South Africa: Mandela at 94 - an Ode to a Living Saint

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In her Nobel lecture in June 2012 - a lecture that was delayed for nearly two decades because of her incarceration in her country, Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese opposition politician, talked about Buddhism's six great dukhas (sufferings). The last two of these sufferings, according to her, are "to be parted from those one loves (and) to be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love."

It can be argued that Nelson Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela, who turned 94 on 18 July 2014, met these two conditions, which arguably positions one on the path of sainthood. If, as they say, everyone has a cross that he or she carries, then it is obvious that Mandela's triumph in public life appears to be equally matched by the challenges and tragedies in his personal life:

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