On July 18 Nelson Mandela celebrated his 94th birthday with a ‘quiet’ family gathering in the village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Mandela, from the Madiba clan, is the former South African President, and the first black president of South Africa.

Mandela spent 27 years in jail for an armed anti-apartheid campaign. When he was released in 1990 he ran for election in 1994 and won with the African National Congress party. The year 1994 was the first year that black South Africans were allowed and able to vote. After one term he stepped down in 1999 to give the Presidency to Thabo Mbeki. Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he completed in his public life.

Every year in South Africa Mandela’s birthday is a large event. This year the day started off with a special song made for Mandela’s birthday. Twelve million school children sang the song across the country which included the lines “we love you father.”

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said that South Africans should be very grateful to “live in the same country, breathing the same air, under the same sun with Nelson Mandela.” Sexwale also coined the phrase “Mandela-ism: the spirit of selflessness, sacrifice…”

Nobel laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu claimed “Mr. Mandela taught us to love ourselves, to love one another and to love our country.”

Several famous US figures also celebrated Mandela’s birthday. On July 17 Mandela met with Bill and Chelsea Clinton and they helped him plant avocado and pear trees in his village. Barrack and Michelle Obama issued a statement praising Nelson Mandela’s “extraordinary life and steadfast commitment to the principles of democracy and reconciliation.”

Several schoolchildren also commented on Mandela and his service. Ten year old Thakgalo Ditabe stated, “Nelson Mandela set an example to show us that reconciliation is possible.” Twelve year old Ntando Ntuli said, “he is my hero because he fought for us. He is an icon, the king of Africa.

In South Africa Mandela’s birthday is a day of giving to the poor. Individuals are supposed to spend at least 67 minutes of time helping those less fortunate in celebration of Mandela’s 67 years of service. This UN-backed initiative has been criticized, according to the BBC, because it allows those at the top to not feel guilty instead of change things.

According to the Washington Post South Africa still has a lot of progressing to do. The education system is still terrible and the economy is still controlled by a minority white population.

Image Courtesy of  Archives de la Ville de Montréal

The article Nelson Mandela Celebrates 94th Birthday appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Patrick Makau, 26 years old and from Kenya won the Berlin Marathon last week with an astonishing time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 38 seconds, thus setting a new world record previously held by Haile Gebrselassie since 2008 and obtained in that same city.

Gebrselassie is always a potential winner since he has won Berlin´s Marathon four times consecutively in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, but this time he had to pull out during kilometer 35 which was almost at the end of the race, owing to exercise-induced asthma problems when he was running within the leading group.

Makau has had his own hardships in the past as well; he was the winner at the previous year race with the eleventh best time in history despite the fact that every day the participants had downpour and weather conditions were not the best. This year the leading group ran half the race under the time that  the world record was previously settled and metrological conditions were favorable.

All of the signs were good for a new record. Once the halfway mark has been reached, the competition always becomes more demanding. Exhaustion has settled over all of the runners and just a few can keep the pace. This time only Makau and Gebrselassie were able to make it through and run a two-man race almost the whole time.

They were both within a new world record speed but after ten kilometers Gebrselassie started to suffer from physical pain, which caused him to follow behind Makau, who reached the finishing line of Brandenburg alone. The Berlin Marathon has been a saucepan for cooking continuous world records since out of the top ten running records, five men and two women had broken a previous record in the Berlin Marathon in the last decade.

This has created the expectancy for a new record. This expectation is not out of the question when one of  these fast Kenyan or Ethiopian runners manage to continuously break records. But it seems they only receive the recognition they deserve after an epic like the record broken this year.

This year Gebrselassie will be awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports known as the second most important award after the Nobel Peace Prize. This acknowledgement has come after his 2 Olympic gold medals and his 4 victories in the World Championships in Athletics.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/memarte/

The article 2011 Berlin Marathon, Patrick Makau Sets New World Record appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.