Somali Quotes

• I think now, we in the international community are belatedly wanting to show our solidarity with the Somali peoples and also do our best to help them move to better times.

  Jan Egeland

  Moving, Thinking, Community

  "Interview with Jan Egeland, UN USG for Humanitarian Affairs". IRIN Interview, www.irinnews.org. December 9, 2004.

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• Somali is turning into a desert. Rwanda, you can hardly find a place to plant a potato, it's so crowded.

  Jim Fowler

  Desert, Potatoes, Plant

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• The next few years are going to be horrendous in the UK. The last thing we need is a Somali pirate-style raid on the few wealth creators who still dare to navigate Britain's gale-force waters.

  Andrew Lloyd Webber

  Years, Water, Pirate

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• We need better coordination on the international side, just as they need better and more effective efforts on the Somali side. We have too many reconstruction and development assistance plans.

  Jan Egeland

  Effort, Needs, Development

  IRIN Interview, www.irinnews.org. December 9, 2004.

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• [Somali maritime violence] is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia's water resources illegally. It is not a piracy, it is self defence. It is defending the Somalia children's food.

  Muammar al-Gaddafi

  Children, Self, Water

  "Gaddafi defends Somali pirates" by Argaw Ahine, www.nation.co.ke. February 5, 2009.

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• I did not come to power to divide Somali but to unite them, and I will never deviate from this path. I shall respect a Somali individual as long as he deserves respect, but if he turns away from the correct path, then that is not my business.

  Siad Barre

  Long, Path, Individual

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• Immediately after 11 September, the U.S. closed down the Somali charitable network Al-Barakaat on grounds that it was financing terror. This achievement was hailed one of the great successes of the 'war on terror.' In contrast, Washington's withdrawal of its charges as without merit a year later aroused little notice.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Years, Achievement

  "How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta, part 2" by Noam Chomsky, www.theguardian.com. July 25, 2012.

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• The film Black Hawk Down paints the Somali people as wild savages.

  Brendan Sexton III

  People, Black, Savages

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• In our Revolution we believe that we have broken the chain of a consumer economy based on imports, and we are free to decide our destiny . And in order to realize the interests of the Somali people, their achievement of a better life, the full development of their potentialities and the fulfilment of their aspirations, we solemnly declare Somalia to be a Socialist State.

  Siad Barre

  Believe, Destiny, Order

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• You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

  Truman Capote

  Running, Baby, Texas

  "Fictional character: Paul 'Fred' Varjak". "Breakfast at Tiffany's", 1961.

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• It takes a lot of weapons to do good works (as Richard the Lionhearted could have told us). And this is not just a Somali problem. We have poverty and deprivation in our own country. Try standing unarmed on a street corner in Compton handing out twenty-dollar bills and see how long you last.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Country, Long, Trying

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty”, p.86, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I think in Somali, I cuss in Somali, when I'm afraid I reach for somali and this language is very rich, very filling. It's an unflinching language; the crudest most terrible things sound perfectly normal in Somali.

  Warsan Shire

  Thinking, Perfectly Normal, Sound

  Source: kalamu.com

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• We are helping our Somali brothers get rid of these narrow-minded attackers. The Somali people do not support the extremists, they are on the side of our soldiers.

  Yoweri Museveni

  Brother, People, Support

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Al Qaeda has declared war on the Somali pirates. That is awesome! Evil against evil. Like Alien versus Predator or Cheney versus his lawyer.

  Craig Ferguson

  War, Evil, Pirate

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• Somalis have made my city of Wilmington, Delaware, [their home] on a smaller scale. There is a large, very identifiable Somali community, i might add if you ever come to the train station with me you'll notice I have great relationships with them because there's an awful lot driving cabs and are friends of mine. For real. I'm not being solicitous. I'm being serious.

  Joe Biden

  Real, Home, Cities

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• Somalis have made my city of Wilmington, Delaware, [ their home ] on a smaller scale. There is a large, very identifiable Somali community.

  Joe Biden

  Home, Cities, Community

  White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, www.washingtonpost.com. February 17, 2015.

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• To the Somali, the Amerikaan is weird, to the American GI, the Somali is an ingrate and a skinny.

  Nuruddin Farah

  Ingrates, Gis, Skinny

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• Most unmarried Somali girls who got pregnant committed suicide. I knew of one girl in Mogadishu who poured a can of gasoline over herself in the living room, with everyone there, and burned herself alive. Of course, if she hadn't done this, her father and brothers would probably have killed her anyway.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Girl, Suicide, Brother

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008). “Infidel”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

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• I dont see myself only as a Somali character. I think of myself as an actor, and if the job fits me and I like the story, I will go for it.

  Barkhad Abdi

  Jobs, Character, Thinking

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