S. Africa says Obama won't visit Mandela in hospital

[alp227]

Source: USA Today

President Obama will not visit critically ill Nelson Mandela when he travels to South Africa on Friday, officials said Tuesday.

The 94-year-old former president and anti-apartheid leader, who is a personal hero to Obama, was re-admitted to a Pretoria hospital three weeks ago for a recurring lung infection. Sunday, his condition was downgraded from serious but stable to critical.

"President Obama would have loved to see Madiba," South Africa International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters, referring to Mandela by his tribal name. "In my country, at my age and your age, when people are ill-disposed, we try to give them space to recover."

President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement Tuesday that Mandela's condition had not changed and that "doctors continue to do their best to ensure his recovery, well-being and comfort."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/25/nelson-mandela-condition-critical-pretoria/2457043/

[Skittles]

1. understandable

"In my country, at my age and your age, when people are ill-disposed, we try to give them space to recover."

Sounds like Obama is respecting tradition.

[Iliyah]

2. Yes, respect

[DreamGypsy]

3. Respect for Madiba and a tribute...Asimbonanga...

... in song.

The British born South African musician Johnny Clegg wrote a beautiful song in 1987 calling for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

The title translates as "We haven't seen him", a phrase which can describe so many disappeared in the struggle for freedom.

Clegg's music was both implicitly and explicitly political; not only was the fact of the success of the band (which openly celebrated African culture in a bi-racial band) a thorn in the flesh of a political system based on racial separation, the band also produced some explicitly political songs. <snip> Even more explicit was the later Savuka album Third World Child in 1987, with songs like "Asimbonanga" ("We haven't seen him&quot , which called for the release of Nelson Mandela, and which called out the names of three representative martyrs of the South African liberation struggle - Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, and Neil Aggett.

My favorite version of Asimbonanga is done by Joan Baez, with Johnny Clegg and Savuka.

[erpowers]

4. He Should Visit

I think President Obama should visit Nelson Mandela even if only for a few minutes.

[Nihil]

5. Don't think so ... can't give in to terrorists you know ..

... or have people got short memories ... again ...
?



Hypocrites ...

[Posteritatis]

6. That's precisely the sort of thing a critically-ill 94-year-old doesn't need. (nt)

[emma7]

7. Re: S. Africa says Obama won't visit Mandela in hospital

I think leaders of countries should be more concerned with the issues in their own countries.

[HappyMe]

8. I'm pretty sure that

most leaders are concerned with issues in their own countries. But nobody in the world lives in a vacuum.

Since Mandela is so very ill, I believe the President is doing the right thing. Now is the time for Mandela's family.