Nicholas Kristof Quotes
We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we've treated the Arab world as just an oil field.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Is Democracy Just for Us?" The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2011.
At the time, the District of Columbia did not have any voting representatives in the House of Representatives nor could District residents vote for a Senator although they could vote for President.
His way was to have a strong dictator, providing few human rights guarantees, and very limited civil liberties. With that to extol the virtues of those democratic elements, and state that this is the goal that his dictatorship was working towards. He believed that the poor education, the dominance of a single religion that is itself non democratic, a powerful military that was not under the control of civilian government, and the tribal nature of his society made it impossible to have a current full democracy. The government that replaced him was better but far from a full democracy. Only time and trial will determine whether or not he was right.
He was condemning a practice whereby some nations would have freedoms guaranteed by their constitutions or laws, but the totalitarian government would “suspend” the constitutional guarantees in times of “national emergencies.” Yew was in opposition at the time he made this famous statement. 30 years later when he was the Prime Minister, he had a different view. See {585201}.
There was a March on Washington planned for 1942. However, the leaders were persuaded to call it off as the United States was in the midst of the Second World War. The military was segregated and so were the defense plants. FDR made some concessions regarding defense jobs but discrimination was still rampant. It would be 20 years later when the March actually took place with some of the same leaders organizing it.
Nicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001. Kristof is a self-described progressive. According to The Washington Post, Kristof "rewrote opinion journalism" with his emphasis on human rights abuses and social injustices, such as human trafficking and the Darfur conflict. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on neglected conflicts.
