On Fri, 6 Dec 2013 16:58:25 Dan062 wrote:
I am only forwarding this email. Please ignore the reference to the political party in it. Irrespective of your political conviction or inclination, this may be an opportunity for anyone to express their condoleance for the passing of Nelson Mandela. So you may wish to take the opportunity offered here. (there is a link to a condoleance page below).
I don't think we should ignore the reference to the ALP. While somewhat controversial in the past it's now generally accepted that opposing the racist policies of white South Africa was the right thing to do. The Australian politicians who did the right thing then should be recognised for what they did. It was also controversial to apologise for the Stolen Generation. Before it happened right-wing people I knew were predicting all sorts of bad things, but nothing bad happened at all. Kevin Rudd did the right thing and made Australia a better place for EVERYONE. Kevin Rudd will go down in history as someone who did the right thing to reduce the problems of racism in Australia. I think we all need to be asking hard questions of our politicians about their support for racist policies right now. Illegal immigrants who arrive by plane (and are mostly white) are treated a lot better than refugees who arrive by boat (and mostly aren't white). The difference in treatment is racist and is specifically designed to appeal to the most racist voters.
As far as I am concerned Nelson Mandela is my Hero, and I have no doubt he would have been a friend of Linux, and many Luvers would be saddened today.
I'm thinking about Ubuntu right now. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/