[IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler and other senior officials provided similar visions -- a world free of debt, poverty, hunger and disease, while full of economic partnership.] I am aware of the critical debate about globalization, and many questions have to be of concern to all of us, ... But I also want to be clear: if the IMF did not exist already, this would be the time to invent it. |
A few weeks ago we were reminded that other peoples - in particular the United States of America - fought so that we Germans could live in liberty. That we should never forget. |
After a Polish Pope, whose country was first to be invaded by the Germans in World War Two, we now have someone from the generation drafted at the close of the war. |
convinced that Germany was committed to seeing through its modernizing policies, and that the friendship between Germany and France remained the indispensable motor of European construction. |
Did eastern Germany not need roads, roofs and factories more than an expensive church? But a group of residents said Dresden needed more. And now we can see that those people were right. |
Germany must be a country which generates political ideas and leadership, which is capable of compromise, which is sovereign and yet knows that it needs its partners on both sides of the Atlantic. |
Germany's fate is decided first and foremost in Europe. Reconciliation and cooperation in Europe have brought us freedom, peace and prosperity. Who would have dared to believe so much 50 years ago? |
Holy Father, welcome to your home, welcome to Germany, |
I am convinced we shall succeed. I have faith in this country, because I have faith in its people. |
I am listening to everybody, in the sense that I feel myself in charge of an organization that has 182 members, |
I have not come to the fund to turn it upside down, ... But...there is a further need for change, and even accelerated change. |
I trust that the leaders of the poor countries themselves fully recognize the importance of sound policies and good governance, ... A real breakthrough in poverty will be possible only if private saving and investment take firm roots in these countries and if a much larger part of the savings generated in the world becomes available to them. |
I will be guided by the Christian ethic and an awareness that human action is by nature transient. |
If we know where we want to go, then even a stony road is bearable. |
In my view, the humanity of our world can be measured against the fate of Africa. |