Honoring a hero in a game and a new NGO
Football match for Mandela's 89th"Some of the world's best ever football players are to take part in a match for Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday later...
"Fifa is also due to confer honorary membership on the Makana FA - set up by prisoners on Robben Island [where] Mr Mandela spent 27 years in prison...
[Robben Island soccer goal, at right below.]
"'During the dark years of our incarceration, the association drew together all the prisoners on the island around the beautiful game of soccer,' Mr Mandela said on Tuesday. 'In this way it helped uphold the values of tolerance, of inclusiveness and reconciliation, and of non-racialism and peace that are still dear to all of us today.'
"Former US President Jimmy Carter and UN chief Kofi Annan are also due to join the veteran anti-apartheid campaigner to launch a council of global "elders" to try to find solutions to "some of the world's toughest problems" such as poverty and conflict..."
Former Leaders Create Freelance Global Diplomatic Team
"Melding serious statesmanship and a dose of audacity, the former South African president, Nelson R. Mandela, and a clutch of world-famous figures plan to announce on Wednesday a private alliance to launch diplomatic assaults on the globe’s most intractable problems.
"The alliance, to be unveiled during events marking Mr. Mandela’s 89th birthday, is to be called the Elders. Among others, it includes the retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu; former President Jimmy Carter; the former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan; and the human-rights activist and former Irish president Mary Robinson...
"Mr. Mandela, in remarks prepared for Wednesday, said that since members no longer held public office, they could work solely for the common good, not for outside interests.
"'This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken,' he wrote. 'Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair.'...
"The remaining announced members of the group are Graça Machel, Mr. Mandela’s wife and a noted Mozambican human-rights activist; Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in extending loans to impoverished borrowers; Ela Bhatt, a women’s trade union leader in India; and Li Zhaoxing, who was China’s foreign minister until this year..."
Labels: change
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home