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Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories.

Kofi Annan

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Kofi Annan
Age: 80 †
Born: 1938
Born: April 8
Died: 2018
Died: August 18
Diplomat
Economist
Politician
Coomassie
Kofi Atta Annan
Annan
Kofi A. Annan
Clinic
Poverty
Bridges
Complement
Development
Block
Investments
Building
Investment
Literacy
Modern
Daily
Roads
Bulwark
Society
Essential
Clinics
Hope
Essentials
Factories
Democratization
Life
Misery
Bridge
Dams
Tools
Tool

More quotes by Kofi Annan

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We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step.
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This is an historic step forward in the world's efforts to combat a truly global threat.
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Unless the Security Council is restored to its pre-eminent position as the sole source of legitimacy on the use of force, we are on a dangerous path to anarchy.
Kofi Annan
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One must also acknowledge that there are moments in an organisation's development when fresh blood and new vision are required, which may imply that an outsider may be better suited to the leadership role.
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Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.
Kofi Annan
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In all these cases, part of the reasons for failure perhaps was not analyzing and assessing the true nature of the crisis, the resources that would be required, and exaggerated expectation of what the U.N. troops can do.
Kofi Annan
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Some have suggested that ideally there must be some international body that would treat areas like the Arctic as a global commerce, a bit like the way we treat the sea. It doesn't belong to any particular country, but to all of us, but I'm not sure some of the powerful are ready for that sort of solution.
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The gap between the rich and the poor cannot keep growing without nothing being done about it.
Kofi Annan
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Neutrality is a tough call for the weaker ones.
Kofi Annan
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Tony Blair is a very able politician he's perhaps one of the best of his generation. He made a major contribution in many areas, but in Iraq I believe he got it wrong. He got it wrong.
Kofi Annan
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We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind.
Kofi Annan
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When so many lives are at risk, when so much killing is going on, when there's so much chaos and suffering, isn't the risk warranted? ... And if we don't take the risk of coming to the conference, what do we do? We let it continue?
Kofi Annan
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When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.
Kofi Annan
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We have seen recently, almost every major head of state goes to India and says, we believe India should be in the Council. They go back home and do nothing about it. But this cannot be sustained for long. If they want to keep the UN as a global forum where they discuss incidents and take some meaningful decisions, they should [reform].
Kofi Annan
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The United Nations has long recognised that the imagination, ideals and energies of young men and women are vital for the continuing development of the societies in which they live. And since its inception in 1948, AIESEC has contributed to this development by serving as an agent of positive change trough education and cultural exchange.
Kofi Annan
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You are never too young to lead.
Kofi Annan
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Ameen Rihani, one of the earliest Arab Americans, devoted his life to bringing the East and the West together. We are not of the East or the West, he wrote. No boundaries exist in our breast: We are free.
Kofi Annan
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I spent my youth and my most formative years in Africa. I left Africa when I was about 20, 21, and when Mo says a great African, I was really moulded by my African experience, although I had the good fortune that by the time I was 24 I had studied and worked on three continents - Africa, the US, and Europe.
Kofi Annan
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However much one tries to suppress the will of the people they eventually will have the last word.
Kofi Annan
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The reality is that no group of countries has any grounds for complacency about its own human rights performance and no group of countries does itself justice by automatically slipping into the victim mode . . . .
Kofi Annan