Quote

If one is talking to a finance minister of a poor country, moral arguments tend not to get very far. But if you can argue that their country is going to grow 2 percent faster per year if they can just harness the power of the female half of the population more effectively, that is an argument they consider.

Nicholas D. Kristof

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Nicholas D. Kristof
Years
Year
Tend
Effectively
Moral
Population
Arguments
Talking
Consider
Minister
Poor
Argument
Argue
Half
Female
Finance
Power
Percent
Ministers
Country
Grow
Arguing
Going
Grows
Faster
Harness

More quotes by Nicholas D. Kristof

Image
...Environmental groups are too often alarmists. They have an awful track record, so they've lost credibility with the public.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
In general, talking about human rights tends to be very persuasive for people who care about human rights.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
One of the great failings of the American education system (in our view) is that young people can graduate from university without any understanding of poverty at home or abroad.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
You don't need to invade a place or install a new government to help bring about a positive change.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Solar power is one of the most hopeful technologies but still produces about 0.01 percent of U.S. electricity. The U.S. allocates just $159 million for solar research per year - about what we spend in Iraq every nine hours.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
A few countries like Sri Lanka and Honduras have led the way in slashing maternal mortality.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Rising seas create a higher baseline for future storm surges. The New York City Panel on Climate Change has projected that coastal waters may rise by two feet by 2050 and four feet by the end of the century.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
In much of the world, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is become pregnant.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
The tide of history is turning women from beasts of burden and sexual playthings into full-fledged human beings.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
There isn't a political price to be paid yet for doing nothing. People need to get upset with President Bush. People need to get upset with their Congressmen.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
I think when hundreds of thousands of lives are on the line, you might have to set aside some principles.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Laws matter, but typically changing the law by itself accomplishes little.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Neither left nor right has focused adequately on maternal health
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Compassion isn't a sign of weakness, but a mark of civilization.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
One of the principles of journalism is you don't lie. You never lie.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
The equivalent of five jumbo jets' worth of women die in labor each day, but the issue is almost never covered.
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
Neither Western donor countries like the U.S. nor poor recipients like Cameroon care much about Africans who are poor, rural and female
Nicholas D. Kristof
Image
One of the things that really got to me was talking to parents who had been burned out of their villages, had family members killed, and then when men showed up at the wells to get water, they were shot
Nicholas D. Kristof