Yesterday evening UN/DPI NGO community had organized a Holiday Concert “Ambassadors Sing for Peace”, where five sitting Permanent Representatives from Canada, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Nauru, and Romania were to sing for peace. The news of the death of former South African President Mandela came just before the concert began and so after a moment of silence the concert began. This could not have been more than a fitting event to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela.
As the Nauru Permanent Representative had to go away for some emergency consultations, the four PR began the show with the lyrics of “Imagine” by John Lennon, a song of dreams and hopes for this world. It was followed by “What a Wonderful World, Blowing in the Wind,” and others to bring home the message of love and indivisible Peace for mankind. This was a very professional performance, especially the singing voice of Ambassador Antonio Pedro Monteiro Lima of Cape Verde.
I think Mandela would have loved to hear the lyrics of all these songs as he practiced those themes during his peaceful fight against all kinds of discrimination. And listening and enjoying the concert there in the auditorium as a representative of FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Association of North America) NGO, I was wondering how true this celebration of Mandela’s life was in Zoroastrian spirit !
I hope that Mandela’s legacy of forgiveness, compassion and reconciliation will be repeated by world leaders in their future actions. Goodbye Madiba!
Homi D. Gandhi
Vice President, FEZANA
December 6, 2013
