Mandela: the triumph of courage over fear
This is one of three essays I composed in a personal essay course that I took at Drake University in the fall of 2015.
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As I woke up I noticed my return ticket to Kuwait on the stand by the bed. Kuwait Airways, flight 1904, flight time 10 AM, 17 June 1990. At that very moment I realized that it is 16 June 1990—it is Bloomsday. Probably, few people in Amsterdam know that 86 years ago on this day Leopold Bloom, in James Joyce’s Ulysses, made his epic journey through the streets of Dublin beginning at his residence, 7 Eccles Street, his Ithaca, and , not quite a day later, returning home. My Kuwaiti associates from the Kuwait Investment Company, where I am the Chief Investment Strategist, have already returned to Kuwait after our week long trip to several of the European financial centers, including Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. The visit to Frankfurt was special, since reunification of West Germany with East Germany was only one month away. Commerzbank, a banking counterparty, arranged a visit to the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank. Bundesbank officials explained the plans to reintegrate the banking system of West Germany into East Germany. With our last stop being in Amsterdam I took the opportunity to enjoy a one day holiday. The day began with breakfast in the hotel dining room. I wanted to try things Dutch people like for breakfast so I had buttered bread, soft bread, not toast, topped with chocolate hagelslag (sprinkles) and strawberries on the side. This is considered to be a traditional Dutch breakfast. I probably should have had bacon and eggs, since it would be a long time before I could have pork again, Kuwait being a Muslim country in which pork is forbidden. I returned to my room and where I finished reading the last fifty pages of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. I would have to leave the book behind as it would not clear Kuwaiti customs, it having been deemed blasphemous by Muslims. The Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, issued a fatwa stating that the novel, The Satanic Verses, was “blasphemous against Islam” and for this sin Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill Rushdie.
I left the Marriott Hotel in the center of the city in early afternoon ready to visit some tourist attractions. I wanted to visit the Anne Frank House and several museums including the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was just right---a truly beautiful day. As I approached the Leidseplein square it was even more crowded than usual. As the Amsterdam Municipal Theatre came into view I saw a woman and two men on the balcony; one of the men was speaking to the crowd below. I found on visits to the Netherlands how friendly the Dutch can be once they relax their shy personas and smile. On a visit to Amsterdam a few years before I came on a beer party on one of the side streets and, without hesitation by the host, I was invited to join in. As I was getting my bearings here today I saw a young Dutch man next to me who I hoped would be willing to tell me what was going on. We exchanged hurried introductions; he introduced himself as Lars Visser. Lars’s physical features did not match those of the stereotypical Dutchman---i.e., blond, thin, and a little over six feet tall. Lars was in his late twenties, robust looking, a bit shorter and a bit darker than the stereotype---he could have been the goalkeeper on the Netherlands football team. Lars I said,“Who is that on the balcony?” “That is Nelson Mandela, his wife Winnie and the mayor of Amsterdam---Mandela was only recently released from prison in South Africa,” he said. I remembered reading in the International Herald Tribune that Mandela had been released from prison in February after 27 years of imprisonment. Lars went on to explain that Mandela was representing the African National Congress and that after this speech he would meet with the Dutch Labour Party and the Dutch Solidarity Movement. Mandela was in Amsterdam to obtain the support of the Dutch in an effort to end apartheid in South Africa.
As I thought of Mandela’s challenge in confronting the Afrikaners I remembered a short story, written soon after apartheid was established in 1948, by Dan Jacobson entitled “Beggar My Neighbor.”
The protagonist, Michael, a coming-of-age Afrikaner boy, is condescendingly charitable to two African children, Frans and Annie, his hate and fear of these native children manifests itself by his doing sadistic acts to them in his dreams--- the Freudian displacement dream. Later, in another kind of dream, a Freudian condensation dream, a “kiss” by Michael condenses several dream elements in this one symbol. In the action of the dream Michael leads Frans and Annie “down the passage into his room,”---i.e., the rite of passage of the initiate. In his room “Michael knows what he must do”---he must give each of the children a “kiss.” This final rite of passage of his giving the kiss to each, Frans and Annie, liberates him from his fear of the African children so he is in control of his emotions. His initiation is complete--- he is now an unashamed Afrikaner.
