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AIBU?

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Original poster

to hate it when famous people die

217 replies

2rebecca · 06/12/2013 21:22

OK I'm in for a flaming, but I'm in my late 40s, I lived through the ANC/apartheid/ "free Nelson Mandela"avoiding S African fruit in supermarkets/ being delighted when he was released and became an excellent president, sad when his successor was an HIV denying plonker,and the fact that S Africa is developing corruption levels like the rest of Africa and still has a huge violence problem (mainly black on black), but find the wall to wall media coverage completely OTT.
Obituaries are interesting when they are brief and concern someone whose story you don't know. When they are endless and cover someone whose story has been extensively documented it just makes me avoid the media.
It's nothing against Nelson, when the queen dies it will be even worse , and every time a media luvvie dies the media goes into overdrive.
All I needed to hear today was "Nelson Mandela has died", not everyone and their dog repeating stuff I've heard before, especially as I heard it last night anyway.
Someone famous dying is news, endless anecdotes and preprepared staements aren't news.

OP posts:
ExcuseTypos · 07/12/2013 00:18

Some people are just living in their own little world and can't see the bigger, world picture.

usualsuspect · 07/12/2013 00:19

When the queen pops her clogs MN will be full of fake royalists sobbing into their prosecco.

LadyBeagleEyes · 07/12/2013 00:28

I agree with everything tinmug has said.
I don't have the energy to argue with some oof the utter ignorance on here, it makes me too angry.
Ta for being my spokeswoman tinmug and saying everything far better than I could have said.
I'm reading no more tonight as it's pissing me off too much.

Moreisnnogedag · 07/12/2013 00:35

If you don't like switch over. Or watch sky +.

NM was a uniquely brave man who unified South Africa. He showed whites a way forward. He showed us that we were all South Africans no matter our skin colour.

I remember the whites only buses, the whites only beaches, my ID card which stated that as a white person I was free to travel South Africa. I remember the news coverage which painted black people as feral uncontrollable things that the police were valiantly holding at bay for our protection.

And then I remember Nelson Mandela who forgave us his imprisonment, who called for reconciliation and understanding, for us all to build a new South Africa. He wasn't a saint by any means but he was a human who showed us how we could all be better.

So you know what? Change channels if you don't like. But don't categorise him as 'just' a famous person.

tinmug · 07/12/2013 00:50

mrsspagbol My mother was denied access to medical treatment to save her eyesight until it was too late. Both my parents and grandparents were denied access to education or the right to vote. My parents were forced to cross roads and use different buses and water fountains so as to keep others "clean" for white people

I just feel such utter, utter shame when I read this. I am completely, utterly ashamed, mortified, horrified that the humanity of your family members was denied in this way, ostensibly in my name. Obviously I know it makes absolutely no material difference to your parents or your grandparents, but I'd like them to know that as a white South African I will be deeply ashamed for the rest of my life. It's visceral and I don't think it will ever go away; and I don't think it should, either.

timidviper · 07/12/2013 01:01

BigFatGoalie Perfect post

I posted on another thread earlier that it concerns me that the media are rewriting history and by sanitising Mandels's early life they are diminishing the man he became after his imprisonment and his achievements.

It is sad though that, after almost 20 years of power, many people living in SA feel that things are worse rather than better

tinmug · 07/12/2013 01:02

I remember the whites only buses, the whites only beaches, my ID card which stated that as a white person I was free to travel South Africa. I remember the news coverage which painted black people as feral uncontrollable things that the police were valiantly holding at bay for our protection

Me too More. Remember the "state of emergency" notice in the newspaper every single day for years? Purely to make it illegal for the press to report what was happening to black people?

tinmug · 07/12/2013 01:08

It is sad though that, after almost 20 years of power, many people living in SA feel that things are worse rather than better

Has any country in history transitioned seamlessly and smoothly from a morally indefensible political framework to a nice, functioning, fair, democratic one? Genuine question, because I can't think of one.

tinmug · 07/12/2013 01:23

I mean. You know. Black people make up a pretty large proportion of the human population of South Africa.

And they were vigorously excluded from education, training, participation, public life, etc etc for really quite a long time.

So yes, of course it's good that it's now legal to teach black children to read (cos that was illegal at one point)and generally treat black people as humans.

But really, who the FUCK in their right mind thinks that 20 years of not fucking 80% of the population over is sufficient to restore equilibrium? Really?

MadameDefarge · 07/12/2013 01:30

What Nelson Mandela managed to do, was to exit prison, without a revenge agenda. To be a cohesive figurehead for a nation in turmoil and guide it through its formative years as an integrated society.

I don't think I could have managed that for a nanosecond.

For that I give thanks for his humility, his strength and his humanity.

Very few people in the world we can say that about.

Doubletroublemummy2 · 07/12/2013 01:40

Oh come on, it's only been 1 day. Yabu. In a weeks time possibly not although everyone will be covering the memorial service on the 10th and funeral on the 15th.

runningonwillpower · 07/12/2013 01:45

I hate all big events.

