Mandela cannot be captured in a couple of hours of film – but certainly Clint Eastwood does a masterful job of portraying the inspiration that he was – and remains – to millions.
The powerful poem by William Henley from which the film gets its title and which sustained Mandela through his years in Robben island now ranks with Kipling’s “If” as one of the most inspirational pieces I have read. What I found equally interesting is the fact that the actual composition that Mandela gave Francois Pienaar before the ‘95 Rugby World Cup was not Invictus, but the following powerful bit of prose by Theodore Roosevelt – ‘The Man in the Arena’ – and armchair pundits who do no more than simply criticise (here and elsewhere) might find it interesting that Mandela himself reached out to this passage, which I have always held in high regard, and which goes some way towards explaining why I do what I do – not just here, but in all the spheres of my existence.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Cursed with an insatiable curiousity for the world around him and an unquenchable thirst for exploring any horizon he finds himself looking at, Fredric fervently hopes that being a commonsensical Jack of all Trades is still a useful survival skill in a world that is incredibly specialized. He may be found online hopelessly plugged into Wikipedia or Google Earth, and in life usually astride a Suzuki Vstrom headed to yet another godforsaken corner of Southeast Asia .