Women In Law

"Now the EPP Group has requested that there be a Commission statement on the rule of law in Spain and a Commission statement on the rule of law in Malta."

"On this day, the word celebration is not really a word we could use. In Ukraine, we see women are resisting, standing up and taking up arms against their aggressor. It is a privilege to have with us a Ukrainian woman and writer whose literature and strong voice exhibits the strength of Ukrainian women in the face of oppression. These brave and resilient women serve as an inspiration to us all, as they defend the same European values that we hold."

"We are officially working for an organization that hates us."

"The Pope has placed before us a beautiful goal, this universal brotherhood, which logically, includes women and men, for Saint Francis did not exclude anyone! It is a commitment that begins to daily life, in the relationships that each of us have, and then extends it to the areas of professional or social commitment where we find ourselves, at whatever level. Logically, in the current situation, this is not easy, we cannot hide it and be naïve, but we have a goal and a great hope, for which we are also responsible. Moreover, I have faith that if we try to do our small part, God will do the rest if we let Him."

"In the international community, the Holy See also has the mission of ensuring that the interdependence between people and nations be developed in a moral and ethical dimension, as well as in the other dimensions and various aspects that relations are acquiring in today's world. One must never tire of encouraging dialogue at all levels, always seeking diplomatic solutions."

"The Republican Party has grown more racially and religiously homogeneous and its politics more dependent on manufacturing threats to the status of white Christians. This is why Trump frequently and falsely implies that Americans were afraid to say "Merry Christmas" before he was elected, and why Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham warn Fox News viewers that nonwhite immigrants are stealing America. For both the Republican Party and conservative media, wielding power and influence depends on making white Americans feel threatened by the growing political influence of those who are different from them."

"Lois Griffin: Uh, who's that terrible blonde lady whose own family hates her?" Principal Shepherd: Laura Ingraham."

"Our father was a Nazi sympathizer, racist, anti-Semite and homophobe. Like father like daughter?"

"We grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father who was a Nazi sympathizer. Like father like daughter?! This was the familial soil that gave bloom to my sister's anger."

"As scholars such as Leo Chavez and Otto Santa Ana have shown, threat narratives of replacement, conquest, invasion, and infestation have circulated for well over a century. What is new is how this racist rhetoric is being promulgated by a particularly influential set of forces that includes a white nationalist president, formidable conservative media ecosystem, and an empowered anti-immigrant and alt-right political contingent, often undergirded by a persistent gun culture." Together, this nativist assemblage has taken up the white nationalist rhetoric of the "great replacement"-a conspiracy theory in which white people are being systematically "replaced" by people of color through mass migration (possibly orchestrated by Jews and other "globalists"). Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham in particular characterize white Americans as being "replaced through immigration to the benefit of Democrats." Ingraham tells Fox viewers that "the Democrats want to replace many of you. with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain immigrants"...Pushing a conspiracy theory that Democrats are encouraging noncitizens to vote to win elections, Trump, Fox, and other antiimmigrant forces have created a xenophobic resonance machine that continually characterizes Mexicans and other Latinx populations as an invasive force. Speaking to Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, Ingraham characterized Texas as "completely overrun by this illegal invasion" and said that "calling it anything but an invasion at this point is just not being honest with people.""

"How is allowing 600K students from the Communist country of China putting America first?"

"About Justin Trudeau:"

"It (2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) is surreal. I never thought I would be living through the nightmare that my grandmother, who lived through World War II, was telling me about."

"All of the Russian Duma (parliament) unanimously voted to recognize these territories (Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic) of Ukraine are sovereign states. That in itself is a crime. It's against international law, so that should be sanctioned."

"I also think we need to be more ambitious. You see projects and they are too timid, too small. International investors and financiers want scale. So we also help see the bigger picture and help ensure that these projects are appealing and will meet the requirements and benchmarks that we know investors will request."

"While we have come very far in the fight against these heinous acts, the road ahead remains long and arduous."

"People had been turning to witchcraft because of the mistaken belief that using their body parts in potions can bring good luck and wealth."

"I explained to African Business why in the current crisis, originating transactions is more important than ever."

"At the Africa Investment Forum, we distil the talk into projects."

"So we’re involved throughout the value chain, all year round, providing the tools and instruments and know-how to make a deal bankable and helping it see the light of day. Of course, each deal is different and our role will change depending on the needs."

"With the AIF, which is a flagship initiative of the African Development Bank along with seven other founding partners, we are preparing projects for bankability and helping projects progress through the different steps, the next one being raising capital and once that is done also working to unlock the bottlenecks that can cause some deals to not reach closure."

"So through the AIF platform we’re helping people join us as partners and shifting the discussion to one of investments. And I see that this approach does resonate in the American market and US investors."

"They say, this is what you need because you have not articulated your own needs in a manner that you can present it so that it will be addressed. The continent also has not understood its part in solving its own problems, nobody will do it for you. You’re going to have to rise and do it yourself."

"That brings me to your direct question about the perception of the Americans in business. You have to deal with people telling you what they think is good for you because you’re not able to speak for yourself."

