Diplomats

"I did graduate work and started teaching and some years into the teaching, I went for my PhD and came back so it was like my whole life has been at UG and so I wondered if I had served till I’m 57, why should I just end it instead of finishing?"

"I am pleased to say that even though I have parents who did not advance that much in school, they were determined to educate their children. Sometimes it was hard for them to come by money to take care of us. But one thing we could always say or boast of was that none of us was chased home to collect school fees. My father always made sure he paid our school fees. But of course, the problem was whether you had new clothes to wear or you had three square meals to eat."

"My father was educated up to middle school, and with his certificate, he got a job and started off as a bailiff but later had a job with VRA/NED in Tamale so it was from that institution he retired in 1998. He is now the Sanaahene of the Nsawkaw Traditional area. But my mum didn’t have a certificate so what she had to do was to do one job or the other so that she could, together with my father, put food on the table. Seriously, I saw her selling many things growing up and because I was the first child, I was doing most of the things with her."

"One cardinal mistake no small state should make is to put all its eggs into one basket, even a basket as strong as the US. Despite its huge influence, Israel cannot change the shifting geopolitical tides. America’s power has peaked: its economy will not shrink in absolute terms but it will shrink irresistibly in relative terms. This would have happened naturally but gradually. But the continuing economic crises in the US will hasten the decline in America’s influence. Shrinking budgets will cut defence and aid expenditures. A crippled economic giant with no rockets to launch its astronauts into outer space will lose its “mystique”. Countries will no longer hesitate to vote against American preferences."

"Imposing sanctions may feel good. But if they are actually to do good, we must refine how they are used."

"Over time, China’s emergence as the world’s leading economy and power will become an undeniable reality. The big question is whether the rest of the world will prove as pragmatic as China. Most of China’s neighbors have already adapted to its pragmatism. As a result, East Asia is likely to remain calm, even as several bilateral issues and tensions simmer away under the surface."

"In short, the three chair countries, India, Indonesia and the US, face very different challenges in 2023. But if they all succeed, the world will be a far better place next year. Let’s hope that they all succeed in scoring some goals. The World Cup of diplomacy at the end will leave little doubt that it was far more significant than the World Cup of soccer."

"Submarines are stealthy, but trade is stealthier. Both generate security—the former by deterrence, the latter by interdependence. But the kind of security created by trade lasts longer."

"This is why we should develop a new norm in international relations: leaders of major countries should automatically and unhesitatingly meet each other face-to-face when they are in the same city. Such face-to-face meetings are not that critical when relations are good. But they are critical, if not essential, when relations are bad."

"I think that it is good for the world that China is being more of a Wolf Warrior. There is a greater danger of China remaining quiet, which would lead to its people and its leaders becoming angrier and angrier. My big message for the West is that when China emerges as the number one economy, we want to avoid it becoming an angry dragon. On the other hand, the West is shooting itself in the foot by insulting China, for example when Trump and Pompeo lectured them and launched sanctions. Beijing doesn’t believe that the West is doing all this grandstanding about China from a moral position. Instead, what they think is that when China was weak it was kicked around by the West, but now the country is strong the Western governments have decided to care about human rights there. Thus, many in China think it is a cynical ploy by the West. We must get used to the fact that China is different now, and is actually bigger than the US in terms of its GDP PPP [purchasing power parity]. As such, China cannot be expected to behave as it did in the past."

"What is truly shocking is the lack of historical knowledge of many major American strategic thinkers. They don’t seem to understand that the unipolar moment the US enjoyed for the last 30 years was an aberration. We are now returning to a multipolar world, which will be a much richer world. However, it does mean that the United States will have to learn to play a much more intelligent game globally."

"I think when future historians look back, they’ll be puzzled by the Western expectation that a country like China, with 4,000 years of political history, could be changed by a country like the US, with a history of fewer than 250 years. The assumption that the rest of the world will, over time, become just like the West is arrogant."

"Yet, in geopolitics we must always do two things simultaneously. We must moralise. And we must analyse. Since geopolitics is a cruel game and follows the cold and ruthless logic of power, we must be cold, dispassionate and hard-headed in our analysis. The only iron law of geopolitics is that it punishes those who are naive and ignore its cold logic."

