Quotes – Page 6 – Mutual Responsibility

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

20 Years Ago The World’s Leading Scientists Issued A Still Unheeded Warning: We Must Change

We the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”

– from the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.

In November of 1992, around 1,700 of the world leading scientists gathered to issue a warning to humanity. It was signed by the majority of the Nobel laureates in the sciences. It’s language was strong, urgent, and today it still holds startling relevance for humanity and the planet on which we live.

Here is what 1,700 scientists, with as if one voice, issued their urgent warning on:

The Environmental Crisis

Our massive tampering with the world’s interdependent web of life — coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change — could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.

Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threat.”

The Population Crisis

The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth’s limits. Current economic practices which damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.”

Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth. A World Bank estimate indicates that world population will not stabilize at less than 12.4 billion, while the United Nations concludes that the eventual total could reach 14 billion, a near tripling of today’s 5.4 billion. But, even at this moment, one person in five lives in absolute poverty without enough to eat, and one in ten suffers serious malnutrition.

No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.”

What Must Be Done

Five inextricably linked areas must be addressed simultaneously:

1. We must bring environmentally damaging activities under control to restore and protect the integrity of the earth’s systems we depend on… Priority must be given to the development of energy sources matched to third world needs… We must halt deforestation, injury to and loss of agricultural land, and the loss of terrestrial and marine plant and animal species.

2. We must manage resources crucial to human welfare more effectively. We must give high priority to efficient use of energy, water, and other materials, including expansion of conservation and recycling.

3. We must stabilize population. This will be possible only if all nations recognize that it requires improved social and economic conditions, and the adoption of effective, voluntary family planning.

4. We must reduce and eventually eliminate poverty.

5. We must ensure sexual equality, and guarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions.”

A New Attitude Is Required

A new ethic is required — a new attitude towards discharging our responsibility for caring for ourselves and for the earth. We must recognize the earth’s limited capacity to provide for us. We must recognize its fragility. We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great movement, convince reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.”

What Do You Think?

Would the above-mentioned actions (in the “What Must Be Done?” section), and changes of attitude (in the “A New Attitude Is Required”) be enough to bring about a better world?
If not, what is lacking?

Image: Tropical Cyclone Paul by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

The Missing Puzzle Piece: Cooperation, The Third Integral Aspect Of Evolution

Scientists from a wide range of disciplines have attempted for more than a century to explain how cooperation, altruism, and self-sacrifice arose in our dog-eat-dog world. Darwin himself was troubled by selfless behavior. Yet in his great works, the problem of cooperation was a sideshow, a detail that had to be explained away. That attitude prevails among many biologists even today.”

The above and subsequent quotes on cooperation in evolution and human society come from Martin Nowak’s and Roger Highfield’s book, Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed.

Does Cooperation Hurt Survival Of The Fittest?

Why weaken your own fitness to increase the fitness of a competitor? Why bother to look after anyone besides number one? Cooperation goes against the grain of self-interest. Cooperation is irrational. From the perspective of Darwin’s formulation for the struggle for existence, it makes no sense to aid a potential rival, yet there is evidence that this occurs among even the lowliest creatures.

… This looks like a fatal anomaly in the great scheme of life. Natural selection should lead animals to behave in ways that increase their own chances of survival and reproduction, not improve the fortunes of others. In the never-ending scrabble for food, territory, and mates in evolution, why would one individual ever bother to go out of its way to help another?”

To Compete Or Cooperate

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.”

—Peace Pigram (Mildred Lisette Norman)

In the game of life we are all driven by the struggle to succeed. We all want to be winners. There is the honest way to achieve this objective. Run faster than the pack. Jump higher. See farther. Think harder. Do better. But, as ever, there is the dark side, the calculating logic of self-interest that dictates that one should never help a competitor. In fact, why not go further and make life harder for your rivals? Why not cheat and deceive them too?

… Humans are the selfish apes. We’re the creatures who shun the needs of others. We’re egocentrics, mercenaries, and narcissists. We look after number one. We are motivated by self-interest alone, down to every last bone in our bodies. Even our genes are said to be selfish. Yet competition does not tell the whole story of biology. Something profound is missing.”

The Third Integral Element Of Evolution

Previously, there were only two basic principles of evolution—mutation and selection—where the former generates genetic diversity and the latter picks the individuals that are best suited to a given environment. For us to understand the creative aspects of evolution, we must now accept that cooperation is the third principle. For selection you need mutation and, in the same way, for cooperation you need both selection and mutation. From cooperation can emerge the constructive side of evolution, from genes to organisms to language and complex social behaviors. Cooperation is the master architect of evolution.”

Implications For Humanity

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”

—Bertrand Russell

Human society fizzes with cooperation. Even the simplest things that we do involve more cooperation than you might think. Consider, for example, stopping at a coffee shop one morning to have a cappuccino and croissant for breakfast. To enjoy that simple pleasure could draw on the labors of a small army of people from at least half a dozen countries.”

“Our breathtaking ability to cooperate is one of the main reasons we have managed to survive in every eco system on Earth, from scorched sun-baked deserts to the frozen wastes of Antarctica to the dark, crushing ocean depths. Our remarkable ability to join forces has enabled us to take the first steps in a grand venture to leave the confines of our atmosphere and voyage toward the moon and the stars beyond.”

Cooperation—not competition—underpins innovation. To spur creativity, and to encourage people to come up with original ideas, you need to use the lure of the carrot, not fear of the stick. Cooperation is the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities. Without cooperation there can be neither construction nor complexity in evolution.”

Here is Roger Highfield describing cooperation in evolution [12 minutes 59 seconds]:

… cooperation is the third pillar of evolution. And without cooperation, there is nothing constructive really going on in biology… we’re not only talking about cooperation with each other in this generation. If you look at the state of the planet we have to think carefully about cooperating with future generations too.”

Current Problems/Crises Lack Cooperation

Many problems that challenge us today can be traced back to a profound tension between what is good and desirable for an individual. That conflict can be found in global problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, poverty, hunger, and overpopulation. The biggest issues of all—saving the planet and maximizing the collective lifetime of the species Homo sapiens—cannot be solved by technology alone.

They require novel ways for us to work in harmony. If we are to continue to thrive, we have but one option. We now have to manage the planet as a whole. If we are to win the struggle for existence, and avoid a precipitous fall, there’s no choice but to harness this extraordinary creative force. We now have to refine and to extend our ability to cooperate. We must become familiar with the science of cooperation. Now, more than ever, the world needs SuperCooperators.”

What Do You Think?

How has the absence of cooperation being taught as a key integral aspect of evolution, affected your view of the world?

How would your viewpoint change if you were taught: Cooperation is needed for evolution to continue. It is needed for the development of more complex and harmonious human societies. It is essential for solving problems/crises today?

September 20, 2012September 19, 2012

Global Youth Unemployment On The Rise

The current, unprecedented level of global youth unemployment has raised the risk of creating ‘a lost generation’… [Y]oung people account for 40 percent or more of all unemployed people in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, and nearly 60 percent in Syria and Egypt.”

Nemat Shafik, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

The world is facing a worsening youth employment crisis: young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults…”

The International Labour Organization

The United Nations estimates that last year 74.8 million youth between the ages of 15 to 24 faced joblessness, with 6.4 million young people dropping out of the labor market in 2011 alone. The highest youth unemployment rates are in North Africa (27.1%) and the Middle East (26.2%)…

In the ostensibly prosperous Euro-area countries, over one-in-five young people (21.3%) cannot find a job. When this regionally-averaged figure is broken down to remove countries like Germany, the results are stark: In Spain and Greece, nearly half of all youth are without a job (48.7% and 47.2% …”

The Consequences Of Youth Unemployment

Lower life expectancy: Unemployment more generally has been linked to lower life expectancy, a higher incidence of heart attacks later in life, and even higher rates of suicide.

Higher crime rates: Increased unemployment has been linked to higher crime rates.

Increased costs to the economy: Youth unemployment results in higher unemployment insurance and other benefit payments, lost income tax revenues, and wasted productive capacity.

Lower lifetime earnings: Youth unemployment leaves a “wage scar” in the form of lower earnings that can last into middle age. The longer the period of unemployment, the bigger the effect.”

Nemat Shafik

The following video gives a brief overview of the youth unemployment crisis:

Is More Economic Growth The Answer?

Albert Einstein once said,

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”

Unfortunately, the current trend of solutions being proposed to tackle continued youth unemployment, and unemployment in general, has tended to steer towards further economic growth as the answer to the problem.

What do you think?

Is further economic growth the answer? Or is it from the level of thinking which has helped to create the global youth unemployment crisis?

Image: chitral photos 91, 95, 98, 102, 99 by groundreporter.

