mayors

"We are appealing to the Namibian nation to allow our women, our brothers, our men to walk freely in the streets, and our kids to play freely without being disturbed with these rape issues"

"I managed to guide the new councillors in the right direction. That contributed to the smooth running of the council, because I have this experience from the previous council"

"I would rather talk about what I learnt from the whole process. Public participation is critical in ensuring social cohesion and development"

"It [the festival] has been commercialised, and the ordinary resident on the street frankly does not benefit from it"

"Imagine, nowadays, you find a three-month-old baby being raped by an uncle, by a brother, by a father, by a niece or cousin or whatever. Does it mean that she asked for it?"

"The event truly has become a catalyst for tourism growth benefits, not only for formal businesses, but for SMEs as well"

"It was interesting to note that every time events in our history offered people a choice between race or class solidarity, race seemed to win. Marxists were ingenious at explaining this away, but it was all rather tortuous. Marxists have to squeeze facts into their framework, to prove the historical inevitability of the working class revolution and the demise of capitalism."

"It was an unusual background and I often felt a cultural clash between my school and home environments."

"Education takes the most extraordinary amount of discipline, effort and hard work. Reward is always related to this. Time management, beginning with arriving on time for lessons, is essential, but it is a very hard thing to learn."

"well-staffed schools would lose teachers and under-staffed schools would gain teachers. I supported this objective, as well as the original strategy to achieve it, which would have enabled well-staffed schools to determine which posts to lose on the basis of educational criteria."

"Residents in informal settlements are faced with reduced access to some of the most basic social amenities like a regulated waste management system. Therefore, the city is working to improve its waste management system through a programme to start the separation of waste at source and put up a compost plant. Apart from that we strive to give them access to financial inclusion, through a recognised national identification system which will also enable them to be enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme as well provide an infant care facility for the children."

"We have a National Disaster Management Organisation within our administration. They are prepared to respond to such disasters and work to monitor disaster plans to keep us all informed if a disaster is forecast. They also bring relief to disaster victims and assist to reduce poverty in vulnerable and poor communities The city is also tackling these challenges through a project on the dredging of waterways, gutters as well as a campaign which aims at the behavioural aspect of waste management telling people not to dump garbage in drains."

"In the past we have experienced devastating floods in the city of Accra, which has led to loss of lives and property. We are also starting to see our coastlines receding in many of our coastal communities. This particularly negatively impacts informal settlements in the city, where a sizeable number of local and international migrants reside. It exposes them for example to water-borne disease outbreaks and also reduces their abilities to withstand various economic and social shocks."

"We can say that these poles have mixed a long time ago… I have held administrative management positions in different departments for more than twenty years. And here, I am continuing what I have always done, because for a long time, I have become familiar with the system and its workings, whether it is public spending or management. Today, of course, it is a different management and one that encourages us to take up all the challenges."

"The most important project I have undertaken is the complete overhaul of the administration. The first challenge, at this stage, is to reconsider the task of the municipality and the perception of the citizen."

"My role as a doctor can only be beneficial to my role as mayor because both missions are part of the social sector, a field in which I have worked all my life, to serve and help vulnerable people. One of the qualities of a doctor is empathy, and here, I am in an empathy of another magnitude… By working in the social sector, more than twenty years ago, I realized that it was necessary to get involved in politics to better serve the citizen. Today, I have the opportunity to serve the citizen even more, by doing everything I can to make their daily lives easier."

"My greatest pride is to serve the citizens of Casablanca and to share with them the worries of daily life. My greatest fear is not to live up to the expectations of the people of Casablanca, to disappoint all those who believed in me and voted for me. People believed in us and put all their hopes in our party. Coming first at the end of the election is a burden and a responsibility. We have the heavy task of satisfying the citizen. It is a real challenge, and we will have to work very hard not to disappoint anyone."

"I will be mayor for all, the majority and the opposition, and everyone will work for development and raising the standard of living of Rabatis."

"Regarding the allocation of the management of the "Forsa" project to the Minister of Tourism to the detriment of the Minister of Employment, that we had a discussion within the Government Council and we came out with a unified position: The government's program over the next two years includes two important projects for the benefit of young people and it is not possible, according to the head of government, to entrust these two major projects to a single minister, which can constitute a heavy burden for their effective management. This is why the head of government preferred to entrust the management of each project to a minister, so that the performance is guaranteed."