"I consider myself a friend of America and a friend of China. And I see these two countries rushing towards a complete head-on collision from which both will suffer. I believe that if the United States could put the well-being of 330 million people in America as the number one priority; and if China puts the well-being of 1.4 billion people in China as the number one priority; then both America and China can achieve the goal of improving the well-being of their people by working together, rather than working against each other."

"As you know, the 18th and 19th century competition between the great powers was always seen as a zero sum game — either you are number one, or I’m number one. We should be beyond that. We now live in a small, interdependent world where, apar from taking care of our own people, our number one priority should be protecting our planet, which is in peril."

"I don’t want the West to fail, I want it to succeed. A weak and divided West is bad for the world. I am not anti-Western or anti-American. I just find that there are better ways to deal with Asia and China. The West has to realize that if history makes a turn, you cannot continue to go straight."

"This temptation to be a free rider on American geopolitical pressure on China is understandable. It looks like an easy option, with no visible costs. However, any objective audit of the pros and cons of becoming an ally, implicitly or explicitly, of the US will show that in doing so, India would have forsaken an even bigger geopolitical opportunity to become a truly independent third pole in the global order. And the world is crying out for an independent third pole to turn to."

"Yes, geopolitics is a cruel business. It has been cruel for over 2,000 years. The African states know well—as do other developing countries—that as the US-China geopolitical contest gains momentum in the coming de- cade, they will have to make painful choices. Since they don’t want to take sides and be forced to give up some options, they will be looking for an independent pole to light a third way for them. It will be much easier for them to resist pressure from the US and China and take the middle road if a credible independent pole has set a precedent that they can point to."

"Reaching out helped me to meet many people who were aggrieved by what happened to them during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. When this happened, somehow you feel you aren’t the only one who has problems."

"When you become a leader at any level, you look beyond the borders of your problems and become a role model to the public. When you live a life of agony, while whoever you meet is no better than you, makes people lose morale. But in this position that I was entrusted with, I had to give the best I had to the public regardless of how I felt ."

"I started working with whoever would do business to me regardless of who they were or where they were from. I did this because I realised that this of negative thinking would impact the country’s development."

"resurrecting Chez Lando is a way of honoring the dead. But it is also a means of perpetuating life"

"When you become a leader at any level, you look beyond the borders of your problems and become a role model to the public."

"The prize will motivate us by adding value to what we do, but also it should be the pride to all Rwandan women and the nation at large"

"During my time at the hotel, I have managed to renovate the building, improve service and be friendly to my employees, but of course we still have a lot to achieve"

"If the people who carried out genocide realise what they did and they stand in solidarity with the victims, showing them the remains of their beloved ones and joining them during the commemoration time, it will speed up the healing process."

"I never trusted anyone and I did not trust anyone. I never thought I could be a human being again. Whenever I thought about what happened to me and my family I would develop hatred for whoever I suspected had a hand in my family’s suffering ."

"After almost everyone in my family was killed, and I happened to survive, most of the time I asked myself, what should I do to keep on moving and to stand in for my beloved ones who perished during the Genocide ."

"We need to tackle this issue of women running the risk of falling back behind if we push technology without consciousness about what else needs to be done for them to really embrace and grow with it."

"our role is to ensure the stability of the currency and general level of prices for goods and services; in other words, our role is to ensure moderate inflation that does not undermine the purchasing power of the citizens and discourage them from saving and investing."

"When human hearts and minds connect, a lot stands to happen. Never feel that investing time and money in networking is a wasteful act."

"A second learning I’ve had has been the power of networking. There is a lot of good will out there; people with ideas, experience, connections, and solutions. These are the same people ready to listen and be inspired by one’s ideas and actions as well."

"Gender is not just numbers — how many women, how many men –, but other things like the diversity of ideas and styles you bring on board, the minds of people and perceptions."

"A safe family means a safe country."

"When you don’t understand women, you can’t serve them."