I again thought of Bloomsday; I wondered whether a Mandela-Bloom connection were possible. In James Joyce’s Ulysses Leopold Bloom is the protagonist who wanders around Dublin on 16 June 1904 on a journey of encounters with ordinary people in ordinary situations. Bloom’s movement about Dublin and his interaction with the other characters corresponds to and parallels those of Ulysses/Odysseus in the Odyssey. The reader of the novel by being able to share in Bloom’s thoughts through the technique of interior monologue learns of both Bloom’s faults and of his failings. Bloom is cuckolded; he is preoccupied with this dilemma during the course of the day. Bloom is misunderstood; his words are misconstrued so characters believe that he bet on a long-shot in a horse race and won, and that he will not buy drinks because he is the stereotypical Jew. Bloom is also inquisitive which may best be shown in the penultimate episode of the novel “Ithaca” in which the catechism approach is used to answer questions of which, some are arcane, some are tendentious, and some are informative. Central to the novel is the redefining of the heroic in the Epic genre to show that the heroic can manifest itself in a culture of non-violence by a hero who is compassionate. The “compassionate hero” seems to be an essential connection between Mandela and Bloom.
What do Bloom and Mandela have in common? First and foremost they are both Odysseus-like characters Mandela, a real life person, and Bloom, a fictional character. Mandela, like Homer’s Odysseus, has already experienced hostile forces that have delayed his journey. Bloom is defined not by his mock-heroic acts, but by his tendency for “compassion” and “empathy” and it is these qualities that define his essential heroic nature. Nosey Flynn in Ulysses, said of Bloom’s compassionate nature, “He's been known to put his hand down too to help a fellow.”
Some of Bloom’s instances of compassion are: his helping a blind stripling in Dawson Street; his helping Mrs. Dignam with estate matters after her husband, Paddy’s death, and his calling on Mina Purefoy, who is experiencing a difficult child labor, at the National Maternity Hospital. Mandela too expressed his heroic nature through his compassionate acts. His acts of charity to fellow prisoners and even to the guards at Robben Island were legendary. Fellow prisoners were drawn to him as their chosen leader. Guards were taken by his charisma and by his essential decency. One guard at Robben Island recalled how in the late 1970s Mr. Mandela continuously urged him to finish high school, which at Mandela’s behest he accomplished.
Both Bloom and Mandela appreciate art. Molly, Bloom’s wife, sings professionally---she has a beautiful soprano voice. So Bloom shares music vicariously with his wife, but there is more to Bloom as Lenehan says of Bloom, “There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom.” However it is Mandela who is known for his lithographic art works. The titles of several of his collections are: Reflections of Robben Island Series I & Series II and Impressions of Africa. A.E. Russell in the “Scylla & Charybdis” episode of Ulysses said, “Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring.” Both Bloom and Mandela experience “deep lives” and this may capture the most essential source of their artistry.
Bloom lived under colonial rule; the British imperialists flaunted their power by spectacle. One such example occurred on 16 June 1904: The vice regal cavalcade left the lodge in Phoenix Park for its journey to inaugurate the Mirus bazaar in another part of Dublin. “The gates of the drive opened wide to give egress to the vice regal cavalcade. . . . The vice regal cavalcade passed, greeted by obsequious policemen, out of Parkgate.” This is but an instance of the visible presence of the British or as they were called by the Irish the “Sassenach.” Attempts to secure “home rule” for Ireland had gone for naught; home rule seemed probable in 1886 when Gladstone was the British Prime Minister, but in the end that try failed, too. So on 16 June 1904 the Irish want to end colonialism, but there is nothing on the political horizon suggesting it will happen.
Mandela suffered under colonial rule. The Afrikaners instituted apartheid in 1948. Hendrik Verwoerd was the architect of apartheid’s design of divide and rule through the separation of people. The Sharpeville massacre, which occurred in March 1960, was a decisive moment in the history of the conflict. In the massacre the South African police fired indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed protestors and a large number of protestors were killed or wounded. In response to the massacre the African National Congress took its operation underground and changed its tactics to armed resistance. Mandela, became the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was convicted, in 1962, and sentenced to five years imprisonment for presumably having incited workers to strike and for traveling internationally without a passport. He had just begun serving this term when in 1964 he was charged with sabotage. He was the first accused. He represented himself. He spoke truth to power. In a defense one might not expect Mandela said, “Four forms of violence were possible. There is sabotage, there is guerrilla warfare, there is terrorism, and there is open revolution. We chose to adopt the first method and to exhaust it before taking any other decision. In the light of our political background the choice was a logical one. Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations.” To an impartial observer this may seem like a shocking admission of guilt for the crime he is charged with. However, viewed as a plea for the truth the words are a well designed defense of justice for his people. Mandela’s concluding defense statement is powerful because of its audacity, but it is ultimately powerful because truth is the final arbiter of justice----the statement: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” (In an utterance of poetic symmetry these were the exact words spoken by Mandela when he was released from prison on February 11, 1990.) On 12 June 1964 he was convicted of the crime of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was imprisoned until his release on 11 February 1990.
