By UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. From Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005:
“Ask a New York investment banker who walks past Ground Zero every day on her way to work what today’s biggest threat is. Then ask an illiterate 12-year-old orphan in Malawi who lost his parents to AIDS. You will get two very different answers. Invite an Indonesian fisherman mourning the loss of his entire family and the destruction of his village from the recent, devastating tsunami to tell you what he fears most. Then ask a villager in Darfur, stalked by murderous militias and fearful of bombing raids. Their answers, too, are likely to diverge.
Different perceptions of what is a threat are often the biggest obstacles to international cooperation. But I believe that in the twenty-first century they should not be allowed to lead the world’s governments to pursue very different priorities or to work at cross-purposes. Today’s threats are deeply interconnected, and they feed off of one another.” Full Article