Human life consists of doing certain things ... to take part in the life of the community; to be able to talk about subjects that interest me and there freedom of speech comes into it.
Amartya SenIn absolutely every way, our lives are transformed by education and basic education in particular. So I would have thought that in any kind of system, to say that the priorities don't include education is a mistake, whether it's [at the] domestic level or at the global level.
Amartya SenThe anti-globalization movement is one of the biggest globalized events of the contemporary world, people coming from everywhere, ยAustralia, Indonesia, Britain, India, Poland, Germany, South Africaยto demonstrate in Seattle or Quebec. What could be more global than that?
Amartya SenVirtually everything we do is dependent on others, from the arts and culture to farmers who grow the food we eat. Quite a lot of the differences that make us rich and poor are matters just of luck. To somehow revel in oneยs privilege would be a mistake. An even bigger mistake would be trying to convert that into a theory that the rich are so much more productive than many of us.
Amartya SenYou have to be interested in inequality. The issue of inequality and that of poverty are not separable.
Amartya SenWhen I was giving a lecture in India, the capabilities that I have to be concerned with there, namely the ability of people to go to a school, to be literate, to be able to have a basic health care everywhere, to be able to seek some kind of medical response to one's ailment; these become central issues in the Indian context which they're not in the UK, because you're well beyond that.
Amartya Sen