September 20, 2012September 19, 2012

Compassion & Altruism Are The Keys To Personal, Social & Global Happiness Says Neurologist Dr. James Doty

It has been stated many times that survival is of the fittest, but when one reads Darwin closely this is not the case. Rather, the more accurate statement, coined by Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. and other leading social scientists, is ‘the survival of the kindest.’ Paul Ekman, Ph.D., a leading expert on emotion describes an ever expanding body of scientific evidence that being compassionate affords significant benefit to oneself and society in his recent article in JAMA. In addition to evidence that survival may be enhanced by caring for others, there are now findings suggesting that the statement made by the Dalai Lama, ‘if one wishes to make others happy be compassionate, if one wishes to be happy be compassionate,’ in fact, has great validity.”

Dr. James Doty, a Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and Director of The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education found in his research that compassion directly affects a person’s well being.

Compassion Increases Happiness & Immunity & Decreases Stress

But happiness alone is not the only benefit of being compassionate. In a number of studies using a variety of psychological and biological measures and neuroimaging techniques, compassion not only stimulates one’s pleasure (reward) centers but also leads to a decrease in biological markers of stress and an increase in indices of adaptive immune function.”

Compassion Improves Survival Of The Species, Leads To Happiness & Improved Health

So what’s not to like about being compassionate? It improves survival of the species, leads to happiness and results in improved health. The reality is that while science and technology have the potential to offer incredible benefit, it is the simple interventions known to us for thousands of years that can have a profound effect on the lives of individuals and society.”

Compassion, Not Science, Will Be The Influence That Will Lead Humanity To The Peak Of Its Potential

Science and technology have the ability to have a profound influence on the human landscape. But that influence can lead us to the deepest valleys of suffering, or can lead us to those peaks of our greatest potential. It is my belief that compassion is going to be the instrument that allows us to see the latter, and not the former. It is the key that will unlock that which separates us. It is the key that will address the issues, which we all think of as isolated issues, such as global warming, war, conflict, poverty. Fundamentally, these are not entities that are external to ourselves; these are problems of the human heart.”

All Crises – Personal, Social, Global, Ecological – Are Problems Of The Human Heart

The chain of causation that has resulted in ecologic catastrophe, global warming, poverty, war, these are not external events, external to ourselves. I submit to you that they are problems of the human heart. While science and technology offer great hope for many things, until this technology is focused on afflictions of the heart, I do not believe that there is hope for our species.”

Image: Knitted Neurology by estonia76

September 20, 2012September 19, 2012

Alan Watts – A Conversation With Myself [Video]

Alan Watts muses on the difference between the world of nature and the world of man. The following are some quotes from the video:

There seems to be a complete difference of style between the things that human beings do and the things that nature does, even though human beings are themselves part of nature

There is an interdependence of flowers and bees. Where there are no flowers there are no bees, and where there are no bees there are no flowers. They’re really one organism. And so in the same way, everything in nature depends on everything else. So it’s interconnected! And so the many many patterns of interconnections lock it in together into a unity, which is, however, much too complicated for us to think about

Each one of us, not only human beings but every leaf, every weed, exists in the way it does only because everything around it does

Everything we’re doing to try to improve the world was a success in the short run, made amazing initial improvements, but in the long run we seem to be destroying the planet by our very efforts to control it and improve it

When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way. In other words there’s something wrong with the way we think. And while that is there, everything we do will be a mess

September 19, 2012

Like Branches In A Tree: The New Education Of The 21st Century Is About Teaching Interconnection

We have a bounded rationality and a limited point of view that doesn’t see the interconnected web of relationships that make up the world…”

…says Simon Evetts, shortly into Developing an Interconnected Worldview: a guiding process for learning; a masters thesis presentation given at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden by Brendan Seale, Dylan Skybrook, and Evetts.

Considering the thesis is a team effort, individual distinction for subsequent quotes will be omitted.

To not being able to see or feel interconnection, means that we unconsciously interfere with the natural and social systems that support life. These unintended consequences lead to their systematic dysfunction. And so the inability to perceive connections is the fundamental root cause of many of the worlds problems of today.

And this is a crisis of perception.

We need to think, feel, and act in terms of interconnections… allowing us to build on and broaden our thinking for a more accurate picture of reality. This can be facilitated by education that develops both our conceptual and perceptual understanding of interconnectivity.”

4 Big Questions In The Presentation

What Is An Interconnected Worldview?

How Can An Interconnected Worldview Be Developed?

What Pedagogical Approaches Could Enable The Development Of An Interconnected Worldview?

How Could A Learning Experience Be Designed To Develop An Interconnected Worldview In Support Of Strategic Sustainable Development?”

Here is the full presentation of Developing an Interconnected Worldview: a guiding process for learning:

Untitled from Converge Project on Vimeo.

