Happy New Year from world leaders
Clarissa Tan 4:22pm
It’s the New Year — a time when politicians all over the globe get on their
soapboxes and preach to their people. From Merkel’s pledge to do everything for the euro, to North Korea’s vow to defend their new leader unto death, to Putin’s speech laden with
sexual innuendo, here’s a selection of this year's messages from world leaders:
Barack Obama: ‘I promise to do everything I can to make America a place where hard work and
responsibility are rewarded, one where everyone has a fair shot and everyone does their fair share. That's the America I believe in.’
Angela Merkel: ‘Today, you can trust that I will do everything
to strengthen the euro. This will only succeed if Europe learns from the mistakes of the past. One of these is that a common currency can only be successful if we cooperate more than in the past in
Europe.’
Nicolas Sarkozy: ‘I know that the lives of many of you, already tested by two difficult
years, have been put to the test once more. You are ending the year more worried about yourselves and your children.
The only way to preserve our sovereignty, to control our destiny, is to choose ... the route of structural reforms rather than that of impulsive actions which only add to confusion and chaos without restoring confidence.’
Vladimir Putin:
‘To all our citizens regardless of their political persuasion, including those who sympathize with leftist forces and those situated on the right, below, above, however you
like.’
Alex Salmond: ‘I am confident that Scotland will decide to take full control of our own destiny and join the
international community in our own right.’
Hu Jintao: ‘In the new year, we will unswervingly adhere to the road of socialism with Chinese
characteristics, follow the guidelines of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, and further carry out the Scientific Outlook on Development.’
Official North Korean
message, delivered by Korean Central News Agency: ‘Glorify this year 2012 as a year of proud victory, a year when an era of prosperity is unfolding. The whole Party, the entire army
and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong Un unto death.’
Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (on its Arabic Facebook page): ‘SCAF chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi orders the armed forces to collaborate with the Interior Ministry, the youth of the revolution and the political powers in securing Egypt’s churches… [in order to] prove to the whole world the civilization and peacefulness of this great country.’
Jacob Zuma: ‘Let me urge each South African to make 2012 the year of unity and the celebration of the country's rich political heritage.
We have an opportunity to showcase our country's remarkable successes, given the historic celebration of the centenary of the ruling party, the African National Congress, on the 8th of January 2012.’
Manmohan Singh: ‘Often democracy can be frustrating – both to those who are in government and to those who expect it to be more efficient, effective and humane. But our democracy is our strength. It is the basis of our unity. It is also the most important guarantor of internal security.’
Previous
Noa.
January 1st, 2012 4:32pm Report this commentAlex Salmond a world leader?
Very droll,Clarissa!
daniel maris
January 1st, 2012 4:45pm Report this commentManmohan Singh's has to win as being the least bombastic and most true of the messages.
There is a danger in democrats offering up great promises, since it suggests politics is a competition of promises, which is the last thing it should be about. The danger is that the people may put their trust in the even more extravagant promises of non-democrats.
The real work to be done is to make extend democracy into the economic arena, so that everyone can enjoy the right to participate in the economic life of the country and people have a stake in the economic success of the nation. We need finally to square the work and welfare circle.
Verity
January 1st, 2012 5:11pm Report this commentManhohan Singh says democracy is the basis of Indian unity. No. The basis of Indian unity is that Nehru, in a rare moment of pragmatism, joined with Jinnah in creating a separate country for the islamics and shovelling them out of India. That leave mainly Hindus and Sikhs, both highly intelligent, law-abiding (in the main)and competent people.
Verity
January 1st, 2012 5:17pm Report this commentDaniel Maris .. the Stone Age immigrants already participate fully in the economy, as consumers of the wealth created by clever people.
Verity
January 1st, 2012 5:28pm Report this commentClarissa Tan sounds as though she's a Singaporean. How did she choose the leaders she was going to quote? Nothing from Lee Hsieng Loong, yet boilerplate from Egypt and N Korea, two of the least important countries in the world.
Jeremy
January 1st, 2012 5:38pm Report this commentClarissa,
What a thoroughly depressing bunch. It makes one wonder how the world manages to survive its politicians.
Objectively speaking - by which I mean outside of the fantasy world of the one party dictatorship - one has to ask how much 'Deng Xiaoping Theory', the 'Three Represents' and the 'Scientific Outlook on Development' are really worth as political philosophy.
And what that blank-faced fatboy - one Kim Jong Un by name - is asking of his people is obscene. No wonder they look so unhappy.
And meanwhile, the President of the United States talks exactly the same bollocks that presidents of the United States always talk. You hardly need a person there to say it at all. Just a recording would do...
Noa.
January 1st, 2012 5:48pm Report this commentA new description of Obama and his administration for the new year:
Ineptocracy. n. (in-ep-tocā-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living, are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.
Patriccia Shaw
January 1st, 2012 6:50pm Report this commentYou missed Netanyahu's New Year Message.(quoted on Catch the Fire Ministries)
We’re forwarding the following 2 exciting prophetic links for your ongoing intercessory prayers for the Holy Spirit’s increasing revival, salvation and restoration of the land and Jewish people to the Almighty God of Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua, our soon coming King of kings and LORD of lords to Jerusalem!
Inflammatory or what.
Holly ......
January 1st, 2012 8:03pm Report this commentSo the boiled down version is....
'We know we screwed up','But if you stop moaning, work harder and give us more of your wages/expect less handouts, we'll just carry on with the bail outs...It'll be fine.
Honest.
Not exactly inspiring are they.
As a PS..
Who will 'Europe' replace Sarko with?
disenfranchised
January 1st, 2012 8:58pm Report this comment2012's arrival had already filled me with more than enough gloom and despondency without reading the prater above.....
Dimoto
January 1st, 2012 9:15pm Report this commentVerity - India has 150M Muslims - not that many fewer than Pakistan (187M).
Cheer yourselves up, have a look at the German spoof "Dinner for One" feat Sarkozy und Merkel, on youtube.
Happy New Year.
Peter From Maidstone
January 1st, 2012 9:23pm Report this commentSalmond is no more than the leader of a fairly large council.
daniel maris
January 2nd, 2012 3:11am Report this commentJust saw the David Cameron address on TV - got to be the least inspiring address of all time. He look dosed up, with the backdrop of some run down shed (who chose that?) and the best he could come up with was the Olympics (YAWN) and the Royal Jubilee (OK but not going to rescue our economy).
TomTom
January 2nd, 2012 10:12am Report this commentPolitics is totally discredited. These are the puppets, we rarely hear from the puppet-masters pulling the strings. Theatre of The Absurd
Heartless Curmudgeon
January 2nd, 2012 10:42am Report this commentAs befits those who have clawed and climbed to the top of their own dunghill, - ALMOST without exception, a nauseating compilation of babble.
Cogito Ergosum
January 2nd, 2012 11:38am Report this comment@HC 10.42am
Very true, but it was worth publishing all that drivel to put it on record.
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