"We have always been in opposition and it was time for us to say clearly that the Authenticity and Modernity Party has a vision and is full of skills that are ready to assume responsibilities."

"The first thing is to have a good team and to have confidence in it, to believe in the abilities of each person and in the administrative services in place that have been there for a long time and know the municipality perfectly. A synergy between the administrative and the political will make it possible to meet all the challenges. In summary, the main qualities are confidence, work and perseverance."

"It’s a historical day for the city of lights."

"We entered the government not to satisfy personal goals, but to participate in the reform and implement the various development projects in our country."

"Those who are not born in Islam are unfortunate! They are born with misfortune. We have to bring them under the fold of Islam. We need to spread Islam among non-Muslims. If we can bring someone on the path of Islam, then, we will prove to be true Muslims."

"The hostile forces from the west and the Dalai clique not only ignore the massive development and progress in Tibet, but also strongly attack and refute the development path of Tibet. We can not have any illusions on the Dalai clique. We should crack down on any separatist and sabotage activities."

"The clique of the 14th Dalai Lama has never ceased its attempts to split China. Such activities run counter to the constitution, state system and the interests of all people in Tibet, and are doomed to fail."

"Tibet will never develop at the expense of its environment. To protect Tibet's environment is the biggest contribution we can make to the nation and even humankind."

"We will unswervingly protect the unity of the motherland and ethnic harmony ... and maintain harmony and stability in Tibet. Harmony and stability are the basic guarantee of Tibet's development and prosperity."

"We should deeply realize that for a country and the world, it is crucial to listen to the voices of the youth and support their growth. We should provide them with education of higher quality, ample employment opportunities and diverse participation channels. By doing so, we can tap into their creative spirit and potential,"

"With this joint Easter celebration, we have another occasion to strengthen spiritual solidarity besides Christmas, maintaining good relations among us who belong to different Churches."

"It may not be out of place here to refer to the attempts made in recent years by the leaders of the two great communities, the Hindu and the Muhammadan, for the promotion of good feeling and for the establishment of a Hindu Moslem unity. That, Sir, is a consummation devoutly to be wished. I for one am a firm believer in the growth of such a feeling. But, for the unity to be harmonious, it must be spontaneous and when such a unity does establish itself, we shall have no more of these regrettable occurrences. I appeal to you, Sir, whether actions of this kind, such as the wholesale destruction of life, the looting of property, the desecration of sacred temples, the cold- blooded murders of men, women and children and the trampling under foot of the cherished sentiments of the Hindus, whether there are calculated to secure that unity which we have so much at heart. I am sure a decided ‘no’ will be the answer from the responsible leaders of the Muhammadan community. Having regard to the present outbreak it is imperative therefore that responsible Muslim leaders should come forward boldly to denounce and condemn the action of these unruly Moplahs, take the initiative in the matter of giving relief to the sufferers and thus pave the way for a real unity among the two great communities ..."

"... In conclusion, I appeal to the Honourable Members of this Council, more especially to the Muhammadan Members, to support in unambiguous and unequivocal terms any action seeking to give the innocent victims adequate relief for all the losses they have sustained through no fault of their own, irrespective of any consideration other than the extent of their losses and the demands of justice."

"... With Koran in one hand and the sword in the other these lawless bands marched through rich villages forcing conversion or death on the unwilling Hindu population of the locality. The houses of those Hindus and other non-Muslims have been broken into and properties, valued at several lakhs of rupees, have been looted and carried away. Inmates of houses were tortured. Men, women and children were murdered in cold blood. Age and sex mattered not to then. Hindu temples were destroyed; the images were broken; the temple jewels were carried away. The landed aristocracy of the place were subjected to a most cruel treatment. People in large numbers have been forced to leave off their belongings and flee for life to the town of Calicut where they have now taken refuge. The European community also have suffered much at the hands of the rioters, and it is miraculous that some of them have been able to make good their escape across the troubled area into Calicut. Such is the nature of the tragedy enacted in Malabar."

