Jane Goodall
“When everybody laughed at me for wanting to go to Africa and live with animals, my mother always said, ‘If you really want something and never give up you’ll always find a way.’” Every time Jane Goodall delivers a speech she always begins with a chimpanzee greeting. Regardless of her audience –...
Milton Glaser
“The best artists work out of the desire to produce beauty, otherwise it’s not real and something else. This intertwining of money, power, and status is a corruption of purpose.” You may not recognize the name Milton Glaser, but you would most certainly recognize his art. In 1975, Glaser created what is,...
Ravi Zacharias
“Mahatma Gandhi said it, ‘I like their Christ, I don’t like their Christian.’ Unfortunately, when Christendom has been hijacked and made into a state religion or a power institution it gets abused… Christianity is a commitment of surrender, not of power over humanity.” The intellectual pursuit of truth and meaning is a global phenomenon....
Robert Fowler
“Celine Dion has a huge international following…So, it isn’t surprising that a Senegalese man would know of, and admire, her. But, to have this come from an Al-Qaeda captor in the Sahara Desert, some weeks into our captivity, was so bizarre.” Anyone who can use the words “Celine Dion,” “Al-Qaeda,” and “captivity” to...
Vandana Shiva
“The higher, more distant, level of patriarchy is capitalism. This is what is represented by corporate truth. You don’t see a man beating a wife, but there’s a fictitious man beating all the women, children and people of the world.” In a world full of powerful agricultural corporations that control biased global trade agreements, bully...
Raj Patel
“The day I start believing that what I have to say is much more important than the people who I learn things from, I will be crossing a dark line.” Raj Patel is many things: an author of two successful books, an academic with degrees from some of the world’s most prestigious schools, a...
Michael Coogan
“I’ve had emails saying that I’m from Satan, and that I’m doomed to hell, but that goes with the territory.” The Bible is one of the world’s most popular, and controversial books. When you decide to dedicate your whole life to analyzing, interpreting, and drawing new conclusions...
David Yanagizawa-Drott
“Like most researchers, I’m driven by some fundamental curiosity of how the world works…The greater goal of that is how can we use that knowledge to change public policy, and change life conditions on earth. Where that comes from, who knows?” When you finish your Ph.D, and Harvard University wants you on staff, you...
Paul Collier
“The idea that the World Bank is some sort of right-wing American institution set to serve the Western policy to crash Africa is a fantasy that collides against the reality of the people actually making these policies…It’s sort of a convenient whipping boy for people’s fantasies.” When it comes to academics and authors who command...
John Githongo
“Poverty is no longer the number one challenge to Africa; it is inequality. This is the most deadly issue facing African countries because it is so easily politicized, ethnicized, and very easily militarized.” John Githongo is a man you need to know about. In my opinion, he is an African hero who is doing work...
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