Society

If you ask an American where the DJIA or Facebook is trading today, everybody knows. Ask the same person how many kids dropped out of high-school last year and nobody knows. That to me is very short sighted, after all what is the better barometer of the future of America?

We are a society of consumers not investors. In my generation… the baby-boomers… we have believed that success is defined by materialism.

If one wants to treat societal problems, then philanthropy and government spending are fine. If one wants to cure societal problems, one has got to come up with sustainable solutions- and that means attracting for-profit capital.

Why does torture happen? There are a variety of reasons, paramount is the role of torture as a 'shortcut' to investigating crime- many investigators and police have used this from time immemorial, and the efforts to abolish and curb it have been progressing over the years.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman Treatment

The consumer is far better educated today than he ever was. Consumers don't need to rely on intermediaries to tell them what is good or bad- people are social, they share information with friends and strangers, and go to a broader community for help and assistance.

since citizens' militias are anachronistic, gun owners now use the second amendment merely to defend individual gun ownership, as if that somehow offers protection against tyranny. A reckless, right-wing Supreme Court has agreed with them. As a result, gun ownership has become perversely linked to freedom in the vast gun-owning American sub-culture. But, instead of protection of freedom, Americans nowadays are getting massive bloodshed and fear….

Leading economist specializing in sustainable development and poverty reduction

we even regulate toy guns, by requiring orange tips — but lawmakers don't have the gumption to stand up to National Rifle Association extremists and regulate real guns as carefully as we do toys….

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist & New York Times Columnist

Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

Creator of The Wire, acclaimed HBO crime drama series

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.

Creator of The Wire, acclaimed HBO crime drama series

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies… Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible.

Creator of The Wire, acclaimed HBO crime drama series

Many of our health problems challenges cannot be solved within one specific border. In the old days, we had 'tropical medicine' which was a colonial approach. This led to international-health during the cold-wars which simply meant the health of those far away. Now we have the concept of 'global health' which reflects the globalisation of the world.

Co-discoverer of Ebola virus & Global Health Leader

Public health goes everywhere. Winslow defined it as 'the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organised efforts of society'. I think that's a good start, but we have to see the culture and ecosystem of public health in the context of the community. Not only is happiness important to public health, but so is GDP and the environment. It's an immensely broad subject.

UK's Chief Medical Officer & Leading Public Health Advocate

The essence of public health as a field of action is that it tries to stop problems from happening where possible, and prepares societies for problems that are unavoidable. That's why it requires us to understand the entire population.

Global Health Leader & Former Dean of Harvard School of Public Health

Public health is mostly a field for research and inquiry, but it's also an arena for action. The best way to think of public health as to see it tackling the health needs of an entire population rather than individuals (that is mostly what medicine does). I am a physician, but when I went into public health I said that my position was now that society would be my patient.

Global Health Leader & Former Dean of Harvard School of Public Health

Another important argument for maintaining the status quo is that eliminating a core symbol of the monetary regime could disrupt common social conventions for using money, possibly in unexpected ways. For example, it could lead to a precipitous decline in demand for debt and not just for fiat money.

Economist & Harvard Professor; Former IMF Chief Economist

Disability is an impairment, but an impairment is not necessarily a disability. The interaction of an impairment with the social barriers that surround you may or may not turn that impairment into a disability. For example; I am a wheelchair user, and If I see a building in front of me with three steps, I cannot get into it. If I cannot get into it, it's not because I'm on a wheelchair; it's because the building has 3 steps. If the same building had a ramp, my wheelchair would not be an impairment and I could easily get into the building.

Disability Rights Activist & Founder of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People