Daily Inspiration Quote by Boutros Boutros-Ghali

“Greater fatigue” is diplomatic phrasing with a barb inside it: an indictment of the world’s attention span. Boutros Boutros-Ghali isn’t describing Africa so much as describing the international system’s waning tolerance for the costs - political, financial, moral - of sustained engagement. The word “problem” compresses dozens of distinct countries and crises into a single managerial category, the kind of flattening that makes it easier for donor capitals to rationalize retreat. It’s a critique hiding in the vocabulary of technocracy.

The line also reveals a tactical intent. As a UN secretary-general figure, Boutros-Ghali is speaking to governments and institutions that respond to reputational risk. By naming “fatigue,” he’s trying to shame without provoking: to suggest that neglect is not neutral but an active choice, one that compounds deterioration. His comparative framing (“five or 10 years ago”) turns time into evidence. If conditions are worse after a decade of post-Cold War promises, then the problem isn’t just local conflict or governance; it’s the inconsistency of external commitment and the recurring habit of treating African emergencies as episodic rather than structural.

The subtext is haunted by the 1990s: a period of televised catastrophe, donor hesitation, and UN credibility crises, when humanitarian concern collided with the fear of another open-ended intervention. “Worse today” reads like a warning about the feedback loop: as outcomes deteriorate, publics grow more cynical, and as cynicism grows, resources shrink - ensuring still worse outcomes. Boutros-Ghali is calling out that loop before it hardens into policy.