1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Crowd cheering and clapping hands...) 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you..... 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Crowd cheering continues... 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you.... 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you so much.. 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you.. 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To Graça Machel and the Mandela family.. 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To President Zuma and the members of the government, 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to heads of states and goverment, past and present,distinguished guests.. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It is a singular honour to be with you today to celebrate a life like no other. 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To the people of South Africa,... ( Crowd cheering) 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people of every race and every walk of life, the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Your dignity and your hope found expression in his life and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy. 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It is hard to eulogize any man -- to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person- 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and in the process moved billions around the world. 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe, 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. ike Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement -- 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a movement that at its start had little prospect for success. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Like Dr King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral necessity of racial justice. 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Emerging from prison, without the force of arms, he would -- like Abraham Lincoln -- hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And like America’s Founding Fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations. 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A-- a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power after only one term. 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ( crowd cheeing... continues) 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Given the sweep of his life, the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned, 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 (Crowd cheering.......) 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Instead, Mandela insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears, his miscalculations along with his victories 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "I am not a saint", he said “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection -- because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 despite the heavy burdens he carried -- that we loved him so. 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood -- a son and a husband, a father and a friend. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that’s why we learned so much from him, and that’s why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith. 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999