{"id":93323,"date":"2013-06-28T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T07:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=93323"},"modified":"2013-07-03T01:04:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T19:34:28","slug":"our-eternal-hope-mandela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/our-eternal-hope-mandela\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Eternal Hope, Mandela!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Lionel+Bopage&amp;x=10&amp;y=6\">Lionel Bopage<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38855\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-lionel-bopage-on-new-left-party-tamil-rights-and-state-repression\/lionelbopage\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-38855\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38855\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-38855\" title=\"lionelbopage\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/lionelbopage-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/lionelbopage-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/lionelbopage-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-38855\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lionel Bopage<\/p><\/div>\n<p>People usually pay tribute to great individuals, once they are no more. However, I wrote this poem about Nelson Mandela, in order to pay homage to him, while he is still with us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Our Eternal Hope, Mandela!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Would you soon bid farewell to this world?<\/p>\n<p>May be, may be not<\/p>\n<p>but darkness cannot drown your light<\/p>\n<p>as you will live in all our hearts<\/p>\n<p>you have done us proud<\/p>\n<p>and will leave us with pride<\/p>\n<p>as a prisoner, a president and<\/p>\n<p>an ambassador of the voiceless!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/our-eternal-hope-mandela\/nelson-mandela-courtesy-wikipedia\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-93324\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-93324\" title=\"Nelson Mandela Courtesy - Wikipedia\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Nelson-Mandela-Courtesy-Wikipedia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"287\" \/><\/a>A slave caged for 27 years<\/p>\n<p>Condemned to hard labour; breaking stones<\/p>\n<p>But none could break the dignity and humanity in you<\/p>\n<p>Instead you broke apartheid forever<\/p>\n<p>standing up with a straight backbone!<\/p>\n<p>being the master of your fate<\/p>\n<p>and the general of your soul!!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I also sat alone like you<\/p>\n<p>in dungeons for a decade<\/p>\n<p>surviving torture, trauma and tricks<\/p>\n<p>keeping my back straight<\/p>\n<p>and my head unbowed<\/p>\n<p>full of hope and aspirations<\/p>\n<p>dreaming of justice<\/p>\n<p>and a better future for humanity<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You kept your ideals<\/p>\n<p>moving from authority to morality<\/p>\n<p>walking from arms to talks<\/p>\n<p>but never giving up the struggle for peace<\/p>\n<p>leading your people to freedom and dignity!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I too wonder sometimes<\/p>\n<p>Seeing my comrades move<\/p>\n<p>from morality to authority<\/p>\n<p>to build a land full of wrath and tears<\/p>\n<p>destroying our ideals<\/p>\n<p>have I wasted my life?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Clouds of darkness, fogs of fear<\/p>\n<p>hover over my land<\/p>\n<p>after years of menace and devastation<\/p>\n<p>we have made a new apartheid regime<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a great man, who hoped for a better world<\/p>\n<p>you destroyed apartheid in your land<\/p>\n<p>made a hopeful land for your people!<\/p>\n<p>Yet, in a South Africa without you<\/p>\n<p>would your comrades be true to your \u00a0ideals?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our future generations<\/p>\n<p>deserve a decent and better world<\/p>\n<p>I hope and wish<\/p>\n<p>you will never fade into oblivion<\/p>\n<p>as your ideals will keep shining!<\/p>\n<p>inspiring those yet to be born!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>How many Mandelas does the world need<\/p>\n<p>to lead us towards justice and freedom<\/p>\n<p>from discrimination and exploitation?<\/p>\n<p>Mandela, our Mandela<\/p>\n<p>you will never be forgotten!<\/p>\n<p>May your ideals never be abandoned<\/p>\n<p>we live in that eternal hope!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Eternal Hope, Mandela! 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