I first met Nelson Mandela when I was in my late 20s, in 1993. I was helping facilitate an African National Congress (ANC) workshop to plan its media strategy. I went down to meet him for the first time and you know me I got stupid... I just choked. I said, "Hello Madiba, it's a real honour to meet you," and I couldn't get another word out.

The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once in a generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.

Nelson's Mandela own sense of himself was a very humble reading, [different] from how the world read him. And, quite often, you had the sense that he was not comfortable with all the accolades that would be.

Sandy was a climate change warning. Obama must now take the stage and fulfil the promise of hope the world needs.

Nelson Mandela once said "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me; I'm not going to protest."

I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.

The reality is today most of our political leaders want to be treated as gods and semi-gods, from the security details to the fuss around them and so on.