57 Quotes

“Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time splashed with interest, wounded with tragedy, crevassed with joy - that's the time that seems long in the memory. And this is right when you think about it. Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“Many have given up. They stay home and watch the TV screen, living on the earnings of their parents, cousins, bothers, or uncles, and only leave the house to go to the movies or to the nearest bar. "How're you making it?" on may ask, running into them along the block, or in the bar. "Oh, I'm TV-ing it"; with the saddest, sweetest, most shamefaced of smiles, and from a great distance. This distance one is compelled to respect; anyone who has traveled so far will not easily be dragged again into the world. There are further retreats, of course, than the TV screen or the bar. There are those who are simply sitting on their stoops, "stoned," animated for a moment only, and hideously, by the approach of someone who may lend them the money for a "fix." Or by the approach of someone from whom they can purchase it, one of the shrewd ones, on the way to prison or just coming out.”
― James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

“Meja Jenerali U Nanda, 60, Kiongozi wa Kanda ya Asia-Australia ya Tume ya Dunia ya Kudhibiti Madawa ya Kulevya, alizaliwa Jumamosi ya tarehe 19/03/1932 kandokando ya mto huko Maubin nchini Bama. Yeye na familia yake ni waumini wa dini ya Ubuda. Mke wake, Daw Aung Phyu, ana miaka 57. Alizaliwa Jumapili ya tarehe 20/10/1935. Nanda na Aung Phyu wana watoto watatu. Ko Mahn Thiri (wa kiume na wa kwanza kuzaliwa) ana miaka 37. Alizaliwa Alhamisi ya tarehe 08/12/1955. Yeye na familia yake wanakaa nchini Tailandi. Ma Nang Nyi ni mtoto wa pili wa familia ya Nanda na Aung Phyu. Alikufa kwa madawa ya kulevya Jumamosi ya tarehe 12/05/1980 akiwa na miaka 23. Alizaliwa Jumamosi ya tarehe 06/04/1957. Miaka miwili baadaye mpenzi wake wa kiume, Ko San Pe, alikufa kwa madawa ya kulevya pia Jumatano ya tarehe 21/07/1982 akiwa na miaka 25. Alizaliwa Jumanne ya tarehe 29/01/1957. Ma Thida Wai Aung ni wa mwisho kuzaliwa. Ana miaka 34. Alizaliwa Jumatano ya tarehe 23/07/1958. Anakaa Rangoon na mume wake wa miaka sita na watoto wawili, wa kike na wa kiume. Saw Saya (Mkurugenzi wa Sekretarieti ya Kanda ya Asia-Australia ya Tume ya Dunia ya Kudhibiti Madawa ya Kulevya, kutoka katika kabila la Karen) ndiye aliyempa taarifa U Nanda za kikao cha dharura cha Tume ya Dunia. Ana miaka 54. Alizaliwa Jumanne ya tarehe 01/03/1938.”
― Enock Maregesi

“Since Guantanamo is not technically on U.S. soil, the Bush administration lawyers developed a torturous rationale:
'While conceding that the Haitians are treated differently from other national groups who seek asylum in the U.S., the Government claimed that the U.S. Constitution and other sources of U.S. and international law do not apply to Guantanamo - this despite the fact that the U.S. military base at Guantanamo is under the exclusive jurisdiction and control of the U.S. Government.”
― Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor