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Wangari Maathai Quotes
Kenyan
-
Activist
April 1, 1940
African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are - to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.
Wangari Maathai
Strength
Women
Fear
Silence
African
General
Know
Liberated
Need
OK
See
Them
Way
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
World
Children
Next
Generation
Benefits
Bequeath
Conserve
Environment
Next Generation
Our
Ourselves
Owe
Sustainable
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
Wangari Maathai
People
Water
Pain
Lose
Choice
Close
Forests
Jobs
Know
Make
Need
I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance.
Wangari Maathai
I Am
Only
Make
Governance
Environment
Improve
Protect
Also
Am
Sure
Working
It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa.
Wangari Maathai
New
Important
Africa
Ideas
Difference
Initiatives
Make A Difference
New Ideas
Nurture
Any
Make
Which
Women are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve.
Wangari Maathai
Women
Time
Children
See
Responsible
Sit
Starve
Waste
Waste Time
Women Are
Back
Cannot
Them
Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys from time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.
Wangari Maathai
God
Time
Doubt
Others
AIDS
Curse
Immemorial
Monkeys
Because
Been
Came
Cannot
Living
Say
Some
We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.
Wangari Maathai
Environment
Need
Development
Destroy
Promote
Does
Our
It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.
Wangari Maathai
Little Things
Will
Things
Difference
Citizens
Little Thing
Planting
Trees
Little
Make
Thing
It's a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.
Wangari Maathai
Life
Death
Matter
Country
Extinction
Facing
Forests
Life And Death
Man-Made
Problem
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
Poor
Powerful
Environment
Very
Blaming
Destroying
Fond
Governments
Including
Responsible
Often
There's a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.
Wangari Maathai
Me
Angry
Culture
Country
Cut
Cutting
General
Planting
Trees
Because
Everyone
Makes
No-One
In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.
Wangari Maathai
Today
Peace
Relationship
Democracy
Conflict
Connection
Decades
Environment
Environmental
Human Rights
Obvious
Resources
Rights
Seem
Almost
Between
Few
Human
May
See
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
Women
Innocent
Nothing
See
Area
Beyond
Deal
Issues
Meet
Needs
Planting
Response
Rural
Rural Areas
Trees
Come
Did
First
Really
Started
For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause of the problems, we would be able to overcome the problems once and for all.
Wangari Maathai
Me
Look
Problems
Overcome
Beyond
Cause
Causes
Major
Move
Ourselves
Planting
Reasons
Root
Symptoms
Tendency
Trees
Whereas
Able
Just
Often
Once
Problem
Would
Would-Be
But when you have bad governance, of course, these resources are destroyed: The forests are deforested, there is illegal logging, there is soil erosion. I got pulled deeper and deeper and saw how these issues become linked to governance, to corruption, to dictatorship.
Wangari Maathai
You
Bad
Dictatorship
Corruption
Course
Deeper
Destroyed
Erosion
Forests
Governance
Illegal
Issues
Linked
Pulled
Resources
Saw
Soil
Become
Got
How
It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.
Wangari Maathai
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
Positive
Good
Culture
Accept
African
Aspects
Ourselves
Recapture
Our
Some
Us
Would
Would-Be
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
Beautiful
Flower
Tree
Plant
Celebrate
Flame
Flowers
Indigenous
Red
Always
Got
Like
Things
Want
Way
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
You
Competition
Think
Management
Conflicts
Degraded
Distribution
Global
Local
Regional
Resources
Scarce
Valuable
Going
Often
Over
Those
Very
Whether
You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.
Wangari Maathai
Education
Knowledge
You
Technology
Adequately
Africa
Blame
Economy
Gain
Invested
Mismanagement
Order
Our People
Resources
Skills
Wealth
Able
Cannot
Fact
Give
Need
Our
People
Use
And so I'm saying that, yes, colonialism was terrible, and I describe it as a legacy of wars, but we ought to be moving away from that by now.
Wangari Maathai
Legacy
Moving
Saying
Now
Colonialism
Describe
Moving Away
Ought
Terrible
Wars
Yes
Away
I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me.
Wangari Maathai
God
Me
Care
Think
Inside
Tells
I Care
About
Call
Got
I Think
Just
Know
Much
Problem
Really
Something
Why
Would
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
Life
God
Spirit
Everything
Planet
Unites
Us
I think what the Nobel committee is doing is going beyond war and looking at what humanity can do to prevent war. Sustainable management of our natural resources will promote peace.
Wangari Maathai
War
Peace
Humanity
Think
Beyond
Committee
Management
Natural
Natural Resources
Nobel
Prevent
Promote
Resources
Sustainable
Doing
Going
I Think
Looking
Our
Will
Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.
Wangari Maathai
You
Tree
Water
Plant
Dig
Hole
Survive
Talking
Done
Just
Make
Thing
Until
In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who provide food for their families.
Wangari Maathai
Women
Walk
Food
Water
Degradation
Environmental
Families
Fetch
Firewood
Hours
Kenya
Provide
Victims
Women Are
Because
First
Looking
Who
You can educate people on how to preempt their own conflict.
Wangari Maathai
You
People
Conflict
Own
Educate
How
When resources are degraded, we start competing for them, whether it is at the local level in Kenya, where we had tribal clashes over land and water, or at the global level, where we are fighting over water, oil, and minerals. So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable management and equitable distribution of resources.
Wangari Maathai
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