Word: mandelas
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...South African flag flew over Harvard Yard, no one was giving Jiang Zemin any honorary degrees. He came on a cold day with rain falling like freezing spikes, and thousands of protesters greeted his fleet of black limousines before he was safely delivered to Sanders Theatre. Like Mandela's speech, the content of Jiang's was largely irrelevant. The Chinese president's visit, also like Mandela's, was preceded by speeches from a flock of Harvard professors...
...guest and the honorary degree received by the other--these elements of the two leaders' visits made me see the two men as something much larger than either of them actually were. Instead of two political figures, one a freedom fighter and the other fighting freedom, Nelson Mandela and Jiang Zemin became the avatars of Good and Evil. To the aspiring future leaders in the audience, it was as if some higher power had sought out our student body, telling us in a biblical voice: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse: Choose life, so that...
...when he finally did appear, his arrival seemed to take everyone by surprise, including the professor whose speech he interrupted. What I mostly remember of the moment Jiang appeared on stage at Sanders was the instantaneous silence. It was as astonishing as the suddenness of the drumbeats that greeted Mandela, if not more so. After a hour of explanations from world-renowned professors, these experts, face-to-face with the real thing, suddenly became speechless, and so did everyone else...
...course, the parallels were not perfect. We are all aware that Nelson Mandela is not Mother Theresa and Jiang Zemin no Pol Pot. But the effect was nonetheless achieved. We who witnessed both Mandela and Jiang pass through our campus have been forced to ask ourselves: Which will we choose, the blessing or the curse...
...Unless one has plans to become a malevolent dictator, the choice between good and evil does not come up once in a lifetime, but dozens of times each day. When we near the end of our lives, if we are lucky enough to live as long as Jiang and Mandela, it is unlikely that thousands will converge upon Harvard Yard to bless us or to curse...