Benjibopper

Strange,

I just gave a speech on "make poverty history". It was Newmarket ON's contribution to the U.N.'s anti-poverty campaign last month.
Turnout was highes ever world-wide. Collectively we made the Guiness Book of Records.
But while I spoke on poverty, I wish I had your Vandana Shiv quote handy:

"Before we can make poverty history, we need to get the history of poverty right. It’s not about how much wealthy nations can give, so much as how much less they can take."

Like Joan Rivers says whenever she comes across something powerful in a book, "I marked true in the margin."
Wish I had come up with it myself, but as always, somebody in the past always says what you had intended to say, but better.
 

Cool that you made a speech for a gathering like that. The thing is Vandana Shiva has spent most of her life working intelligently on poverty issues in India, so she's had lots of time to come up with good sound-bytes.
 

It is becoming less and less about how much nations take and more and more about how much individuals and corporations take.
 

Wow these were great effin quotes!! never heard of the man-or is it woman? I enjoyed all of your comments here too-and I think the walking man had a great point at the end there -because the era of the nation state may be over? is over? and now it is just these huge amoral multinationals that control everything-I hope this is not happening in Canada but some right wingers here want to do away with social security completely-it is already inadequate -but some older people live on this money -and people on disability also-etcetera-I do not think they will be happy until we are a nation of serfs -and not many here seem to care -in fact -i laughed about this with another blogger i privately email -he said in an email to me in an ironic funny way that the only way to get two and a half million people out into the street in the USA is by OFFERING universal health care haha-he was much funnier-wish i cold remember exactly how he put it
all the best in the world to you my friend!!
 

True but those individuals and corporations are almost always based in the rich countries, and their board members are often elected politicians, so it's all the same pile of shit rolling around staining separate parts of the floor.
 

I'm a bit of a fatalist about this sort of thing. I can't ever imagine humanity existing in a way that doesn't enforce poverty of some kind or another on one section of its community or another.

I wish I could believe we were capable of finding a way past it as a whole.

I guess the only way is to demonstrate by examplke and to hope that the difference one makes as a person is enough to leave oneself feeling that a contribution has been made, and to hope that it will inspire others to do the same thing.
 

Toast: humans in fact have lived in such egalitarian ways. It's only when we decide to build a civilization that we create poverty. I agree about setting a good example, but would add joining like minded communities as a proscription. power in numbers.