Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (April 8, 1938 - Aug 18, 2018), died today in Bern, Switzerland at the age of 80 after a short illness.
Kofi Annan was born in Ghana and served as UN Secretary-General for two terms between 1997 and 2006. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his humanitarian work in 2001; the award was jointly shared with the UN.
Here is the statement from the Kofi Annan foundation -
And here are a few tributes from around the world —
Kofi was a man of words; here are a few memorable quotes -
- To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.
- Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.
- Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.
- Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
- We may have different religions, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.
- If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.
- Let us be good stewards of the Earth we inherited. All of us have to share the Earth's fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has a role to play in preserving them. If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it.
- The world is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations.
Here are a few videos to remember Kofi Annan by —
At the “Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa” program in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 17, 2018, just a month ago -