On this day, 16 June 1990, Nelson Mandela as Odysseus is set to continue on his journey to perform the feats necessary to end apartheid and to inaugurate enfranchisement for all South Africans. Mandela will travel from Amsterdam to the United States to address a joint session of the United States Congress, a first for a black man, where he will argue that his peoples’ thirst for democracy must be satisfied. Mandela is likely to receive a warm reception in the United States since four years earlier the United States Congress overrode a veto by President Reagan and imposed economic sanctions on South Africa. In 1990 Colonialism in any form is an anachronism. Upon his return to South Africa, the Afrikaners, a colonial power, will still be denying his people their fundamental rights and forcing the separation of apartheid on them. However, F.W. de Klerk, the State President of South Africa, not only released Mandela from prison, but he has also shown signs of being a person Mandela can work with. That said, Mandela and his fellow members of the African National Congress must find a peaceful way to get the apartheid manacles taken off of their people and then find a way to participate with Afrikaners in governing democratically. Both steps involve Afrikaners; both steps involve fellow members of the African National Congress. To fixate on problems with the Afrikaners is to be expected since Colonialism is all the African people have ever known; but to ignore possible problems with fellow members of the African National Congress could be detrimental to the cause of “democracy.” What will the new nation, South Africa, be like? Could Bloom tell Mandela a cautionary tale of his experience in the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses? Here is the tale.
It is 5 PM at Barney Kiernan’s pub—both Bloom and the character “citizen” are there. Citizen’s conversation with Bloom is argumentative throughout. Citizen, as a young man, was a well known athlete at the national level. A nation, Ireland, means something quite different to Citizen than it does to Bloom. For Bloom, “A nation is the same people living in the same place.” Everyone in the pub has a laugh at Bloom for this definition. “What is your nation if I may ask? says the citizen.” “Ireland, says Bloom. I was born here. Ireland.” “The citizen said nothing only cleared the spit out of his gullet.” However, the citizen’s real answer comes at the end of the episode when he chases Bloom from the pub with Bloom in danger of bodily harm. Citizen’s rage happened during a conversation about Jews; Bloom’s comment identifying Jesus Christ as a Jew was interpreted as sacrilegious by Citizen. It could be difficult for individuals as different as Citizen and Bloom to agree on a common definition of “nation.” For Citizen “same people” might not include Bloom---a Jew.
I looked about me at the people nearby. I heard Mandela mention de Klerk’s name several times. I had the impression that this was a reaching out or olive branch speech. Mandela will be reaching out to the people of the United States in his address to Congress; in his speech today he even seemed to be reaching out to the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who in her antediluvian way had continued to say scurrilous things about Mandela even after his release from prison. This stage of Mandela’s journey is just beginning and just like Homer’s Odysseus he may have to choose between the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, in which the choice is between a sea monster and a whirlpool, either of which could be lethal. I notice Lars at my side snapping his camera case shut which apparently signals his imminent departure; I thank him for his help and we exchange goodbyes. As he walked away I couldn’t help but wonder what are his politics? I will never know. As I look to the balcony Mandela and his wife are going back inside the theatre and the mayor is saying a few words to close the event. This has been a remarkable day---two coincidences, two heroes: Mandela and Bloom. Tomorrow I will go back to Kuwait where I will go back to work, albeit, enjoying a new found political awareness. To keep up with the news I will visit the news stand at the Hilton Hotel daily and buy an international newspaper. This will permit me to follow the South African Odysseus, Nelson Mandela, on his journey. I suspect he will finally reach the mythological Ithaca having completed his heroic journey and having achieved what he was “prepared to die for,” and, that he will do so in a nonviolent and compassionate way.
