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| Trafalgar Square contiene una estatua del almirante Nelson, ese marino que venció a las tropas de Napoleón en el Nilo, y que hundió 22 navíos de la armada franco-española en la batalla de Trafalgar en 1805. Junto a la plaza se encuentran también la National Gallery y la entretenida y divulgativa National Portrait Gallery. Pero además, también es escenario de muchos eventos de carácter político o reivindicativo. Durante mi estancia en octubre de 2006 hubo una manifestación-happening en contra de la globalización, pero en febrero de 2005, Nelson Mandela pronunció allí un discurso sobre el hambre, la pobreza y las injustas desigualdades regionales del mundo. He aquí algunas de sus palabras: "I am privileged to be here today at the invitation of the campaign to Make Poverty History. As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here. However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest. Moreover, the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty represents such a noble cause that we could not decline the invitation. Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times - times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation - that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils. The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid. And I can never thank the people of Britain enough for their support through those days of the struggle against apartheid. Many stood in solidarity with us, just a few yards from this spot. Through your will and passion, you assisted in consigning that evil system forever to history. But in this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains". |
| El almirante justiciero (Londres, octubre 2006) |