disappointment in successors generation born after apartheid

VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,343 © 2013 The New York Times NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Late EditionToday, breezy, cold, high 42. To-night, clear to partly cloudy skies,colder, low 28. Tomorrow, partlysunny skies, snow in the evening,high 35. Weather map, Page A16.

$2.50

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

After years of frustrating fitsand starts in the wake of the fi-nancial crisis and the Great Re-cession, the United States econ-omy finally appears to be gener-ating jobs at a healthier, moresustainable pace that many ana-lysts now think will continue into2014. The official unemploymentrate fell in November to its lowestlevel since 2008.

Employers have hired at least200,000 workers in three of thelast four months, including203,000 in November. By con-trast, as recently as July, whenthe economy seemed stuck in yetanother summer swoon, only89,000 new jobs were created.

The better-than-expected datafrom the Labor Department onFriday follows other hopeful eco-nomic indicators this week, in-cluding an upward revision foreconomic growth in the thirdquarter on Thursday and an up-tick in manufacturing reportedon Monday.

The 7 percent unemploymentrate last month — down from itsmost recent peak of 10 percent inOctober 2009 — is the best read-ing since President Obama tookoffice, providing one bright spotfor a White House beleagueredon many other fronts. The unem-ployment rate was 7.3 percent inDecember 2008, the month beforeMr. Obama was inaugurated.

“The headwinds are fading andthe tailwinds are gainingstrength,” said Michael Hanson,senior United States economist atBank of America Merrill Lynch,ticking off sources of growth likepent-up demand for automobiles,a rebounding housing sector andthe surging stock market.

The stock market rose by morethan 1 percent after the jobs re-port, as traders concluded thatthe prospect of higher employ-ment and faster economic growthoutweighed the increased likeli-hood that the Federal Reservewould soon begin easing back onits stimulus efforts.

While there is a chance that

JOBLESS RATE DIPSTO FIVE-YEAR LOW

ON STEADY GAINS

203,000 JOBS ARE ADDED

Unemployment Hits 7%

— Analysts Point to

a Better Outlook

Continued on Page B5

By JOHN SCHWARTZand KATIE THOMAS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — MikeHorrigan is a lifelong Democratwith heart problems who sup-ports President Obama’s healthcare law because he expects itwill help many people obtain bet-ter insurance, including himself.

But under the new law, the Af-fordable Care Act, Mr. Horrigan’scoverage by a state high-risk in-surance program was eliminated,then replaced by a more expen-sive plan. His wife’s individualplan was canceled for being sub-standard, then suddenly renewed— also at a higher price.

So while Mr. Horrigan, 59, be-lieves the law will improve healthcare in the long run, its short-term effect has been chaotic andtrying for him and his wife, Kay.“It’s more stressful than it need-ed to be,” he said.

For a measure of the tumultthat has accompanied the arrivalof the federal health care over-haul, there may be no betterplace to look than in the politi-cally mixed state of North Caroli-na, where both the anxiety andthe promise of revamping thehealth insurance system has lefthundreds of thousands of peoplestruggling to sort out their op-tions.

Many will end up with bettercoverage than they had, and mayget help paying for it. Others willsee their costs rise and are won-dering if the change is worth it.And some, like the Horrigans,may find themselves falling intoboth camps.

The agitation has been build-ing for months. This fall, insurersnotified about 260,000 North Car-olinians that their individualhealth plans no longer compliedwith the law’s more stringent re-quirements, and many learned

HEALTH CARE LAWPROVIDING RELIEFAND FRUSTRATION

CAROLINA FEELS TUMULT

Coverage Improves for

Some, but Expenses

Rise for Others

Continued on Page A12

By BARRY BEARAKand CHOE SANG-HUN

Merrill Newman, 85, active re-tiree and intrepid traveler, pre-ferred exotic places to popularones. He had sailed around theworld. He had been to Cuba andthe Galápagos Islands. So it wasnot so odd when he decided thathis next journey would be a re-turn to North Korea, where 60years ago he did top-secret workas a United States Army intelli-gence officer.

