*** "I’VE
HEARD the saying that children are the future and wonder if they have heard that . . .
They might read it and see how we feel and might do something to help."
(UAE based Iraqi children who have written a 8.9 kilometer long letter
to express solidarity with the sanctions-hit Iraqi people, particularly children, to
mobilise the world opinion about the sufferings. Over half a million children below the
age of five have died in Iraq since the imposition of sanctions)
*** "JUST STUDY the front-page articles of major
Japanese dailies. They are almost identical. Why? Because they print what they are given
[by the government] . . . I always believed it was an important mission of the media to
keep a check on the state and the politically powerful; otherwise they are bound to go
rotten. The Japanese media seem to have given up that task almost willingly."
(Japan’s most controversial editor, Yasumori Okadome, on why his
monthly magazine ‘Unasa no Shinso’— Truth of the Rumours— prints
material which other mass media is afraid of printing)
*** "I BOUGHT that man. I paid the money and I have a
proper receipt. I could have sold him to someone else."
(Ayaz Virk, a plantation owner in Sindh, defending enslaving of bonded
labour. Over 50,000 bonded labours, both male and female, are kept as slaves by the
richest landlords including some of the country’s most powerful politicians)
*** "TO OUTSIDERS it may look crazy but it is no
surprise to me. Even if the price seems outrageous, the value is incalculable if many
people want it."
(Tadaharu Matsumura, a Japanese beetle breeder, on the purchase of an
unusually long giant stag beetle for a staggering $ 88,000 by an avid pet collector)
*** "I HOPE there is, I pray so, that there is $ 13
billion . . . It will be possible because Ferdinand Marcos was such a great genius in
terms of finance, economics, trading and high-yield investments."
(Disgraced former Phillipines first Lady, Imelda Marcos, expressing
hope that a secret Swiss bank account may belong to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos)
*** "LET AMERICA understand it clearly that if
Afghanistan is attacked or any attempt is made to kill Osama [Bin Laden] then American
lives will be in danger . . . I will pay five million afghanis [$ 113] for anyone who
kills Bill Clinton. It is little, but in my view his head is not worth more."
(Speakers addressing a huge anti-American march organised by Jamiat
Ulema Islam in Lahore)
*** "ANYTHING YOU do, you better enjoy it for its true
value. Because people are going to second-guess everything you do."
(Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the world)
*** "THEY CAN call me a pharoah if they like. Its not
for me. I won’t be around much longer. It’s the residence of the prime minister,
not Dr Mahatir the pharoah."
(Malaysian prime minister, Mahatir Mohammed, defending himself for
‘building a palace fit for a pharoah)
*** "MAGIC IS my birthright. I was born of the Magic
of Science."
(India’s first test-tube baby, thirteen-year old Kruti Praekh,
explaining her interests in magic and her intentions of being a professional magician. She
has already performed before numerous celebrities)
*** "SOME NATIONS are trying to build a world order
that would be convenient only for them, ignoring that the world is multi-polar."
(Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, urging stronger ties with China to
forge new alliances to counterbalance US’ global clout. He held one-to-one meeting
with China’s Jiang Zemin prior to the opening of five-nation summit in Bishkek
including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan and Tajikistan)
*** "THE POLITICS of treating people as mere
statistics is over and the time has come to treat the people of Pakistan as human
beings.."
(Cricket legend turned politician, Imran Khan, advocating his
Tehrik-e-Insaf party’s agenda of ‘reform and reconstruction’)
Edited by Syed M. Aslam
