Mandela, 20th century's most extraordinary man

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　　The list of nominees for greatest man of the 20th century is as short as it is extraordinary.

　　Franklin Roosevelt is the obvious American candidate. He guided the United States safely through the century's gravest traumas, the Great Depression and World War II. His indelible New Deal imprint still shapes America today.

　　The British would surely nominate Winston Churchill, the charismatic wartime prime minister who saved his nation from the Nazis.

　　Let us not forget giants of science like Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. Or certainly Mohandas Gandhi, whose strategy of peaceful resistance shucked India's colonial yoke and inspired Martin Luther King Jr.

　　But the list would not be complete without the name of Nelson Mandela, the remarkable South African who died Thursday at 95. It's hard to name anyone, anywhere, in any time whose life is quite a match for his.

　　OTHER VIEWS: 'That is not right'

　　Like King and Gandhi, Mandela led his people to freedom, ending the apartheid rule of South Africa's brutal white-minority regime. But neither of those men, nor the others mentioned here, was put to such an extraordinary personal test.

　　All you need to know to grasp the uniqueness of Mandela is this: He spent 27 years in prison, most of them in solitary confinement pounding rocks at the notorious Robben Island prison. He was given no hope and allowed little contact with the outside world. Yet instead of yielding to his plight — or betraying his cause by speaking a few words that could have set him free — he persevered, leading in absentia against all odds and emerging victorious, a leader of such stature that his oppressors could not stand against him.

　　And then, at his moment of triumph, with the presidency of South Africa in his hands, he sought not revenge for all that had been done to him but racial peace for his people, black and white, which — incredibly — he achieved.

　　Such is the power of history's few truly great leaders and the examples they set. If Mandela could suffer as he did without seeking vengeance, then how could others do any less? And how could the nation's fearful and suspicious white minority turn away the olive branch?

　　Whether Mandela's legacy can endure remains an open question.

　　Unlike the United States at its founding, South Africa has not been blessed with a succession of great leaders. Since Mandela's retirement in 1999, the presidency has been held by a succession of lackluster men, and so the deep problems left behind by apartheid have festered.

　　Crime and illiteracy are rampant, as is corruption. The unemployment rate is 25%, and far worse among the young. Life expectancy, barely over 50 years, is among the world's lowest.

　　As long as Mandela survived, even with his capacity ravaged by his age and the harshness of his life, the simmering South African cauldron could not bubble over. No one dared upset their beloved Madiba.

　　Perhaps that cannot last. What South Africa needs, like so many other strife-torn nations, is another Mandela. But such leaders are the rarest of things. They attain the impossible and pass on. But they are remembered. They are admired, and to the extent that they are emulated, their impact lives on.

　　No one will soon forget Nelson Mandela, if not the greatest man of the 20th century, certainly the most extraordinary.二十世紀(jì)最偉大的人的入圍者名單因其與眾不同性而不長。

　　富蘭克林·羅斯福是當(dāng)然的美國候選人。他指導(dǎo)美國安然度過百年最嚴(yán)重創(chuàng)傷，大蕭條和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)。他不可磨滅的新政烙印至今仍在改變著美國。

　　英國肯定會(huì)提名溫斯頓·丘吉爾，這個(gè)具有超凡魅力的戰(zhàn)時(shí)首相從納粹中拯救了整個(gè)不列顛民族。

　　讓我們不要忘記科學(xué)巨人，如阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦或托馬斯·愛迪生。當(dāng)然還有莫罕達(dá)斯·甘地，他的非暴力不合作策略使得印度擺脫了殖民地的束縛，并且啟發(fā)了馬丁·路德·金。

　　然而，這個(gè)名單如果沒有納爾遜·曼德拉的名字，就會(huì)變得不完整。這位政績卓越的南非總統(tǒng)于12月5日與世長辭，享年95歲。我們很難說出有任何人，在任何地方和任何時(shí)間里，能與他的人生相媲美。

　　其它觀點(diǎn)：“那是不正確的”

　　與金和甘地一樣，曼德拉率領(lǐng)他的人民爭取自由，結(jié)束了南非殘酷的少數(shù)白人政權(quán)的種族隔離統(tǒng)治。但無論那些人，還是在這里提到的其他人，都沒有被落入到如此非同尋常的個(gè)人考驗(yàn)之中。

　　你要知道的所有關(guān)于能夠領(lǐng)會(huì)曼德拉獨(dú)特性的事跡是：他在監(jiān)獄中度過了27年，其中大部分時(shí)間都是在臭名昭著的羅本島監(jiān)獄中，單獨(dú)監(jiān)禁。沒有人給他希望，也允許他與外界有什么的聯(lián)系。然而，他并沒有對這樣的困境所屈服——或是說幾句能讓他獲得自由的話而背叛他的事業(yè)——他一直不屈不撓，抵擋住了困難重重，并且最終獲得了勝利。他就是一個(gè)連他的壓迫者都無法抵抗他的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。

　　然后，在他獲勝的時(shí)刻，并擁有了南非總統(tǒng)的權(quán)力，曼德拉并沒有想方設(shè)法去報(bào)復(fù)那些曾經(jīng)迫害過他的人，而是以種族和解的態(tài)度面對他的人民——無論黑人還是白人。他都出乎意料地做到了。

　　這就是歷史上為數(shù)不多的真正偉大的領(lǐng)袖的力量，以及他們樹立的榜樣。一如曼德拉所做到的，如果他可以忍住不去復(fù)仇，那么別人怎么會(huì)做的比他差?而且這個(gè)國家擔(dān)驚受怕且心存疑慮的少數(shù)白人又怎么能夠放棄象征和平的橄欖枝?

　　曼德拉的遺產(chǎn)是否可以保留，這是一個(gè)懸而未決的問題。

　　與美國國家創(chuàng)建之時(shí)不同，南非并沒有持續(xù)不斷的偉大領(lǐng)袖的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)。自1999年曼德拉退休以來，一直由幾位平淡無奇的總統(tǒng)來統(tǒng)治南非，因此種族隔離遺留下來的深層次的問題已經(jīng)一發(fā)不可收拾。

　　貪污腐敗、犯罪行為和文盲問題非常普遍。失業(yè)率為25%，在年輕人當(dāng)中，情況更為糟糕。平均壽命僅僅超過50歲，是世界上最低的水平。

　　只要曼德拉在世，即使是他的能力被壽命和無情的歲月所摧殘，整個(gè)處于溫水煮表青蛙狀態(tài)的南非就不會(huì)炸鍋。沒有人敢于讓心愛的馬迪巴傷心沮喪。

　　也許這維持不了太久。像許多其它沖突不斷的國家一樣，南非需要的是像曼德拉這樣的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。但是，能遇到這樣的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者是不常見的事情。他們能做到不可能做到的事，并且將之傳遞下去。但是他們被所有人銘記于心。他們受到世人的欽佩，從這個(gè)意義上來說，他們被世人仿效，他們的影響力永世長存。

　　沒有人能夠很快忘記納爾遜·曼德拉。如果他不是20世紀(jì)最偉大的人物，肯定也會(huì)是最非凡的領(lǐng)袖人物。