Final Chapters, 23 & 24 (2009 book)

        The very beginning of chapter 23 speaks about Nelson Mandela, South Africa's nationalist

leader, who was tried for treason, sabotage, and conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid government

 back in 1964. I felt terrible for this man who spent 27 years in prison, working hard labor and

 sleeping on the floor! His living conditions were atrocious, and he suffered for many years. I was

 happy to learn of his eventual release in 1990, and his activism in overcoming apartheid and

fostering racial reconciliation. He eventually became South Africa's first black President. By the time

 of his death, Mandela had come to be widely considered "the father of the nation" within South

 Africa, and "the founding father of democracy", being seen as "the national liberator, the saviour, its

 Washington and Lincoln rolled into one". (newsweek) What Mandela was able to do in South Africa,

 decolonization, was something much of the world had to deal with following the British dominance

of Africa and Asia in the 19th century. Thank goodness that both the United States and the Soviet

 Union generally opposed the older European colonial empires when they did in history, otherwise,

 who knows how things may have ended up.

        I was interested in Mohandas Gandhi and his story. I was surprised to learn that although he

 worked to raise the status of India's untouchables(lowest caste), he launched no attack on caste.

I feel that more needs to be done to abolish this dogmatic caste system in India, but I also realize

 that India was busy just trying to gain their independence from Britain at the time.

        I liked what happened in Turkey after WWI led by general Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He wanted

to modernize and Westernize Turkey. He gave women more rights, and his reforms represented the

most ambitious attempts at cultural transformation in the Middle East. I like how the Ataturk

revolution fully embraced modern culture and Western ways in public life and regulated Islam to the

sphere of private life. Then Iran became the epicenter of Islamic revival in the 1970's, and all hell

broke loose! Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini gained power and managed to have the shah removed.

The sharia became law of the land, and now it is a land of religious fanaticism and moral

oppression. It's too bad so many of these Islamic countries have huge oil reserves and we rely on

 them.

         Chapter 24 opens with a quote from another Islamic nut job named Masoumeh Rahimi who

has a problem with Barbie dolls. He thinks that her clothing and shapely appearance is too

revealing...can't we just boycott every single country run by these Islamic fanatics? This final chapter

 deals with global interaction and the world economy. The World Bank and the International

Monetary Fund laid the foundation for post WWII globalization, along with technological advances.