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<font color="black" size="2"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I decided to think Madiba this week. Here's Tuesday's reflection that will be in the Saipan Tribune. </font></font></div>
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<div style="font-size: 10pt; "><font size="2" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Jaime</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Madiba of the Ages</font></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Gandhi,
Churchill, King and Mandela all stood in that "yes" place to dare to
declare their hope, their dream, their confidence in the midst of “facts” that
were telling them all was lost. Their presence of active hope made all the
difference and the “impossible” happened.
Thus, wrote elderly colleague Jeannette Stanfield in Canada on her November
Thanksgiving note. </font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Commenting on a
Paul Gilding book, <i>The Great Disruption, </i>she
added: Now it is our turn to “choose active, engaged and strategic hope”. Human beings across the planet who are clear
on our devastating situation must move through their despair and “roll up their
sleeves.” For we who are teachers,
facilitators and preachers, we must continue to empower and grow resilience
across all sections of humanity in order that as we face more and more chaotic
times, we will together be able to engender hope filled action and compassion
instead of fear and violence. </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">She is
commenting on two disruptions observed by analysts chronicled in Gilding's book:
climate change and the end of the economic growth model dear to economic
planners of contemporary global society.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">With most
analytical bent headed straight into doomsday, it is heartening to hear and
read of those who have the courage to say, "nevertheless". From many commentators this week, we will
hear that word in describing one who is now known as a strategic prophet of
reconciliation and a walking evangelist of forgiveness, a hero in Bill
Clinton's eyes.</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">The Madiba's
much-quoted pronouncement against poverty is once again getting another
drumming and drubbing. He said, <span style="color:#0F0F0F">“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an
act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is
man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great
generation. Let your greatness blossom.”
</span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">. </span>Not
for generational greatness, but Paul Clements, Dallas-born six years before we
hit that town when we attended university, son of missionaries who served in
India and Hong Kong, colleagues in a worldwide effort to further a comprehensive
yet profound spirit movement on human development, is now running for the 6th
district of Michigan's representative to the US Congress. He was active in the divestiture movement at
Harvard when he joined to protest the University's corporate funds from earning
profits in apartheid South Africa. Paul
served in the US Peace Corps in Gambia in the late 80s. The Princeton PhD lad teaches at one of the
State's universities.<span style="color:#0F0F0F"></span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">. </span>Mandela's
claim to fame is not of his quotable quotes.
Much quoted as he is, none of his lines act as leech in the mind that
attaches itself to suck the blood out of one's passion, never again to be
forgotten. Not his words but the incredible
witness of his being that endears him to many of his global followers. All one has to do is watch the man in action,
whether on stage or in office, and one can easily gets mesmerized by a self so
seemingly devoid of aggrandizement, yet so marvelously over brimming with
selfhood, and then, not calling attention to himself, invites each of us in his
quiet ways to be likewise.<span style="color:#0F0F0F"></span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">. </span>The
forgiving applies as well to ex-VP Dick Cheney, the power behind the swivel chair
while George Bush the younger sat in the White House's Oval office. He was unrepentant in his vote to clear the
ANC as a terrorist organization in the US Congress. In fact, Mandela remained in the US terrorist
list until 2008, to Condoleezza Rice's great consternation.<span style="color:#0F0F0F"></span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">. </span>We
will say the "nevertheless" word to radio commentator Rush Limbaugh's
harangue on the White House as using Mandela's demise to prop-up Obama, and his
venom against the Clintons, accusing the couple of being opportunistic
political riders on the tailcoat of Mandela's greatness. We will even go so far as to forgive members
of the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas for tweeting that they are preparing
to fly to South Africa to picket Mandela's state funeral!<span style="color:#0F0F0F"></span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15); "><font size="2">. </font> </span>To
what length does one go to forgive? In
the case of the Nobel Laureate Xhosa regal tribesman, it seems endless, making
Obama's tribute appropriate: he belongs to the Ages. For the act of pronouncing
"nevertheless" and acting it to the fullest in one's being, is not
natural. It is an act of faith, lived
through the crimson line of humanity's varied religious traditions of taking
reality as one's o</font><font size="3">wn, and giving it the characteristic stamp of one's own
being!<span style="color:#0F0F0F"></span></font></font></div>
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</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15); "> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);">. I</span>n
Mandela's case, it was a walk out of prison, in his reference to more than the
27 years spent behind Robben Island, Pollsmor and Victor Verster prison's iron
bars: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom,
I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in
prison.”<span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"></span></font></div>
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</span><span style="color: rgb(15, 15, 15);"> </span></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">. Add
the humor of a Tata (the honorific title for 'father' in the Transvaal as well
as in Malayo-Polynesia familiar to Pinoys), the father of the reformed nation
of South Africa quipped: "In my country we go to prison first and then
become President."</font></div>
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</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: -0.5in; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font size="3">. The
Rock of Ages lie in state this week.</font><span style="font-size: 14pt; "></span></font></div>
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<div style="font-size: 13px; color: black; clear: both; "><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Jaime Vergara<br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
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<div><i><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</font></i></div>
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