BMW Meets Nelson Mandela

May 24, 2005 7:06 AM

BMW meets Nelson Mandela. Mandela, the once jailed, former President of South Africa, has autographed "The Democracy Car," ten BMW 325i Sedans to be raffled off as a fundraiser for the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. The fund is an organization founded to help, "Developing partnerships and initiating programs that empower and improve the well-being of children and youth; Promoting the rights of children and youth through the influence of public policy and social awareness; and, Sustaining these initiatives through the development of a sound financial and knowledge support base, and being oriented towards achieving measurable results." You can enter the raffle by making a donation of any size--or not at all.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow (6 comments total)

I love it when celebrities auction themselves off to the very same system that has encouraged their downfall, namely in this case, the market. yuck.
posted by yonation at 7:18 AM on May 24, 2005

Um, Yonation, which downfall exactly were you speaking of? President Mandela's ANC is still the main party here. Oh, and it was "the market" which aided in the downfall of Apartheid, largely helped by the market force known as boycott. And these cars were built in South Africa. One redeeming thing about cars, their manufacture employs a lot of people. Maybe you come from some fabled place (you don't bother putting your location in your profile) where employment is never an issue, but in South Africa, its quite important.
posted by Goofyy at 7:32 AM on May 24, 2005

I would be wary of buying anything with Nelson Mandela's signature on it at the moment.
posted by PenDevil at 7:32 AM on May 24, 2005

Pen. Yeah, I heard this was a scam.
posted by tkchrist at 8:34 AM on May 24, 2005

Just to add fuel to the fire, given the fact that a lot of people hate BMW due to lingering animosity about WWII, it's a bit ironic that it's now being sold as the car of "freedom" and "democracy".

Personally, I think holding a grudge from WWII this long is silly, but the type of people who would be intersted in a MandelaCar are the type who would care.
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 10:29 AM on May 24, 2005

Bob Marley got rich and famous and bought himself a bimmer. One of his friends said "Why you got that Babylon car, mon?" Marley pointed to the BMW propeller emblem on the grill and said "That mean Bob Marley and The Wailers."
posted by fixedgear at 4:44 PM on May 24, 2005