Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to Freedom

Some days back I saw the book "Long walk to Freedom" and read it. It was a book which made me think about a person whom we know as the most influential Black leader in South Africa. Based on the reading I made his analysis (asked by sir). The following are my observations on his leadership and SWOT analysis:

Mr. Nelson Mandela called as “Madiba” is one of the most influential Black Leader in South Africa. He fought for the freedom of his country, freedom from racism and apartheid. His followers also supported him since they trusted his judgment and leadership skills. He received Nobel Prize for peace. He is a leader who influenced a lot of people and brought revolution in South Africa. In this document, there is a review on his leadership style and his SWOT analysis.

Introduction

Mr. Mandela was named Rolihlahla meaning "to pull a branch of a tree", or more colloquially, "troublemaker".¹ He was named "Nelson" by his school teacher Miss Mdingane.² As an individual I am inspired by him. According to most of the personalities, he was a born leader; however, for me he was a person who developed his leadership skills slowly with time.³ He like all of us made mistakes but was brave enough to acknowledge them and learn from his mistakes. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom he rightly pointed “I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb”.⁴ The journey continues.

Leadership of Mr. Nelson Mandela

Mr. Nelson Mandela developed a sense of wisdom and justice from his father and his regent.⁵ During his presidency, he used to listen to everyone without interrupting, a trait obtained from both of his father and regent. This molded his leadership style.⁶ He brought together bitter enemies and unified a nation. Mandela sacrificed much to the struggle for freedom in South Africa, including his liberty as well as his private life.⁷ Mandela’s childhood and early youth offers important insights into his later ideas and leadership style. The African traditions that Mandela learnt at Mvezo, Qunu, and Mqhekezweni emphasized kinship, hospitality, ubuntu, collective decision-making, reconciliation, and honor.⁸ He had travelled a lot and suffered a lot which helped him to learn about his people and grow a sense of wisdom.⁹

Nelson Mandela was thus a democratic leader who helped to organize the fight against racism, apartheid and inequality. He, thus, brought revolution in South Africa for freedom and a democratic society.

Strengths of Mr. Mandela

Life of Mr. Mandela was shaped by customs, rituals and taboo. He loved and believed his roots. This knowledge and love of Mr. Mandela about his culture, people and country shaped his role as a leader in South Africa.¹⁰ He was a quick learner and great observer.^11,12 He was a proud rebelliousness and had a stubborn sense of injustice, just like his father.¹³ He had all the support of his family and friends when imprisoned.¹⁴ He learned a lot from small and simple situations. Satisfaction sense from simple happiness, a great trait missing in most leaders.¹⁵ He was not good at sports but started learning which made him self-disciplined and patient to win.¹⁶ He firmly believes in his ideas and abides by the decisions made.^17,18 He stood by his decisions and was brave enough to face the consequences. He respected the decisions made by consensus opinion.¹⁹ He was dedicated, humble and courageous to fight for justice for all.²⁰

Weaknesses of Mr. Mandela

Mr. Mandela was always cautious and calculating, and very sensitive to insults or racism. ^21,22 In his early college days, he was afraid of taking the initiatives, perhaps, he was doubtful about the implications of his actions.²³ He was very sensitive to injustice, and stubborn with his decisions which resulted in changing his fate.²⁴ He believed greatly in democracy and consensus opinion but not always prepared with the end-result. He even sometimes overstepped his line,²⁵ and using violence as the only choice was the prime reason of imprisonment.²⁶ He could be too trusting if believed in a particular person or belief and be stubborn on that as well.²⁷

Opportunities of Mr. Mandela

Family root was Mr. Mandela’s biggest opportunity, as his thoughts and strengths started to develop from childhood. He was educated. And was treated and educated well to become the adviser of the king.²⁸ Younger relative Arthur Mandela stated that “It was clear that he was a leader because he had great respect for a decent education. . . . He never had any ill feeling about anyone. He was never involved in any dispute or quarrel. He was never sickly.” Mandela had a reputation for intervening in fights of others to try to resolve them amicably. ²⁹ Mandela began displaying his ability to organize and lead others by helping to create the Youth League of African National Congress (ANCYL) which organized protests, boycotts, petitions, and strikes to end apartheid.³⁰ When imprisoned he studied and developed as the most significant black leader in South Africa. He came to know about the racial differences in the prison and started his anti-apartheid revolution.^31,32

Threats for Mr. Mandela

He was a product of his time and had to face apartheid’s equally bitter social and economic legacy.³³ Mr. Mandela and the associated of ANC’s were barred from entering US except the UN headquarters in Manhattan, because of their South African apartheid regime era designation as terrorists.³⁴ Complicity of Mr. Mandela with Mr. de Klerk in violence of eighties and nineties which resulted in confusion among common people.^35,36 Accusation on Winnie Mandela and her dilemma in the bloodshed. Association of Winnie with Mandela United Football Club.³⁷ 

Summary

Mr. Mandela had fought his whole life for equality and justice for his people. He knew that not everyone will accept his vision and respected that opinion, too. He fought without any greed and won Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, and Honorary citizen of Belgrade, Serbia. He was listed as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004 by Time magazine. So, it’s perfectly quoted by Mr. Mandela “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

DREAMS DO COME TRUE……

Dare to face what comes in life,

Rarely will you feel lonely.

Enlighten your heart, wish to live life,

A small moment will also make you feel happy.

Mention your wish to yourself,

Self-realization will help you become stronger.

Defeat your failure and pursue hardship,

Oceans of victory will smile and murmur.

Come and choose your path in life,

Omnipresent GOD will help you to go further.

Mold your wish into your confidence,

Each and every step will give you success.

Take a vow you will never look back,

Realize it as past and live in your present.

Under HIS guidance, now you will realize,

Exactly what I said is, yes, "Dreams do come true".

Entertainment or Knowledge

"It is so simple to be difficult but so difficult to be simple"

A small line from the film "Bawarchi” might have been heard by so many, but has anyone thought the importance of this line... The line is so bold and so strong that it might have changed our life, if implemented. I saw the film yesterday and was thinking, how many times we just go to watch a movie and forget it. Is the film industry mad to just produce so many films a year and we forget them. Hardly anyone of us can answer...

Films are made to entertain us. Population gets bored with the routine and just wants to go and watch a movie. Or some want to just look at the big film stars and imagine themselves as a part of the scene. Yes the basic reason for the film is to entertain, help them elope the harsh reality and open their imaginary world, where everything is possible. Yes indeed it is.

But is this the only reason for making a film? Films are mirror of the society. They show us the reality, of course with added entertainment. Or else who will watch the movies. Without entertainment or the promise to fulfill the aspiration for at least 3 hours, no person will ever enter a theatre. They depict the real face of society. Imagine a film like Agneepath or Namak Halal. Or even take a film like Deewar or Sholay. They were the hits of their time and denoted whatever happened during those times. I took all the films which had action in them. So if I name the films like Aradhana or Guddi or Anand or Khamoshi, even without action or fight scenes, these films were big hits of 60s and 70s.

They were near to the reality with some basic entertainment. But all these films also had some issues and solutions in them. The same was in the film Bawarchi which I saw yesterday. So had anyone of our parents went home and thought about it? Accepted! The time or generation was different and the cultural aspects were different. And the fact that society was not much open. But then let us consider ourselves. Even though the society is more open and more Westernized, according to us and we are more Modern. Have we changed? Do we watch movies for knowledge or is it even today just for entertainment? Some population might go for knowledge but majority of us go to watch the films just for entertainment. But films are not just entertainment. They have many things which we can learn and implement in our life.

I agree that entertainment is ultimately what we need. But if with entertainment we get some knowledge, nothing would be better to the society than this. Even I watched movies with entertainment viewpoint, but slowly I am changing myself and can promise that when we watch movie with slight different viewpoint of getting some knowledge as well, it is more entertaining.

Imagine a film like Munna Bhai MBBS without the humor created between Munna and Circuit. Will that film work? Hardly in my opinion. A Film like 3 Idiots also had the entertainment factor and this was one of the big reasons for their bumper success. But apart from the entertainment factor these films were educative. They had a fact kindled with the relevant reasoning and a solution to it. It made the mass think that “yes it can be done” or “it is necessary”.

Today obviously the film makers have understood the change in the society and are making films which are more educative and issues-oriented. But it is not the responsibility of Film makers only. We are also equally responsible for the film making. We are the one to decide which kind of movies should be seen and produced frequently. But only the films cannot help changing things. We need to change. It is necessary that when we go home after watching such movies, we do some thinking on it. We need to come up with solutions, discuss the issues and only then the films can be considered as a success. Not because of the money they made but because of the revolution they created…

Click the Moment

Hey how cute I was!!! My first day school!!!! Hey my birthday… God what a cake!!!! Maa you look beautiful in wedding saree… Grandparents playing with me… I am giving gift to my sister… God what a trip of Chennai with my friends!!! Tiger (my pet) was so small!!! Lyka (my pet) in the bath tub…..

