Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 11.10pm
ONLY A LEADER like Nelson Mandela could compel almost one hundred dignitaries of differing beliefs and opposing viewpoints to sit together in the name of peace.
“He was not,” said US President Barack Obama, as he spoke of the freedom fighter at today’s memorial in FNB Stadium, “a bust made of marble. He was a man made of flesh and blood”.
Mandela, who died at the age of 95 last Thursday night, resisted his image being painted as a ‘lifeless portrait”, said Obama.
AP Photo/Ben Curtis
Mandela was mortal; he was not a perfect man. But he was close to perfect in the eyes of millions.
The ending of apartheid, after a long and violent struggle, did not mean that South Africa became perfect, but it meant that a heavy, unequivocal blow was dealt against the terrible force of racism.
Its end meant freedom. It meant hope.
Just as Madiba was not perfect, so too was his memorial imperfect, if people were expecting a toned-down event. It was riotous, irreverent at times, pulsing with energy. There were appeals for the crowd to tone down their singing, rambunctious bands were asked to put down their instruments, and the country’s own president Jacob Zuma had his speech initially marred by boos.
Arrivals
The contrasts were no more evident than in the footage of the ceremony. Into the grey belly of the FNB Stadium the dignitaries from throughout Africa and beyond arrived this morning, along with a scattering of celebrities - Bono, Charlize Theron - all sombre in their dark clothing.
Above them in the almost full 95,000-seater stadium, the crowds smiled, sang, danced, and cried, clutching images of their hero. Colourfully celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela - their Madiba, their Tata - in full spirit.
Some would describe it as a show of pathetic fallacy that the rain fell slowly on the gathered crowds.
But others saw a more spiritual reason for the opened heavens.
"When it rains when you are buried, it means that your gods are welcoming you and the gates of heaven are most probably open as well," Cyril Ramaphosa, ANC deputy president, told the crowd as he opened the ceremony.
Of course, the rain may as well not have been there. Under umbrellas, and ANC flags fashioned into headscarves, people cheered.
Pic: Gavin Barker /Sports Inc/Press Association Images
The memorial
As he welcomed those present, Ramaphosa spoke of the hope for a 'dignified and fitting' service for Madiba, a man who "worked to free us all", whose life "transcended the faultlines of our own humanity".
Mandela took under his care the millions of South Africans who were oppressed under apartheid, moving from peaceful means to a more violent movement as the grip of oppression grew tighter. Eventually, he was jailed for sabotage.
In court, on the cusp of being jailed, his message was clear and uncompromising.
Said Ramphosa:
He worked to free us all and in a way, black and white, to embark on a journey to reconcile with each other to forgive our past transgressions to bury hatred, embrace human rights, non-racialism, non-sexism, and begin the task and arduous odyssey to become a nation of diverse cultures, diverse religions and different races.
Pic: AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen
Family and friends paid their tributes first, including Robben Island cellmate and Rivonia Trialist Andrew Mlangeni, who said there was "no doubt" that Mandela was smiling while his countrymen met in his memory.
Family members spoke of sharing Mandela with South Africa and the rest of the world, calling for people to help keep Madiba's dream alive
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon acknowledged the "mighty loss and celebration of a mighty life". Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of the AU Commission Chair said that now is the time to build on what Mandela achieved.
The similarities between Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi were explored by India's President Pranab Mukherjee, who said his country stands with South Africa.
A handshake between Cuba's Raúl Castro and Obama was a small but significant example of how Mandela brought about peaceful moments after his death.
President Jacob Zuma described Mandela as a "courageous leader", and a "fearless freedom fighter". "There is no one like Madiba," he told the crowd.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, left, Nelson Mandela's former wife. Pic: AP Photo/Matt Dunham
Barack Obama, who received a rapturous welcome, spoke of Mandela's influence on his own life. "He makes me want to be a better person," he said.
For him, Mandela was imperfect, shrewd, proud, rebellious. He held an anger inside that was "borne of a thousand slights" an anger felt by people whose race marked them out as other. His death is a time for self-reflection, said Obama: "We must ask how well have I applied his lessons in my own life".
The absence of the Dalai Lama, who had previously met Mandela but was unable to obtain a visa, was notable.
Mandela's long walk to freedom led him gently to this stadium, to an overwhelming event that belied his humble beliefs.
As a memorial, it was somehow fitting in its rambunctious imperfectness. As a symbol of the continued fight for equality, it was powerful.
Watch the remainder of the ceremony live here.
First posted at 1.40pm.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I smoke loads of weed and I’ve never given birth prematurely.
My wife smoked 5 grams of weed every day of her 48 week pregnancy..
lol pure lies.
Ah sorry Daffy, just mean’t “lol”
And those who drink give birth about ten years prematurely…
“Its harmless” – stoners everywhere. Sure is, you idiots.
