
Nelson
Mandela, who is respected as the father of the nation in South Africa,
died on December 5, 2013. He was the most popular world leader of our
time and revered by many heads of states. Like many human rights
activists, I have been a great admirer of him. I remember that I
participated in protests and demonstrations in the USA that were
organized by the Third World Coalition and CISPES (Committee In Support
for the People of El Salvador) as a student in the Apartheid Days
demanding that the USA and the western world divest from the apartheid
South Africa. I remember my attending a lecture given by Bishop Desmond
Tutu (a Nobel Laureate) at the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles in the mid-1980s.