Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8, 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat and the seventh and current Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Quotations of Kofi Annan

• "More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations." - December 31, 1999, message for the new millennium http://www.4english.cn/speeches/Annan.htm
• "You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done." - February 24, 1998, regarding the use of force to gain compliance from Saddam Hussein http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_35/ai_54259243
• "Well, the issue of a standing UN army has been raised by many because, quite frankly, the way we operate today is like telling Ottawa that I know you need a fire station but we will build one when the fire breaks. We have no army. When the crisis breaks then we begin to put an army together. We go around to governments and begin asking for troops. The question with a standing UN army is that it raises issues of budget issues, legal issues, where do you place it, under what jurisdiction? And the big boys, big countries don't want it. The smaller countries are also nervous." http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/kofiannan.html
• "He is very calm - very, very calm. Never raises his voice. Well-informed, contrary to the sense outside that he is ill-informed and isolated. And decisive." (February 24, 1998 press conference regarding Saddam Hussein - http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_35/ai_54259243)
• "The greatest moment of the race is not the touch of the wall, or when one swimmer begins to pull ahead of the pack. The greatest moment takes place before the pistol even fires; when for a brief time, no nation is greater or smaller, stronger or weaker than any other. For me, that is the Olympic moment." Olympics 2004 - Celebrate Humanity 2004 campaign.