In The Shadow Of Mandela On The Anniversary of My Birth
June 30th, 2011 - by: danny
Sorry that my blog has been erratic but some water dropped on my computer during the film festival in Zanzibar. It was a stupid accident. $500 later and after many days of stress, it has been fixed.
Thanks to all who sent birthday greetings. I was so touched to hear from so many folks all over the world.
This report from South Africa touches on how I spent my birthday.
AS MANDELA TURNS 93, HE RELEASES A NEW BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA: Nelson Mandela, icon-hero of the world, turns 93 this month. He is hanging on despite family tragedies that claimed another great-grandchild in June. The child was born premature and died after just four days,
The man known by his clan name, Madiba, still evokes wonder and admiration and almost god-like reverence, with airport stores selling We Love Mandela posters and Tshirts. He is the one South African that most of South Africans take pride in, including the older generation that first knew him as an apartheid government designated terrorist.
So feared was he that his picture could not be shown in the media and his words could not be quoted for 27 years.
Ironically, all these years later he has released a book of authorized quotations (‘By himself’) that cull his thoughts from a life time of public and private utterances in letters, private papers, audio recordings as well as generations of speechifying.
Mandela doesn’t really get out much anymore although a select few can still get in to see him especially if their name is Michelle Obama, whose comment on being given an advanced copy of the quotations was a not very quotable, “Wow!” (I have that on good authority from someone who was in the room.)
The last big book of political quotations that went to the top of the sales charts that I remember was Mao’s Little Red Book. China’s Communist party assured it would be a global bestseller given the size of the population, their control over the country and penchant for disseminating propaganda. Mao’s idea appealed to Moammar Gadaffy who then released his own Little “Green Book” to thunderous yawns.
Mao used his book to fight his ill-fated cultural revolution; Now, Mandela’s collection that could be called a little book of struggle and solidarity is out to promote the fight for democracy he led.
Its mission is spelled out in a letter he wrote from his prison cell to his daughter Zindzi back in 1980. That quotation explains: “A good pen can also remind us of the happiest moments in our lives, bring noble ideas in our dens, our blood and our souls, It can turn tragedy into hope and victory.”
It wasn’t just his words that brought his victory but they surely helped. This collection features more than 2,000 quotations over 60 years, organized into 300 categories including “character” “courage” and “reconciliation.” Many have never been published before and were archived by the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Memory Project. The editors, Sello Hatang and Sahm Venter ” say their aim is to offer an accurate and extensive resource.
“In editing the book,” they write, ” we were struck as much by the gravitas of his words…as by their simplicity.”
I was fortunate to be at the book’s launch in the offices of the Foundation in Johannesburg.
It was an appropriate place for me to spend my June 27th birthday reflecting on Mandela’s triumphs and my own small role in bringing some of them to public attention with six films documenting some of what happened after his release from prison – his election campaign in 1994 and two visits to America, among other memorable markers in his amazing life.
The event was typically low key with a few talks by people who knew him well, worked with him in the ANC and served alongside him in the cells on Robben Island. I knew some of the stalwarts who were there and they were very welcoming to have me back among them.
Doing what I could as a journalist and TV producer to help free South Africa is work that I am very proud of. In the end, I received far more than I gave. It was a great privilege.
In the formal program, his daughter from his first marriage told of visiting her father in prison and being asked if she had had a pap smear. Despite his reputation as a Victorian patrician, he was open about personal matters, and shocked her by talking about intimate subjects even urging her not to have unprotected sex.
Ahead of his time, that orientation led him years later to become a global leader in the fight against AIDS, an epidemic that also claimed one of his sons.
A former ANC leader described him as someone who was open to, and welcomed disagreement and debate to correct him when he was “wrong.” She read quotes that showed Mandela’s openness to criticism and self-criticism, qualities we don’t see in many world leaders better known for arrogance and elitism.
Two quotes in the book offer insight to his approach and humility. This comes from a speech he gave in September 1953:
“Long speeches, the shaking of fists, the banging of tables and strongly worded resolutions out of touch with the objective conditions do not bring about mass action and can do a great deal of harm to the organization and the struggle we serve.”
Although he often looks stern he also values a good sense of humor, explaining in 2005:
“You sharpen your ideas by reducing yourself to the level of the people you are with and a sense of humor and a complete relaxation, even when you are discussing serious things does help to mobilize friends around you. And I love that.”
