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I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.

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
Make
Concerned
Always
Failing
People
Leader
Issues
Believed
Take
Leaders
Must
Fail
Important
Lead
Really
Follow

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You are never too young to lead and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not.
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A nation has the right to defend itself, but when it comes to the broader issue of peace and security, the legitimacy rests only with the Security Council.
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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.
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However much one tries to suppress the will of the people they eventually will have the last word.
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The international community... allows nearly 3 billion people - almost half of all humanity - to subsist on $2 or less a day in a world of unprecedented wealth.
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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.
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The future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the world's peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security, equality and justice.
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We all make mistakes.
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The young and dynamic and idealistic people in the square do not have the chance to organise themselves politically, to be able to follow through their dreams in six months time, to play an effective role in the future.
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Let us all reaffirm our commitment to improving the well- being of families throughout the world.
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Gather the five virtues (Dignity, Confidence, Courage, Compassion, and Faith). Then you are a man.
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We need to keep hope alive and strive to do better.
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You will recall that for months after 9/11, there was incredible support and sympathy for the US. I really hoped and wished they had played on that, and kept all these friends they had made, and found a way of dealing with the terrorists through co-operation of international intelligence services, police exchange of information.
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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.
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I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community.
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Elections with integrity are a challenge everywhere, including in the West.
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As I travel around the world, people think the only place where there is potential conflict [over] water is the Middle East, but they are completely wrong. We have the problem all over the world.
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Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility.
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Reform is a process, and not an event.
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The fight against HIV/AIDS requires leadership from all parts of government - and it needs to go right to the top. AIDS is far more than a health crisis. It is a threat to development itself.
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