Quote of the Day
“Peace is a choice that we make over and over.”
— Maryam Bukar Hassan
Nigerian poet Maryam Bukar Hassan delivered these words at the United Nations during its 80th-anniversary commemoration in 2025. In the same address, she described peace not as a final destination, but as something people repeatedly choose.
I like that way of thinking about peace because it brings the idea down from conference halls and into ordinary life.
Peace can sound enormous.
Something presidents negotiate. Something diplomats sign. Something countries either have or do not have.
But there are smaller choices underneath it.
Two neighbours decide whether an argument becomes a feud. A parent decides what to teach a child about people from another community. Someone receives an angry message and chooses whether to make the situation worse. A community has been hurt and must decide whether the next generation will inherit only the hurt.
None of this means people should quietly accept injustice.
Sometimes speaking up is exactly what peace requires.
But perhaps peace is not something we achieve once and then place safely on a shelf.
We keep choosing it.
And sometimes we have to choose it again tomorrow.
Quote source: United Nations — UN80
Did You Know?
More than 80% of people in Africa are not covered by even one social-protection benefit.
What happens when a worker becomes seriously ill and cannot work?
Or when a mother gives birth and has no paid maternity protection? When someone loses a job? When an older person can no longer earn enough to live?
For millions of families, the first answer is not an insurance programme or government benefit.
It is family.
A brother sends money. An aunt takes in the children. Neighbours contribute. Someone borrows. Someone sells something.
These informal support systems matter enormously. But they also tell us something about the gap formal social protection is supposed to fill.
The International Labour Organization estimates that only 19.1% of Africa’s population is covered by at least one social-protection benefit. That leaves more than four out of every five people without such coverage.
Social protection is broader than a monthly government cheque. It can include pensions, maternity benefits, unemployment protection, disability benefits, support after workplace injuries and assistance for families with children.
Why does that matter?
Because a crisis that begins with one person can quickly become a family crisis.
If a breadwinner becomes ill, school fees may disappear with the income. Savings may go toward treatment. A relative who was already struggling may suddenly be supporting another household.
This is where public policy meets the kitchen table.
The question is not simply whether a country has social programmes written into policy. It is whether ordinary people can actually reach them when life goes wrong.
Sometimes the distance between poverty and survival is one unexpected event.
Source
International Labour Organization — World Social Protection Report 2024–26
For discussion: When families are expected to carry most of the burden when someone becomes sick, unemployed, disabled or old, what happens to families that have very little to begin with?
Leave a comment