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Na haar andere boek in het boekentoernooi in de tak historisch (de vroedvrouw van groenburgwal) benieuwd geworden naar meer Jeanine de Vries...

p681 I expresed my delight to be back among them, but then i scolded the people for some of the crippling problems of urban black life. Students, I said, must return to school. Crime must be brought under control (...) Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom after all.

p.673 As i finally walked through those prison gates to enter a car on the other side, i felt - even at the age of seventy-one, that my life was beginning anew.

p.671 I did not dwell on the prospect of my release, but on all the many things i had to do before them. As so often happens in life, the momentousness of an occassion is lost in the welter of a thousand details.

P616. It was if I were still dreaming. I held her to me for what felt like an eternity. We were still silent except for the sounds of our hearts (...) It had been 21 years since I had even touched my wife's hand

P 605. Once again, i thought it necessary to draw a distinction between principle and tactics.

P.581 To survive in prison, one must develop ways to take satisfaction in one's daily life. One can feel fulfilled by washing one's clothes so that they are particularly clean, by sweeping one's corridor so that it is free of dust, by organizing one's cell to conserve as much space as possible.

P.576. During the Rivonia trial, i remarked to a security policeman that if the government did not reform itself, the freedom fighters who would take our place would someday make the authorities yearn for us. That day had indeed come to Robben Island.

Dit boek is zo traag en taai, dat ik er eigenlijk niet doorheen kom. Toch staan er tussen alle herhaling ook waardevolle dingen. Nu met mezelf afgesproken dat ik stukjes mag skippen, als het teveel herhaalt (eens kijken of het me dan wél lukt het 'uit' te lezen)

Tjonge, dingen waar iedereen momenteel naar verlangt in de politiek volgensmij:

Tegenover conflict stellen ze consensus, tegenover stemmen overleggen, tegenover theatraal ruziën respectvol luisteren.

(gaat over de Occupy Wallstreet beweging, die later in het boek trouwens weer aan zichzelf tenonder gaat)

(of eigenlijk 549: mijn versie heeft meer dan 700p)

It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing

I spent my first day in Cairo at the museum (..)This was not amateur archaelogical interest; it is important for African ntionalists to be armed with evidence to refute the fictious claims of whites that Africans are without a civilzed past that compares with that of the West. In a single morning, I discovered the Egyptians were creating great works of arts and architecture, when whites were still living in caves.

The delegates assembled at the tiny town of Debra Zaid.

When the troups had marched directly in front of the grandstand, an order rang out in Amharic, and the five hunderd soldiers halted as one man, spun around an dexecuted a precise salute to an elderl man in a dazzling uniform, His Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie.

Denk eerste keer dat ik Debre Zeit in een boek zie (ben ik geweest)

When underground, I did not walk as tall or stand as straight. I spoke more softly, with less clarity and distinction. I was more passive, more unobtrusive; I did not ask for things but let people tell me what to do. I did not ask for things, but let people tell me what to do. I did not shave or cut my hair. My most frequent disguise was chauffeur, chef or 'garden boy'.

Based on the self-reported information of participants in our online body image curse, 82,5 percent of women stay home from events or activities, or sit out of opportunities, because of their appearance.

Na een paar pogingen, ben ik nu eindelijk echt in dit boek begonnen. Het is vrij Amerikaans, en soms vind ik het wat te langdradig, maar er staan ook zeker goede dingen in. Bijzonder detail: het is geschreven door een tweeling en daardoor helemaal in 'wij-vorm'. .

I am not a conservative, but one matures and regards some of the views of one's youth as undeveloped and callow. While I sympathized with the views of the Affricanists and once shared many of them, I believe that the freedom struggle required one to make compromises and accept the kind of discipline that one resisted as a younger, more impulsive man.

Many did so out of personal grudges or disapppointemenst, and were not thinking of the advancement of the struggle, but of their own feelings of jealousy of revenge. I have always believed that to be a freedom figher oe must suppress many of the personal feelings that make one feel like a separate individual. One is fighting for the liberation fo millions of people, not the glory of one individual.'

In addition to its symbolic effect, the cage cut us off from communicationg with our lawyers, who were not permitted to enter. One of my colleques scribbeld on a piece of paper, which he then posted on the side of the cage: 'Dangerous. Please do not feed.'

Upon admission we were ordered to strip compoletely and line up against the wall. We were foreced to stand there for more than an hour, shivering in the breeze and feeling awkward -men wo were normally treated with deference and respect. Despite my anger, I could not suppress a laugh as I scritinezed the men around me. For the first time, the truth of the aphorism 'clothes make the man' came home to me.

'Mandela, we have a warrant for your arrest. '
I looked at the warrant, and the words leapt out at me:
'HOOGVERRAAD'
I walked with them to the car. It is not pleasant to be arrested in front of ones children, even though on knows that what one is doing is right. But children do not comprehend th complexity of the situation; they simply see their father bing taken away bu the white authorities without an explanation.

Although I had the reputation of being a firebrand, I always felt that the organization should never promise to do more that it was able, for the people would then lose confidence in it. I took the stance that our actions should be based not on idealistic considerations but on practical ones.

Over and over again, we had used all the non-violent weapons in our arsenal - speeches, deputations, threats, marches, strikes, stay-aways, voluntary imprisonment - whatever we did was met with iron hand. A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.

Eerste keer dat zijn charisma wordt beschreven.

As an attorney I could be rather flamboyant in court. I did not act as though I were a black man in a white man's court, but as if everyone else - white and black - was a guest in my court. When presenting a case, I often made sweeping gestures and used high-flown laguage.

Verder: rechtvaardigheidsgevoel, humor, sterke wil ('stubborn') en inzicht/leiderschap

Mandela beschrijft zichzelf als observerend, onzeker, onervaren en niet bijzonder slim. Toch loopt hij weg voor een gearrangeerd huwelijk, is hij de enige zwarte jongeman die mag studeren op witte Universiteit, wordt hij telkens gevraagd en gekozen voor allemaal comite's. Mensen moeten een bepaald charisma of inzicht in hem hebben gezien. Nadeel autobiografie. Soms wil ik zijn verhaal lezen door ogen van anderen.

Leest heel makkelijk tot nu toe en is interessant.

p.24: interessant stuk over hoe hij leerde over democratie in the tribe culture waar hij opgroeide en hoe écht iedereen daar zijn woordje mocht doen, en de leider vooral luisterde/samenvatte. Zou de democratie nu iets van kunnen leren (lees momenteel ook 'Tegen Verkiezingen' van David van Reybrouck via de online bibliotheek)

Ik las twee van deze boeken fysiek op het eiland waar ze zich afspeelden en zag nu dat de serie op de online bibliotheek staat :) nu ook wel benieuwd naar de rest (alleen dan niet op locatie, helaas)

Bijzonder (voor 1851), over Sumatra/Java:

"en gezien de onuitputtelijke rijkdom aan specerijen, zijde, edelgesteenten, goud en ivoor waarin de duizend eilanden van die oosterse zee baden, lijkt het een duidelijke voorzienigheid der natuur dat dergelijke schatten alleen al door de ligging van het land althans de schijn dragen, hoe ontoereikend dan ook, beschermd te zijn tegen de alles plunderende westerse wereld"

Inmiddels weer over de 100 bladzijde, dus ik neem weer even pauze in dit boek.

Ik ben weer aan het lezen ':D en het is weer vrij hard doorzetten. Doel deze keer: in ieder geval tot pagina 400 komen.

(Heb dit boek ooit gekocht en het moet van mezelf uit)