Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Satish Kumar

Satish Kumar
If I go as a Hindu, I will meet a Muslim or a Christian.  If I go as a socialist, I’ll meet a capitalist. If I go as a brown man, I’ll meet a black man or a white man. But if I go as a human being, I’ll meet only human beings.                     

In 1962 Satish Kumar made a "peace walk" to the capitals of four of the nuclear-armed countries - Washington, London, Paris and Moscow. Travelling over 11,000 km by foot with no money, Kumar would stay with anyone who offered him food or shelter. He now lives a very simple life. When told he was being unreasonable, he said: Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me 'unrealistic' to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept.

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