Thursday, December 17, 2009

U.N. Creates Nelson Mandela Day


The United Nations General Assembly has created a special day to celebrate Nelson Mandela. July 18th, Mandela’s birthday, is now officially Nelson Mandela International Day. The UN said it decided to create this occasion to say thank you to a “great man”. The day celebrates Mandela’s “promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world”. It also recognises Mandela’s contributions towards improving race relations and human rights. The president of the U.N. General Assembly Ali Treki stated the day highlighted how Mandela suffered to create a better world. Mr Treki said Nelson Mandela played a "leading role in and support for Africa's struggle for liberation...and [made an] outstanding contribution to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa.”

Nelson Mandela led the fight against apartheid in South Africa for several decades. He spent 26 years in prison for his efforts. The international community campaigned for many years to get him released. Finally, he was freed in 1990. He worked tirelessly to help South Africa move toward reconciliation and a multi-racial democracy. In 1994, he became his country’s first black president and served for five years before stepping down in 1999. He has won many awards in his life, but perhaps his greatest is the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Since his retirement from South African politics, he has remained active on the world stage. One of his biggest commitments is in the fight against AIDS. He is today one of the world’s most respected statesmen.


Questions

  1. What do you know about the United Nations? What are its purposes?
  2. Is your country a part of the United Nations?
  3. What are the benefits if your country is a part of the United Nations? What are its disadvantages?
  4. Do you think the United Nations has been successful in promoting and maintaining peace all over the world?
  5. Have you heard of Nelson Mandela before? What do you know about him?
  6. What is the reason why the United Nations made July 18 as Nelson Mandela International Day?
  7. What makes Nelson Mandela famous around the world?
  8. In your country, is there a person who is like Nelson Mandela?
  9. What do you mean by human rights?
  10. Nelson Mandela comes from South Africa. What do you know about that country?
  11. In South Africa before, there was segregation between the blacks and the whites. Do you like this practice?
  12. Is racial discrimination also present in your country?
  13. Why do you think the blacks are always regarded as inferior?
  14. Why do you think the whites are very proud of their race?
  15. What should be done to eliminate racial discrimination in our society?

1 comment:

  1. hi,paul. this is stella. for a while i can't study... i travel. after i came back i'll contact with you...thank you and merry christmas...^^

    ReplyDelete