The Korean War still echoedwithin him. In early 1953, heserved on the island of Chodo, ad-vising North Korean anti-Com-munist guerrillas in raids on themainland. These fighters crossedthe Yellow Sea in leaky old junks.They ambushed supply trucks.They stole weapons. They res-cued refugees and attacked ene-my soldiers and local Communistleaders.

Mr. Newman’s wartime yearswere followed by a successful ca-reer, first as a high school teacherand later as an executive for

high-tech companies in SiliconValley. He seems an unlikely per-son to become a prisoner of war.But on Oct. 26, at the end of a 10-day guided tour, he was pulledfrom his flight as he was about toleave Pyongyang, the North Ko-rean capital, and accused of warcrimes.

Last week, North Korea’sstate-run news agency released avideo of the bespectacled octoge-narian reading a stilted “apol-ogy” for his “indelible” offenses.Late Friday, that act of contritionappeared to have led to his re-lease and a flight out. He landedin Beijing.

“I’m very glad to be on my wayhome,” Mr. Newman told the Jap-anese news media at the Beijingairport, Reuters reported. “I feelgood, I feel good. I want to go

Veteran Freed by North Korea

After Finding War Is Still On

Continued on Page A15

FEARS OVER DEPLOYMENT

North Korea has moved heavyweapons near a disputed sea bor-der, heightening tension. Page A4.

By LYDIA POLGREEN

MVEZO, South Africa — AdamBhasikile’s day begins at dawn,always in the same way. Flankedby donkeys, she walks to the val-ley floor, collecting water for thefamily to cook, clean and bathefrom the Mbashe River, whichsnakes around this hilltop villagelike a winding moat. It is an un-ending ritual that Nelson Man-dela’s mother, who gave birth tothe future president here in 1918,almost certainly performed aswell.

More recently, Mrs. Bhasikilepasses something else on herwalk: a sprawling complex withgleaming porcelain toilets, show-ers and faucets that gush waterwith a flick of the wrist. The com-plex includes a cavernous meet-ing hall, a tribal courtroom and aprivate residence for the villagechief. And not just any chief —the man in charge here is MandlaMandela, favored grandson ofMr. Mandela.

But the truck that fills the wa-ter tanks at the Great Place, asthe hulking set of buildings isknown, does not stop at Mrs.Bhasikile’s house.

“That water is not for us; it is

for them,” she said with a disap-proving grunt as she walked upthe craggy hillside, 40 liters ofwater astride each of her threedonkeys. As for Chief Mandla,Mrs. Bhasikile is unimpresseddespite his pedigree. “He is notlike his grandfather,” she said.

The disgruntlement amongChief Mandla’s subjects mirrorsthe disappointment many SouthAfricans feel about the genera-tions that have succeeded the he-roes of this nation’s liberationstruggle. Mr. Mandela’s death onThursday in many ways is theend of the line for the cohort ofleaders who carried the battleagainst apartheid from a lonelyand seemingly hopeless struggleto an inevitable moral and politi-cal victory cheered by much ofthe world. Other lions of thestruggle, like Oliver Tambo, Wal-ter and Albertina Sisulu and JoeSlovo, have been dead for years.

Perhaps inevitably, the follow-ing generations of leaders havestruggled to live up to their lega-cy. Mr. Mandela’s successor aspresident, Thabo Mbeki, was

Disappointment in Successors

To Revered Father of a Nation

BABU/REUTERS

TRIBUTE IN INDIA Children in the southern city of Chennai at a prayer ceremony on Friday for Nelson Mandela, who died Thursday.

Continued on Page A8

By MARCUS MABRY

JOHANNESBURG — Sitting inher comfortable suburban livingroom 45 minutes east of Johan-nesburg, Nokuthula Magubane,18, was doing something close tounthinkable to older generationsof black South Africans: She wasaffectionately praising Afrikaans.

“Afrikaans is such a laid-backand beautiful language,” she said.“You can just sit back, relax,speak your Afrikaans and be hap-py.”

Mandatory instruction in Afri-kaans during apartheid was oneof the sparks that set off theSoweto student uprisings of 1976.Hundreds of young people, manyyounger than Ms. Magubane,were killed. Countless otherschose to abandon education rath-er than receive instruction inwhat they considered the lan-guage of the oppressor. It was aseminal moment in the struggleagainst apartheid, and the day ofthe uprising, June 16, became na-tional Youth Day in the newSouth Africa.

