Quiet time

with the President

One Sunday in 2001 Dr. Peter Friedland received an unexpected call. Nelson Mandela was struggling to hear.

Could Peter, an ear, nose and throat specialist visit, him at home?

Friedland discovered Mandela was using antiquated hearing aids and struggling to maintain them. Soon he became a regular visitor to Mandela’s home where he experienced the statesman alone, in the frailty of old age. Mandela was full of stories, each one bearing a lesson.

South Africa was in the grip of a hijacking epidemic, and Friedland often found himself in the emergency room, operating as a head and neck trauma surgeon on folk who had been shot through the car window.

He also encountered violence on the street, it entered his home, and when yet another friend bled-out in his arms, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Telling his famous patient that he was leaving for Australia was insurmountably difficult, but Mandela surprised him.

He had made a monumental mistake in Australia some 20 years earlier, and he warned
Friedland to learn from his ignorance.

In Perth, Friedland was told Australians think multiculturalism is inviting people to the party, however, it’s a long time before they ask you to dance. Here’s how he got onto the dance floor…