The whole world seems to be busy posting photos and messages about Nelson Mandela on the internet and other forms of media, so I think that my little effort may well be superfluous. BUT – no show without Punch, so I’ll just add my two cents worth.

I find it interesting that the thing that makes Mandela stand out as a luminous figure on the world stage, was his ability to endure suffering for a righteous cause, and then to spend the rest of his life living out forgiveness, acceptance and restoration. No one would have been surprised if he didn’t leave prison, vowing revenge on the racist regime that put him there. Instead, within a very short time he was campaigning for a united South Africa. He said he fought strongly against white domination and he fought strongly against black domination. Instead he fought for a new South Africa, in which all races could live together equally. It is that attitude that made him great.

The only other figures that came near him in influence in my lifetime was Mother Theresa: a woman who poured out her life in service to the homeless, the rejected, the abandoned and the dying. And, of course, Martin Luther King, with his dream that one day every man and woman will be judged by the strength of their character, not the colour of their skin.

Can anyone – other than their immediate family and their handlers – name a suicide bomber? Can anyone remember the names of the guys who flew the planes into the Twin Towers? What about the names of the men who shot up the shopping mall in Kenya?

Compare the world’s response to the death of Bin Laden and the death of Mandela. Says it all, really.

When will we learn? The greatest changes made in the world are always done through personal sacrifice, love, forgiveness and the sheer determination to treat others with respect and kindness, even when it is undeserved.

May Mandela’s mantle fall, not just on one individual, but on a whole generation.