Happy Earthday Nelson Mandela

“When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” Nelson Mandela There is a whole lot going on in the world today: police shot execution style in Pakistan, tsunami heading for Japan, drought and famine taking hold of East Africa, a whole lot of political drama here in the States and all around the rest of the world for that matter.  But I really only want to take a moment, albeit brief, to acknowledge and extend a heartfelt Earthday (birthday) blessing and greeting to President Nelson Mandela, who turned 93 today. Born in 1918, he has already lived a most interesting as as appropriately, an awe inspiring life.  My memories of the anti-apartheid movement are few.  Not that the movement hasn't had a lasting impact on my life, quite the contrary.    We just didn't live in a 24 hour news cycle and instataneously accessed information world in those days.  My access was in the form of Cosby Show and Different World episodes that briefly spotlighted the apartheid regime of South Africa.  And well, the news and culture programs, broadcast by Caribbean radio that I got to hear while travelling back and forth to work with my dad in his 1980s bronze Dodge Colt.  I didn't come to appreciate programs like Like It Is until I was a few years older.  Anyway what I do remember more vividly, are the images of this African man being released from prison, after having been locked up for some 27 years.  The number sticks in my head because I was born on the 27th.