There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.
Antonio GuterresRead
For many people, Timbuktu has long represented the essence of remoteness: a mythical, faraway place located on the boundaries of our collective consciousness. But like many of the myths associated with colonialism, the reality is very different.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Timbuktu symbolizes an ideal of remoteness, contrasting with its actual complexities shaped by history.
In this quote, Antonio Guterres highlights the perception of Timbuktu as a distant, mythical place that exists in the minds of people, often associated with the idea of colonialism. However, he challenges this notion by suggesting that the reality of Timbuktu is far more intricate and nuanced, illustrating how myths can distort our understanding of real places and cultures, particularly those affected by colonial narratives.
Themes
TimbuktuRemotenessMythColonialismReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about cultural perceptions in a history class.
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
Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world.
Barbara EhrenreichRead
Why don't you think of [God] as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity... the ultimate fruit of a tree whose leaves we are.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
SocratesRead
I am absolutely against positive thinking. You will be surprised that if you don't choose, if you remain in a choiceless awareness, your life will start expressing something which is beyond both positive and negative, which is higher than both. So you are not going to be a loser. It is not going to be negative, it is not going to be positive, it is going to be existential.
RajneeshRead
Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
Mark TwainRead
Since the 70s and the 80s you see the rise of neoliberalism. The central dogma of neoliberalism was that most people are selfish. So, we started designing our institutions around that idea, our schools, our workplaces, our democracies. The government became less and less important.
Rutger BregmanRead