Women Heads Of State

"The Elders announced today that their new Chair will be Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mary Robinson becomes The Elders’ third Chair since the group was founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, following Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2007-13) and Kofi Annan (2013-2018). Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, and Graça Machel, former Education Minister of Mozambique and co-founder of The Elders, will serve as joint Deputy Chairs, succeeding Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, who has held the role since 2013."

"I write about women's lives, their struggles, their friendships, their successes, their reflections, partially out of resistance to being immersed in this Irish-Catholic culture for so long. But in recent years we have the wonderful Mary Robinson, we have divorce laws, which aren't perfect but are making some changes. We have a much more active lesbian population in Ireland and so the Irish construction of women is changing in some very positive ways."

"This year, we are awarding the Kew International Medal to Mary Robinson, a long-standing champion of climate justice and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. Mary’s work demonstrates how dependent humanity is on the ecosystems that surround us, and the impact of the increased threat to their existence. Like Kew, she is committed to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals on biodiversity, agriculture and food security. She believes in supporting the next generation of scientists and climate activists and is working alongside them to demand that we make better use of our planet’s most precious resources."

"She used a press briefing at UN headquarters.. to excoriate President Trump. She blamed, at least in part, what she characterized as President Trump’s “poor leadership” for... the increasing tendency... to put “country first in an isolationist, nationalistic way.” Ms. Robinson also complained about what she claimed was the “destabilizing” effect of President Trump’s tweets.... Ms. Robinson told reporters that the Elders had met with the autocratic presidents of China and Russia. However, the Elders had not requested any meeting with President Trump. “It’s difficult to see how constructive a conversation we could have with President Trump at the moment, given his clear views,” she said, referring particularly to the issues of climate change, the nuclear proliferation threat, multilateral trade, and the value of multilateralism... In June 2017, reacting to President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, Mary Robinson said it was “unconscionable that one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters would simply walk away from its responsibility to people both at home and abroad.” She accused the president of turning the United States into “a rogue state on the international stage.”... Ms. Robinson’s...on par with the most progressive proponents of the “Green New Deal.”...“We have entered a new reality where fossil fuel companies have lost their legitimacy and social license to operate,” she declared. No more exploration by fossil fuel companies for new reserves, she demanded."

"The executives were given a dressing down by the former Irish premier Mary Robinson. She said: "We should all salute the courage the Holy Father has shown on climate change when too many secular leaders have spurned their responsibilities." Ms Robinson asked the oil bosses: "What could be more cynical than still seeking to exploit fossil fuel reserves when the scientific evidence is abundantly clear that we need to end all combustion of fossil fuels by 2050?" She said the energy transition would require a massive shift of capital to clean energy and warned: "If some industries fail to adjust to this new word, they will fail to exist.""

"It is a huge honour to take up the role as Chair of The Elders at such a critical moment for peace, justice and human rights worldwide. Building on the powerful legacies of Archbishop Tutu and Kofi Annan, I am confident that our group’s voice can both be heard by leaders and amplify grassroots activists fighting for their rights."

"As heads of state travel to Marrakesh in the coming days, I hope they will reflect on the powerful words spoken earlier this year by Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General: “Human beings have moved from place to place since the beginning of time, by choice and under duress, and will continue to do so. Refugees and migrants are not ‘others’. They are ‘us’. They are as diverse as the human family itself.” These are the values we all must uphold if we are to have any hope of effectively managing migration and protecting human rights. Inaction, cowardice or sabotage will leave the whole world poorer."

"We have entered a new reality where fossil fuel companies have lost their legitimacy and social license to operate."

"I have done more for the Boers than my fellow countrymen will ever know"

"For the whole world I became a heroine, very easy, but not complimentary, since I had done nothing in this case, received the most ridiculous letters from places all over the world; especially a steady flow of praises came from France! I have never seen such a exaggerated reaction"

"only in the intimacy with mother I could be just a human"

"the government did not fulfil the urge in their hearts and felt that the public wished to see me openly revealing my sympathy for our kinsmen; how could I as the head of state!"

"Already then, there was in my subconsciousness as unsatisfactoriness about powerlessness, which was accompanied by being locked in a cage, whereby made taking an initiative, of any kind, impossible"

"to one of which I am attached by bonds of friendship, to other by ties of common origin"

"While bringing about reforms and improving institutions, we have to be cautious that while shaking the tree to remove the bad fruit, we do not bring down the tree itself."

"Our combined endeavour should be to ensure that the rate of economic growth is sustained and it is socially inclusive; We must also ensure that every region of the country participates in and benefits from the process of economic growth."

"Corruption is the enemy of development. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective. You have always shown an ability to understand events happening around you; expressed your views and I am sure you will not fail in building a strong, progressive, cohesive and corruption-free India. These are totally unacceptable and must be opposed by one and all. The government, social organizations, NGOs and other voluntary bodies all have to work collectively. Therefore, their issues received my constant attention during my Presidency. Women have talent and intelligence but due to social constraints and prejudices, it is still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality. A paradigm shift, where, in addition to, physical inputs for farming, a focused emphasis placed on knowledge inputs, can be a promising way forward. This knowledge-based approach will bring immense returns particularly in rainfed and dryland farming areas. I believe economic growth should translate into the happiness and progress of all. Alongwith it, there should be development of art and culture, literature and education, science and technology. We have to see how to harness the many resources of India for achieving common good and for inclusive growth."

"I am a fighter. I believe in the bright future of my country. I believe that the people of my country deserve a decent life, and I know that my people want to live in freedom."

"A unique opportunity has opened up in Kyrgyzstan to deal with democracy. We started to go toward democracy, and it was interrupted. Now there is a chance to come back to democracy, and in half a year my interim government should prepare elections — open and transparent elections — and we should pass a constitution based on political agreement between the parties. We have quite a task."

"It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter."

"Her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behaviour towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she pleased..."

"Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed."

"The secret is always to wear the same scent, until it becomes a personal, untransferable trademark, something that identifies us. Cleopatra knew this and, as with everything else she did, carried it to an extreme."

"Peace, peace! Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, That sucks the nurse asleep?"

"I am fire and air; my other elements I give to baser life."

"I have Immortal longings in me."

"Good sirs, take heart: — We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make Death proud to take us. Come, away: This case of that huge spirit now is cold. — Ah, women, women! — come; we have no friend But resolution, and the briefest end."

"O, wither’d is the garland of the war! The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon."

"My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!"

"Where’s my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me."

"He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him."

"Eternity was in our lips and eyes."

"Kings are not elected. Gods are not elected."

"Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure The sense of man, and all his mind possess, As Beauty's lovely bait, that doth procure Great warriors oft their rigour to repress, And mighty hands forget their manliness; ..... And so did warlike Antony neglect The world's whole rule for Cleopatra's sight; Such wondrous power hath women's fair aspect To captive men, and make them all the world reject."

"All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great."

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety..."

"On top of peace and investment, progress also demands good governance. I congratulate Donkoy Emano for the drop in reports of corruption for public contracts in Cagayan de Oro from 65% of firms last year to 38 this year. Also Rudy Duterte and the other leaders of Metro Davao led by Majority Leader Boy Nograles for a similar drop, 57% last year to 49 now. Things are coming together for Mindanao, a prelude to their readiness for eventual federalism."

"Land for the landless was the battle cry of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, which his daughter espoused and followed in her presidency. Her administration distributed millions of hectares in private, public and ancestral lands to landless farmers and indigenous communities."

"The Philippines had to take the necessary bolder steps forward in the next six years. It was under this milieu that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled in her inauguration in 2004 a 10-Point Legacy that included gaming the budget deficit, providing sufficient infrastructure and efficient delivery of services, decentralized development and livelihood promotion, computerization of elections, and arriving at sustained national harmony."

"Victory is a powerful word, but it often reeks of pride and hubris. Vengeance is sweet, but it is hateful. Vindication is my preferred word."

"E-VAT was the centerpiece of perhaps the greatest and most long-playing achievement of my presidency, fiscal reform management."

"Machinery is often of little value when the administration's standard bearer is behind in the surveys."

"Dirty politics has always been around, whenever and wherever there was a government to be won, with the spoils of power and patronage that come with it."

"One night early in my term as senator, an undersecretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways visited me at home. He asked me to nominate a contractor to handle my pork barrel projects, and I said I had none. An inherited staffer explained to me that her old boss used to get a commission from such projects, but I said I would not do that."

"As the events leading to EDSA Dos unfolded, former President Cory together with Cardinal Sin became my twin pillars of strength. She was a true mentor, for she had gone through it all before."

"Johnny Ponce Enrile will surely go down in history as among the most formidable political figures of our time, truly a legend in his own time. To many, that legend is based on his role as the feared Secretary of National Defense during the martial law years era of President Marcos. In reality, through the sheer force of his intelligence, political skill and personal, he has grown beyond that legend to become perhaps the most enduring politician of our time, sometimes still feared, but always respected by friend and for alike for his political capability."

"The transition from academe to government was admittedly difficult. In the academe, I was an authority figure to my students. In government, I was servant to the public, sometimes equal to peers in the executive, but always outranked by those with mandates from the electorate. I learned to respect the civil service in deed as in thought."

"Bill Clinton was my classmate. When the future 42nd President of the United States found out that Dad was president, he wrote his grandmother that his classmate was the first daughter of the Philippines! Half a century later, he wrote in our jubilee yearbook: "Our class produced three presidents, Alfredo Cristiano, whom I did not know, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom I knew and liked.""

"Indeed, the 1960s was a time of radical change. So much was happening — in science and technology, religion, politics, culture, and society as a whole — and at a fast pace. Imagine how my curiosity was piqued by everything going on around me. If there was ever a time that I developed a love for learning, an ability to focus on responsibility, and to deliver on my own goals, it was then."

"From Bonifacio at Balintawak to Cory Aquino at EDSA and up to today, we have struggled to bring power to the people, and this country to the eminence it deserves."