No stoners say it’s harmless. They tend more to the fact that it’s much less harmful than booze
And on top of that there’s plenty of safe things that are unsafe during pregnancy, so there’s no point being smug about it
It’s also dangerous to drink during pregnancy, smoke cigarettes and eat tuna so I’ve heard.
And caffeine.. and paracetamol, and sushi and etc etc etc. Besides who in their right mind was recommending that pregnant women smoke weed anyway ?
“It’s dangerous” – hypocritical , I’ll informed people everywhere
There are a lot smokers who act like MJ is a wonder drug that cures all ailments with no cons to it at all.
Not to mention whipped ice cream, raw meat, unwashed fruit, the list is endless…
Funny before I found out I was pregnant with my second, I craved Tuna and ate loads of it. He was born at 35 week weighing 7lbs 6oz and wasn’t even sent to the special care baby unit and was allowed home 24 hours later. *i don’t /didn’t smoke either*
It’s also dangerous to jump out of a plane with no parachute whilst pregnant. Or not pregnant for that matter.
no one who smokes should argue its harmless. the issue is it isnt harmful to any degree that merits its criminalisation, and the consequences of the war and drugs whatsoever. But folks love a bit of hysteria anyway thankfully the Canadians are now another to say this war should be over. But no lets just ban everything!
The one food I found out that surprised me as being dangerous during pregnancy and for new born kids was honey. Never imagined it can lead to botulism especially considering it’s often used as an antibacterial.
men only drug then
*war on drugs
There are, however they are idiots and would be spouting something just as moronic if they didn’t consume cannabis.
Your the f**kin idiot
I just can’t understand how a mother can do this to their unborn child. There is nothing more disgusting than seeing a heavily pregnant woman smoking, giving excuses that it would be worse on the baby if they give up, due to THEIR own stress. Any of the mothers I know who smoked during their pregnancies have children who constantly have chest infections or suffer asthma.
Are you referring to tobacco or weed? Because this story is about the effect of weed on pregnancy, the effects of smoking are already very well documented and widely known. Also how many women do you know who smoked during their pregnancy? And why did you continue to associate with someone you find disgusting long enough to see the effect on their children? Finally, chest infections and asthma are much more likely to be caused by the mother smoking after the child is born than before it, did these women you know give up after the child was born?
Ah the weed scaremongering has begun again
Pharmaceutical companies dont want weed legalized because it is a cure time to free the weed
https://youtu.be/0psJhQHk_GI this is worth watching enjoy
I am employed (for too long!) to work with families midir!!! I have seen the effects of weed and tabacco on kids who should not have been subjected to it while in the womb and after birth.
There is also the nurture side, if you are selfish to do the above while pregnant, they are still selfish after
I agree with you, that you have a career in social work makes your initial comment make a lot more sense. I still say that the effects of parents smoking around children are much more likely to result in asthma and chest infections than smoking while pregnant (which often results in much more severe damage). There is also the increased chances of kids who’s parents smoke taking up smoking themselves and at young ages. Cannabis on the other hand is just starting to be examined for its effects on people at all stages of development. Women take it during pregnancy to alleviate the effects of morning sickness and scientific research is so new on the subject that they say it shouldn’t work, despite the fact that it clearly does for many women. This particular article links to (what I consider to be) a dodgy scientific paper. Of the 5588 women involved just 315 are cannabis users, that is just 5.6%. They seem to believe that this is enough to make a conclusion about the effect of cannabis on a baby’s development. They also don’t show how many of the women who use cannabis also smoke tobacco or drink alcohol. The method of using cannabis is also not made clear.
I’m a regular weed smoker and I understand that weed isn’t completely harmless, but I understand the effects from positive – to negative, and as a responsible I’ve made the choice to smoke weed while understanding how it could negatively affect me.
There’s no doubt about it that weed has some amazing medical uses, but there’s also no denying it can really screw with some peoples heads, but I look at it like alcohol. In moderation it’ll reduce any possible side effects from developing – like with alcohol.
Ireland needs to move forward with the times and decriminalise drugs.
Drug for Dummies
And Alcohol is for fools!
I have lost two members of my family to alcohol and a childhood friend. The dangers to alcohol out weighs the dangers of weed 10/1 or by a multitude more. How many people die of alcohol on a weekly basis, directly or inadvertently. You have the right to drink as many bottles of whiskey you want a night and yet I can’t smoke a joint! Why is that?
I’ll challenge you on that. You can smoke 5 joints everynight for the rest of your life and I’ll drink 5 beers a night for the rest of mine and we’ll see who dies first and from what….
So you are of the opinion that a joint is about as potent as a bottle of beer? You need to put more weed in your joints my friend.
Haha.. a jayzee is far more potent than a beer.. I’ve put enough hash & weed in my joints over the years mate.. the key to both substances is moderation but smoking weed every night is definitely worse for your health than drinking in moderation every night.
Everything is bad for you these days. Even fruit ffs.
I hope all you guys are getting your 5-a-day?
That depends what you mean in moderation. If you have 5 beers every day you are seriously damaging your health. If you smoke anything every day you are seriously damaging your health. However, if you eat one cannabis cookie every day, is that damaging? I don’t really know and there is no study I know of that covers any kind of consumption besides smoking.
Wtf? Sorry dude but I can’t make head nor tail of your comment. Who eats cannabis cookies everyday? Maybe have a few when in Amsterdam or when your eccentric weed smoking friend calls over to share his latest bake but besides that I know of nobody who eats cannabis on a regular basis. Moderation is knowing your limit, be it drink or weed but I would take my chances on drink in moderation over smoking dope anytime.
What about drinking 5 cans of beer a day versus smoking a couple of grames of weed through a vaporizer? Smoking it in a blunt is your own choice and obviously not the best option for the lungs but millions of ppl smoke weed everyday and still live a good life without causing anyone else any harm, I’d say at least 90% of ppl who drink alcohol everyday don’t stop at 5 cans and are a nuisance to their friends and family at least probably also a nuisance to society. Not to mention the binge drinkers who make a nuisance of themselves every wkend. Go to an A&E on any Friday night and you won’t find many weed smokers filling the waiting room
@Edmund.. you’ll die first from acute pancreatitis, most likely having suffered from diabetes while you waited..
Is that 90% of people you know or is it a study? In A&E you will mostly find people who don’t take any substance in moderation.
Go for it Daffy. 5 beers in moderation versus 5 blunts.. do you ingest cannabis or inhale it?
I know a number of people who eat cannabis every day as they enjoy it and don’t like to smoke. What you mean to say is nobody you know eats it every day. I agree that moderation is the key to staying as healthy as possible while consuming either cannabis or alcohol, but with cannabis there is no damage to your liver or kidneys like there is with alcohol, even in moderation.
Goodnight.
@Edmund, do you understand the English language? If I said I’d say at least 90% of ppl who drink alcohol everyday don’t stop at 5 cans, then it’s my opinion otherwise I would’ve stated that it was fact, in a&e you won’t find anybody there due to excessive weed smoking but you will find many ppl there due to excessive drinking, I’d even take a guess at over 50% on Fri and Sat night’s (again that’s my opinion not fact). I’m not throwing out any fake facts willy nilly like this article. Anybody who thinks alcohol is a less destructive drug than cannabis in my opinion is an idiot. Fact.
Why are you talking about A&E? Your opinion and guestimates don’t really matter. Find a room and argue with yerself mate, goodnight.
You questioned my point and I answered you. I’m not looking for an argument. I was responding to someone who claimed it’s better health wise to drink 5 cans of beer a day than smoking 5 joints. Regarding that, my main point was very few ppl who drink everyday stop at 5 cans. But I’ve many more arguments re cannabis being a far less destructive drug than alcohol, and the only reason one is legal and the other isn’t is due to lawmakers who hadn’t got a clue making the laws. Our country is severely stuck to laws made by ppl who died long before any of us were born..
Apologies, didn’t realize it was you who made that claim. Not bad news though, at least it means there’s 50% less idiots in the world.
May I ask you your age?
Niall, did the psychosis from smoking the devil’s lettuce cause you to push a child from a chair?
@Edmund.. If you consider physical effects, weed has virtually no negative when compared with alcohol. Of course, smoking is harmful but you may as well compare the effects of five beers versus five cigarettes every day; I’ll still stand over my original assertion that you’ll be dead first. If you consider the psychological effects, five beers versus five spliffs is just not a realistic comparison; five beers to one spliff would be more like it, in which case I really don’t think there’s any quedtion of who’ll be first on the ground due to the effects of their chosen vice..
There are many ways to ingest marijuana without smoking it. We already know smoking can lead to premature births so why bother with this study. They would find the same results no matter what was in the cigarettes, smoking is smoking so the results were obvious.
The headline says “marijuana users” but that is false as not everybody smokes it in joints. Should say marijuana smokers to be correct.
Marajuana suppositories, gives you a hole new experience
They’re no good, you might as well stick them up your arse
I think the actual study was independent of tobacco and was focused on medical weed.
Sorry not medical weed, they called it maternal weed in the study. They did separate smokers though, but I can’t tell from the study if the non-smokers mixed the MJ or not with tobacco when they used.
Holding your breath for to long during pregnancy is dangerous too… Also, who in 2016 smokes anything during pregnancy in the first place ? surely….
Complete b****x
Twice as likely to get up the pole in the first place.
This study is not conclusive, of the 5588 women in the study only 315 used marijuana this is not nearly enough for any kind of significance. That is about 5.6% of the total and only 27 of those 315 suffered premature births. This is despite the fact that 53 of the 315 women continued to use marijuana 20 weeks into the pregnancy. This data is far from convincing with such small numbers.
Oh, and the study makes no distinction of the amount consumed. Nor do they reveal the crossover between drinkers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana users.
Also, what kind of serious study refers to cannabis as marijuana? If you want to be considered scientific then use proper scientific terms in your research.
Well there we have it, let’s hope it is made illegal now.
Free. It is illegal.
Great problem solved.
Shall we ban carrots too? Excessive vitamin A consumption is also bad during pregnancy.
If carrots are bad for you Owen then yes.
So chocolate too? And ice cream? Perhaps we should ban air too as it is full of harmful pollutants.
Vitamin A- beta carotene is not harmful. Vitamin A- retinol is
If you feel that way Midir.
premature,dam right, don’t wanna be all curled up in a bongwomb for the 9 months,coz when I do arrive it be a steak and chips can of coke, and sucking on Dodie for dear life.give the baby a chance
That’s because women who aren’t stoned make any massive deal out of it and they’re like oh it’s so painful, I can’t give birth yet.. Its all a ploy to make men suffer more, they are the real victims here
This is peer reviewed science….not stoner talk.
This is why marijuana should never be leglaised.
Even when confronted with the facts surrounding the drug the stoners refuse to accept them.
Coz that might mean having to confront reality for a while.
OOOOOH……Scary.
Nobody’s disputing any of the science, or any of the dangers of marijuana use. Weed smokers know the facts. The know the health risks. What they find ridiculous is the illegality in spite of it being provably, substantially less harmful than alcohol. That something is harmful during pregnancy is not rare, do we just ban everything with potentially detrimental side effects? The argument for legalisation also incorporates social and economic aspects, potential taxation and the removal of a revenue stream for criminal enterprises, as well as making it easier to do research on the potential beneficial attributes of the drug. Use of marijuana is so widespread anyway that legalisation would make little difference to the number of users.
The science here may be peer reviewed but it is not convincing. Too small a number of the women in the study were marijuana users to give any significant data on use of the drug. When only 5.6% of the women in the study are significant to the point being made by the study then your study is deeply flawed.
BTW, I am disputing the science of the study.
fair point, my wording was poor!
For time immemorial marijuana was used as a herbal remedy by various cultures around the world to reduce labour pain and to ease birth for the benefit of mother and child…..tobacco and alcohol were not… !!!
I don’t think anyone is suggesting the prescription of tobacco and alcohol to ease labour pains.
Only idiots smoke.
Only idiots make generalisations..
That is a generalisation that I would tend to disagree with.
Only generalisations make idiots.
Is that a specific generalisation?
All generalisations are untrue.
CARL SAGAN was an idiot?
Cannabis is twice more potent at giving cancer than tobacco and breathing CO2 damages the baby as does alcohol…
Are you citing a comparative study which covers the cancer causing effects of cannabis vs tobacco? If so I would love to read it.
So, of the articles you linked to (other than the daily mail on which inrefuse to read on principle as they are about as credible as our new Taoiseach) one (reuters) says that cannabis smoke has more carcinogenics than tobacco but the only study they cite is one that only has 79 patients who already have lung cancer. They interviewed these people to try to figure out what caused the cancer… This is not science it is guesswork. The other two actually state the opposite to what you think as they both say that although there are more carcinogens in cannabis smoke, the nicotine in tobacco increases the effect of the carcinogens while the THC and other cannabinoids in cannabis actually reduce the effect. The only one which is an actual study (ncbi) also says that the carcinogens in cannabis can be completely avoided by using a vaporiser rather than burning it. So unless you originally meant to say that cannabis is less likely to give you cancer, I’m fairly sure you didn’t even read your own links.
When you put all the studies together it shows that cannabis is more risky than tobacco from cancer to psychological problems, at the very least it states more research is needed and at worst Cannabis is very carcinogenic but you seem to miss the “Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer risk, scientists in New Zealand have found”?
I didn’t miss that statement but you have to keep reading after that and see how they justify their statement. In this case the research was based on interviewing patients with lung cancer and using their anecdotal evidence to make conclusions about the risks of cannabis use. That is seriously dodgy research. Interview based studies are good for highlighting social and socioeconomic factors in many of society’s problems, but they have no place in research about medical risks.
And I though I was constipated !!!
Especially the men!
What a lot of bullocks, I smoked throughout my pregnancy. Helped me with appetite and I was induced coz I was 42weeks pregnant.
@♋️⚫️lilly: and my baby is very alert and is developing quite fast. She’s already started teething at 2 months. So if weed really is harmful then what was I using daily through out my pregnancy? Note I stopped drinking alcohol and stopped smoking cigarettes.
have your say