Next was Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada, one of the eight convicted activists including Mandela assigned to a special section in the draconian Robben Island prison. The apartheid government practiced its racism there openly, giving Kathrada, an Indian, more privileges than his black comrades. He joined Mandela in protesting discriminatory practices.
Mandela always “led from the front,” he explained, taking principled stands and refusing any special treatment unless it was also given to his colleagues. Kathrada’s description of their life together on the inside for decades was vivid and matter of fact, even if his words brought tears to the eyes of people who have heard his stories before. These prisoners had nothing but contempt for the court’s verdict because they knew was made on a political basis, not a legal one.
Mandela himself embraces the notion of the role of people in the front. He puts it simply in this quotation: “Good Leaders Lead.” And leading he still is with several foundations, one for children, one focused on Aids, and the principal one encouraging community dialogues to fight xenophobia and violence,
Sitting in the front row and listening was one of the lawyers who represented Kathrada and Mandela in their famous treason trial. He is a legal legend by the name of George Bizos who came to South Africa from Greece, the cradle of democracy.
It was Bizos who convinced Mandela to add three small words to his most famous quotation, the one in which he told his Judges he was prepared to die for his ideals.
Bizos persuaded him not to be so categorical by, in effect, challenging the state to kill him. Before the phrase vowing he was ready to die, his lawyer interjected the words “If needs be” to the statement of defiance giving Mandela some political wriggle room. In the end, he was not sentenced to death and lived to outlast his warders and go from prison to the presidency.
Mandela is right: words and ideas matter, but he also insists they must lead to action. The movement he led was admired for its moral stance. Today, that movement is in power, known for the progress it brought but also for a pervasive corruption that threatens the legacy of his beloved African National Congress (ANC).
Cry the Beloved Country was one of South Africa’s greatest novels. Today, many of those who fought for it are crying about its self-inflicted crises. That’s an issue I will return to.
News Dissector Danny Schechter produced the globally broadcast TV series South Africa Now and was a director six documentary films about Nelson Mandela. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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From Zanzibar With Love; Yay!, Artist Ai Wei Wei is Free in China
June 23rd, 2011 - by: danny
LATEST ON AI WEI WEI: FREE, BUT NOT REALLY
He was released after phony tax evasion charges were brought against him, and he agreed to pay. The Chinese artist and critic of the government may be out of jail but he is now under a gag order and not free to speak freely.
Al Jazeera.net Posts My Report on the revolt in Spain.
If You happen to be visiting Zanzibar in East Africa, Thursday, please come to my talk:
14:30 — 17:00 A Forum on Global Media with Donald Ranvaud and Danny Schechter
BACK TO AFRICA
I think one of the interests and passions that has set me apart from other bloggers and political activists consumed with fighting or ventilating about the partisan wars in the USA, is an interest in the world, especially Africa.
I first came to Tanzania in 1967 at the age of 25. I had been in apartheid South Africa and had come to Dar Es Salaam to meet the many African liberation movements headquartered here then. Many had offices on Nkrumah Street named after the Ghanian leader and father of pan-Africanism on a kind of revolutionary row
The ANC of South Africa was here and so was Mozambique’s FRELIMO, Angola’s MPLA and Naimibia’s SWAPO, all under the auspices of the Organization Of African Unity’s (OAU) Liberation Committee,
It was a time of planning guerilla wars by relatively inexperienced movements who had no idea then of how the dominos would fall in the years ahead. The Portuguese Colonial Empire fell in ’75, Namibia became Independent thanks to the UN’s intervention and military pressure by Cuban troops in Angola. Mandela wouldn’t be released until l990 and its first democratic elections held in 1994.
It was a long haul, a protracted struggle but Africa is a very different place.
Now I am at a wonderful Film Festival on the beautiful Island of Zanzibar. I seem to be going around the clock with little time to blog, but here at least is some more info on the festival from the website at Ziff.or.tz. Check it out.
A SEASON OF VISION
It is customary for us to think of the weather or specific holidays when we speak of a season. The common factor of course is that time is the subject … a period of time. A Vision, for most, conjures up something ephemeral, eerie, something from another place, or most commonly, a moment of great perception.
