If you ask people anywhere in the world what they want, apart from the very personal such as a new house or a new car or doing well in the examinations, I think most people would say the same things that they would like a peaceful life, they would like a happy life, they would like greater security, they would like greater freedom, they would like to be free from want and from fear. I think for me that is the great hope for the millennium, that we must be free from want and fear, not just the people of Burma but people all over the world. Want and fear are two of the greatest enemies that we have to contend with from day to day. In a country like Burma where we have been crushed under the military regime for many, many years, want and fear stalk us all the time. People wake up in the morning wondering which of their friends have been taken into detention by the authorities.
People wake up in the morning wondering where the next meal is going to come from.
They wake up in the morning wondering what the future of their children will be and worrying about it. Want and fear go together where there are no human rights and where there is no justice. We would like justice, human rights, and peace to spread all over the world that the people everywhere might live free from fear and from want. In Asia, where so many of us believe in such high ideals, there's still a great need, a very, very great need for understanding the basic human factors that make human life acceptable. I sometimes think that Asians are too hard on ourselves as human beings.