Nelson Mandela: Breaking News

Nelson Mandela: Breaking News

 

Nelson Mandela,South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon

    On December 5th, 2013, around eight fifty in the evening, Nelson Mandela who was first black president of The South African passed away at the age of 95 in his home in Johannesburg. He was constantly in and out of hospital for a lung infectious disease. He was being cared for by his family, and then he passed away. "Our nation has lost its greatest son," Jacob Zuma, President of The South African, said. He forced to be in prison for 27 years but he was against apartheid with perseverance.

 

A mourner touches a photograph of Nelson Mandela placed outside Mandela's house in Johannesburg

    Mr. Mandela was born in the Eastern Cape on July, 1918. He studied law in his university He joined African National Congress (ANC) in 1943 and he opposed the policy of apartheid in South Africa. In 1960, Sharpeville massacre triggered outlawing ANC, he started to hide underground. He arrested on suspicion of illegal exit on August, 1960. Having been convicted of treason, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and he did time in Robben Island prison in Table Bay. He made free from prison by Frederik Willem de Klerk (born 18 March 1936) who aimed negotiating with black people in1990. The next year 1991, apartheid was abolished. Mr. Mandela and Klerk won Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. In 1994, Mr. Mandela was elected first black president in The South African. Of a government official, he resigned from politics. The last time he appeared in public is at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South African.

 

Chronology on the life and times of Nelson Mandela

     After his death, the biggest problem facing South Africa is economic disparity between human races. Since Mr. Mandela became the President, government pursued the preferential treatment to black people such as forcing management to appointing to a job position. The Equal Employment Opportunity Law has come into existence in 1998. But the movement hasn’t produced a good effect to be acceptable to all races. There are some opinions that such policy may make racial reconciliation obvious again. Moreover official corruption is weakening people's trust in politics. South Africa joined main developing nation in 2011 and South Africa at first held summit meeting of BRICS. South Africa is becoming a leader of African continent. But if social unrest and racial reconciliation glow, South Africa will be in disorder again. Mr. Zuma, the President, and the present leaders of South Africa bear a heavy burden of work or difficulties or responsibilities to take over the helm of problematic African situation.

  reference: 産経新聞 (12/7/2013)
                    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25249520

5. Humanoids

5. Humanoids

　　　　European alchemy is aimed chiefly at creating the elixir of life and at turning alloy into gold through the chemical operation with fire. Because comprehending such godlike technology means that human approach God. In a similar way, the motive that alchemists tried to create humanoids like Homunculus was also intended to approach God.

19th-century engraving of Goethe's Faust and Homunculus

By the way, if we think alchemy as an art to exercise the Creator’s power, it follows that the chemical operation melting various things in a melting pot on a kiln like European alchemists did is not essential. Golem, a humanoid that appear in Jewish legends, has something to do with another kind of alchemy. The alchemy to create golem is sometimes called “verbal alchemy”. In Jewish mysticism Cabala, also it is said that a saint who is familiar with the secret principles about the world can use godlike creative power. The difference from the common European alchemy is that words play an important role. Jewish mystics believed alphabet letters or words and numbers have mysterious and occult power. Moreover they believed they can create human and creature by using the supernatural power like God did. 

Prague reproduction of Golem

Statue of the Prague Golem

     
          There are some ways to create golem. The most common method is to form a doll out of clay or glue and stick a paper charm written “emeth”, means truth in Hebrew, on the forehead or the chest. Then the doll begins to move as a golem. If you want to return it to the clay, you erase the letter “e” from “emeth” written on the paper charm. It is because “meth” means death. Apart from this method, it is said that how to create golem is to put a paper charm in the mouth of a clay doll and you can return it to clay by taking out the charm from the mouth.

Rabbi Loew and Golem by Mikoláš Aleš, 1899.

In any case, we must pay attention to use golem. Tradition says that some rabbis, a teacher of Torah, create golem and use as a servant. In spite of an arrangement not to make golems work in the Sabbath, a rabbi forgot taking out the charm in Sabbath. The golem got mad and destroyed everything. In Polish legend, because golem glow larger after it birth, the creator must erase “e” before the golem get out of hand. But a golem created by a rabbi had got too big to erase the letter “e” on the forehead before the creator knew it. Then the rabbi ordered the golem to remove his shoes and while the moment the golem downed on its knee he erase the letter “e”. But the clay fall, the rabbi was crushed and he died. These two stories say that human cannot be too careful in treating life.

 
 reference: http://flamboyant.jp/alchemy/alch19/alchemy019.html

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus

4. Utopia

4. Utopia

       We cannot escape from various pains as long as we live in this world. Physical pains and mental distress are always close by. When anxiety weighs heavily on our mind or we are overwhelmed by grief, we found solace in imagining another new world without any pain. That is a fantasy of heaven. Such longing appears almost all mythologies and legends. There are a lot of idyllic imagination from ancient times that people enjoy great happiness and pleasure in unexplored island or uncharted land which is guarded from being discovered by the barrier of nature or the saving grace of god. For example, Arcadia in grease, Shangri-La in James Hilton’s novel, El Dorado, Avalon in the romance of King Arthur, Atlantis, Agartha, Zipangu in The Travels of Marco Polo, etc. Such places are called “utopia”.

              Illustration for the 1516 first edition of Utopia

　　　　“Utopia” was coined by Thomas More (1478 – 1535).  He connected grease words “ou” and “topos”. The former means “no” and the latter means “place”. However most people think utopia as a peaceful paradise, utopia originally means an inhuman regimented society in More’s book “Utopia”. He satirized the then European society in the book.

        In the West, ancient people thought that there was paradise somewhere in mountain and there was peaceful island from beyond the sea. And after the expedition by Alexander the Great, because of the influence of many strange things from the East a lot of utopian fiction travel journal was written by many European writers. The thought that there was somewhere paradise definitely different from this painful society didn’t go out unless Europeans were cornered into inland and lost the connection with the ocean by advancement of Muslims. Imagining opposite situation from now became the way of social criticism and satire, political principles, constructional plans, and literature.

      Depiction of the tale on a painting from the Long Corridor, Summer Palace, Beijing

         In the East there are a lot of story about utopia. But they are different from those of the West. The characteristics of the stories about utopia in the East are that people can go there without difficulty by an accident. One of the most famous Chinese utopian stories is The Peach Blossom Spring written by Tao Yuanming (365 – 427). The story is that a fisher went up to a river and he found the hall to a peaceful village. The inhabitants told they had escaped from war. He enjoyed staying there for few days. After he returned his village, he tried to go there again but he couldn’t. Why he couldn’t go there again is paradise is not in this world but in our recesses of the mind. Because he seek utopia outside, he got more and more lost the way.   

         Thomas More’s utopia is not fantastic society but socialist nations as the result of effort by common people. On the other hand, in The Peach Blossom Spring people gave up the realization of ideal society.

 reference: ユートピアの幻想（川端香男里）

　　　　　　　　桃源郷　中国の楽園思想（川合康三）