But to Ms. Magubane, “At theend of the day, Afrikaans is just alanguage.”

Such feelings are common

among members of Ms. Magu-bane’s generation, known as theborn frees because they wereborn after the end of apartheid,or just before it ended, and aretoo young to have many memo-ries of it. And while they certainlyknow Nelson Mandela, who diedon Thursday, it is almost impossi-ble for them to grasp what it waslike to see him emerge from pris-on in 1990 and become presidentin the nation’s first fully demo-cratic elections four years later.

The born frees make up a hugesegment of the population —about 40 percent, according tocensus figures — and their manycritics among older South Afri-cans contend that they are apa-thetic and apolitical, unaware ofthe history of the struggle thatmade their lives better.

But the born frees have an-other name as well — the Man-dela generation — and they insistthat their determination to lookto the future and not the past isthe greatest tribute they can payhim.

“Yes, we were oppressed by

Generation Born After ApartheidSees Mandela’s Fight as History

Continued on Page A10

In Ukraine, competing oligarchs strug-gle to determine their country’s path;some see their future with Europe andothers with Russia. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

A Tug of War in UkraineRutgers is facing an age discriminationlawsuit from four longtime administra-tors. Such bias claims are on the rise asmembers of the baby boom generationenter their 60s. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Age Discrimination Cases RiseFashion’s pur-est visionary,the Commedes Garçonsdesigner ReiKawakubo, isabout to rede-fine the expe-rience ofshopping inNew YorkCity.  T MAGAZINE

THIS WEEKEND

The Mind of a Provocateur

Six people were arrested, and hospital-ized, in Mexico after the theft of a truckcarrying radioactive waste. PAGE A4

Arrests in Radioactive Theft

Three governments in the Washingtonarea have formed a regional pact toraise the minimum wage. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-15

A United Front for Raises

Following the collectors Steve Wilsonand Laura Lee Brown around Art Baselis to watch a whirlwind shopping spreewith shocking sticker prices. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Enthusiasm for New Artists

Joe Nocera PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

They’ve been overshadowed for yearsby pinups carrying fire hoses. But now,some New York cabdrivers are ready tostep out from behind their partitions tohave a moment in the sun, with a calen-dar that will showcase them and raisemoney for charity. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-19, 22

Move Over, Firefighters

The United States will have to face Ger-many, Portugal and Ghana. PAGE D1

Tough World Cup Draw

Second baseman Robinson Cano was al-lowed to leave for Seattle and a 10-year,$240 million contract. PAGE D1

SPORTSSATURDAY D1-7

Yankees Let Star Go

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

WASHINGTON — If therewere a chutzpah caucus in theUnited States Senate, Kirsten Gil-librand of New York would be itsnatural leader.

On a fund-raising swingthrough Chicago this fall, she tolddonors to pressure their home-town senator — Richard J. Dur-bin, a Democrat who is one of themost powerful men in the Senate— because he had yet to sign onto her bill to address sexual as-sault in the military. Mr. Durbinfumed when he heard about themove, an unusual breach in theprotocol-conscious Senate.

She defies her party in smallerways: After a bipartisan farm billwas cobbled together with greateffort by her colleague DebbieStabenow of Michigan, Ms. Gil-librand tried to block modest cutsto food stamps that other Demo-crats said were needed to retainRepublican support and broughtin high-profile foodies from NewYork, including the celebrity chefTom Colicchio, to fight it.

Her other tactics include cor-nering colleagues on the Senatefloor and refusing to stop talking,

and popping out a news releasepicking apart a senator’s compet-ing legislation as it is being an-nounced.

If her colleagues grumble

about her ambition in a bodywhere freshman members areapplauded for keeping theirheads down, so be it. “I’m tryingto fight for men and women who

shouldn’t be raped in the mil-itary,” she said of her work on thesexual assault legislation. If her

New York’s Junior Senator, Doggedly Refusing to Play the Part

GABRIELLA DEMCZUK/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York has elevated issues like sexual assault in the military.

Continued on Page A3

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