Frederik Willem de Klerk (March 18, 1936 – November 11, 2021)
November 12, 2021 7:51 AM Subscribe
Good.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:11 AM on November 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:11 AM on November 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
Madiba’s succinct position on the crediting of the Former Apartheid President, Mr FW de Klerk’s “heroism”.
posted by doublenelson at 8:19 AM on November 12, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by doublenelson at 8:19 AM on November 12, 2021 [12 favorites]
FoB beat me to Bette Davis line.
posted by epo at 8:56 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by epo at 8:56 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by Foosnark at 9:11 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Foosnark at 9:11 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was in high school when he was appointed, and in a bleeding liberal environment. The response from everyone around me was "Oy. At least he isn't Botha."
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posted by Melismata at 9:57 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by Melismata at 9:57 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I always get amazed by so called Christians acting in ways that consign them to hell for all eternity. If there's any divine justice he will be forced to exist as the oppressed in an apartheid society for the rest of eternity.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:00 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:00 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
"Oy. At least he isn't Botha."
de Klerk and Botha really only exist as names for me, since my knowledge of apartheid is mostly limited to reading My Traitor’s Heart a long time ago on my own time. I have nothing good to say about his passing, more just a note that as a child of the US in the 80s and 90s, apartheid and its figures never really existed for me or even had a chance to recede. That seems wrong, and hopefully this will be a good excuse to throw it back into the foreground.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:41 AM on November 12, 2021
de Klerk and Botha really only exist as names for me, since my knowledge of apartheid is mostly limited to reading My Traitor’s Heart a long time ago on my own time. I have nothing good to say about his passing, more just a note that as a child of the US in the 80s and 90s, apartheid and its figures never really existed for me or even had a chance to recede. That seems wrong, and hopefully this will be a good excuse to throw it back into the foreground.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:41 AM on November 12, 2021
Sounds like he was no Gorbachev.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:44 AM on November 12, 2021
posted by Apocryphon at 10:44 AM on November 12, 2021
I always get amazed by so called Christians
let me stop you right there
posted by elkevelvet at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
let me stop you right there
posted by elkevelvet at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Read Biko, Cry the Beloved Country, and Too Late the Phalarope. They were huge at the time. Also watch "Cry Freedom," based on the life of Steve Biko, with Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline.
posted by Melismata at 11:06 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 11:06 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:08 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:08 AM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
I am glad that apartheid ended. It should never have been introduced. Nor should any South African president have supported it.
posted by plonkee at 11:43 AM on November 12, 2021
posted by plonkee at 11:43 AM on November 12, 2021
The case for the defence, I suppose, is that only a figure from within the apartheid machine could have engineered a peaceful handover of power that had the buy-in of a majority of white South Africans. That seems to be Dan van der Vat's line in his obituary for the Guardian:
posted by verstegan at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2021 [7 favorites]
Coupling the names of De Klerk and Mandela, as the Nobel committee did, may seem like placing a garden gnome alongside a Michelangelo statue. Yet the peaceful triumph of the latter would not have been possible without the pragmatic statesmanship of the former, however grudging. White diehards condemned De Klerk as a Judas. The analogy is totally false.R.W. Johnson put it more bluntly: 'There never was a Mandela miracle; the real miracle was FW de Klerk leading the white minority to surrender its power peacefully'.
posted by verstegan at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2021 [7 favorites]
Good.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:32 PM on November 12, 2021
posted by Faintdreams at 3:32 PM on November 12, 2021
When Mandela came to his end a few years back, his death showed us the nearly unprecedented situation of a significant majority of people saddened at the passing of a politician.
De Klerk seems... unlikely to repeat this effect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:44 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
De Klerk seems... unlikely to repeat this effect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:44 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I remember seeing the divestment protests at school back in the mid-80s.
I think I wrote a stupid letter to the editor of the Daily Bruin not getting the point or something. Props to the people who fought for progress, it's always easier just keeping your head down . . .
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 4:13 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think I wrote a stupid letter to the editor of the Daily Bruin not getting the point or something. Props to the people who fought for progress, it's always easier just keeping your head down . . .
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 4:13 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is the asterisk a new convention?
It's a good one.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 PM on November 12, 2021
It's a good one.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 PM on November 12, 2021
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posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 PM on November 12, 2021
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 PM on November 12, 2021
de Klerk spoke at my university when I was in school. I am disabled, so I got to sit in the first row, all empty except for a woman who was a seat over from me. I assume she was de Klerk's second wife. That was interesting; she glanced my way a few times to check out the on-site captioning that I had. Anyway, F. W. gets up and he's talking about how the Bantustans were just an attempt at creating a South African version of the EU or something...
And then it happened.
"YOU KILLED THEM!"
Oh, hecklers! Of course I couldn't actually hear the words. But when I saw them on my screen, I turned and someone was standing. There may have been a sign. I don't remember what all happened since this was twenty years ago by now. I'm sure F. W. wasn't shouted down or anything, and he was able to finish his talk about his Bantustan nonsense.
posted by Stuka at 5:53 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
And then it happened.
"YOU KILLED THEM!"
Oh, hecklers! Of course I couldn't actually hear the words. But when I saw them on my screen, I turned and someone was standing. There may have been a sign. I don't remember what all happened since this was twenty years ago by now. I'm sure F. W. wasn't shouted down or anything, and he was able to finish his talk about his Bantustan nonsense.
posted by Stuka at 5:53 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
Yes we've moved on from even thinking about de Klerk. His death is not making many ripples. I do have mixed feelings, because while verstegan is correct, it's kind of difficult to accept that he was probably the right president at the right time.
There wasn't much of a ripple when PW died, either. Reminds me (ironically) of being taught in primary school to look at my fingers. "Your thumb" (the teacher said) "is God, the most important finger. Your index finger is the president, next under God. The next finger is your father, and then your teacher. And the smallest, least important finger is you. "
Christian National Education in an all white school, in early eighties South Africa.
posted by Zumbador at 8:46 PM on November 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
There wasn't much of a ripple when PW died, either. Reminds me (ironically) of being taught in primary school to look at my fingers. "Your thumb" (the teacher said) "is God, the most important finger. Your index finger is the president, next under God. The next finger is your father, and then your teacher. And the smallest, least important finger is you. "
Christian National Education in an all white school, in early eighties South Africa.
posted by Zumbador at 8:46 PM on November 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
Two pieces of shit who ran SA dying in the same week.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:53 AM on November 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:53 AM on November 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
Fok daai ou.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:57 PM on November 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:57 PM on November 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is the asterisk a new convention?
It's been a MetaFilter convention for years. My guess is it came from Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:03 PM on November 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's been a MetaFilter convention for years. My guess is it came from Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:03 PM on November 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by lalochezia at 7:59 AM on November 12, 2021 [28 favorites]