-----------
As I woke up I noticed my return ticket to Kuwait on the stand by the bed. Kuwait Airways, flight 1904, flight time 10 AM, 17 June 1990. At that very moment I realized that it is 16 June 1990—it is Bloomsday. Probably, few people in Amsterdam know that 86 years ago on this day Leopold Bloom, in James Joyce’s Ulysses, made his epic journey through the streets of Dublin beginning at his residence, 7 Eccles Street, his Ithaca, and , not quite a day later, returning home. My Kuwaiti associates from the Kuwait Investment Company, where I am the Chief Investment Strategist, have already returned to Kuwait after our week long trip to several of the European financial centers, including Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. The visit to Frankfurt was special, since reunification of West Germany with East Germany was only one month away. Commerzbank, a banking counterparty, arranged a visit to the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank. Bundesbank officials explained the plans to reintegrate the banking system of West Germany into East Germany. With our last stop being in Amsterdam I took the opportunity to enjoy a one day holiday. The day began with breakfast in the hotel dining room. I wanted to try things Dutch people like for breakfast so I had buttered bread, soft bread, not toast, topped with chocolate hagelslag (sprinkles) and strawberries on the side. This is considered to be a traditional Dutch breakfast. I probably should have had bacon and eggs, since it would be a long time before I could have pork again, Kuwait being a Muslim country in which pork is forbidden. I returned to my room and where I finished reading the last fifty pages of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. I would have to leave the book behind as it would not clear Kuwaiti customs, it having been deemed blasphemous by Muslims. The Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, issued a fatwa stating that the novel, The Satanic Verses, was “blasphemous against Islam” and for this sin Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill Rushdie.
I left the Marriott Hotel in the center of the city in early afternoon ready to visit some tourist attractions. I wanted to visit the Anne Frank House and several museums including the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was just right---a truly beautiful day. As I approached the Leidseplein square it was even more crowded than usual. As the Amsterdam Municipal Theatre came into view I saw a woman and two men on the balcony; one of the men was speaking to the crowd below. I found on visits to the Netherlands how friendly the Dutch can be once they relax their shy personas and smile. On a visit to Amsterdam a few years before I came on a beer party on one of the side streets and, without hesitation by the host, I was invited to join in. As I was getting my bearings here today I saw a young Dutch man next to me who I hoped would be willing to tell me what was going on. We exchanged hurried introductions; he introduced himself as Lars Visser. Lars’s physical features did not match those of the stereotypical Dutchman---i.e., blond, thin, and a little over six feet tall. Lars was in his late twenties, robust looking, a bit shorter and a bit darker than the stereotype---he could have been the goalkeeper on the Netherlands football team. Lars I said,“Who is that on the balcony?” “That is Nelson Mandela, his wife Winnie and the mayor of Amsterdam---Mandela was only recently released from prison in South Africa,” he said. I remembered reading in the International Herald Tribune that Mandela had been released from prison in February after 27 years of imprisonment. Lars went on to explain that Mandela was representing the African National Congress and that after this speech he would meet with the Dutch Labour Party and the Dutch Solidarity Movement. Mandela was in Amsterdam to obtain the support of the Dutch in an effort to end apartheid in South Africa.
As I thought of Mandela’s challenge in confronting the Afrikaners I remembered a short story, written soon after apartheid was established in 1948, by Dan Jacobson entitled “Beggar My Neighbor.”
The protagonist, Michael, a coming-of-age Afrikaner boy, is condescendingly charitable to two African children, Frans and Annie, his hate and fear of these native children manifests itself by his doing sadistic acts to them in his dreams--- the Freudian displacement dream. Later, in another kind of dream, a Freudian condensation dream, a “kiss” by Michael condenses several dream elements in this one symbol. In the action of the dream Michael leads Frans and Annie “down the passage into his room,”---i.e., the rite of passage of the initiate. In his room “Michael knows what he must do”---he must give each of the children a “kiss.” This final rite of passage of his giving the kiss to each, Frans and Annie, liberates him from his fear of the African children so he is in control of his emotions. His initiation is complete--- he is now an unashamed Afrikaner.
I again thought of Bloomsday; I wondered whether a Mandela-Bloom connection were possible. In James Joyce’s Ulysses Leopold Bloom is the protagonist who wanders around Dublin on 16 June 1904 on a journey of encounters with ordinary people in ordinary situations. Bloom’s movement about Dublin and his interaction with the other characters corresponds to and parallels those of Ulysses/Odysseus in the Odyssey. The reader of the novel by being able to share in Bloom’s thoughts through the technique of interior monologue learns of both Bloom’s faults and of his failings. Bloom is cuckolded; he is preoccupied with this dilemma during the course of the day. Bloom is misunderstood; his words are misconstrued so characters believe that he bet on a long-shot in a horse race and won, and that he will not buy drinks because he is the stereotypical Jew. Bloom is also inquisitive which may best be shown in the penultimate episode of the novel “Ithaca” in which the catechism approach is used to answer questions of which, some are arcane, some are tendentious, and some are informative. Central to the novel is the redefining of the heroic in the Epic genre to show that the heroic can manifest itself in a culture of non-violence by a hero who is compassionate. The “compassionate hero” seems to be an essential connection between Mandela and Bloom.
What do Bloom and Mandela have in common? First and foremost they are both Odysseus-like characters Mandela, a real life person, and Bloom, a fictional character. Mandela, like Homer’s Odysseus, has already experienced hostile forces that have delayed his journey. Bloom is defined not by his mock-heroic acts, but by his tendency for “compassion” and “empathy” and it is these qualities that define his essential heroic nature. Nosey Flynn in Ulysses, said of Bloom’s compassionate nature, “He's been known to put his hand down too to help a fellow.”
Some of Bloom’s instances of compassion are: his helping a blind stripling in Dawson Street; his helping Mrs. Dignam with estate matters after her husband, Paddy’s death, and his calling on Mina Purefoy, who is experiencing a difficult child labor, at the National Maternity Hospital. Mandela too expressed his heroic nature through his compassionate acts. His acts of charity to fellow prisoners and even to the guards at Robben Island were legendary. Fellow prisoners were drawn to him as their chosen leader. Guards were taken by his charisma and by his essential decency. One guard at Robben Island recalled how in the late 1970s Mr. Mandela continuously urged him to finish high school, which at Mandela’s behest he accomplished.
Both Bloom and Mandela appreciate art. Molly, Bloom’s wife, sings professionally---she has a beautiful soprano voice. So Bloom shares music vicariously with his wife, but there is more to Bloom as Lenehan says of Bloom, “There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom.” However it is Mandela who is known for his lithographic art works. The titles of several of his collections are: Reflections of Robben Island Series I & Series II and Impressions of Africa. A.E. Russell in the “Scylla & Charybdis” episode of Ulysses said, “Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring.” Both Bloom and Mandela experience “deep lives” and this may capture the most essential source of their artistry.
Bloom lived under colonial rule; the British imperialists flaunted their power by spectacle. One such example occurred on 16 June 1904: The vice regal cavalcade left the lodge in Phoenix Park for its journey to inaugurate the Mirus bazaar in another part of Dublin. “The gates of the drive opened wide to give egress to the vice regal cavalcade. . . . The vice regal cavalcade passed, greeted by obsequious policemen, out of Parkgate.” This is but an instance of the visible presence of the British or as they were called by the Irish the “Sassenach.” Attempts to secure “home rule” for Ireland had gone for naught; home rule seemed probable in 1886 when Gladstone was the British Prime Minister, but in the end that try failed, too. So on 16 June 1904 the Irish want to end colonialism, but there is nothing on the political horizon suggesting it will happen.
Mandela suffered under colonial rule. The Afrikaners instituted apartheid in 1948. Hendrik Verwoerd was the architect of apartheid’s design of divide and rule through the separation of people. The Sharpeville massacre, which occurred in March 1960, was a decisive moment in the history of the conflict. In the massacre the South African police fired indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed protestors and a large number of protestors were killed or wounded. In response to the massacre the African National Congress took its operation underground and changed its tactics to armed resistance. Mandela, became the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was convicted, in 1962, and sentenced to five years imprisonment for presumably having incited workers to strike and for traveling internationally without a passport. He had just begun serving this term when in 1964 he was charged with sabotage. He was the first accused. He represented himself. He spoke truth to power. In a defense one might not expect Mandela said, “Four forms of violence were possible. There is sabotage, there is guerrilla warfare, there is terrorism, and there is open revolution. We chose to adopt the first method and to exhaust it before taking any other decision. In the light of our political background the choice was a logical one. Sabotage did not involve loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations.” To an impartial observer this may seem like a shocking admission of guilt for the crime he is charged with. However, viewed as a plea for the truth the words are a well designed defense of justice for his people. Mandela’s concluding defense statement is powerful because of its audacity, but it is ultimately powerful because truth is the final arbiter of justice----the statement: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” (In an utterance of poetic symmetry these were the exact words spoken by Mandela when he was released from prison on February 11, 1990.) On 12 June 1964 he was convicted of the crime of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was imprisoned until his release on 11 February 1990.
