Tuesday 10 December 2013

BARACK OBAMA TAKES SELFIE AT MANDELA'S MEMORIAL SERVICE!

Barack Obama has attracted criticism for taking a selfie at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Posing with David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the US President leaned in and smiled for the candid snap - whilst Michelle Obama (appearing somewhat frosty), looked away.The formerly shut down Tumblr, Selfies At Funerals, re-opened to comment on the below picture, saying "Our work here is done". News sites quickly picked up on the offending snap, with some critcizing the trio for acting like "giggling teenagers". 

President Obama, who led the eulogies during the service, called Mandela a "giant of history", comparing him to Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln and adding "He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well".

80,000 mourners gathered at Soweto stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa to honour the late Nelson Mandela yesterday. Among them were Hundreds of world leaders and celebrities including South African actress Charlize Theron, supermodel Naomi Campbell and U2 singer Bono also attended the ceremony, as well as thousands of ordinary citizens who walked for miles to celebrate Mandela's remarkable life and anti-apartheid achievements by singing and dancing in the stadium. 

Speaking on behalf of Mandela's family, Thanduxolo Mandela said that "Tata has gone from before our eyes but never from our hearts and minds". 

Charlize Theron remembered Mandela as a man with "just a tremendous memory of love and compassion and warmth".

Mandela's body will now lie in state for three days, before the state funeral on Sunday.  


No comments: