Somalia Quotes

• I think the biggest challenge for Somalia has been the sense that it is a hopeless case of incomprehensible internal conflicts and there is nothing we can do.

  Jan Egeland

  Thinking, Challenges, Hopeless

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

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• The people of Somalia just do not have a voice. They are to me the most forgotten people in the world.

  K'naan

  Voice, People, World

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• Finally, I also come in recognition of the great work that has been undertaken by the NGOs and UN agencies that have been active for many years here, especially through the local staff and international staff here in Somaliland and in Somalia at large.

  Jan Egeland

  Agency, Years, Recognition

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

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• Along the borders to Ethiopia and Somalia, anarchy reigns, the police and military have retreated quite some distance.

  Richard Leakey

  Military, Distance, Police

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• The main thing that gives me hope is the media. We have radio, TV, magazines, and books, so we have the possibility of learning from societies that are remote from us, like Somalia. We turn on the TV and see what blew up in Iraq or we see conditions in Afghanistan.

  Jared Diamond

  Book, Media, Iraq

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• The experience of Somalia shows that famine in the late 20th century is not a consequence of a shortage of food. On the contrary, famines are spurred on as result of a global oversupply of grain staples.

  Michel Chossudovsky

  Century, Results, Staples

  "The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order". Book by Michel Chossudovsky, 2003.

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• If we look at Somalia, Ethiopia and Lybia, to how they're reduced now, and to how they were before, with Italy, I think that this page of history will be rewritten and there will be a positive evaluation of the role of Italy

  Gianfranco Fini

  Thinking, Roles, Looks

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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 want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy.

  Michael Palin

  People, Want, Piracy

  "Michael Palin's hand of friendship gives asylum seekers a human face" by Jamie Doward, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2009.

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• When I leave Somalia I will leave buildings but not people.

  Siad Barre

  People, Building

  "Siad Barre s Military Coup: 40 Years Later" by Mahamud M. Yahya, www.mareeg.com.

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• We're going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.

  Wesley Clark

  Country, Iraq, Iran

  "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.globalresearch.ca. March 2, 2007.

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• We should teach the foreigners and colonialists that Somalia cannot be led by other people and that the traitors who fled the country will never lead Somalia.

  Siad Barre

  Country, People, Traitor

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• You need the will to disarm the civilian population. If we can do it in Somalia, we can do it here.

  Mary McGrory

  Gun, Population, Needs

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• We grew up as poor people but we never knew poverty. I still love and miss the Somalia I grew up in. Things changed, when my father became a diplomat later on.

  Iman Abdulmajid

  Father, People, Missing

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• With a decrease in the number of pirates, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period. Therefore, global warming is caused by a lack of pirates. Even more compelling: Somalia has the highest number of Pirates AND the lowest Carbon emissions of any country. Coincidence?

  Tim Ferriss

  Country, Numbers, Carbon Emissions

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• I enjoy Chicago as one of the great American cities. When I come here and take a taxi from the airport, I meet a young man from Somalia. I meet a young man from Eritrea who engages with this nation with a sense of hope and a sense of desire. But we also we know that there are other elements of this nation that are toxic.

  Kehinde Wiley

  Men, Cities, Airports

  Source: www.artpractical.com

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• Bin Laden was very keen to point out to me that his forces had fought the Americans in Somalia. He also wanted to talk about how many mullahs in Pakistan were putting up posters saying, "We follow bin Laden." He even produced a sort of Kodak set of snapshots of graffiti supporting him.

  Robert Fisk

  Graffiti, Pakistan, Snapshots

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

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• The United States has been essentially engaged in an ongoing war that most people date from 2001. That war has taken us to Afghanistan, to Iraq, in a lesser way to other countries - Libya, Somalia, Yemen.

  James Mattis

  Country, War, Taken

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Imagine a weight-loss program at the end of which, instead of better health, good looks, and hot romantic prospects, you die. Somalia had become just this kind of spa.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Loss, Hot, Looks

  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.65, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Some of the colonizers do understand and quickly retreat, while some, because they are stupid, continue colonizing others, increasing the suffering, deaths, injuries, defeat and humiliation. The people colonized by Abyssinia will be free. Eritrea will be free, and they cannot refuse to let them be free. Western Somalia will be free, and they cannot refuse to grant it freedom. The numerous Abo will be free because this is history, and no one can prevent the sunshine from reaching us.

  Siad Barre

  Stupid, Sunshine, People

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• When the US withdrew their troops from Somalia, I recall making a comment that [in] the way the peacekeepers had been withdrawn from Somalia, the impression had been given that the easiest way to unravel a peacekeeping operation is to kill a few soldiers.

  Kofi Annan

  Soldier, Troops, Way

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• For many people in the U.N., the 1990s was the worst decade the organization experienced. This was the decade of Somalia, Srebrenica, of Rwanda and so forth, and yet the reality is, during this period, although there were these awful conflicts, the overall number of wars had gone down.

  Andrew Mack

  War, Reality, Organization

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• What worries me is that we want to close down our relationship to the world at large. In other words, people's instincts are overwhelmed by the amount of images, or they can't distinguish anymore between Rwanda or Bosnia or Somalia.

  Susan Meiselas

  People, Worry, Bosnia

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• Kelly, there are people in Somalia who would die for a banana.

  Jack Osbourne

  People, Bananas, Dies

  "The Osbournes". TV Series 2002–2005,

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• The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women’s freedoms in southern Somalia – that type of mentality – that’s what I had to deal with in captivity.

  Amanda Lindhout

  Men, Southern, Captivity

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