Jan Egeland Quotes

I think there was an overemphasis in the early stage on militarization rather than directly providing relief. I don't think it has any long-term significance.

Americans are known for their strength, fortitude, and generosity in times of need. We encourage people in the U.S. and everywhere to give with their hearts, reach out to these victims, and donate what they can to the relief efforts.

I am currently in Haiti to help the Haitian people in their reconstruction.

Relief organizations both large and small are coordinating deliveries of food, clothing, water, and other basic necessities to those impacted by Katrina.

My father did a lot of disaster relief work, and he was always in places where there was a lot of pain.

The first law of disaster relief could well read: every political decision has humanitarian consequences, and every humanitarian program has political implications.

Responding to a natural disaster is a complex problem.

You saw the traumas that people lived through, and wondered what it will take to move us as a human community, as humanity, to help in these dangerous situations.

After the tsunami in Japan, we were open for business. In fact, I flew there 10 days after the tsunami to show our support for the Japanese people.

Who takes care of their people better? FEMA or Hezbollah?

We have already provided a strong humanitarian response to the problems in the Middle East and that response will be stronger within coming days.

We at the U.N. have to take some of the blame, because we have not lowered expectations creating the impression we are here to save people, even when we have very limited resources.

Aid workers, when handing out food to starving people, quickly learn that the people fighting for it at the front are the people who need it least. It's the people sitting quietly at the back, too weak to fight, who need it the most. And so too with tragedy.

We are looking at what more we can do. As well as a strong security response we need a strong humanitarian one.

We need to be able to demonstrate that what we do in today's world, in humanitarian aid, the enormous effort to minimize the tragic situations that we see all over the world, I think, without the U.N., people would suffer much more, and the situation would be much more terrible.

News reports can overwhelm us. We can be appalled, we can sympathise. But what is hard to grasp is the sense that, at this moment, people are working, organising - not just at an executive level, but on the floor, in the warehouse. A man is packing a box of oral rehydration tablets; maternity kits are being prepared; education kits are being packed. And somewhere, tomorrow, those boxes will be unpacked and a child with life-threatening diarrhoea will be saved, a baby will be born in more hygienic circumstances, a girl will receive her first exercise book and her first pencil.

It is wonderful to hear of the relief efforts that are finally coming to New Orleans and the rest of the region, but as well all know, it is simply not going to be enough.

I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water.

I want to just say something very, very personal. As you know, Louisiana has undergone a lot of flooding over the last couple of weeks August 2016. And I just want to thank the American people for their generosity and supporting so many victims of that terrible flooding.

Medicaid protects impoverished children, the frail elderly and people in crisis, .. Its limited resources will be further stretched serving hurricane victims. Proponents of Medicaid cuts either undervalue Medicaid assistance or underestimate American compassion.

We need to act and act now to get people out of harm's way.

What we have is a great number of people working extremely hard to make sure that death number stays where it is and the people that have to go to shelters are taken care of tonight and for as many days as it takes and that we support our first responders that are out there keeping security.

It needed to be in the public record that no matter the size of the disaster, no matter the level of our compassion, that we have a responsibility to get emergency help to people the right way, but we also have a responsibility to be prudent in our planning.

Trent Lott saved my family. I needed three things from him personally, and he came through for me. He made sure that the ice that we desperately needed was delivered. He got us ice, insulin and water. The food came as well. He put politics aside and made sure my family was ok. I will always thank him for that.

We should be focused on the Haiti earthquake victims, not on what contracts your company should get, if you're a friend of Bill [Clinton].