Remembering Madiba,
We have lost a remarkable leader. A man of peace, capable of rising above his own suffering to lead a nation towards reconciliation and unity. Mandela understood one's freedom is achieved only as we help others gain theirs, an awareness that he extended even to those who took away his own freedom for so long... His long journey, and the evolution of the events that led to the remarkable democratization of South Africa, leave many lessons for us all, some of which we will discern slowly, as years go by, with the benefit of distance and time.
To those of you who are graduates of the International Education Policy Program, you share a commitment to advancing educational opportunity around the world. Your work advances the long arc of justice towards the freedom that Mandela's light shone for all, near and afar. I invite you to reflect on Mandela's legacy and to think about how it impacted your life and your commitments, and to share in this blog, for other IEP graduates, some of those reflections to remind us that we follow in Mandela's footsteps on the path towards greater justice, in each others company.
To those of you who are friends, I invite you also to share your thoughts as we honor, together, the memory of a great man.
Here is a video of Mandela's speech at Harvard, as he received an honorary degree in a special convocation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zh8otC-c3s
and this was a report of the Harvard Gazette
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/09.24/MandelaThrillsT.html
and here is a poem by Maya Angelou on Mandela's departure from this earth.....
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/07/249439677/watch-maya-angelous-poem-for-nelson-mandela
Fernando
We have lost a remarkable leader. A man of peace, capable of rising above his own suffering to lead a nation towards reconciliation and unity. Mandela understood one's freedom is achieved only as we help others gain theirs, an awareness that he extended even to those who took away his own freedom for so long... His long journey, and the evolution of the events that led to the remarkable democratization of South Africa, leave many lessons for us all, some of which we will discern slowly, as years go by, with the benefit of distance and time.
To those of you who are graduates of the International Education Policy Program, you share a commitment to advancing educational opportunity around the world. Your work advances the long arc of justice towards the freedom that Mandela's light shone for all, near and afar. I invite you to reflect on Mandela's legacy and to think about how it impacted your life and your commitments, and to share in this blog, for other IEP graduates, some of those reflections to remind us that we follow in Mandela's footsteps on the path towards greater justice, in each others company.
To those of you who are friends, I invite you also to share your thoughts as we honor, together, the memory of a great man.
Here is a video of Mandela's speech at Harvard, as he received an honorary degree in a special convocation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zh8otC-c3s
and this was a report of the Harvard Gazette
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/09.24/MandelaThrillsT.html
and here is a poem by Maya Angelou on Mandela's departure from this earth.....
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/07/249439677/watch-maya-angelous-poem-for-nelson-mandela
Fernando
