" All these aspects which make up the overall picture of the state of humanity in the late twentieth century have one common name: oppression. They all, including the hunger suffered by millions of human beings, result from the oppression of some human beings by others. The impotence of international bodies in the face of generally recognized problems, their inability to effect solutions, stems from the self-interest of those who stand to benefit from their oppression of other human beings. In each major problem there is broad recognition of both the moral intolerableness and the political non-viability of the existing situation, coupled with a lack of capacity to respond.

If the problem is (or the problems are) a conflict of interests, then the energy to find the solution can come only from the oppressed themselves. "

― Paul Farmer , Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor