I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global spending on armies is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms.
Kailash SatyarthiRead
World's children cannot wait any longer. While international community debates and issues recommendations, statements and fine speeches, world's children - marginalised, socially excluded, poor and vulnerable - continue to suffer.
Interpretation
Children in need are suffering while adults make excuses.
Kailash Satyarthi emphasizes the urgent need to take action for the world's marginalized children rather than getting caught up in bureaucratic debates. His quote highlights the suffering of vulnerable children who are waiting for help while the international community prepares recommendations and engages in discussions that do not lead to immediate change.
In practice
In a speech at a charity event addressing the plight of children in crisis, I could use this quote to stress the urgency of our action.
I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global spending on armies is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms.
We adults, our policies, our ways of governance, are responsible for poverty, not the children.
Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and other social problems.
The single aim of my life is that every child is:_x000D_ free to be a child,_x000D_ free to grow and develop,_x000D_ free to eat, sleep, see daylight,_x000D_ free to laugh and cry,_x000D_ free to play,_x000D_ free to learn, free to go to school, and above all, free to dream.
I dream for a world which is free of child labour, a world in which every child goes to school. A world in which every child gets his rights.
We talk of globalization, and how much money is needed for the education of children in the world, their liberation and rehabilitation just $9 billion which is four days of military expense. Just four days. Nine billion dollars is nothing. But what Americans spent on ice cream just 20 percent of this. One fifth of what you spend on ice creams could bring the children out of the clutches of their masters and put them to school.
You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person. The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow.
The entire educational process must be carried out with love, which is perceptible in every disciplinary measure and which does not instill any fear. And the most effective educational method is not the word of instruction but the living example without which all words remain useless.
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Have we forgotten about the children, and thus forsaken the next generation?
America's greatest long-term influence on China comes from playing host to the thousands of students who come from China each year, some of the ablest Chinese scholars and scientists. They will be the most powerful agents for change in China.
The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.
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