Looking at the photographs of these old memories I feel the same happiness as I felt that same day itself. These were some of my greatest memories… I stay alone in Mumbai, for studies, and whenever I am lonely these photographs actually do the trick. They take away all my loneliness and bring my precious memories back in my heart. The same glory of the day and the same emotions… What an asset these photographs are!!!!

These old memories are beautiful and I remember most of these photographs were clicked by my Dadu (Grandfather), since he passed away, the photographs clicked by him brings his memory as well. He was a great photographer, who immensely enjoyed his work. This always reminds me to follow the passion. He followed his passion and was the most satisfied individual I ever met! His work was his play, his passion, his whimsy and his love. He followed what he believed in and was successful. He played a perfect professional when it was work and a perfect enthusiastic child when it came to learn new techniques of photography.

Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries. There are many new revolutions taking place in the world of photography but this all started with the invention of Pinhole camera followed by negative print photographs which were adapted to colored photographs and then the latest invention that revolutionized the whole photographers market is digital camera. The way black and white images converted into color print photographs, digital imaging technology has added loads of assistance. Traditional photography made it difficult for the photographers to work on remote locations or click the finest details or the focusing concerns. Using Digital photography we can click photographs in the virtual world, change the background. We can manipulate things and that’s the concern of the moment.

Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film. The captured image is then stored as a digital file ready for digital processing (colour correction, sizing, cropping, etc.), viewing or printing. In 1991, Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, the first commercially available digital single lens reflex camera. Although it’s high cost precluded uses other than photojournalism and professional photography, commercial digital photography was born.

The primary difference between digital and chemical photography is that chemical photography resists photo manipulation because it involves film and photographic paper, while digital imaging is a highly manipulative medium. This difference allows for a degree of image post-processing that is comparatively difficult in film-based photography and permits different communicative potentials and applications.

I remember the enthusiasm of my Dadu, when he clicked the first digital photograph! He was dumbfounded with the clarity and the changes he could amend in the pictures. He was apparently very simple person and was amazed with the new technology. Digital imaging has, however, raised several ethical concerns because of the ease of manipulating digital photographs in post-processing. Today's technology has made image editing relatively simple for even the novice photographer. According to the surveys majority of photographers use digital imaging techniques. It has actually made a remarkable impact in the market of photography. Starting from science and forensics to the law cases, from advertising to wildlife photography, everything was dazzled with the great impact of the digital photography. Everything dazed in the glory of this new technology. But the manipulated photographs can pose a danger to the law cases or even the modeling photographs, which is the critical issue in this matter.  However, recent changes of in-camera processing allow digital fingerprinting of photos to detect tampering for purposes of forensic photography. This has again taken the care of the hooligans who donot follow the privacy issues and tampers them.

Several other accessories and software’s are available to refine the lighting, optics, sensors, processing, storage, display, and software used in digital photography, which will make the moments we capture and cherish forever. My Dadu operated different types of cameras from simple black and white cameras to the digital cameras in his studio and from his experience and enthusiasm I can admit that he truly loved the new technology. It made him capable of beautifying the moments of the individual. He beautified his own memories and preserved them for us.

He was the most creative person and the way he clicked photographs, they were surprising. And with digital photography he actually touched the acme of his skills. He clicked photographs randomly or based on the eclectic themes. But whatever he did he truly was successful to reach the zenith. It was possible only because he genuinely believed in his work which was his passion and commitment. He worshipped his camera and prayed to his desire for all the work he succeeded in. Knowing this is very practical to say that with the advent of the digital photographers it has been easy to click images and bring about the change. But the skills and the creativity required to click the moment is in the photographer.

A photographer whether he uses the digital camera or the simple negative camera the uniqueness of the moment captured will depend on his skills which make them the one we crave for. These skills can be developed. Individuals who love to click moments rather than just images can learn the techniques online from the Photographers Blog and several free digital photographic courses available. I as a granddaughter of a Photographer will always recommend every individual to develop a creative hobby, which can be as simple as clicking photographs.

There is lot of demand for the creative photographers and when an individual will develop a hobby of clicking photograph, it will transform into passion and when passion becomes commitment of life, the skills to click perfect shots are improved. This continuous advancement and enthusiasm of converting hobby into passion and work can escort the individual to the pinnacle of the creative world. Just the only need is to develop a hobby… Click the photograph!!!!

In this small span of life, we long to endure forever and offer the beautiful moments for others to cherish, so we click the moments. The unforgettable moments we always endeavor them to make them an innate part of our life. We try to remember them when we are happy or when we are sad as well. That’s the reason “Pictures” or the “Photographs” play such an important part in our life and so do the “photographers.” Every photographer can click an “image” or “photograph.” But the real beauty lies in the moments! So develop a talent and skills that can indeed “click the moment”….