"That’s what we’re doing now with the Africa Investment Forum. Again, building a platform that is multi-transactional, multi-disciplinary and very deal-oriented. We are trying to get away from the endless talk about what needs to be done in Africa to actually doing stuff and we’re doing it one transaction at a time. We distil the talk into projects. We are working with the creative industry, for example, and doing a lot of work and seeing how we can channel funds to where it is needed, not just where people think it is needed."

"And I suppose this is a continuation of a culture that goes back to my days at Pencon. There was a lot of talk on pension reform and many people were saying that it wasn’t possible. It took a few senior people and a very willing President Obasanjo to back us and we pushed through the pension reform and did it in such a way that it remains sustainable"

"We are constantly putting things on the table that weren’t there before and constantly refusing to take no for an answer when it comes to Africa."

"The Lagos to Abidjan corridor highway project has been well documented and it’s fully subscribed – the road, the rail connection. So, now we are working on the next step which is logistics, storage, warehousing along this corridor. That’s what the boardrooms will be focusing on during the AIF. Making transactions happen and getting real investor interest in critical projects that will help drive transformation and development."

"This is something we incredibly proud of and when we talk about women in business, we’re helping make it a reality. We’re helping create scale and impact. This year, mining especially what are termed green minerals. We have many technology projects and also projects around logistics."

"We are helping to channel monies to women-led and businesses with a gender lens. We have a dozen deals on our platform starting from $2m – a sheer butter business – to a multi-billion refinery business. Their stories are amazing when you look at the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, the challenges and sheer tenacity and not just the will but also the mental acumen to pursue the deals to where they are now."

"Before I talk about deals, I would like to talk about something that is paramount to me: women as investment champions. This is something I am most proud of, the launch of the Women as Investment Champions."

"We are helping structure this, and helping channel investments towards this. The same applies to the creatives, and making sure that we are monetising our creations."

"Around sports you have the merchandising, you have the whole ecosystem, the infrastructure and for those watching these sports, the hotels, the shops, the licensing. This is why people are paying billions for sports franchises."

"But we want to look at it more than just an athlete or a singer. We are looking to creating the framework so that we monetise the IP. Others are currently making money from our talent."

"Talent is not the issue on the continent. We have it in abundance. We are naturally blessed in sports and in the creatives."

"The same principles that we discussed earlier still need to be applied to these sectors. Thinking about scale, structuring projects properly, creating awareness around the impact and upside."

"First let me say that risks do exist. It would be naive and totally idealistic for anyone to say that political risk doesn’t exist. But it exists everywhere. The point is that it’s not going to go away. What we need are the tools to manage it so that it doesn’t become a problem. What we do on the AIF side is to ensure that we unlock these bottlenecks and sometimes it’s a political bottleneck, sometimes it’s a policy bottleneck. Sometimes it’s a data or business intelligence bottleneck because you can’t invest if you don’t understand your terrain, if you don’t have reliable numbers."

"They sit in the room with investors, they sit in the room with project sponsors and they hear first-hand how their intentions, their concerns, how policies affect the investments. And investors also get a better understanding of policy. It helps with decision making and we have seen leaders go back to work on policy to help drive greater investments and get deals over the line. That is the unique proposition of the AIF."

"One should understand that when the presidents come to the AIF they don’t come to AIF as the president of such and such a country, they come to AIF as CEOs of their countries."

"It is always incumbent on the project sponsors and the advisors to structure the deals in a manner that you accompany the interests of the country you operate in. That’s what differentiates success and frustration."

"We are uniquely placed to overcome all of these different items. We work with every government on the continent. So we can help smooth out issues around policy through discussions and sensitisation and through reforms. We also have proprietary data through the African Development Bank."

"The issue we have found are the project themselves, the way they’re structured and the way they are prepared. We have noticed that you can have some fantastic projects but they are structure is wrong and they don’t have the basic corporate governance structures that make them investible from an investor’s perspective."

"On the domestic front, can I just say that the driver behind the pension reform we conducted was to ignite that domestic resource mobilisation. And across the continent, we haven’t even started to scratch the surface on that front. Just look at contributions as a percentage of GDP and it’s still small comparatively speaking. So there is capital."

"One of the biggest challenges is project preparation. You can always find capital and it is available both domestically and globally."

""We are now making fundamental changes struggling to adapt to the “new normal.” What does the future hold for us in Africa? We would be glad to tap from your wealth of knowledge, experience and scholarship."

"It’s a start, we’ll need a lot more, but this is something that is very exciting to us at the Africa Investment Forum, because it clearly charts a path where we can have a collaborative effort and ensure that deals on the continent have fruition."

"Project preparation and due diligence is very important."

"There is abundance of capital and projects in Africa."

"The Africa Investment Forum has been supporting the African Continental Free Trade Area through the Forum’s parent institution, the African Development Bank."

"A couple of years ago, it was Ebola ravaging the continent. Now it is COVID-19. There may be something else in the future. How do we then position Africa to very clearly respond to their own needs without a dependence on aid?"