Read the following quotations. Look up any words you don't know in a dictionary. Is there any quotation that you especially like? Which one? Why?
- The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
- A decent provision for the poor is the true test of a civilization.
Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1770.
- Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.
Maimonides (1135 - 1204)
- If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961.
- The truth is we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.
Woodrow Wilson (US President 1913 - 21), The New Freedom.
In your culture, are there any famous sayings or proverbs about poverty?
___________
Reference
Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Although they all say something interesting, if I had to pick one, it would be the quotation from Maimonides, with its somewhat obsolete meaning of the verb anticipate. I think the context is enough that you can guess the meaning that is not directly given in the Oxford Dictionaries entry.
ReplyDeleteWilson's quote "The truth is we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless" seems to really reflect a dark side of capitalism as we have been facing. This kind of economic system ignore any values, but money. And that makes majority of people cannot avoid living in poverty because those who can access capitals easily continues making profits and their capitals keep expanding. It also affects the structure of social relationship that mainly based on financial status since money determines professional life, general lifestyle, access to education and health. Moreover, the negative impact of the system is globalized as it leads to an expansion of a wide gap between developed countries and developing ones.
ReplyDeleteI cannot think of any famous saying about poverty in Thailand. Thai Buddhist monks mostly teach that poverty encourages one's life to fight against any sufferings. The King Bhumibol has stated many royal speeches on the ways to solve poverty and the most important one is "sufficient economy".
I agree with Peter that they all are interesting quotation. But I would like discuss about the first one by George Bernard Shaw. It might be true as he said, yet I have different ideas from him. The greatest evil might be our mind which is inappropriately motivated by our struggling to survive or our greed. And the worst crime might be our selfishness.
ReplyDeletePoverty, itself, seems to be the root cause of many possible problems. But in fact it would not mean the poor people must be always bad people leading to crime and problems. In turn, the (extreme) greed for money or wealth can be the greatest evil and the worst crime also. Those who are really rich and selfish is probably the important cause of poverty in society.
In Thailand, I have no idea about famous saying or proverb about poverty yet. But I also think like Ning (Sirada) that the King speech and his concept about sufficient economy is clearly associated with poverty.