End of Aparheid

In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison after serving for 28 years. He was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and served for four years. When he took office South Africa was a divided nation. Divided by race and poverty. How did Mandela manage to reunite South Africa as a nation of black and white?

When Mandela took over the preparations for the rugby world cup, hosted by South Africa, already under way. Rugby was an almost unanimously white sport in South Africa, but Mandela saw an opportunity. He would unite South Africa under a team, the South Africa Springboks, a team all black South Africans hated, but Madiba was determined. After several successful PR-tours for the team, the interest for rugby increased before the world cup. It was crucial for the nation of South Africa to overcome expectation and maybe even win! And they did!

When captain of the Springboks Francois Pienaar received the trophy Mandela walked out on the field and congratulated him in a Springbok jersey and cap. For many that marked the end of apartheid and a segregated South Africa.

Post 9/11

In 2010 Cracked.com released their tongue-in-cheek awards for the last decade. Awards went to best TV-show, best video-game and best viral video, which for some strange reason went to "2 girls 1 cup". Candidates for "New Word of the Decade" was e.g. Tweet and Green, as in eco-friendly. The word that interested me though was "Post- 9/11!".

We all remember where we were and what we did that day nearly ten years ago. When Al Qaida attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. It was the first attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

We now live in a "post-9/11" world with invasive body-scanning in Airports to the PATRIOT Act and horrible political rhetoric. But today it is mostly used as an excuse or punch line. The most famous and prominent use of the term "post 9/11" are used in politics. The most prominent use was in the legislation process of the PATRIOT Act. The PATRIOT Act is often frowned upon as it limits some civil liberties and make wire-taps and other investigative activities. Even censorship of Radio and TV have been forced to stop airing reruns of certain "un-American" TV-episodes and a list of several hundred songs deemed inappropriate and not to be played on radio because of their lyrics. The term "post-9/11" has also in some instances been reduced to one of the worst pick-up lines ever; "hey we should totally hook, or the terrorists win".

Maybe the men and women of the future will learn about our time as "Post-9/11" next to the Cold War, industrial age and the Renaissance in history class.