Crisis Quotes

[Belgium's Jacques Rogge, a leading candidate to win the IOC presidency on Monday, also felt that the committee was more comfortable with taking a gamble on China now.] Think of 1993 [the year of the vote for the 2000 Games]... It was after the Berlin Wall fell. In Europe the Soviet Union had just disappeared. There was an economic crisis. I think there was a question about whether those events in the world would somehow contaminate China. Instead we went to Australia for safety. It was an excellent decision. This time there is not the fear over those changes. - Jacques Rogge

[Asked if Arafat was] irrelevant ... It is well known that we do not believe that Mr. Arafat has shown the kind of leadership that is needed to take us through this crisis. He has missed opportunities over the years. - Colin Powell

[Aside from its financial troubles, he said, Xerox is suffering from a problem similar to the one that plagued Adobe and Apple a few years ago: a lack of confidence among investors and potential customers. In 1998, as Asia was undergoing a serious financial crisis,] Adobe hit some rough spots... Adobe seems strong now. The cachet is different. But Xerox is in a nosedive. - John Warnock

[Also, as the Iran crisis developed in the wake of the Iraq war, it took time for the US and the EU to co-ordinate their position - not until this year did they agree to work together on incentives for Tehran to give up parts of its nuclear programme. And the US remains significantly tied up in Iraq.] A military threat would have been very credible after Afghanistan... But after Iraq, no one thinks they could invade and occupy Iran. - Anatol Lieven

[According to some experts, the American Healthcare system is on the brink of failure.] We certainly are in a health care crisis... If we had set out to design the worst system that we could imagine, we couldn't have imagined one as bad as we have. - Marcia Angell

[A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry played down the situation Sunday during his regular news conference.] There is no crisis in this country that requires us to set up a crisis headquarters... Iran is currently in a good situation. - Hamid-Reza Asefi

(It affects) the elderly, infants and pregnant women. It is a health crisis. - Kathy Barton