Madiba's B-Day

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday, 18 July, in Johannesburg alongside world leaders and Nobel peace Laureates.

The event kicked off with 250 people singing Happy Birthday, including former US president Jimmy Carter.
"How God must love South Africa to have given us such a priceless gift!" former Archbishop Desmond Tutu told Mandela and other celebrants. "You bowled us all over by your graciousness, magnanimity and generosity of spirit."

Not only did yesterday mark Madiba's birthday but also the creation of a new humanitarian alliance, known as The Elders and his ninth wedding anniversary.
The Elders is the brainchild of musician Peter Gabriel and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.

Mandela and Carter is included in the group with Tutu as chairman. The other members of the group are former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan; Ela Bhatt, an Indian women's rights campaigner; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; Li Zhaoxing, a former Chinese envoy to the U.N. who worked in Africa; Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, a longtime campaigner for children's rights; former Irish President Mary Robinson; and Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus.
A chair stood empty on the stage for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was invited to join the Elders but is held under house arrest by the country's military junta.

The Elders "will support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair," Mandela said.

The Elders will decide their priorities in the next few months but it already has a Web site at http://www.theelders.org/.

A soccer match between the world XI and the african XI was organised to celebrate Madiba's birthday last night in Cape Town.
The match ended in a 3-3 draw.

Three-time African player of the year, Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o, led his team on to the field at the Newlands Rugby stadium and the 35,400 crowd sang Happy Birthday to Mandela.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter recorded a message, saying: "It is a real pleasure to be able to stage this unique match to honour someone who has dedicated his lifetime to the promotion of human rights and democracy, and who has led the endless fight for freedom not only of his people, the South Africans, but of all mankind."

Organisers said proceeds from the charity match will be earmarked for social programmes including Mandela's 46664 global HIV/AIDS campaign -- named after his inmate number.

Mandela is the first person to have two FIFA games played in his honour. The first match was held in August 1999 to mark the end of his presidency.

Retired Brazilian soccer star Pelé, Eto'o and former European player of the year Ruud Gullit where among 50 soccer stars who took part in the "90 minutes for Mandela".

I guess its time to start organising next years bash for Madiba's 90th birthday.