There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.
Antonio GuterresRead
The international community spends much more time and resources managing crises than preventing them. But TV cameras are seldom there when a conflict is avoided, so it is difficult for governments and international organizations to make prevention a priority.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the discrepancy between crisis management and conflict prevention, emphasizing the lack of attention given to successful prevention efforts.
Antonio Guterres points out the irony in the global approach to conflicts, where significant time and resources are allocated to dealing with crises after they have escalated, rather than investing in strategies to prevent conflicts from arising in the first place. He notes that the media's focus on crises often overshadows the unsung successes of prevention, making it challenging for governments and international organizations to prioritize preventative measures. This disconnect leads to a reactive rather than proactive stance toward global conflicts.
Themes
ConflictPreventionCrisisResourcesInternational Community
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference on global security, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of investing in prevention instead of reactive measures.
More from Antonio Guterres
All quotes →As a global society, we have the technology, resources and the know-how to make a massive difference to living standards everywhere, including for refugees.
Antonio GuterresRead
The world's problems transcend borders.
Antonio GuterresRead
Humanitarian response, sustainable development, and sustaining peace are three sides of the same triangle.
Antonio GuterresRead
The fact that societies are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious is good. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness.
Antonio GuterresRead
Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.
Antonio GuterresRead
Similar quotes
Want to change the world? Upset the status quo? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to make people dream the same dream that you do.
Guy KawasakiRead
Thankfully dreams can change. If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. So whatever your dream is right now, if you don't achieve it, you haven't failed and you're not some loser-but just as importantly-if you do get your dream, you're not a winner.
Stephen ColbertRead
To be born again means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image - from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust.
Robert H. SchullerRead
Every door is another passage, another boundary we have to go beyond.
RumiRead
For things to change you need to change. For things to get better you need to get better. The good news is you can change, you can get better and you can start right where you are at and you can go as far as you want to go.
Jim RohnRead
I recalled how much time i had spent fighting for something i didn't even want. maybe because i had been too lazy to think of other avenues to follow. maybe because i had been afraid of what others would think. maybe because it was hard work to be different. perhaps, because a human being is condemned to repeat the steps taken by the previous generation until a certain number of people begin to behave in a different fashion. then the world changes, and we change with it.
Paulo CoelhoRead