Births, deaths, weddings, olympics..................

I don't even know why. It's all in the anticipation. They clog up the news.

But when they actually happen, I cope fine.

Doubletroublemummy2 · 07/12/2013 01:49

Tinmug and mrsspagbol, I feel the same way tin mug. But it has to go away for SA to move forward. I don't want my children to ckaim a heritage that makes them feel shame and guilt. It is not theirs to bear. Like wise black south African children should not have to carry the burden of anger and resentment. At some point these have to be left in the past snd the new SA has to start wotk in the future SA.

tinmug · 07/12/2013 01:55

LadyBeagle no worries. I've also found this thread extremely distressing, not only because it's served as a reminder of the inexcusable treatment of black South Africans under apartheid, but also because it's demonstrated that a lot of people seem to think that what was being done to those people was actually ok.

I wholly agree with Dawndonna when she said upthread "It's people like the many on here complaining that allow things like apartheid to happen."

I think the only negative thing I feel about Mandela is that some people seem to think that black South Africans have a hive mind - like they're just one homogeneous unit - and Mandela was the spokesperson. So because he forgave, it's incumbent on all black South Africans to forgive. It's not. I think the TRC was a good thing but I also think that no black South African is under any obligation to forgive and forget, at all.

GoshAnneGorilla · 07/12/2013 02:09

People trying to compare Nelson Mandela to the IRA, show their ignorance not only of Apartheid South Africa, but of Northern Ireland too. Go and google Gerry Fitt, John Hume and and the Sunningdale Agreement for starters.

I dislike some of the bandwagon jumping and opportunism that inevitably follows in the wake of the death of such an influential figure, but NM is worth all the analysis.

tinmug · 07/12/2013 02:11

Doubletrouble I totally agree with your point about the next generation, both black and white - totally agree. But it makes no sense to pretend to ourselves that one generation of universal access to education is going to make up for the catastrophic damage that apartheid did to SA's economy, because it just won't.

MsJupiterJones · 07/12/2013 02:29

This is a shocking thread.

Nigella taking coke = not news
Tom Daly being gay = debatable
Nelson Mandela dying = great big massive enormous news

Of course he was old. But it's so much more than that. We lived in his era and the changes it brought. I read a phrase today in one of the newspapers that 'now he passes into the history of the ages'. To me that is why we mourn, whatever our age or connection.

tinmug · 07/12/2013 02:44

MsJupiter I agree. When people say "oh ffs who cares, it's cluttering up my newsfeed" it really feels to me like they're saying they don't give a fuck about apartheid.

mrsspagbol · 07/12/2013 05:34

Exactly Tinmug!!!

youbethemummylion · 07/12/2013 06:30

Can anyone explain why it is ok to keep calling him Nelson when that was a white name given to him by teachers at his school who gave all black boys white names so they could pronounce them. It just seems a bit odd to me that everybody uses it instead of his real first name and its not deemed as a problem.

SoupDragon · 07/12/2013 08:21

Can anyone explain why it is ok to keep calling him Nelson when that was a white name given to him by teachers at his school

I imagine it's because that is the name he was most famously know by. I had no idea until yesterday it wasn't his name.

CambridgeBlue · 07/12/2013 08:30

I have to say I agree with the OP's point in general but I don't think you can apply it in this case. NM was one of the most significant figures of our era and it's only right and respectful that his death should be marked and discussed - if a pop star who has done little more for the world than make nice records gets the coverage and accolades then it would be wrong for someone so important not to.

But as a general thing I do hate the mass hysteria, Facebook mourning and bandwagon jumping that happens when someone well-known dies. I find it very distasteful and think the ridiculous way people behaved after Diana died was the start of it. I was with friends when the news about Paul Walker broke last weekend and all I heard was what so and so on FB had to say about it accompanied by trying to show me pictures of the poor bloke's mangled car. I'd never known this friend to mention him before but suddenly they were his biggest fan :(

donnie · 07/12/2013 08:30

Good God. I can't believe the way some people are dismissing Nelson Mandela's significance here.

For all those in denial, I suggest you go away and read up about the formation of the ANC and the history of Apartheid. Perhaps also check out the Sharpeville Massacre and the case of Steve Biko?

Then come back and tell us again that NM "was a murderer" .

Go on. I dare you.

kungfupannda · 07/12/2013 08:38

www.okwonga.com/?p=869

Worth a read.

flatpackhamster · 07/12/2013 08:44

donnie

For all those in denial, I suggest you go away and read up about the formation of the ANC and the history of Apartheid. Perhaps also check out the Sharpeville Massacre and the case of Steve Biko?

Then come back and tell us again that NM "was a murderer" .

Go on. I dare you.

If he did carry out a premeditated killing of someone that makes him a murderer. You can argue that there were mitigating circumstances but it doesn't change what he did.

Denying what he was in order to sanctify his image is an unhealthy thing to do. He had a long and complicated life in a difficult time. You're the one in denial here by trying to separate his later and earlier lives. Nobody here has denied the reality of apartheid.