Together these two words may create a mindset which increases the importance of each. In our fast paced dynamic existence more of the world’s population are increasingly giving themselves time to ponder solutions to our collective predicaments.
The “Aha phenomenon” is experienced when the solution to a problem suddenly presents itself, when we least expect it. The creation of life changing ideas, dreams, understanding, meaning, presents possible solutions and give way to fence-mending dialogue.
Increasingly we see, hear and read of effective new discoveries in many fields of endeavour a testament to human creativity and brilliance, which is paramount to our existence. It is with this in mind that ZIFF hopes to assist by providing an increasingly vital energetic forum to galvanise its international connections to achieve greater heights.
Some of the Films:
Forgotten Gold (70Min), Drc Forgotten Gold tells the story of one of Africa’s legendary footballers, Ndaye Mulamba, who secured his fame by scoring 9 goals during the 1974 African Cup of Nations tournament, for the Leopards team from the country then known as Zaire. Ndaye was forced to flee Zaire (DRC today) in 1996, leaving family, friends and all he owned, and seek refuge in South Africa, where he has painfully made a life for himself. A man who, at the time was working as a car guard in Cape Town, put Africa on the map with his unbroken record of 9 goals in Egypt.
The Cradock Murders (52Min), Germany Late on the winter night of 27 June 1985, South Africa’s Security Forces set up a roadblock near Port Elizabeth in the eastern Cape Province. Four anti-Apartheid activists, including their leader, Matthew Goniwe, a popular teacher from the small town of Cradock, were in the ambushed car. They had been secretly targeted for political assassination. The film allows the viewer to perceive the oppressive climate of the sombre racist regime in the seventies and early eighties. The assassinations signalled the ‘Beginning of the End’ of this racist Apartheid regime, and
White And Black (58Min), Usa/Tanzania WHITE AND BLACK: CRIMES OF COLOR is a 58-minute documentary about albinism, an age-old African taboo.
Albinism is a genetically inherited condition that occurs in both genders in all countries of the world. But in the East African region ten times more people have albinism than in North American and Europe. One person in 2000 has albinism.
55 Bucks (Usa/Tz) The film follows a small group of Tanzanian women who leave their remote villages to road trip together on safari. These women have never been further than a few miles from their homes, let alone seen an elephant or a giraffe… but now things are different. Their lives have been forever changed from a simple micro loan. All the song and spirit on the bus prove that this is more than a much needed (and unheard of) girls day out, it’s also a triumph of the spirit.
A Country For My Daughter (South Africa) In what seems to be a hard and unwinnable battle against sexual violence in South Africa a few victories offer hope. Human rights activist and mother, Nonkosi Khumalo, revisits the stories, places, and where possible, the women to discover how personal experiences of horrific trauma have transformed how the law against rape is prosecuted. She finds that only public outrage and organised protest have forced the authorities to provide women the protection and justice to which they are entitled.
‘ZIFF Talks’ & Press Conference.
So far the daily ‘ZIFF talks’ press conferences have produced some great and lively discussion amongst panelists, festival attendees and special guests, and has proved very popular with attending media who have showed up to cover the events in great numbers.
Today, Tanzanian animator Anaeli Kihulrwa discussed the emergence of a growing animation industry with contributions from Kenyan animator Kwame Nyong’o. They spoke on the importance of training and support for the further development of the art form. Soren Sonderstrup and Paul Miller had much to say on the effect of new media shaping the current film landscape and the concept of visual communication as a tool for social change, as well as a new era where ownership of content is in flux.
Some highlights from the first five days of ‘ZIFF talks’:
Canada based Ugandan film producer Xena Bautarizah from the opening film, ‘Making The Band’ spoke on the issue of the African diaspora creating positive images for the continent and exploring African identity through film, music and art worldwide.
Nick Broomfield spoke about the prospect of shooting an epic in Tanzania and the hope of creating a thriving indigenous film industry in the region. He was joined by incoming Festival Director Professor Ikaweba Bunting, who first came to Tanzania from America in the 70′s to work in what was then an exciting emerging film industry, something that is only now re-emerging after decades of stagnation.”
Yes folks, there is a world out here beyond Sundance and Tribeca and our own parochial concerns. Here is a taste of it,
And speaking of the world, I was happy to hear that the Chinese government which has a big presence in Africa these days has released the outspoken artists Ai Wei Wei. Tends of thousands of people worldwide signed petitions on his behalf. Thanks to all who spoke out.
I would like to write more about the international financial terrorism targeting Greece but have no time now.
Your comments welcome to Dissector@mediachannel.org
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Dissector World Tour: With Biggie And Tupac in Zanzibar; Report From Spain’s New Revolution
June 21st, 2011 - by: danny
Greetings from Zanzibar, the island of cloves and other spices off the coast of the Tanzanian mainland in East Africa. It is part of the country with a fascinating history that includes the shortest war in History with the British and a mix of Arab, African and Indian influences. It is more than 90 percent Muslim and is part of The United Republic of Tanzania.
I am here for one of the world’s most fabulous Film Festivals. It’s called ZIFF, the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It’s a cool fusion of African and world films as well as showcase of music that rocks the Old Fort here in Stone Town into the early hours. I was invited as a VIP Festival Judge and to give a talk.
There aren’t too many Americans here along with your News Dissector but the ghosts of Tupac and Biggie are in the house, at least in Nick Broomfield’s investigative film, that identifies the likely killers although nothing has been done in the last decade to bring them to justice probably because, as he shows, The LAPD and FBI are involved.
Last week,when I was in South Africa I heard a Radio DJ in Durban insist that the Biggie-Tupac conflict was bigger and more important that the clash between Bush and Bin Laden….. I will be going back there when I leave here, and hope to write more about it,
Right now, I will leave you with a report I did during my stopover in Madrid from NY To SA.
Amazing things are happening there.
IN SPAIN/S SQUARE: A REVOLUTION STRUGGLES TO BE BORN
250,000 Spaniards marched against Austerity and both political parties last Sunday,
MADRID, Spain, June 15: Spain is justly proud of the Paella, a distinctive dish that mixes diverse vegetables or seafood into a tasty fusion of delectability.
They have now created a political version in the form of Tahrir Square-type encampment in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol where a diverse mix of activists—old, young, male-female, disabled, immigrant, activists from Western Sahara, have created a beachhead for what many say is the closest this country has come to a popular and distinctive revolutionary movement since the 1930′s.
It’s been a month now since Real Democracy, a grass roots “platform,” as it called, began a march that initially only attracted a relative handful of activists but by the time it reached the shopping district at Puerta del Sol, it had swelled to over 25,000, surprising its organizers, participants and politicians from the two major parties.
Only this march turned into a movement when many of its supporters decided to stay in the Square, no doubt inspired by events in Egypt, In Cairo, the vast multitudes agreed on one demand – Mubarak Must Go – even its causes were later traced to a collapsing economy and mass joblessness among the young. Their story was driven by social media and echoed in live TV broadcasts. Protests were underway elsewhere in Spain,
The movement became known as “#spanishrevolution” after the Twitter hashtag used to spread news, pictures and footage of the revolt, began with the internet call for a May 15 protest to demand “Real Democracy Now!” The marchers were dubbed “indignados” (The Indignant.)
Activist Pablo Quiziel articulated the feeling, “Amidst local and regional election campaigns, with the banners of the different political parties plastered across the country’s streets, people are saying `enough!’ Disillusioned youth, unemployed, pensioners, students,
Immigrants and other disenfranchised groups have emulated their brothers in the Arab world and are now demanding a voice – demanding an opportunity to live with dignity.”
In Spain, the activists said they were expressing “indignation” with their country’s economy and the parasitic nature of its two main political parties – the Socialists (PSOE) and the Center Right People’s Party (PP) – which carried on business as usual in a predictable dance of mutual bashing and few new ideas while markets melted down,
They also denounced corruption demanding fair housing, jobs, and a more responsive government.
But they had moved beyond electoral politics creating a liberated village with tents and makeshift structures. They had no leaders and didn’t want any. They practiced a form of consensus backed small d democratic decision-making. It reminded me of what I read of utopian communities in which “the people” run the show. Soon, the spirit of what they are doing and asking for resonated in more than 160 cities and towns.
I got there a month after what is known as the May 15th movement was started, and almost by accident. On my way to South Africa, I flew the Spanish carrier Iberia only discover I would have a 12 hour layover. Since I was going through Madrid, my revolutionary tourism gene mandated me to hop on the marvelous Madrid Metro, and three changes later surface face to face with the revolution even if the weather seemed well over 90 degrees.
Yes, there was plenty of sol on hand. Some of the activists like Liam who hails from Ireland were slathered with suntan lotion because of the afternoon rays. “We are all fried,” he told me.
Although many in the media have already written this movement’s obituary, it seems to keep chugging along, almost amoeba-like, decentralizing, going deeper by organizing popular Assemblies in neighborhoods throughout the city. They have several committees working on a program for what they will fight for. Many are common sense ideas.
While Sol still functions as their public base they already deemphasized its importance by spreading out, almost block by block.
On the day I was there, a small contingent left the Soul to stop an eviction and they were successful after confronting a landlord and the local bank. They exercise an enormous amount of moral authority as they talk about issues in personal ways, free of political rhetoric and bombast. They politicize by example, not by throwing slogans around, acting in a post partisan manner.
This approach seems to make sense to many who see their society in crisis with politicians blaming each other. In contrast, The May 15th movement encourages citizens to voice their grievances and act on their own behalf.
They tend to think like anarchists and talk in terms of self-management as a principle of political economy.
They are very clear about not wanting to replace one conventional hierarchal party with another. They are nervous about grooming or projecting leaders even as one activist told me that rule by consensus can be excruciatingly slow and subject to obstructionist tactic by a few who can hold the majority hostage.
“We have had people praise us for standing up, ” Liam told me, ” We tell them not to put their faith in us either but to get involved in the process of change. We can’t do it for them~”
The movement all over the local press that seems ready to pronounce it a failure even as it documents the free fall of the local economy. A newspaper called Diagonal is reporting on their every activity while activists use social media and post blogs on local websites. (See Comment Below.)
A local newspaper sampled public opinion. They found many voters estranged from their party and disillusioned and many, across the spectrum, sympathetic to the idealism and energy behind their actions. The very presence seems to be politicizing people if just by discussing the alternative to tradition that they represent
Many were open to the new movement’s style and interactive discourse, Bernarda told them ” democracy is really bad here. There are two parties but no one really likes either one.
Says Juan, “I think it’s very interesting that people from different social classes and different groups are joining together.”
Cesar agrees, “Everyone’s hoping this will not be disappear because it is the spark of change.”
Adds Juan, “I am really proud of all of us.”
My language skills limited my access to Spanish speakers but I did talk with David Marty, a lawyer by training, a teacher by necessity and a writer by choice. He sees the movement spreading all across Europe.
“We need a new approach, he says, singing the praises of May 15th bottom up, participatory approach.
What I found significant is that he was not a man of the left. Both his father and grandfather were policemen. His dad won his spurs as a member of the French CRS unity fighting protesters during May June 1968 when Paris was a battleground, Now, his son writes for Z Magazine and contributes ideas for what changes the movement should ask for.
Like many in M15, he is a staunch critic of neo-liberalism, policies that both major parties embrace
As we sat in the Square as its distinctive clock tower, struck six, I Iistened to more speculation laced with hope. No one can predict this movement’s future with any certainty, but its active core seems to agree that it has already done more than they ever imagined.
Writes Quziel, “Spain is finally re-embracing its radical past, its popular movements, its anarcho-syndicalist traditions and its republican dreams. Crushed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco seventy years ago, it seemed that Spanish popular culture would never recover from the void left by a rightwing dictatorship, which exterminated anyone with a dissenting voice; but the 15th of May 2011, is the reminder to those in
power that Spanish direct democracy is still alive and has finally awaken.”
That is the hope at least, that I saw in the Plaza of the Sun.
Comment from Patricia Estevez Re FB from Barcelona:
Hey Danny! Good to hear you were able to spend sometime in Sol. Just to add some info for Spanish speakers, here http://tomalaplaza.net/ info about all cities in Spain with organized activity. Oh! And Diagonal doesn’t have anything to do with the movement: it is an independent paper, coming out every 2 weeks, that has been around since 2005… and BTW, the demostration in Barcelona this past Sunday was double the size than in Madrid ;)
For more on Diagonal. http://www.diagonalperiodico.net/ I was just referring to their coverage,
Danny Schechter blogs for NewsDissector.com.
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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