Africa Is a Country

Margaret Thatcher is dead

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Margaret Thatcher is dead

By
Sean Henry Jacobs

Margaret Thatcher put to rest the essentialist fallacy that women are inherently more moral than men.

Margaret Thatcher in 2007 (Wiki Commons).

If you’re wondering how we view Margaret Thatcher’s legacy (despite Fox, Rush Limbaugh, and every U.S. anchor praising her endlessly), consider this: in 1984, she invited South African dictator P.W. Botha for a state visit to No.10 Downing Street—the first such honor for an Apartheid leader since 1961, when South Africa left the Commonwealth over its refusal to end white minority rule. At the same time, Thatcher labeled Nelson Mandela and the anti-Apartheid movement “terrorists.”

In other news, the last Apartheid leader FW de Klerk (still a defender of Apartheid as late as May 2012) defended “his friend” Margaret Thatcher. Maybe De Klerk should ask around before he speaks.

He could have asked Colm Tobin, a producer and writer from Ireland, who tweeted: “Not a lot of love for #Thatcher in Ireland. As an enemy of the state she sits somewhere between Cromwell & Thierry Henry.” Even Manchester United agreed: The club is not having any minute of silence for Mrs Thatcher this weekend.

The last word goes to the American writer and journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich, who said: “I thank Margaret Thatcher for putting to rest the essentialist fallacy that women are inherently more moral than men.”

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