29 Aug 2007 - Nelson Mandela updated 30 Aug

 

Today at Parliament Square Park they unveiled a full statue in honor of Nelson Mandela. Both he and I were there with 10's of thousands of other people. I got there early and took a spot next to a paparazzi type of a camera man. I was where the invited people (except for Mandela) would walk down the red carpet (without the red carpet). He seemed to know alot of the people so I shot a few photos along with him. He would not share who the people were but later I met 3 guys outside that provide some of the names.

Nelson Mandela is 89 years old and was honored today with Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiling a full like statue of Nelson Mandela. Richard Attenborogh, who was instrumental in getting the statue placed in Parliament Park with other notable people like Abraham Lincoln and Sir Winston Churchill, led the celebration.

I left a few minutes early and waited to get a photo of Nelson Mandela leaving in the car but unfortunately picked the wrong exit point as did many others. Maybe he got on the underground (tube) but I missed him.

I did get photos of David Cameron (MP and leader of the Conservative Party), David Mileband (Secretary of State), Roger Taylor (Drummer for Queen),and Brian May (Lead Guitar for Queen).
Click here to see more photos of today's event.