The Power of a Gesture... (Building Hope)

Gestures are powerful things. In a world of made up gimmicks, gestures are most valuable when they appear unplanned and especially if they run contrary to widely held beliefs or expectations, they usually cost less than any alternatives and in the right instances can have a greater impact than most.

When Nelson Mandela finally emerged from prison a free man it was, in effect, as a result of a culmination of gestures by people of the world. Governments, corporations and people everywhere ostracized and isolated South Africa to the point where they had little choice and in fact, their growing problem became keeping this living symbol alive. How would it end for them were he to die a prisoner of apartheid? Would the nation of South Africa had been able to survive that event whole and in tact? Surely the violent civil uprising that would have followed any such occurrence would have seen the white minority drown in their own blood as the rest of the world stood by, arms folded and watched the karmic conclusion. No, the gesture to free him served them a lot more than it served the by then institutionalized Nelson Mandela, and it must have taken some convincing to get him to 'just leave,' some serious negotiating that we have never been and may never be privy to.

And what of him? What of his now famous magnanimous gesture, his generosity of spirit that saw him extend nothing but peace, love and forgiveness to his former captors and jailors? Would he have died the loved and adored world figure he died as if he had walked out of that prison spewing hate and retribution? His gesture then and every one made since have become instant icons because he was able to straddle the moment, to become a living icon and, now deified and sanctified by a thirsty world, accepted that his role was to be one of healer, of sage, of bringer of truth and peace and he lived it to the hilt. So much so that when our Prime Minister extended a hand across the aisle to the Opposition Leader to join her at his funeral it was seen as a perfect gesture in memory of the man and the moment, and even his (the Opposition leader's) acceptance was made out to be Mandela-esque for its willingness to put animosity aside for the greater good and for peace.

And now we're back, free from the constraints of hatred and animosity and with a wide open road to dialogue and unity laid out in front of us, what might we choose? Will we go back to business as usual, to the politics of spite, bad mind and hate? To hear newly returned now Opposition Senator Camille Robinson-Regis, her answer would be a resounding yes, demonstrating the hard headed dinosaur of a person some can be, and for this desire to return us to a world of politics by confrontation she should herself be confronted and rejected by all. Why the haste for the memory of Mandela to go cold? Whose purpose does it serve to get the two major races back into the mud at each other's throats?

I put to you that the only way forward for Mandela and his captors were deliberate well planned decisions to adopt peace and reconciliation as the pathway to their combined survival, and this is the message of the life and death of Mandela for us. That we can continue to work towards our collective destruction, or we could join hands and deal with the issues that have plagued this society ever since our own captors pulled down their flag and left.

Our health care system cannot be brought to where it ought to be through bickering, our education system will not flourish by spite and bad mind, and the violent crime caused in the main by an unchecked drug trade and fueled by the blood of the desperately poor black sub-communities will not be confronted and resolved through hate.

Our prisons are overcrowded and bursting at the seams, our judicial system is floundering under the sheer weight of crime and criminality and these symbols of a failing state can only be turned around through compromise, through agreement and a willingness to understand.

As I write this eight girls all under the age of sixteen and one as young as eleven years old continue to languish in the women's prison simply because no government has seen it fit to build and expand the necessary infrastructure to treat with the issue of wayward young women in the society in a holistic and sensible manner.

Here is an issue that presents another symbol, another opportunity for a grand gesture that bridges divides and builds hope where hate resides, and I suggest that the government and the opposition work together to build a new facility dedicated to the housing and redevelopment of these young women, these future mothers as proof that we understand the lesson of Mandel's life.

Just as the power of a gesture to heal a broken land was not lost on South Africa, and in memory of the life and death of a great man who himself became a gesture of hope and of peace, I urge those with the powers to make this change to seize the moment.

We should build the Nelson Mandela National Hope Center, a place for the detention of (formerly) wayward young women mandated to return them to society redeveloped and whole. How appropriate a testament to the gesture that was the life of of this great man would this be?