Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that poverty is not a result of individual failings but rather societal constraints that prevent growth.
Muhammad Yunus' quote suggests that poverty is akin to a bonsai tree, which is restricted in growth due to limited resources and environment. It underscores the idea that the capabilities of individuals classified as poor are not inherently flawed; instead, they are stunted by the lack of opportunity and support from society. By fostering a supportive environment that allows these individuals to express their potential, poverty can be eradicated rapidly.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about social reform initiatives.
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.
We have to stop this violence. We have to make the political nature of the violence clear, that the violence we experience in our own homes is not a personal family matter, it's a public and political problem. It's a way that women are kept in line, kept in our places.
I feel like the sixties is about to happen. It feels like a period in the future to me, rather than a period in the past.
I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.
This is the moment of your defeat; you have just put in the last nails in the coffin of communism.
You don't have to be one of those people that accepts things as they are. Every day, take responsibility for changing them right where you are.
Winning would create greater potential for change than talk alone.
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