“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” ― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“The first duty of a man is to think for himself” ― José Martí

Ideas can come from all sorts of places, and I’m not one to sideline concepts primarily because the person reflecting those concepts has got ‘issues’.  Further, throughout history, there have been inspirational figures who although great and definitive of history itself, were not perfect in a puritanical sense. For example, George Washington, a man who the United States has much to be grateful to, and one I admire so much, owned slaves. For us living in Britain, if we are to look closer to home, Winston Churchill, another great leader, was said to have supported white supremacy in his dealings abroad and here in the UK. In fact, according to Peter Fryer in Aspects of British Black History, Churchill seems to have hailed British ownership of the West Indies as an essential ingredient to Great Britain’s ‘great position in the world‘. Specifically, according to Fryer, this is what Churchill said in 1939, on the eve of the second world war:

“Our possession of the West Indies… gave us the strength, the support, but especially the capital, the wealth, at a time when no other European nation possessed such a reserve, which enabled us to come through the great struggle of the Napoleonic Wars, the keen competition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and enabled us …to lay the foundation of that commercial and financial leadership which enabled us to make our great position in the world.” 

[See another link that lists Churchill quotes here – external link on a forum. Whether these quotes are indeed true quotes of Churchill which can be relied upon as authentic, I do not know]

So, having put to rest that even great men have done and said some very stupid things, you may hate him or like him as you please, but whatever you think of the man, Julius Malema (who it must be said is neither a ‘great’ man, nor a hero – at least not to me) can be funny, and at times speak the unglossed unsanitized undistorted truth; fearless, and free from the disgusting sell-out of yes-men puppets, who are too afraid to offend or sound politically incorrect.

Furthermore, we all have examples of people we dislike, who to others are angelic – heroes who can never do wrong.

Therefore, putting aside all the negativity, politics and infighting in south Africa’s ANC, and the newly founded EFF, here’s Julius Malema at his best (or is it his worst?)