{"id":44747,"date":"2014-07-21T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=44747"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:33:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:33:38","slug":"18-jul-2014-world-marks-1st-mandela-day-since-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/07\/18-jul-2014-world-marks-1st-mandela-day-since-his-death\/","title":{"rendered":"18 Jul 2014 – World Marks 1st Mandela Day since His Death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nelson<\/a>

Nelson Mandela (file, AFP)<\/p><\/div>\n

People around the world celebrate “Mandela Day” on Friday [18 Jul 2014] for the first time since the iconic former president’s death, by doing good deeds on what would have been his 96th birthday.<\/p>\n

For the past five years millions have volunteered 67 minutes of their time on 18 July for the common good to mark Nelson Mandela<\/a>‘s 67 years of activism for South Africa’s freedom.<\/p>\n

Mandela died on 5 December last year aged 95 after a lengthy illness. Tens of thousands of mourners, including world leaders, attended memorial services leading up to his funeral.<\/p>\n

126 countries <\/strong><\/p>\n

The call to do good deeds in his name started in Johannesburg and New York in 2009, and has expanded to 126 countries this year.<\/p>\n

For the first Mandela Day after his passing, events are planned in Paris, New York, Dallas, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, while a film portraying his life will premiere in China.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile President Jacob Zuma<\/a> has called on South Africans to bring out their brooms and mops and help spruce up their country.<\/p>\n

“This year, we have decided to honour Madiba<\/a>‘s memory through a massive ‘Operation Clean Up for Madiba<\/a>‘ campaign,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We should demonstrate our love for our beautiful country by cleaning our surroundings, together.<\/p>\n

“In this way, we will be promoting working together to build our beautiful country, which is what Madiba<\/a> taught us as South Africans,” he added.<\/p>\n

Authorities have encouraged citizens to clear litter from clinics and schools, though some taxpayers grumble that that is the government’s job.<\/p>\n

Mandela spent 27 years in prison during his struggle against apartheid. His actions to reconcile his country’s divided people earned him global respect and the Nobel Peace prize.<\/p>\n

“His extraordinary compassion after 27 years in prison showed that human rights and equality are stronger than discrimination and hate,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Social media<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the days leading up to Mandela Day, people have been urged to ask friends and colleagues to post pictures of their good deeds on social media.<\/p>\n

Politicians have also capitalised on the event to polish their own image, announcing where they will be rolling up their sleeves in the hope of media coverage.<\/p>\n

President Zuma will clean up a school in Mvezo, the village in the eastern Cape where Mandela was born.<\/p>\n

Another theme for this year is food security in a nation where a quarter of the population goes hungry.<\/p>\n

Citizen activist group LeadSA encouraged South Africans to plant vegetable gardens and donate food to feeding schemes “in the true spirit of active citizenship”.<\/p>\n

Newspapers have also weighed in with suggestions to volunteer in orphanages, donate books to schools or blankets to the homeless, or even to sterilise stray cats.<\/p>\n

In a country notorious for high crime rates, one person even offered a 67-minute course in self-defence.<\/p>\n

– AFP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Go to Original \u2013 news24.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People around the world celebrate “Mandela Day” on Friday [18 Jul 2014] for the first time since the iconic former president’s death, by doing good deeds on what would have been his 96th birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}