QUOTES
DEMOCRACY
Democracy
is a universal value
DIVERSITY
The best hope for peace in the world lies in the simple but far-reaching recognition
that we all have many different associations and affiliations, and we need not
see ourselves as being rigidly divided by a single categorization of hardened
groups, which confront each other.
Any
classification according to a singular identity polarizes people in a particular
way, but if we take note of the fact that we havc many different identities -
related not just to religion but also to language, occupation and business, politics,
class and poverty, and many others - we can see that the polarization of one can
be resisted by a fuller picture. So knowledge and understanding are extremely
important to fight against singular polarization.
But
once we recognize that many ideas that are taken to be quintessentially Western
have also flourished in other civilizations, we also see that these ideas are
not as culture-specific as is sometimes claimed. We need not begin with pessimism,
at least on this ground, about the prospects of reasoned humanism in the world.
EDUCATION
Imparting education not only enlightens the receiver, but also broadens the giver
- the teachers, the parents, the friends.
we
must go on fighting for basic education for all, but also emphasize the importance
of the content of education. We have to make sure that sectarian schooling does
not convert education into a prison, rather than being a passport to the wide
world.
The
elimination of ignorance, of illiteracy... and of needless inequalities in opportunities
(is) to be seen as objectives that are valued for their own sake. They expand
our freedom to lead the lives we have reason to value, and these elementary capabilities
are of importance on their own
END
POVERTY
I attempted to see famines as broad "economic" problems (concentrating
on how people can buy food, or otherwise get entitled to it), rather than in terms
of the grossly undifferentiated picture of aggregate food supply for the economy
as a whole.
FREEDOM
Sometimes the lack of substantive freedoms relates directly to economic poverty,
which robs people of the freedom to satisfy hunger; or to achieve sufficient nutrition,
or to obtain remedies for treatable illnesses or the opportunity to be adequatley
clothed or sheltered, or to enjoy clean water or sanitary facilities. In other
cases, the unfreedom links closely to the lack of public facilities and social
care, such as the absence of epidemiological programs, or of organized arrangements
for the health care or educational facilities, or of effective insititutions for
the maintenance of local peace and order. In still other cases, the violation
of freedom results directly from a denial of political and civil liberties by
authoritarian regimes and from imposed restrictions on the freedom to participate
in the social, political and economic life of the community.
HUNGER
No substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country
with a relatively free press.
Starvation
is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not
the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat."
WOMEN
"I was told Indian women don't think like that about equality. But I would like
to argue that if they don't think like that they should be given a real opportunity
to think like that."
