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By Syed M.Aslam
Jan 29 - Feb 04, 2001

*** "HE CAN TAKE IT, he will be Mr. Thatcher."

(New Philippine President Gloria Arroyo appreciating her supportive husband, Mike, referring to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's husband Dennis)

*** "ON MONDAY, January 22, 2001, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the president will be awaiting the arrival of the Westchester County cable guy. His Tuesday schedule is the same."

(Press secretary of the former US President Bill Clinton, Jake Siewert, ending the last briefing of the administration by giving a lighthearted mock schedule of the first day of thhe ex-president as a private citizen)

*** "I DON'T NEED a bodyguard, sometimes those closest to you are your worst enemy."

(Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai rejecting advice of radio personality Cheng to hire a guard for as he plans to challenge the elite in Taiwan, where he plans to build a new publishing empire)

*** "IN AUSTRIA, the whole discussion about the past is used as an instrument of politics- always."

(Andreas Maislinger, who is leading the campaign to move the disabled peoples's workshop from the premises of house in Salzburger Vorstadt where Adolf Hitler was born)

*** "I TRIED to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognise that I did not fully accomplish that goal . . ."

(Statement issued by former US President Bill a day prior to his vacating the White House admitting for the first time that he made false statements in the Monica Lewinsky case)

*** "THE W KEY is marked out in some cases but often the key has been removed- and sometimes taped on top of doorways — or damaged with the spring broken."

(Aides of US President George W. Bush on discovering that dozens of computer keyboards at the White House were missing the "W". The prank carried out by the staffers of the departing Clinton administration was aimed at snubbing Bush for making a big deal of his middle initial during his campaign rallies)

*** "THE PEOPLE have not just handed you the opportunity to stand before the Chief Justice and take oath of your office. They have given you the predication of standing before the bar of their will and acquitting yourself there."

(Comments by a political analyst reflecting the impatience of the people to wage a genuine fight against corruption by the new Philippine President Gloria Arroyo)

*** "ISSUES ON WHICH the business world is united don't arise in elections, so people vote on peripheral issues the media concentrate on: personality, style — will George Bush remember where Canada is? That's how to maintain power when you can't control people by force."

(Dissident writer Noam Chomsky's ironic comment on the US election that brought President George W. Bush to power)

*** "THE LIFE of an Arab child equals six months of community service."

(Headline carried out by one Israel's main newspaper, Maariv daily, criticising awarding an extremely soft six-month community service punishment to a Jewish settler who beat a 10-year old Palestinian boy to death)

*** "THE WEF IS A MEETING primarily of corporate elites. As private institutions, they have no legitimacy to set the global public agenda. We feel there is need for an alternative voice of influence globalisation and monitor the actions of the transnational corporations."

(Head of Swiss NGO Peter Bosshard, who has joined other international NGOs to hold anti-globalisation demonstrations at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this month)

*** "FOOTBALL HAS ENDURED two world wars and numerous conflicts. Remarkable events which have established good ties between peoples can be attributed to football."

(Swiss member of parliament Lars Gustafsson nominating the game of football for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the Norwegian Nobel Committee)