"Corruption is the enemy of the country and development. We should join our efforts to combat corruption. The residents, as main partners, should report it in different ways, and there is an approach to ensure the protection of the whistle-blowers. We should tackle corruption, and punish its culprits,"

"We’ve known it from the beginning that equality and women’s empowerment is the true way for sustainable development."

"We need everyone in our society to be contributing towards the rebuilding of Rwanda. Not just 50 percent of society. And we need to include everyone in the opportunities."

"I have a dream not only for the North but for the entire nation. I have a dream that Nigeria will be truly united one day. I have a dream that Nigeria will have a buoyant, a strong economy. I have a dream that Nigeria will have the political cloud that will enable her to lead rest of the Africa and the blacks all over the world. I have a dream that Nigerians will come to regard one another as their brothers keepers. I have a dream that Nigeria will take her proper place in the committee of nations and will be one of the leading nations of the world. I have that dream, God's willing.. And all these ugliest things that are happening today will come to an end. Only God has no beginning nor end. Everything that you see good or bad has a beginning and it will have an end. By the grace of God we will see the end of all the crisis in Nigeria. By the grace of God we will come to know peace and stability in Nigeria. By the grace of God we will be our brothers keepers. Unfortunately today it is not so, and that is why I'm worried and that is why we are working for it.. Today Nigeria is not what it was. Nigeria was a decent country, morally sound, yes. But today, even the institutions of public is breaking down today. Respect for elders and constituted authority could used to be the cardinal principle in our society is now in it's lowest aim. Honesty where it does not pay has become meaningless. In short, there is meaninglessness in philosophy, insecurity in politics, chaos in politics, immoralities in society, corruption in economy, frustration in art, lack of creativity in literature."

"Mr President; I see under you Nigeria realising her dreams because; I have a dream that Nigeria will one day be truly united; I have a dream that Nigeria will build a sound economy; I have a dream that Nigeria will have the political cloud that will enable her to lead rest of the Africa and the blacks all over the world; I have a dream that Nigeria will take her proper place in the committee of nations.."

"The purpose of history is to know the past in order to adjust the Present and plan for the future."

"I think, we ought to pray for the government and we ought to exercise patience. Let there be constructive criticism. Nigeria is a big country, mark you and it has the potentiality of leading Africa."

"Non approviamo la mostra - ha detto Slawomir Tryc, consigliere dell'ambasciata polacca a Berlino - riteniamo che raggruppare tutte le espulsioni in Europa in un solo mucchio sia falsificare la storia. (...) il dramma dei tedeschi fu la diretta conseguenza di una guerra cominciata dalla Germania."

"We think that the struggle against totalitarianism, Nazism and Communism, and the resistance movements, were the most important parts of 20th Century history. The expulsion, especially of Germans, was only a consequence of that."

"We need to stand by the Syrians who are threatened by this (COVID-19) pandemic, in addition to suffering the continued consequences of conflict and economic hardship. The EU (European Union) is committed to shielding the most vulnerable people and caregivers from COVID-19's full force."

"Elizabeth Nyamayaro, an advocate for women’s rights and economic development, is the driving force behind the HeForShe campaign, a UN Women’s initiative and global solidarity movement that seeks to engage men as advocates for gender equality. Nyamayaro grew up in rural Zimbabwe where she met a UNICEF aid worker who altered the course of her life – she has since become the senior advisor to the Executive Director of UN Women, worked at the forefront of Africa’s development agenda for more than a decade, worked with UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank, and founded Africa IQ, a social impact organization promoting Africa’s sustainable economic growth and development."

"Time and again Elizabeth has proven her unique ability to focus public attention and trigger stakeholder action for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Corinne Woods, UNWFP Director of Communications, Advocacy and Marketing. “WFP is honored to add her voice and experience to our own, amplifying the plight of the 690 million people around the world who don’t know where their next meal is coming from."

"Nyamayaro holds a noble goal for the future of humanity: to end gender inequality for good."

"I am because we are, and because we are, you are.”"

"“Our potential should not be limited by where we are born, nor our dreams be diminished by our current circumstances.”"