“The ultimate resource of a nation is it’s people. Unless this resource is employed for the benefit of the nation, unless the latest good which it represents is exploited to the maximum for the common good, the nation will languish, poor in spirit, lacking in achievement. But no people can make their full contribution to the life of the nation to which they owe allegiance unless they possess and enjoy those few fundamental prerequisites indispensable to rendering their participation in the affairs of their country both possible and significant. The growth of a people is complex and inter-related. Man must be educated: he cannot come to grips with or cope with or understand the modern world unless he has been taught about it. He must be assured of a minimum economic security: he cannot concern himself with matters going beyond the day-to-day satisfaction of his physical needs unless he is fed and clothed and sheltered, nor can he acquire a sufficient degree of social consciousness to be able to subordinate his own personal interests to the good of the nation and the development of its society. Freedom, liberty, the rights of man – these mean little to the ignorant, the hungry, the ill-clothed, the badly-housed.
All of this we have, from our earliest days, recognized, and in the years during which we have guided and directed the destinies of the Ethiopian people and nation, we have endeavoured to accomodate and give due consideration to this basic truth.”
– H.I.M. Haile Selassie I.
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