When I first started, it was really an innocent response to the needs of women in rural areas. When we started planting trees to meet their needs, there was nothing beyond that. I did not see all the issues that I have to come to deal with. Wangari Maathai More Quotes by Wangari Maathai More Quotes From Wangari Maathai Tradition sometimes excludes the girl child from inheriting; or single women may not want to be perceived as pursuing too much property. The law has come a long way in favor of the woman, but it is the tradition, the attitudes, that we often have to fight. Wangari Maathai girl attitude children Education is a very empowering experience, so many people who went to school also managed to improve their quality of life much faster because they could get a job, they could get money. Once people see that you improve your life if you are educated, then education becomes a valuable tool and people want it. Wangari Maathai jobs people school The living conditions of the poor must be improved if we really want to save our environment Wangari Maathai environment poor want I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance. Wangari Maathai governance environment protect For us who are now in power, we need to be challenged to serve the people and ignore our own egos and personal interests so that we can really demonstrate to other African states that it is possible to share power without going to war. Wangari Maathai ego war people We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible. Wangari Maathai government powerful nature We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. Wangari Maathai helping-others teamwork men We refuse to share resources; we govern irresponsibly. If we are confident, if we have some of our cultural values, then we would be more committed to assisting our people out of poverty and creating an environment that can make it possible for our friends to assist us. Wangari Maathai creating would-be people It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture. Wangari Maathai accepting would-be culture We do the right thing not to please people but because it's the only logically reasonable thing to do, as long as we are being honest with ourselves - even if we are the only ones. Wangari Maathai honest long people We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all. Wangari Maathai generations inspiring children All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. Wangari Maathai earth-day planets spirit I think some of these solutions are prepared in an office without a full understanding of the local situation. Wangari Maathai office understanding thinking That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame. Wangari Maathai flames flower beautiful One of the reasons why we started the Green Belt Movement is to work with these ordinary peasant farmers so as to educate them that, despite the fact that they are poor, it is in their interest to protect the soil that they have, to protect the forest they have, to protect the land that they have, because if they don't do it, things can be only worse tomorrow for them for them and for their children. Wangari Maathai movement land children That's the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. Wangari Maathai want tree way The issue of climate change, it really does bring home the fact that we are on one planet, and that some of the impact of what human beings do in one corner of the world is going to affect people in a distant corner of the world. So we may still feel very far from each other, but we are really very close to each other because of the changes we have made with travel and technology and especially the information technology. Wangari Maathai impact technology home When you think of all the conflicts we have - whether those conflicts are local, whether they are regional or global - these conflicts are often over the management, the distribution of resources. If these resources are very valuable, if these resources are scarce, if these resources are degraded, there is going to be competition. Wangari Maathai competition management thinking Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence , apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today. Wangari Maathai inability self-confidence apathy Nobody in the world is completely dependent on another person, but we are all interdependent. Wangari Maathai dependent persons world
