This Week They Said

The week in quotes

The week in quotes

Something happened in Haiti a long time ago and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French . . . uh, Napoleon the third or whatever, and they got together and swore a pact with the Devil. They said: 'We will serve you if you get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the Devil said, 'Okay, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out. – US televangelist the Rev Pat Robertson explains recent events to viewers of Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club programme

It may be a blessing in disguise. There may be a massive rebuilding of that country. – Robertson shows Christian Broadcasting Network viewers his sensitive side

It never ceases to amaze, that in times of amazing human suffering, somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid. – White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reacts to Robertson

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You have to see it to believe it. Lots of houses destroyed, hospitals, schools, personal homes – a lot of people in the street, dead . . . We need medicine. We need medical help in general . . . Some of the hospitals, they collapsed. The hospitals, they are full and they put people in the outside the hospital. So we need some hospitals, some medicine and some doctors. – Haitian president René Préval

Sinn Féin had become staid and unresponsive and lost direction in the South over the past few years in both policy and organisational terms. The leadership of the party appeared to not recognise or were unwilling to accept that changes are long overdue. – Sinn Féin Dublin city councillor Killian Forde on why he was defecting to the Labour Party