Ambassadors

"O man with the electric torch. God has sent you to me. Come and help me to find the path leading to the location…."

"Get up, you pig! Where are your papers? Where have you come from? What are you doing fucking around here?"

"They lamented 'the Martyr' as they called Father Gilbert because he died on African soil."

"For Serbian people it is very important to see that the relationship with the Vatican are really very, very, old and I think that the most important message is that most representative people of Serbian intellectual elite, statesmen, professors of the university, politicians, were very fond of establishing the relationship with the Vatican. What is not very well known is that in that time the Vatican didn't have a lot of treaties and conquered that."

"Liberia is owned by Jesus no matter what they say or who says what, Jesus owns Liberia. Despite what we have gone through, we must forgive if we want to achieve durable peace. Though it is difficult to forgive, but we must do so in the interest of peace and our Nation. This nation belongs to God. Any government who does not know Jesus is bound to fail."

"Sustainable tourism is not that which destroys, but the one that sets balances. This is what we are training for."

"Ireland and the Holy See are both firm believers in the need for effective multilateral cooperation among nations to face global challenges. We are believers in a peaceful rules-based world and in the power of dialogue. Our long-standing relationship takes in many global issues of mutual interest, including human rights, sustainable development, eradicating hunger, climate change, disarmament, migration and human trafficking, freedom of religion or belief, and peaceful resolution of conflicts."

"Among the best things in life is to have a holy friend. I feel I am a friend of John Paul II, and it is significant that the contemporary saints moved about this life amid the same difficulties, temptations, and problems we experience. And in the midst of all this, they reached the goal."

"In Tanzania we have a very strong political party, which is my party, CCM, and where you have a very strong party you really can't have the monarchy, where you have a strong monarchy there are no political parties."

"Spain was the champion of the Catholic world, the safeguard of the Catholic world. The Counter-Reformation against Lutheranism. And Europe had left this task in the hands of Spain."

"For non-believers and believers, I think that a fair amount of people will see it as a great salute to an extraordinary Australian who pioneered education for indigenous people, education more broadly, who did so much to help so many other people."

"It is so much easier to do the job if you're on the ground in Rome. The Vatican is not entirely a closed shop, but you have to know where to look, which conferences to attend, which contacts to pursue."

"Lacalle chose me as an ambassador knowing my Catholic convictions perfectly well, but at the same time, I must respect what has been established and what has been indicated by the public authorities of the nation."

"It is imperative for the international community to act swiftly to prevent another tragedy similar to that of the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital last Tuesday (17 October 2023), where nearly 500 Palestinian civilians, including children, were massacred by an Israeli airstrike on the hospital."

"The first person to name that movement "Magical Realism," to give a label to that, was Alejo Carpentier. He was living with the surrealists in France and the surrealists were inventing this wonderful new thing of printing together on a dissecting table, a sewing machine and an umbrella, and that was surrealism. And Alejo Carpentier realized that this was an intellectual process that had its roots, and he could see the umbrella and the sewing machine on this dissecting table in Latin America because it was part of our culture. Kafka would have been a realist if he would have lived in Mexico. So Alejo Carpentier realized that, and he abandoned the surrealists and searched in our roots, in our history, in our legends, in our folklore. He was the first one to label it. And it was wonderful because it was like giving permission to other writers to finally use their own voices. Because before that our writers were always trying to imitate Europeans, or North Americans, and were denying all our Indian background, our African influence, our own languages, and legends, and myths. This was just an open door for all that. I think that was the beginning of the Boom. That really gave a lot of people permission to do anything. But it's not a literary device, it's part of our life. The magic is still there."

"Alejo Carpentier was absolutely wonderful. The Kingdom of the Earth is an exquisite little novel-it's brilliant."

"For many years I have said, following the tradition of Nicolás Guillén, Fernando Ortiz and Alejo Carpentier, that whoever wants to understand Cuba cannot ignore its mestizo condition in which the Hispanic and African components cannot be divided because they have created a cosmovisión that is authentically original."

"I think it is mass generalisation to say there are anti-Christian sentiments by Muslims in Zanzibar, as you know, Christianity in Eastern and Central Africa started in Zanzibar. The first Christian Churches - Anglican and Catholic were built in Zanzibar in the 1870s. Since then Christians and Muslims have been living in peace, side by side."

"I strongly believe that the 21st century will be Africa’s century, that its young population has the potential to build a world where they are not only materially better off but also where things are fairer, more sustainable, and more tolerant than at any other time in history."

"We believe it is perfectly feasible to have good relations with both the (People's) Republic of China and Taiwan."

"Bhutto... harangued about Muslim Bengal having been betrayed, and predicted that one day it would return to the fold. This is a philosophy that is subliminally still nurtured by many in Pakistan, not least the military - the ISI still plays its war games accordingly."

"After Bangladesh's birth, the first few years the new nation was not recognized as a separate sovereign entity by many of the Arab nations, notably Saudi Arabia which insisted that Bangladesh should adopt an Islamic constitution first"

"Coinciding with this development, Scott Perry, a Republican member of the US Congress, has written a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding that the US administration should “reject any democratic credentials” presented by Khan in view of his background as a “bona fide terrorist sympathizer working to undermine” American interests in the region and the “security of our Indian allies”. In a January 27 letter, Perry wrote that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nomination of Khan “can only be described as a breathtaking lack of judgement at best, and a demonstration of Islamabad’s unmitigated contempt for the United States at worst”. Perry contended that Khan has “praised both terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations – including Hizbul Mujahideen – in stark and unsettling terms” and “encouraged young men to emulate jihadists like Burhan Wani, a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen who dedicated his life to a holy war against India”. He further wrote that Khan “lashed out” at the US in 2017 for designating the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen for sanctions, and willingly appeared alongside Harkat-ul-Mujahideen founder Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a specially designated global terrorist, in 2019. Perry referred to the US treasury department’s assertion that Khalil had a close relationship with al-Qaeda and its slain founder, Osama bin Laden. Perry also accused Khan of supporting the “Helping Hand for Relief and Development”, a group that has a partnership with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for killing 166 people during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “A litany of examples accompanies Mr Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism, which makes it exceedingly obvious that Pakistan has embraced its identity as a super terrorist state,” Perry wrote. “While I am encouraged that the State Department has reportedly put a pause on approving Masood Khan as the new Ambassador from Pakistan, a pause is not enough. I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials presented to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the Government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States,” he added…."

"here’s a very short list of Latin women novelists I think should have been considered part of the Boom…Mexico: Elena Garro, Rosario Castellanos..."

"The brilliant Mexican Rosario Castellanos combines a philosophical outlook with a well-grounded historical perspective in both novels and poems, in which she employs complex striking imagery, as in "Daily Round of the Spinster," another treatment of the theme of the childless woman. A profound student of women's lives, she suggests, as in "Meditation at the Threshold," that the solution, not yet found, requires "Another way to be human and free./ Another way to be." Her powerful utterance opened the way to a new generation of women poets born after 1937, in different countries, but all with a clear apprehension of the contemporary woman's situation..."

"Your verses were leafy trees, uncertain roads where the healers nested in the century plant."

"we see the surprising similarities between the renowned Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos and the young Peruvian poet Giovanna Pollarolo. The lyrical voices in this section subvert and rebel against routine; they speak about it as if it were a prison. The poets rebel through language which casts a light on and makes of their everyday lives a battlefield where objects become the signifiers of disorder and of liberty."

"Su silencio le producía vergüenza, como si callar fuera burlarse de los otros. Y como un castigo inmediato crecía, junto a la vergüenza, una sensación de soledad. Teodoro era un hombre aparte, amordazado por un secreto."

"(who would you suggest we should be reading more among the women poets, especially in Latin America?) Well, she died already, but in Mexico, there was a poet called Rosario Castellanos. She was very good."

"Castellanos is one of the most brilliant writers of the last century, but when the Latin American boom in literature resounded in the United States, it was only the male voices that were heard."

"don Agustín, que no tenía afición por la copa ni por el tabaco, que había guardado rigurosamente la continencia, era esclavo de un vicio: la conversación. Furtivo, acechaba los diálogos en los portales, en el mercado, en la misma catedral. Don Agustín era el primero en enterarse de los chismes, en adivinar los escándalos y se desvivía por recibir confidencias, por ser depositario de secretos y servir intrigas."

"la visión turbia como si sus entrañas estuvieran latiendo en medio de las cejas."

"the Life/Death/Life forces are part of our own nature, an inner authority that knows the steps, knows the dance of Life and Death. It is composed of the parts of ourselves who know when something can, should, and must be born and when it must die. It is a deep teacher if we can only learn its tempo. Rosario Castellanos, the Mexican mystic and ecstatic poet, writes about surrender to the forces that govern life and death: “... dadme la muerte que me falta .../give me the death I need . . .” Poets understand that there is nothing of value without death."

"mi corazón, lugar de las hogueras,/y mi cuerpo que siempre me acompaña."

"He venido, feliz como los ríos,/cantando bajo un cielo de sauces y de álamos/hasta este mar de amor hermoso y grande./Yo ya no espero, vivo."

"ternura, la palabra pequeña, familiar/que cabía en mi boca."

"Adiós para la tierra que en mi torno bailaba."

"El idioma salía de sus labios, como debe salir de todo labio humano, enrojecido de vergüenza. Y Rominka, al arrancarse la costra de sus pecados, lloraba. Porque duele quedar desnudo."

"¿Qué se hace a la hora de morir? ¿Se vuelve/la cara a la pared?/¿Se agarra por los hombros al que está cerca y oye?/¿Se echa uno a correr, como el que tiene/las ropas incendiadas, para alcanzar el fin?"

"sonríe ante un amanecer sin nadie."

"El otro. Con el otro/la humanidad, el diálogo, la poesía, comienzan."

"Lo que soñó la tierra/es visible en el árbol."

"Heme aquí, ya al final, y todavía/no sé qué cara le daré a la muerte."

"El viento de las alturas huía graznando lúgubremente. Un sol desteñido, frío, asaeteaba aquella colina estéril."

"¡Cómo canta la tierra cuando gira!/Canta la ligereza de su vuelo,/su libertad, su gracia, su alegría."

"Nadie está solo. Nadie."

"no te bebas de un sorbo la alegría."

"No es posible sino soñar, morir,/soñar que no morimos/y, a veces, un instante, despertar."

"Hechizada, contemplo el milagro de estar/como en el centro puro de un diamante."

"palabras que los vientos dispersan como pétalos"