Underdeveloped Countries, Underdeveloped Areas Quotes

In the first phase of economic development you have rising inequality.

I can as well use private [commercial] airlines. I am already used to hitchhiking. I must demonstrate to Malawians that we are in this together. I must be the first person to set an example.

Richer people tend to be happier than poor people, and people in poor countries tend to be less happy than people in rich countries.

[For those peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization .... the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations ...

In 1955, Cuba had a life expectancy of 59.5 years, shorter than Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay… In 1985 the average Cuban could expect to live until the age of 75, longer than anyone else in Latin America and just short of the average American (75.9 years). Cuba’s children were the best fed and the level of literacy was the highest [in Latin America].

Loneliness is not a problem in traditional societies. People spend their lives in or near the place where they were born, and they remain surrounded by relatives and childhood companions.

One of the many economic differences between developed and developing countries is that developed countries subsidize farmers while developing countries tax farmers.

The best plan is to have no plan.

Global poverty is a powder keg ignitable by our own indifference.

… in an age of accelerating change, when even the most sophisticated skills are quickly outdated, we will find many allies in the developing world who are coming to understand that the most important skill anyone can learn is the ability to go on learning.

What can we expect from nations still less advanced in civilization than the [Ancient] Greeks?

Yesterday afternoon the Egyptian Minister came to bring me a gift from the first factory which had been opened in Egypt. They have always imported their linen and cotton material and for the first time they are actually making cotton and linen articles. It seemed almost incredible to me when one realizes how much cotton is grown there and that they had had no factory before for its manufacture into articles of everyday use.

Instead of condemning Israel, the underdeveloped countries should take it as an example of how to build an advanced, prosperous nation.

Mobilize population and all partners—the public sector and the private sector. Development is everybody’s business.

The main issue [of the Scientific Revolution] is that the people in the industrialised countries are getting richer, and those in the non-industrialised countries are at best standing still: so the gap between the industrialised countries and the rest is widening every day. On the world scale this is the gap between the rich and the poor.

We must embark on a bold new program for ... the improvement and growth of undeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery .... For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people.

We think that Hillary [Clinton] will be a symbol and a reality for the women of the world, and it's very important because so many - so many underdeveloped countries, not the least of which is Afghanistan, the women of the world need help, and she understands those issues and is a lightning rod for them.

How can it be "mutually beneficial" to sell at world market prices the raw materials that cost the underdeveloped countries immeasurable sweat and suffering.

For a quarter-century, and changing only very recently, the main IMF prescription has been budgetary belt-tightening for patients much too poor to own belts. IMF led austerity has frequently resulted in riots, coups, and the collapse of public services.

In general the principle of the World Trade Organization … is that sovereignty and democratic rights have to be subordinated to the rights of investors

In doing their work, they [NGOs -- Non-governmental organizations] often end up undermining the government. They hire away its best people, and more fundamentally, their prominence teaches citizens to look to them for service rather than to pressure the government to provide them. This tension between wanting to replace an ineffective state and trying not to undermine it further is a common one faced by outside actors…

The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty.

The use of large-scale military force in volatile regions of underdeveloped countries is difficult to do right, has major unintended consequences and rarely turns out to be quick, effective, controlled and short lived.

… of the world’s nearly 200 economies, only 35 have reached developed status and stayed there. The rest are still emerging, and many have been emerging forever.

Being a foreigner - especially a white and relatively wealthy one - in poor, underdeveloped countries is inherently fraught.