On this day, 16 June 1990, Nelson Mandela as Odysseus is set to continue on his journey to perform the feats necessary to end apartheid and to inaugurate enfranchisement for all South Africans. Mandela will travel from Amsterdam to the United States to address a joint session of the United States Congress, a first for a black man, where he will argue that his peoples’ thirst for democracy must be satisfied. Mandela is likely to receive a warm reception in the United States since four years earlier the United States Congress overrode a veto by President Reagan and imposed economic sanctions on South Africa. In 1990 Colonialism in any form is an anachronism. Upon his return to South Africa, the Afrikaners, a colonial power, will still be denying his people their fundamental rights and forcing the separation of apartheid on them. However, F.W. de Klerk, the State President of South Africa, not only released Mandela from prison, but he has also shown signs of being a person Mandela can work with. That said, Mandela and his fellow members of the African National Congress must find a peaceful way to get the apartheid manacles taken off of their people and then find a way to participate with Afrikaners in governing democratically. Both steps involve Afrikaners; both steps involve fellow members of the African National Congress. To fixate on problems with the Afrikaners is to be expected since Colonialism is all the African people have ever known; but to ignore possible problems with fellow members of the African National Congress could be detrimental to the cause of “democracy.” What will the new nation, South Africa, be like? Could Bloom tell Mandela a cautionary tale of his experience in the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses? Here is the tale.
It is 5 PM at Barney Kiernan’s pub—both Bloom and the character “citizen” are there. Citizen’s conversation with Bloom is argumentative throughout. Citizen, as a young man, was a well known athlete at the national level. A nation, Ireland, means something quite different to Citizen than it does to Bloom. For Bloom, “A nation is the same people living in the same place.” Everyone in the pub has a laugh at Bloom for this definition. “What is your nation if I may ask? says the citizen.” “Ireland, says Bloom. I was born here. Ireland.” “The citizen said nothing only cleared the spit out of his gullet.” However, the citizen’s real answer comes at the end of the episode when he chases Bloom from the pub with Bloom in danger of bodily harm. Citizen’s rage happened during a conversation about Jews; Bloom’s comment identifying Jesus Christ as a Jew was interpreted as sacrilegious by Citizen. It could be difficult for individuals as different as Citizen and Bloom to agree on a common definition of “nation.” For Citizen “same people” might not include Bloom---a Jew.
I looked about me at the people nearby. I heard Mandela mention de Klerk’s name several times. I had the impression that this was a reaching out or olive branch speech. Mandela will be reaching out to the people of the United States in his address to Congress; in his speech today he even seemed to be reaching out to the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who in her antediluvian way had continued to say scurrilous things about Mandela even after his release from prison. This stage of Mandela’s journey is just beginning and just like Homer’s Odysseus he may have to choose between the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, in which the choice is between a sea monster and a whirlpool, either of which could be lethal. I notice Lars at my side snapping his camera case shut which apparently signals his imminent departure; I thank him for his help and we exchange goodbyes. As he walked away I couldn’t help but wonder what are his politics? I will never know. As I look to the balcony Mandela and his wife are going back inside the theatre and the mayor is saying a few words to close the event. This has been a remarkable day---two coincidences, two heroes: Mandela and Bloom. Tomorrow I will go back to Kuwait where I will go back to work, albeit, enjoying a new found political awareness. To keep up with the news I will visit the news stand at the Hilton Hotel daily and buy an international newspaper. This will permit me to follow the South African Odysseus, Nelson Mandela, on his journey. I suspect he will finally reach the mythological Ithaca having completed his heroic journey and having achieved what he was “prepared to die for,” and, that he will do so in a nonviolent and compassionate way.
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