We had a rule in the school that when you're punished, you carry out the punishment and then complain, which I felt was absolutely unfair: if I'd done it, what was the point of complaining?

No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.

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.

Let us work in partnerships between rich and poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives.

The US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter.

My intimate knowledge of the [UN] system allowed me to get things done despite the many obstacles.

National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence.