The terror of poverty

Have spent today reading a book by an author called Stuart Hart. I just read a fascinating few paragraphs and thought I would reproduce them here. Can someone tell me if this infringes copyright requirements?! Don't wanna be doing something I shouldn't! This is such an eloquent description of something I have believed for a while and I wanted to share it.

When the hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, many believed that the world had changed fundamentally. They were wrong. The world was exactly the same as it had been the day before. The horrific events of 9/11 simply focused our attention in a new way: It was now clear that the world was inextricably interconnected and that unrest in one part of the globe would not remain geographically isolated.

Many in the wealthy nations of the West - particularly the United States - became aware, perhaps for the first time, of what others in developing countries had known for a long time: When people are desperate, disenfranchised, or humiliated, they will resort to just about anything to relieve that condition. Most will seek resolution through modest means, such as working harder, migrating to find new opportunities, or perhaps even resorting to petty crime. Others will turn to organised protest or seek political solutions. A few will resort to the ultimate expression of alienation and repudiation: terrorism.

There is little doubt that the leaders of terrorist organisations are, more often than not, driven by extremist ideologies. Militant Islam, for example, weaves together fundamentalist religious beliefs, moral values and a radical political agenda to create a particularly virulent form of such extremism. As the leaders of such groups know, however, special circumstances are required to attract the large numbers of people needed to effectively advance the cause. Most people are not born to be suicide bombers or militia members. It takes a lifetime of neglect, despair, dashed hopes, thwarted opportunities, or worse - intimidation, exploitation and humilitation - to drive most people to such extremes. Only by reversing the conditions that breed such behaviour - poverty, inequity, hopelessness, loss of dignity - will we deal with the root causes of the problem. Yet while thousands of lives were lost or altered forever by the events of 9/11, and hundreds of known terrorist leaders have since been killed or captured, these underlying conditions remain largely unchanged - or have perhaps worsened. Terrorism, in short, is a symptom; the underlying problem is unsustainable development.

Hart goes on to suggest that, rather than flooding the Middle East with soldiers, and spending so much budget on war, we could be focusing on setting up small-scale enterprises that would provide a sense of hope, opportunity and dignity that seems currently only to be found in conflict. If we flooded the region with teachers, health care providers, social workers, small business developers and microfinanciers, we might actually begin to see a difference, with a viable alternative capturing the hearts and minds of young men coming of age, and acting as an antidote to violence.