Feb 28, 2000
*** "CORRUPTION IS a low-risk, high-profit business in
India. I want to raise the risk . . . The vicious cycle of corruption can be broken by
public transparency. I want people to be empowered to fight corruption."
(Nagarajan Vittal, chief of Central Vigilance Commission, on launching
a web site of his small government department which posted names of 88 top bureucrats and
police officials for acts of corruption)
*** "I DO not enjoy it. I’m accustomed to the
situation. In the last 20 years I’ve often been attacked."
(Austria’s far-right leader and leader of Freedom Party, Joerg
Haider, on the attention he has received, particularly the backlash from European
politicians)
*** "YOU CAN jump up and down as much as you like, but
it’s only when your opponents recognize you and fight back that you become a brand.
It’s a sign you’ve arrived."
(Stelios-Haji-Ioannou, the owner of Britain’s easy Group on his
‘value-for-money formula’ which is giving the leading airlines of Europe a run
for their money. The group comprises airline, cybercafes, car rental, eCommerce and tanker
fleet. His airline, easyJet, offers flights from UK to score of major European cities at
less than the rates charged by the leading carriers)
*** "WE ARE waiting for practical steps from the
United States more than nice words."
(Mohammed Reza Khatami, whose reformist Islamic Iran Participation
Front is poised to emerge as the single biggest winner of the recent elections, commenting
on the statement issued by US State Department welcoming the ‘Iran elections a
historic event)
*** "FIFTY YEARS into our life in the republic we find
that justice— social, economic and political— remains an unrealized dream for
millions of our fellow citizens."
(President K.R. Narayan’s Republic Day speech saying that India
had become ‘a stony-hearted society’ which mistreats its poor)
*** "YOU KNOW, Abdullah, I feel really bad. I always
threw you out there. I never stepped in to help you when I could have."
(King Abdullah of Jordan quoting his father, the late King Hussain and
his reply, "No. I learned the hard way, and I am happy about it)
*** "A LONG-TERM career has a lot to do with people
not understanding who you are. There are always going to be new facets of you as a human
being, and I want to be able to release them bit by bit. I’m acting like I’m
some sort of cimplex riddle."
(Hollywood heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio explaining his future acting
strategy)
*** "THE MORE time people use the Internet, the less
time they spend with real human beings."
(Findings of a Stanford University study that one-third of Americans
having Internet access surf it more than five hours per week and spend relatively less
time with family and friends)
*** "I’M NEVER complacent about awards or
satisfied with applause. I keep trying to do better. Play better music, teach better music
. . . I am a musician who is still searching"
(Eighty-year old sitar maestro, Ravi
Shankar)
*** "WHAT EVIDENCE did you give me about what is
protected by copy right . . . I don’t really understand your copyright
defence."
(District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's observations on the arguments
put by Microsoft’s defence lawyer John Warden in the antitrust trial)
*** "MILLIONS AND millions of people are dying of
cancer-related pain and they die horrible deaths because there is no morphine available in
their countries. It is time to alert the world of the need for freedom from pain"
(Report by International Narcotics Control Board of the UN criticising
the scarcity of morphine or its synthetic equivalents in some 120 developing nations)
*** "INDIA’S RELUCTANCE to engage Pakistan and
its continued dithering on the CTBT are clearly beginning to frustrate even India’s
‘new best friend’— France."
(Analyst Raja Mohan writing in Indian daily The Hindu on the increasing
pressure by the US and France on India to resume dialogue with Pakistan)
Edited by Syed M. Aslam