The 6 Steps Of The Guiding Process To Learning

1) “Highlight the inadequacy of a reductionist worldview for meeting the needs of the learner to survive and thrive in ‘society within the ecosphere.”

“What are the current norms, assumptions, and beliefs; and how are they limited for dealing with the challenges of today?”

2) “Ask the learner to diagram or become aware of the closest, most approximate connections to the learner within ‘society within the ecosphere.”

“This step makes the notion of interconnectivity much more concrete and starts to build both a cognitive skill to make connections and the idea that what is important for the learner exists in a larger web.”

3) “Invite the learner to view ‘society within the ecosphere’ from a top or ’30,000 foot’ view.”

“It indicates that everything that the learner is dependent upon, which was explored in step 2, is in turn reliant on other things in the larger context.”

4) “Invite the learner to become aware of his or her subjective experience of being/participating in “society within the ecosphere.”

“If we include what you and I subjectively experience; we must see that we are in the system. It is not something that can be objective to us or outside of us… this is how we can feel urgency by actually experiencing our interconnectedness with the world beyond just thinking about it.”

5) “Invite the learner to picture ‘society within the ecosphere’ as a whole, including proximate connections, the top view, and subjective experience. Then invite the learner to consider that his or her identity must include the whole.”

“Step 5 combines the previous three steps to provide the learner with a sense of the whole. In other words, with an interconnected world view.”

6) “Invite the learner to consider how he or she will care for this whole that he or she is/depends upon.”

“This step addresses the immediate meaning of the new information as it relates directly to the learners life and wellbeing.”
“Step six ultimately provides the learner with an understanding that their new knowledge can be manifested into actions that serve the whole, which include the learner.”

The full thesis text can be found here.

Image: My Late Afternoon… by Universal Pops.

September 15, 2012September 15, 2012

Agriculture In The 21st Century: The Need For Global Partnership To Address Poor Food Distribution, Waste, Malnutrition And Famine Worldwide

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase.”

– World Hunger Education Service.

Rising food prices are at a dangerous level, and global cooperation is needed to tackle the increasingly challenging issue.”

– Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President [source: “World Bank chief urges global cooperation to tackle food security challenge“]

The food scarcity part of the argument in the population debate is an interesting one—people are hungry because they cannot afford food, not because the population is growing so fast that food is becoming scarce.

The global food system is spectacularly bad at tackling hunger or at holding itself to account.”

– Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies

Throwing Food Away

30% of all food produced in the world each year is wasted or lost. That’s about 1.3 billion tons… That’s as if each person in China, the world’s most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, had a one ton mass of food they could just throw into the trashcan.”

Distributing Food Poorly

The amount of grain produced in the world today could provide each person on the planet with the equivalent of two loaves of bread per day…The problem lies in the distribution of the world’s food.

The majority of food is produced in economically more developed countries such as USA, but those countries that are really in need of their share of the food to solve their hunger problems, cannot afford the high prices that these farmers charge and can get from other richer countries.”

Hunger, Malnutrition & Famine

Hunger is a term which has three meanings (Oxford English Dictionary 1971)

the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food

the want or scarcity of food in a country

a strong desire or craving”

Malnutrition is a general term that indicates a lack of some or all nutritional elements necessary for human health.”

“Malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.”

“One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished.”

“Every year 15 million children die of hunger.”

What Is Food Security?

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.

To be food secure means that:

Food is available – The amount and quality of food available globally, nationally and locally can be affected temporarily or for long periods by many factors including climate, disasters, war, civil unrest, population size and growth, agricultural practices, environment, social status and trade.

Food is affordable – When there is a shortage of food prices increase and while richer people will likely still be able to feed themselves, poorer people may have difficulty obtaining sufficient safe and nutritious food without assistance.

Food is utilised – At the household level, sufficient and varied food needs to be prepared safely so that people can grow and develop normally, meet their energy needs and avoid disease.”

A Lack Of Global Partnership

At the turn of the millennium, the global community set itself an ambitious target: to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. It is not going to happen.

At present, the total quantity of food that is produced globally is good enough to meet the daily needs of 11.5 billion people. If every individual were to get his daily food requirement as per the WHO norms, there would be abundant food supplies.”

September 15, 2012September 17, 2012

One Tribe – Black Eyed Peas [Music]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLBV4CO7BRc

One love, one blood, one people

One heart, one beat, we equal

Connected like the Internet

United that’s how we do

Lets break walls, so we see through

Let love and peace lead you

We could overcome the complication cause we need to

Help each other, make these changes

Brother, sister, rearrange this

The way I’m thinking that we can change this bad condition

Wait, use your mind and not your greed

Let’s connect and then proceed

This is something I believe

We are one, we’re all just people”

Image: One year on by Mrs. Logic

September 15, 2012

Now You Can Understand Why Connecting To Other People Is Great, Thanks To This Shouting Sociologist

The benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs!”

Nicholas Christakis, MD PhD, in his powerful TED Talk “The Hidden Influence of Social Networks,” lays down the omnipotent role of social networks and the benefits of connecting with other people…

Social Networks Naturally ‘Sustain & Nourish The Good’ & ‘Reject The Bad’

We form social networks because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs. If I was always violent towards you or gave you misinformation or made you sad or infected you with deadly germs, you would cut the ties to me, and the network would disintegrate.

So the spread of good and valuable things is required to sustain and nourish social networks. Similarly, social networks are required for the spread of good and valuable things, like love, kindness, happiness, altruism and ideas.

If we realized how valuable social networks are, we’d spend a lot more time nourishing them and sustaining them, because I think social networks are fundamentally related to goodness. And what I think the world needs now is more connections.”

An Example Showing How Certain Properties Reside Not In Individual Parts, But In The Interconnections Between Them

Think about these two common objects. They’re both made of carbon, and yet one of them has carbon atoms in it that are arranged in one particular way – on the left – and you get graphite, which is soft and dark.

But if you take the same carbon atoms and interconnect them a different way, you get diamond, which is clear and hard. And those properties of softness and hardness and darkness and clearness do not reside in the carbon atoms; they reside in the interconnections between the carbon atoms, or at least arise because of the interconnections between the carbon atoms.

So, similarly, the pattern of connections among people confers upon the groups of people different properties. It is the ties between people that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And so it is not just what’s happening to these people – whether they’re losing weight or gaining weight, or becoming rich or becoming poor, or becoming happy or not becoming happy – that affects us; it’s also the actual architecture of the ties around us.”

Human Beings Are Not Reducible To The Study Of Individuals, But Must Be Understood In Reference To The Collective

Our experience of the world depends on the actual structure of the networks in which we’re residing and on all the kinds of things that ripple and flow through the network. Now, the reason, I think, that this is the case is that human beings assemble themselves and form a kind of superorganism.

Now, a superorganism is a collection of individuals which show or evince behaviors or phenomena that are not reducible to the study of individuals and that must be understood by reference to, and by studying, the collective. Like, for example, a hive of bees that’s finding a new nesting site, or a flock of birds that’s evading a predator, or a flock of birds that’s able to pool its wisdom and navigate and find a tiny speck of an island in the middle of the Pacific, or a pack of wolves that’s able to bring down larger prey.

Superorganisms have properties that cannot be understood just by studying the individuals. I think understanding social networks and how they form and operate can help us understand not just health and emotions but all kinds of other phenomena – like crime, and warfare, and economic phenomena like bank runs and market crashes and the adoption of innovation and the spread of product adoption.”

Watch Nicholas Christakis’ TED Talk ‘The Hidden Influence Of Social Networks’

September 15, 2012

A Mutual Approach: Economists And Politicians On The Need For Global Cooperation To Treat The Global Financial Crisis

We’ve got these big problems that require people to take a longer-term view than just their own selfish individual or national interest… We must now reform the international financial system around the agreed principles of transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and cooperation across borders.”

– Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN.

Self Interest Gets In The Way Of Cooperation

At the London G20 summit on 2 April 2009, world leaders committed themselves to a $5tn (£3tn) fiscal expansion, an extra $1.1tn of resources to help the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions boost jobs and growth, and to reform of the banks. From this point, when the global economy was on the turn, international cooperation started to disintegrate as individual countries pursued their own agendas.”

– Larry Brown, The Guardian economics editor, in the article “Global Financial Crisis: Five Key Stages 2007-2011”

The Call For Mutual Cooperation, If Limited, Has Not Dwindled

We face the most difficult economic conditions in generations. The international community must unite to tackle the downturn and set the path toward a sustainable future… Only by working together can we meet the challenge.”

– Alistair Darling, Scottish Labour Party politician, in the article “International Cooperation Is the Way Out of the Financial Crisis”

A… new model is needed to acknowledge that we live together in a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious world. Prevailing values will have to increasingly accommodate diversity with substantial challenges for national and individual identities. We will only make lasting progress by recognizing that we are different but interdependent. Thus, we have to cultivate a much greater feeling of regional and global togetherness.”

– Professor Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum founder and chairman, in the article “The Great Transformation – Shaping New Models”

It’s not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It’s going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action.”

– Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund Chief, in a U.S. State Department conference.