So the first thing you need to do about conflict is to prevent it, and the best way of preventing it is by dealing with the question of poverty.
Interpretation
Addressing poverty is essential for preventing conflict.
James Wolfensohn emphasizes that conflicts often arise from underlying social issues, particularly poverty. By tackling the root causes of poverty, society can proactively reduce the likelihood of conflicts, fostering a more peaceful environment.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about social justice initiatives.
In this time of globalization, with all its advantages, the poor are the most vulnerable to having their traditions, relationships and knowledge and skills ignored and denigrated, and experiencing development with a great sense of trauma, loss and social disconnectedness.
The only way really to influence countries, in terms of poverty, is to get them to change their policies and get them to understand what the issues are.
Too many of the conflicts which are caused today are caused by the problems that emerge from people who are in poverty.
When I travel, I make certain that I spend at least half of my time in the field. You have to get out to meet people that are in poverty, that are looking to improve their lives. That's something that you can't read in books.
The Bank had never used the word 'corruption' at all until I got there, and the reason for that was, as the general counsel pointed out to me, that quite a number of our shareholders represented were not immune from corruption in their governments.
Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.
As a child I sometimes used to travel to the West Bank to visit my family, so I know what the checkpoints felt like. I knew what it was like to live under occupation.
Love, children, and work, are the great sources of fertilizing contact between the individual and the rest of the world.
Some of my relatives held on to imagined memories the way homeless people hold onto lottery tickets. Nostalgia was their crack cocaine, if you will, and my childhood was littered with the consequences of their addiction : unserviceable debts, squabbles over inheritances, the odd alcoholic or suicide.
Be a good listener...It makes the person who's speaking to you feel loved,cared for and worthy of being heard.
And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.
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