example of a man whose youth was characterised by bloodlust and whose dotage was characterised by something very different. He BECAME a symbol of peace. Those editorial pieces that say things like "Mandela is, always was and always will be a beacon of light," etc. are incorrect. I think they also take away the real lesson we can learn from Mandela - that atonement may not always be available, but it is always possible to make a change - no matter how dark our past.

Gaol is where he should have been. For how long is another question.

There are many who emigrated to Australia to escape the violence and most left loved ones behind.

If prison teaches a terrorist 'maturity' as he himself now says, or at least curtails the dreadful decisions they might otherwise make, then the many who did not die or lose loved ones to such criminals would be thankful.

Where the public persona that serves others' agendas begins to part company with the man himself and what he did who knows. However I am not easily convinced that anyone who would commit acts of terrorism or direct others in the commission of such awful crimes ever changes his personality and motivation to offend similarly again. The threat and certainty of incarceration works, and if it doesn't then they leave in a box or too frail to carry out crimes.

If people can use a scrubbed image to moralise over so be it I guess, but all who do so have their own secondary agenda. He is not a hero. A tool, yes.

A few of the usual suspects here are acting as apologists for the brutal racists apartheid regime that operated in South Africa until 1994. Nelson Mandela who personally was treated shamefully by that insidious regime. On gaining power Mandela could have easily called on the majority to extract retribution on their minority oppressors and a blood bath would have insured. Nelson Mandela as a sign of his greatness, virtually singlehandedly prevented South Africa from descending into a state anarchy. The world rightly so is a mourning the lost of a truly remarkable human being.

p/s A true sign of greatness, is on your demise, to see a few sniveling cowards anonymously post detracting rubbish.