Replying to LO27991 --
Dear Organlearners,
Jan Lelie <janlelie@wxs.nl> writes
>Hello At and felLOwers,
Greetings dear Jan,
I like the "felLOwers" and everywhere else where you have
capitalised the LO in a word.
>Thanks for the reference to the site. I think it is very funny
>- "Conserve you from Entropy"
Yes, I often did laugh, but in the sense of ;-)/^\
What troubles me is the almost seamless way in which the author connects
widely divergent topics into one. It remind me of myself and what I am
often doing. See, for example, my recent essay "Light, Life and Art".
>I agree with you that Lord Kelvin should have
>been awarded the Noble Prize - - for being
>right and for being wrong: that is the only way
>to unification.
Your words struck me like a bolt of lightning. How often do people divided
among themselves not try to unify themselves again, and then fail to do so
because many fear that they would do wrong by such an unification. Yet in
20th century of our country unification happened three times depite the
fear for being wrong.
The first time was in 1910, eight years after our country became torn
apart by the British-Boer War. The Union of South Africa was formed after
the tireless efforts of especially Jan Smuts. He often said: "When in
doubt, do the brave thing".
The second time happened in 1935 when Smuts convinced the two major
political parties (about 95% seats) in parliament to unite. The world was
in its worsest economical depression ever. Smuts also had the brilliant
insight (already since 1925) that WWII was inevitable and that our country
had to prepare for it.
The third time happened in 1992 when the last president of the apartheid
era, FW de Klerk, released Mr Nelson Mandella from prison. The rest you
know.
I wonder in how many other countries did such major unifications
happen?
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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