“The people are starving. They need food; they need medicine; they need education. They do not need a skyscraper to house the ruling party and a 24-hour TV station.”

—  Wangari Maathai

On her opposition to the construction of a skyscraper in Nairobi, Kenya, as quoted in the article Wangari Maathai:"You Strike The Woman ..." by Priscilla Sears in the quarterly In Context #28 (Spring 1991)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 6, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The people are starving. They need food; they need medicine; they need education. They do not need a skyscraper to hous…" by Wangari Maathai?
Wangari Maathai photo
Wangari Maathai 9
Kenyan environmental and political activist 1940–2011

Related quotes

José Rizal photo

“Dying people don't need medicine, the ones who remain do.”

José Rizal book Noli Me Tángere

Source: Noli Me Tángere

Billy Hughes photo

“That party will go down to all time as the party that failed Australia in her hour of need.”

Billy Hughes (1862–1952) Australian politician, seventh prime minister of Australia

Source: Regarding the Australian Labor Party, as quoted in a speech https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1917-billy-hughes during the 1917 federal election campaign (27 March 1917)

“The service professions such as medicine and teaching have proud and age-old traditions. Only relatively recently have we realised that serving people's information needs can be as socially valuable as looking after their health and educational needs.”

Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

Source: A Long Search for Information (2004), p. 1; Opening sentence.

Ogden Nash photo

“Good wine needs no bush,
And perhaps products that people really want need no
hard-sell or soft-sell TV push.
Why not?
Look at pot.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

"Most Doctors Recommend or Yours For Fast Fast Fast Relief" in The Old Dog Barks Backwards (1972)

Georges Danton photo

“After bread, education is the first need of the people.”

Georges Danton (1759–1794) French revolutionary

Après le pain, l'éducation est le premier besoin du peuple.
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8dscs10.txt
Speech, Assemblée législative, Paris (1793-08-13), reported in Le Moniteur (1793-08-15)

Michele Bachmann photo

“We need to have the phone lines melted this week. We need people to melt the phone lines. Not to the House members, you don't need to call them, and you don't need to call the Republican Senators. It's the Democrat Senators that we need to melt their phone lines.”

Michele Bachmann (1956) American politician

2000s

Paulo Coelho photo

“The day is made up of 24 hours and an infinite number of moments. We need to be aware of those moments and make the most of them regardless of whether we're busy doing something or contemplating life.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Michael Crichton photo

“Environmentalism needs to be absolutely based in objective and verifiable science, it needs to be rational, and it needs to be flexible. And it needs to be apolitical. To mix environmental concerns with the frantic fantasies that people have about one political party or another is to miss the cold truth — that there is very little difference between the parties, except a difference in pandering rhetoric.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Environmentalism as a Religion (2003)
Context: Environmentalism needs to be absolutely based in objective and verifiable science, it needs to be rational, and it needs to be flexible. And it needs to be apolitical. To mix environmental concerns with the frantic fantasies that people have about one political party or another is to miss the cold truth — that there is very little difference between the parties, except a difference in pandering rhetoric. The effort to promote effective legislation for the environment is not helped by thinking that the Democrats will save us and the Republicans won't. Political history is more complicated than that.

“I need voices of reason and of hysteria and of empathy. I need to have an Alanis moment. I need advice from Elizabeth Bennett. I need Tim Tams and comfort food.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“The most important thing is that we need to be a party that is inclusive and tolerant. We can be those things and be the party we always have been. We need to think about the environment. Teddy Roosevelt was a great environmentalist and people forget Reagan was the one who dealt with the ozone layer with the Montreal protocol. We also need to talk about healthcare honestly. Nixon almost passed universal healthcare. We need to have an talk about immigration and realize you can't just deport people. We need a comprehensive answer. We also need to stay out of people's bedrooms. The party that is for small government shouldn't be over-reaching into people's private lives. Mainly, we need to be a party where people know what we are for, not just what we are against.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/16mq0g/iamarnold_ask_me_anything/c7xg9aa (2013)
2010s

Related topics