May 22, 2000
*** "IT IS TIME to stop our aid to India until it lets
the people enjoy the human rights to which all the people are entitled."
(Member of the US House of Representatives, Eldophus Towns, criticising
atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir saying that he has unambiguous proofs to show that Delhi
orchestrated the massacre of 35 Sikhs during President Clinton's visit of India)
*** "IT'S A small nation in terms of numbers and it
should behave like a small nation and not be a teacher."
(Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad assaulting Australia's
vision to serve as regional deputy to the global policeman, the US)
*** "WE WANT to live in peace, but do you think Israel
will let us? Israel has never been honest and it has no credibility. How can they expect
us to believe that they will no longer kill us."
(Samih Halan, director of Habboush municipality, doubting Israel's
intention of honouring its plans to vacate the south Lebanon territory invaded and held by
it)
*** "THIS IS illegal . . . We do not produce
burglars."
(Professors of one of the Love bug accused, the Philippine computer
school dropouts De Guzman, rejecting his thesis proposal for a program that would steal
passwords to give him free access to the Internet. The virus caused an estimated damage of
$ 15 billion)
*** "THE NUMBER of Internet users worldwide is
expected to reach more than half a billion by 2003. The value of e-commerce, at retail
level, would rise from $ 20 billion to $ 185 billion by 2004 and at business-to-business
level from $ 100 billion to over $ 2.7 trillion over the same period."
(Internet Alliance, an association which groups such leading Net
players as AOL, Microsoft and IBM, warning governments against heavy regulatory stifying
the exponential growth of the Internet)
*** "On the way up, stars hire publicists to get them
press; once they've arrived, they hire publicists to protect them from the press."
(Jeanette Walls, a US gossip columnist and author, who said that
Hollywood publicists and their star clients bizarre antics and planted gossip to play the
e game)
*** "THIS IS A message to the Greek president that we
reject his position on Jerusalem which is hostile to the Palestinians and which is not
consistent with the policy of Greece or of Europe on Jerusalem."
(Palestinian lawmaker Hatem Abdul Qader defending egging of Greek
President Costis Stephanopoulos by angry Palestinians during his visit to Arab East
Jerusalem)
*** "WE HAVE analysed the potential of possible Dutch
men and women for the top posts . . . but this has not been done in a spirit of quotas or
compensation."
(European Commission President Romano Prodi, who replaced Dutchman
Carlo Trojan, said that EU top posts will be filled on the basis of quality and he would
not be tied to the national quotas)
*** "SECRECY LEGISLATION is there to protect state
secrets. It's not there to protect incompetent officials. It's certainly not there to
protect criminals and murderers."
(Former UK intelligence officer David Shayler announcing his return to
Britain by Christmas to face charges of breaking government secrecy laws. Living in exile
in France, Shayler has accused British intelligence agency MI5 of incompetence and
wrongdoing including a plot to assassinate Libya's Colonel Qaddafi)
*** "SIXTY-SEVEN million years after her death, it is
still possible to see fine details showing where muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues
rested against or attached to the bone."
(Spokesperson of Chicago's Field Museum on the display of the largest,
most complete and best preserved skeleton of meat-eating dinosaur)
*** "A VICTORY for religious freedom and a warning
that there is a heavy price to be paid for discrimination."
(Ronald Kuby, attorney of converted Muslim Police officer, Muhammad Ali (formerly
Christopher Letz) who was suspended by the New York State Park Police for having a beard
as a sign of Muslim faith. The officer was paid $ 25,700 in back wages and was rehired by
the Department)
Edited
by Syed M. Aslam