"Mr. Yakub Hasan, the President of the Madras Provincial Conference, who says that he knows these Moplahs rather intimately has some fine things to say of them. In his Presidential address at Tanjore, he says, ‘Once the blood of the Moplah is up, there is no knowing what it will lead to. Leaders of the community who have influence with the Moplahs, alone can pacify them.’ The blood of the Moplah is up, Sir, and we know to our cost what it has led to. While events are thus moving so rapidly in Malabar, it is a matter for very great regret that responsible Muslim leaders in different parts of the country have not yet come forward with their condemnation of this dastardly rising. It may be suggested that an immediate expression of their opinion will not carry weight with the Moplahs now that they are in the full swing of their fury. It is my humble opinion, however, that such an expression of their opinion will go far to pacify the rioters, to allay public feeling and restore peace which we all so much desire."

"The lesson of the past proves that any regime that humiliates citizens cannot last and does not deserve to exist. Now, all citizens can freely demand that their inalienable rights should be respected, and the institutions of the state must work in such a way that people will no longer feel humiliated. During this period of transition, much has been said about the moral crisis of society. It relates to numerous aspects of daily life. I am certain that we shall leave behind the state of social mistrust and pessimism in which we have been submerged by the years of transition if, together, we undertake a genuine examination of the national conscience."

"I myself have often criticized the imperfections of our political system, the inefficiency of certain institutions. But it is not the institutions of the state that are guilty, but the manner in which we make them work, the manner in which many think they should utilize them for the achievement of their own interests."

"Imported from the USSR, the communist ideology justified the assault against civil society, against political and economic pluralism; it justified the annihilation of the democratic parties, the destruction of the free market, extermination by assassination, deportations, forced labor, and the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people. Behind the mask of "socialist humanism" lay concealed the most profound contempt for human beings as individuals."

"For the citizens of Romania, communism was a regime imposed by a political group self-designated as possessor of the truth, a totalitarian regime born through violence and ended through violence. It was a regime of oppression, which expropriated five decades of modern history from the Romanian people, which trampled law underfoot and forced citizens to live in lies and fear."

"A democracy without memory is one that finds itself in grave suffering. We must not forget, in order to avoid the errors of the past."

"When we attempt to expose the mechanisms of the totalitarian regime, it is the case not to forget that its architects and beneficiaries demonstrated no form of scruple or remorse."

"Evoking now a period which many would wish to forget, we have spoken both of the past and of the extent to which we, people today, wish to go to the very end in the assumption of the values of liberty. These values, prior even to being those of Romania or of Europe, flow from the universal, sacred value of the human person. If we now turn to the past, we do so in order to face a future in which contempt for the individual will no longer go unpunished."

"I do not want to become "the President who condemned communism". I want only to be the head of a state which considers that this condemnation relates to normality, that, without this condemnation, we shall move forward with difficulty, we shall move forward while continuing to carry on our back the corpse of our own past. All that I want is for us to build the future of democracy in Romania and the national identity upon clean ground."

"It is true that, during a political debate or sports event inadequate language occurs. Beyond that, I assure you that the Romanian people have a long tradition of common sense and respect for diversity."

"We leave behind a huge political investment of trust and hope on behalf of our people. It would all however have been in vain unless we will show positive political will in making these constructs come to life. We need to strengthen our common universal frame, and we all also need it to work better with regional and national levels in a consistent matrix of subsidiarity and complementarity."

"Six decades after the U.N. was created as a bulwark against abuse and terror, basic human rights and liberties are still baffled around the world as a not so uncommon occurrence. Many regimes still get the shivers at the mere utterance of the word "democracy"."

"My country's particular experience in Southeastern Europe and the wider Black Sea area reveals that meaningful cooperation between the U.N. and regional organizations is decisive both on conflict management, and in handling responses to transnational non-conventional threats."

"Our ultimate aim should be to see the day when the international community is able to deal with each and every security challenge anywhere, anytime, by better pooling together existing resources and capabilities for responding to unlawful violence."

"The education has the main vocation of conveying, through moral and pedagogic instruments, a message of accountability for the lessons of the past, and knowing the history, the traditions and the culture of the ethnic groups living in our country is the first step towards a progress in good understanding and cohabitation."

"We have the permanent duty to react, using all the political and institutional tools at our disposal, for combating the expression of intolerance and discrimination, in any form. We have the democratic obligation to act so that every citizen feels that he is protected by law therefore having the proof of the solidarity of his fellow citizens. Democracy is the only political regime where diversity can truly be respected, for the common benefit."

"If we are complacent, we might awake all the demons that have troubled the life of Europe: racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism can spread like a fire, whenever the vigilance of governments and civil society decreases."