SA Rocks

This video was filmed in 1962. What a fantastic find. I first watched it over at OpenCulture

In a unanimous vote from the UN, Nelson Mandela day has gone international.

Here’s the press release I received:

The resolution was unanimously adopted yesterday, with the support of all UN member states and co-sponsorship of over 165 members, from all regions of the world. This represents the overwhelming support of the entire international community in honouring Mr Mandela. We hope this signals the beginning of greater involvement by the global community in this movement for good.

Mandela Day is an annual international day of humanitarian action in celebration of Mr Mandela’s life and legacy. It serves as a catalyst for each and every person to realise that they have the ability to change the world through action.

It is not about creating institutions with huge infrastructure, but a global movement for good which recognises that positive change begins with small actions. These actions can range from a vision for creating peace and reconciliation to sharing food with a neighbour in need. Mandela Day is particularly geared towards people doing work in their communities and is not event-driven. It is not a holiday.

As Mr Mandela has reminded us, “it’s in our hands” to create a better world. We take inspiration from his example to take responsibility for ourselves and to understand our responsibility to others.

Nelson Mandela spent 67 years of his life actively devoted to promoting and bringing about social change. On Mandela Day we ask individuals to symbolically give at least 67 minutes of their time in service to their communities in whichever way they choose.

We would like to express our gratitude to the South African government for its efforts in making this international resolution possible.

We urge people to ensure that they observe Mandela Day every day – contributing to the global movement for good – and not only on July 18.

If you are interested in supporting the fund and cause one cool way to do so is get yourself a Mandela 46664 Bangle.

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This trailer has been doing the rounds in the SA world of blogging. But since I figure my readers are so loyal I best post it up here on SA Rocks.

The trailer gave me goosebumps, I think less about the actual movie and more about the events that unfolded and the fact that they had actually been turned in to a movie. Here it is:

So I did some web research (the only sort there is) and discovered the following about “Invictus”:

“Invictus” is a short poem by the British poet William Ernest Henley. The title is Latin for “unconquered”.[1] It was first published in 1875. – source

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What will you be doing for 67 minutes tomorrow? I’m a little unprepared right now, so I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing.

But there are options as MR President JZ has proven (he’ll be doing a couple of things apparently).

You could clean up the litter on your neighbourhood streets for 67 minutes.

You could search for you nearest charity and spend 67 minutes helping out wherever they need you.

You could simply buy some food and give it to a street beggar (repeat for 67 minutes).

You could also simply switch the TV off and spend some quality time – outdoors – with the ones you love.

Try to find a Soup Kitchen near you and spend 67 minutes helping out.

Take 67 minutes, drive to all your lazy friends, collect tinned food, a blanket or old clothes from them and donate them to a charity.

Do yourself a favour, become a volunteer.

There is alot that can be done in 67 minutes.

What’s your plan?

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There is no comparison.

Mandela is a different person from a different time who called for a different following to achieve different goals. The closest these two come to one another is the tone of their skin color.

End.

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I hope that Madiba is taking a day off today. He’s old and deserves to celebrate this day with people he loves and love him (yes we all respect the guy) away from the public hey.

First off have a read over at Virtual Africa where you can see how to take a virtual tour of Madiba’s Birthday Places.

Then below I’ve made a list of some of the posts featuring Nelson Mandela on SA Rocks!

Nelson Mandela features on Time magazine cover
Nelson Mandela – 90 years old with all the praise
Send Madiba birthday wishes
South African “Think to Thank”
Have you met Madiba?
46664 – Johannesburg concert review
Madiba’s humble home – Get to know the man

And for more posts featuring Madiba try our search option.

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To quote Trevor Manuel:

“The coin is in celebration of your birthday, but as a country we will be celebrating your life.”

Image courtesy of southafrica.info and South African Reserve Bank

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I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it’s Nelson Mandela’s month of celebration. Let’s be honest, a man like Madiba can’t merely have a single day to celebrate his 90th birthday.

He held a 46664 concert in London, a friend of mine sat next to him on the plane back from that wearing shorts and a t-shirt and Mandela still spoke to him for a while. That’s incredible.

And now it seems as though the trend online is to create special reports, dedicated pages or homages to the man himself.

I have picked my favourite two and suggest that you visit them.

First off the gentlemen from Zoopy have once again impressed me with their incredible design touch and depth of content. Their Madiba page leaves little to the imagination, everything you could possibly want in multimedia content is there for your to see.

Their dedicated page is filled with pictures, video, photos and you are able to leave your comment to Mandela on the page. I suggest you do that! If you have a Zoopy profile and have content of Mandela that you would like to share be sure to tag the content with “madiba90″ and it will pull through to the page. If you don’t have a Zoopy account, get one.

Next is the News24 Mandela page.

This page screams of class, sophistication and honour. The perfect way to dedicate a page to Nelson Mandela.

Their content is much more historical and educational. You can read/listen to speeches from Madiba, you can view a timeline of his life, watch video, see photos and view soundslides of his past. All in all a fantastic tribute to Mandela on his 90th Birthday.

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For some reason there has been no publicity around this neat little website.

As many of you might know Nelson Mandela is turning 90 this year and the race is one to send him birthday wishes!

At the moment Tanzania is topping the charts with the most birthday wishes sent. South Africa is up there, but lagging behind and I think that we all need to show support for the man and his legacy. Go ahead, send him a wish.

And, and by the way, if you do send in your birthday greetings you will be rewarded with a free music download… Queen, ofcourse.

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