By Raman Jokhakar, Tarunkumar Singhal, Chartered Accountants
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New Page 4
27 Voices
- “We have not received the kind of support that we were requesting from our
friends. So in a situation like that, one has to look for new friends.”
— Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde, rebuking European
allies for failing to help ease his country’s financial crisis. Iceland has
since turned to Russia for a
€ 4
billion loan.
- “In a bout, compromises and concessions are permissible, but only in one
case : if it is for victory.”
— Russian
Prime Minister and martial-arts black belt Vladimir Putin, in a new video
“Let’s Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin”
- “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I
have been very distressed by that fact.”
— Former
Federal Reserve chairman and legendary proponent of deregulation Alan
Greenspan, referring to his free-market ideology during a hearing with U.S.
congressional leaders last week.
- “How do you prove a guy’s a pirate before he actually attacks a ship?”
— Adm. Mark
Fitzgerald, commander of NATO’s antipiracy control, on why it’s difficult to
defend ships including U.N. aid vessels from pillage by the growing ranks of
pirates off Somalia’s coast.
- “I call it the Hotel Honda.”
— Unemployed
IT consultant Bruce Richall, who’s been sleeping in the back of his car after
getting laid off from his job with a multinational bank in the tiny U.S.
suburb of Westport, Connecticut.
- “The threat of a new, major terrorist attack on the United States is still
very real.”
— The conclusion of a new independent study, noting that
America remains excessively vulnerable to chemical, biological and nuclear
attacks seven years after the destruction of the World Trade Center.
- “This isn’t some disaster movie about a virus from Mars. It’s a recession, a
downturn . . . it doesn’t mean we have to line our rooms with newspaper, get
in the fetal position and live on tins.”
— London Mayor Boris Johnson, railing against Britain’s
funereal credit-crunch atmosphere and encouraging wealthy consumers to resume
spending in order to jump-start the economy.
— Eric M. Thorson, inspector general of the United States
Treasury Department, on the lack of coordinated oversight of Congress’s $700
billion bailout package
(Source : Newsweek dated October, November, 2008.)
- “Touch their money and Swiss get mad.”
— Bernhard Weisberg, editor of Black newspaper, on the
national outpouring of anger over the subprime mess at UBS, the country’s
biggest bank. Locals have recently renamed the site of UBS headquarters from
“Pared Square” to “Pirate Square.”
- “There are other ways to get exercise and a peace of mind . . . . Eat less
fatty food.”
— Abdul Shukor Husin, Chairman of Malaysia’s Islamic
Council, which recently issued a fatwa against yoga because of its Hindu roots
and its ‘blasphemous’ meditative chants.
- “Our main concern is to get to first flight home and never come back.”
— Australian
newlywed Robert Grieve, who has been stranded along with scores of other
tourists at Bangkok’s international airport after thousands of protesters
swarmed the complex, in the latest escalation of a campaign to topple the
country’s prime minister.
(Source : Newsweek dated 8-12-2008)
- “We are removing 10 zeros from our monetary value. Ten billion dollars today
will be reduced to $1.”
— Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono, on his efforts to
restore stability to the Zimbabwe dollar, which is so battered by inflation
that even the new $100 billion notes were not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
- “I am proud to be the Prime Minister of a country that investigates its Prime
Ministers.”
– Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, announcing his plan to resign in September due to an ongoing corruption investigation against him.
- “If energy costs are as high as rents, people will consider whether they’re not able to live reasonably well at room temperatures … with a warm sweater on.”
– German Finance Minister Thilo Sarrazin, whose call for conservation led to calls for his resignation from newspaper readers accusing him of insensitivity to the human toll of rising oil costs.
(Source: Newsweek, dated 11-8-2008)
