We create institutions and policies on the basis of the way we make assumptions about us and others. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us. So we have had poor people around us. If we had believed that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have created appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world.
Interpretation
Our beliefs shape our institutions and policies, influencing the persistence of poverty in society.
This quote by Muhammad Yunus emphasizes the powerful role that our assumptions and beliefs play in shaping societal structures and policies. If we view poverty as an acceptable state of being, we are likely to create systems that perpetuate it. Conversely, if we believe that poverty is an issue to be eradicated, we will develop institutions and policies aimed at achieving a poverty-free world. This highlights the importance of reevaluating our beliefs and the collective responsibility we hold to create a more just society.
In practice
In a speech addressing social issues, this quote could underline the importance of changing perspectives on poverty.
Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things.
What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolved when general economic prosperity increases. These economists spend all their talents detailing the process of development and prosperity, but rarely reflect on the origin and development of poverty and hunger. A a result, poverty continues.
People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.
Some people think that poor people are lazy. Actually, it takes a lot of work to survive when you are dirt-poor.
Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.
By simply capitalizing on core strengths and knowledge, companies and entrepreneurs can engage in an emerging business model that will enable them to create - and demonstrate - real, sustainable social impact in society.
Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm shift of the first order.
One can enjoy a rainbow without necessarily forgetting the forces that made it.
If God is treated as God during suffering, then suffering can reveal and present him in all his greatness.
If there were no human nature, then there would be nothing for deliberate effort to be applied to. If there were no deliberate effort, then human nature would not be able to beautify itself.
Kill off all my demons and my angels might die too.
What does this patch-sewing mean you ask? Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food and other ego-satisfactions.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.