“What we try to do as Elders is help those who are trying to change their own societies and communities for the better. We hope that by supporting the good work that is being done, especially at the grass roots, we can help to alleviate the suffering of human beings. That is our core mission - to draw attention to the impact that conflict, injustice and poverty have on ordinary people.” PeopleTryingHumansDoneHelpingSufferingCommunityHuman BeingsAttentionPovertyConflictDrawsOrdinaryRootsImpactInjusticeMissionsCoreGrassGood WorkOrdinary PeopleEldersBeing DoneTrying To ChangeAlleviate Author:Desmond Tutu
“poverty is like a pain, dormant and unbearable as long as you don't move about too much. You grow used to it, you end up by paying no attention to it. But once you presume to bring it out in the daylight, it becomes terrifying, you see it at last in all its squalor and you shrink from exposing it to the sun.” LongEndsPainLastsMovingUsedGrowsAttentionPovertySunToo MuchShrinksUnbearableDaylightExposingDormantSqualor Author:Gabrielle Roy
“Capitalism with near-full employment was an impressive spectacle. But a growth in wealth is not at all the same thing as reducing poverty. A universal paean was raised in praise of growth. Growth was going to solve all problems. No need to bother about poverty. Growth will lift up the bottom and poverty will disappear without any need to pay attention to it. The economists, who should have known better, fell in with the same cry.” NeedsShouldProblemGrowthWealthPayAttentionKnownPovertyCryCapitalismEconomicsShould HaveUniversalPraiseRaisedBottomSolveDisappearEmploymentLiftsPay AttentionBotherEconomistImpressiveReducingShould Have KnownShould Have Known BetterReducing Poverty Book:Contributions to Modern Economics Source: Contributions to Modern Economics
“When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power.” WorldLanguageAttentionPovertyViolenceRacismPaidCarefulDivorceSexismPollutionGiverPrecisionUtopianFuturisticBad WordFluency Author:Lois Lowry
“Instead of concentrating on the war against poverty, global attention is focused on another kind of slaughter - on something that is intangible and yet being tackled by all the possible military means we can muster. And all the lofty declarations by world leaders about combatting poverty that were lauded by the General Assembly turned out to be damp squibs.” WorldKindMeanWarAttentionLeaderPovertyMilitaryFocusedDeclarationAssemblySlaughterLoftyConcentratingIntangibleWorld LeaderDampMusterGeneral Assembly Author:Muhammad Yunus
“But will this attention to poverty be sustained or transient? That depends on our leaders - whether we step up and sustain our moral commitment as the country's conscience would naturally want us to do.” WantCountryAttentionLeaderMoralStepsPovertyDependsConscienceCommitmentWant UStep UpTransient Author:John Edward
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” WealthAttentionPovertyInformationProductivityRationalityInformation OverloadOverabundance Author:Herbert Simon
“What I would say to young women is: Pay attention to the real. Pay attention to what you're really thirsting for. What do you really want? And I think that's much harder to decipher in a culture that has no interest in it. What interests me is, are we going to wake in time? Are human beings going to wake up to ourselves, to the incredible poverty that's on this planet, to what we're doing to the earth, to what we're doing to women, to what we're doing to boys? That's what's important.” ThinkingWantHumansImportantRealEarthYoungCultureInterestHuman BeingsPayAttentionBoysPovertyPlanetsHarderWake UpIncrediblesPay AttentionYoung WomenWhat's ImportantDecipher Author:Eve Ensler
“When President Mbeki said, if you get AIDS, you can have a shower and it goes away. It's like, oh, come on. Or it's caused by poverty. We faced those kind of issues. But now, with the new regime, they have really woken up, paid attention. And when South Africa speaks, then the whole of Africa will listen. And I have got great hopes for that.” IfsKindSaidWholeSpeakPresidentAttentionPovertyIssuesPaidSouthAidsRegimesSouth AfricaShowersGreat Hope Author:Elton John
“During that time period all of our tribes were suffering extremely from poverty and neglect. And the reason I say neglect is because the U.S. Government was neglecting its true responsibilities they agreed to in exchange for our land and resources. What I and others attempted to do, and in essence we did, was bring attention to our sovereign rights, the rights we had retained when the treaties were made.” MadeReasonGovernmentSufferingAttentionResponsibilityPovertyRightsLandPeriodsResourcesEssenceNeglectSovereignTribesTreatiesTime Periods Author:Leonard Peltier
“It seems to me that large numbers of people are now paying attention to poverty and that large numbers now understand that blaming the poor and the insecure for being poor and insecure is as unseemly as is schoolyard bullying. In that realization lies hope for a reinvigorated discourse around poverty and inequity in modern-day America.” PeopleLyingPoorAttentionPovertyBlameRealizationPay AttentionBullyingInsecure Author:Sasha Abramsky
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.” NeedsMightSpiritualScienceWealthInterestingAttentionPovertyInformationSourceInternetObviousRationalityOverabundance Author:Herbert Simon
“Even today we don't pay serious attention to the issue of poverty, because the powerful remain relatively untouched by it. Most people distance themselves from the issue by saying that if the poor worked harder, they wouldn't be poor.” PeopleIfsTodayPoorPowerfulPayAttentionPovertyIssuesSeriousHarderDistance Book:Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Source: Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty