Last night (5/12/13) Nelson Mandela passed away peacefully at his home in Johannesburg aged 95. What I should be doing now is writing a tribute to mark the remarkable life of a remarkable man. Today though as with last night I still don't know where to start.
That is because unlike with the recent death of one of Mandela's contemporaries Margaret Thatcher there is no great controversy surrounding his life and death with one side mourning and another side celebrating. Instead there is just a universal sadness that one of the truly great figures of history is no longer with us.
So I will add to this over the coming days but in the meantime do not take my silence as a sign of disrespect or that I don't think this is important. It is just that I simply don't know what to say.
In fact I think the greatest tribute to Mandela is that as the news broke last night my entire neighbourhood fell silent as did many, many neighbourhoods across the world.
11:55 on 6/12/13 (UK date).
Edited at around 23:05 on 6/12/13 to add: Technically this is me on holiday.
Born in 1918 just weeks after the end of the First World War Nelson Mandela lived through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Nazi holocaust, the start of the Cold War, the end of the Cold War and the fall of apartheid - something in which I believe he played a large part. He also ceded power to Thabo Mbeki and watched him fall. So I do not think that is a life that I can do justice to tonight.
However I think due respect must go to F.W De Klerk. After all he was South Africa's last apartheid President.
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