Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

The day before British media was reporting that their poodle was warmly received in South Africa by Nelson Mandela, who held the poodle’s hand and uttered familiar platitudes. For anyone who has followed Mandela’s career since the end of apartheid, this act of servility will not come as a surprise. Once the indefatigable leader of the struggle against Apartheid, he has been reduced to a PR prop for war criminals. After taking over as the native enforcer of a economic apartheid that replaced the political apartheid, Mandela has distinguished himself by supporting Bush’s bombing of the impoverished Afghanistan, by becoming the token African on the stages of the neo-White Man’s Burdenites like Bono, and denouncing Bush during his visit to SA only to return to the white house to schmooze with the boy-Emperor a month latter.

It is only someone of John Pilger’s stature who could have dared to step past the deification and see what the man actually did for the victims of Apartheid. As always, he does a superb job. His interview with Mandela is the hightlight of the program. [Unfortunatley one part of the documentary is missing at the time, i'll post it as soon as it becomes available].