From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
A refugee, we might say, is a person fleeing life-threatening conditions. In daily parlance and for journalist purposes this is roughly the meaning of refugeehood. Predictably, in legal and political circles, among those officials who formulate refugee policies for states and international agencies, the meaning is considerably more circumscribed.
Cyberspace has had a profoundly positive impact on humanity, but has also been abused, as a playground for criminals already used by some as a battle-space.
Looking back, there were two things that made change possible for me. Firstly, I lived the change. My company was a way of, as they say, 'scratching my own itch.' I wanted to be able to go on working myself, and I realised that a lot of other women would have had comparable aims and desires.
We believed, and took on board the promise of growth, that it would even things up again, that it would clean up after itself, and that actually was a panacea to many of our economic ills. Yet, all the evidence has shown us that growth does not even things up- some of the richest countries in the world are becoming immensely unequal and we have seen that growth certainly doesn't clean-up after itself.
Racism, like sexism and any other form of discrimination, is an utterly futile exercise… nobody benefits. Societies are better for diversity in all forms, and time and time again we've seen that the more homogenous people become, the less they are able to flourish.
They forced me to undress. Then they started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears. I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The nails in the ears were the most painful.
We cannot focus only on the material aspects of poverty- we must address the poverty of spirit that's present in every one of our broken institutions: health systems, economic systems, criminal justice systems, and food systems.
Unless women have the chance to take up an active role in our economies and fulfil their potential, our ambitions for a fairer and more prosperous world simply won't be realised.
When Tiananmen Square happened, tanks were sent in to deal with them. It's not a joke. Do whatever it takes to stay united… People in front of tanks were crushed. The unity of China is more important than those people in Tiananmen Square. Anyone who undermines the constitution shall be put to death
We're up against corporate, almost criminal behaviour. We are up against corporations who are manipulating young, vulnerable people.
I can't look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country.
Child labour is one of the worst violations of human rights, it's an affirmation that we don't respect the freedom and dignity of children in our society.