曼德拉：二十世纪最非凡的领袖

The list of nominees for greatest man of the 20th century is as short as it is extraordinary.

Franklin Roosevelt is the obvious American candidate. He guided the United States safely through the century's gravest traumas, the Great Depression and World War II. His indelible New Deal imprint still shapes America today.

The British would surely nominate Winston Churchill, the charismatic wartime prime minister who saved his nation from the Nazis.

Let us not forget giants of science like Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. Or certainly Mohandas Gandhi, whose strategy of peaceful resistance shucked India's colonial yoke and inspired Martin Luther King Jr.

But the list would not be complete without the name of Nelson Mandela, the remarkable South African who died Thursday at 95. It's hard to name anyone, anywhere, in any time whose life is quite a match for his.

OTHER VIEWS: 'That is not right'

Like King and Gandhi, Mandela led his people to freedom, ending the apartheid rule of South Africa's brutal white-minority regime. But neither of those men, nor the others mentioned here, was put to such an extraordinary personal test.

All you need to know to grasp the uniqueness of Mandela is this: He spent 27 years in prison, most of them in solitary confinement pounding rocks at the notorious Robben Island prison. He was given no hope and allowed little contact with the outside world. Yet instead of yielding to his plight — or betraying his cause by speaking a few words that could have set him free — he persevered, leading in absentia against all odds and emerging victorious, a leader of such stature that his oppressors could not stand against him.

And then, at his moment of triumph, with the presidency of South Africa in his hands, he sought not revenge for all that had been done to him but racial peace for his people, black and white, which — incredibly — he achieved.

Such is the power of history's few truly great leaders and the examples they set. If Mandela could suffer as he did without seeking vengeance, then how could others do any less? And how could the nation's fearful and suspicious white minority turn away the olive branch?

Whether Mandela's legacy can endure remains an open question.

Unlike the United States at its founding, South Africa has not been blessed with a succession of great leaders. Since Mandela's retirement in 1999, the presidency has been held by a succession of lackluster men, and so the deep problems left behind by apartheid have festered.

Crime and illiteracy are rampant, as is corruption. The unemployment rate is 25%, and far worse among the young. Life expectancy, barely over 50 years, is among the world's lowest.

As long as Mandela survived, even with his capacity ravaged by his age and the harshness of his life, the simmering South African cauldron could not bubble over. No one dared upset their beloved Madiba.

Perhaps that cannot last. What South Africa needs, like so many other strife-torn nations, is another Mandela. But such leaders are the rarest of things. They attain the impossible and pass on. But they are remembered. They are admired, and to the extent that they are emulated, their impact lives on.

No one will soon forget Nelson Mandela, if not the greatest man of the 20th century, certainly the most extraordinary.

二十世纪最伟大的人的入围者名单因其与众不同性而不长。

富兰克林·罗斯福是当然的美国候选人。他指导美国安然度过百年最严重创伤，大萧条和第二次世界大战。他不可磨灭的新政烙印至今仍在改变着美国。

英国肯定会提名温斯顿·丘吉尔，这个具有超凡魅力的战时首相从纳粹中拯救了整个不列颠民族。

让我们不要忘记科学巨人，如阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦或托马斯·爱迪生。当然还有莫罕达斯·甘地，他的非暴力不合作策略使得印度摆脱了殖民地的束缚，并且启发了马丁·路德·金。

然而，这个名单如果没有纳尔逊·曼德拉的名字，就会变得不完整。这位政绩卓越的南非总统于12月5日与世长辞，享年95岁。我们很难说出有任何人，在任何地方和任何时间里，能与他的人生相媲美。

其它观点：“那是不正确的”

与金和甘地一样，曼德拉率领他的人民争取自由，结束了南非残酷的少数白人政权的种族隔离统治。但无论那些人，还是在这里提到的其他人，都没有被落入到如此非同寻常的个人考验之中。

你要知道的所有关于能够领会曼德拉独特性的事迹是：他在监狱中度过了27年，其中大部分时间都是在臭名昭著的罗本岛监狱中，单独监禁。没有人给他希望，也允许他与外界有什么的联系。然而，他并没有对这样的困境所屈服——或是说几句能让他获得自由的话而背叛他的事业——他一直不屈不挠，抵挡住了困难重重，并且最终获得了胜利。他就是一个连他的压迫者都无法抵抗他的领导人。

然后，在他获胜的时刻，并拥有了南非总统的权力，曼德拉并没有想方设法去报复那些曾经迫害过他的人，而是以种族和解的态度面对他的人民——无论黑人还是白人。他都出乎意料地做到了。

这就是历史上为数不多的真正伟大的领袖的力量，以及他们树立的榜样。一如曼德拉所做到的，如果他可以忍住不去复仇，那么别人怎么会做的比他差？而且这个国家担惊受怕且心存疑虑的少数白人又怎么能够放弃象征和平的橄榄枝？

曼德拉的遗产是否可以保留，这是一个悬而未决的问题。

与美国国家创建之时不同，南非并没有持续不断的伟大领袖的领导。自1999年曼德拉退休以来，一直由几位平淡无奇的总统来统治南非，因此种族隔离遗留下来的深层次的问题已经一发不可收拾。

贪污腐败、犯罪行为和文盲问题非常普遍。失业率为25%，在年轻人当中，情况更为糟糕。平均寿命仅仅超过50岁，是世界上最低的水平。

只要曼德拉在世，即使是他的能力被寿命和无情的岁月所摧残，整个处于温水煮表青蛙状态的南非就不会炸锅。没有人敢于让心爱的马迪巴伤心沮丧。

也许这维持不了太久。像许多其它冲突不断的国家一样，南非需要的是像曼德拉这样的领导人。但是，能遇到这样的领导者是不常见的事情。他们能做到不可能做到的事，并且将之传递下去。但是他们被所有人铭记于心。他们受到世人的钦佩，从这个意义上来说，他们被世人仿效，他们的影响力永世长存。

没有人能够很快忘记纳尔逊·曼德拉。如果他不是20世纪最伟大的人物，肯定也会是最非凡的领袖人物。