As a global society, we have the technology, resources and the

Antonio Guterres, servant of peace and voice for the displaced, once proclaimed with conviction: “As a global society, we have the technology, resources and the know-how to make a massive difference to living standards everywhere, including for refugees.” In this declaration resounds both hope and rebuke. He reminds us that humanity has never been so wealthy, so skilled, so connected, and yet millions still wander without homes, food, or safety. His words cut through excuses: the means exist, but the will must be summoned.

For indeed, we live in an age overflowing with technology. With a single device, voices can reach across continents; with medical knowledge, diseases that once claimed millions can be erased; with innovations in agriculture, deserts can bloom with grain. Never before has humankind held such power to uplift life. Yet Guterres calls out the contradiction: while abundance lies in our hands, suffering remains at our gates. The plight of the refugee is proof that knowledge alone does not save, unless it is joined with compassion and action.

Consider the story of the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49. When West Berlin was blockaded and its people faced starvation, the world did not lack the means to help; it only needed the will to act. Planes flew day and night, carrying food, coal, and supplies. The city endured because nations united their resources and their skill to serve those in need. This historic act mirrors Guterres’s vision: that with resources and know-how, even the most desperate conditions can be transformed, if only humanity chooses solidarity over neglect.

The resources of the world are not lacking. Fields overflow with food, yet much is wasted. Wealth greater than the dreams of emperors rests in banks and corporations, yet children sleep under broken roofs. Knowledge of building, farming, and healing stretches across the earth, but still millions are left without dignity. Guterres’s words remind us that poverty and displacement are not the result of absence, but of imbalance — not of scarcity, but of neglect.

He also speaks of the global society. No nation stands apart anymore; borders cannot contain the flow of people, ideas, or crises. When one region suffers, the echo resounds across the whole earth. Refugees, fleeing war and famine, are not strangers but the mirror of our own humanity. To lift them is not charity but justice, for in their eyes we see what we ourselves could become if fortune turned. Thus, his teaching is clear: the age of isolation is past, and the age of shared responsibility is upon us.

Yet his words carry warning as well. For to have the power to change suffering, and yet to do nothing, is to deepen the wound of our own humanity. The ancients told of Cain, who turned away from his brother’s blood, asking, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Guterres answers this timeless question with his proclamation: yes, we are. The tools, the wealth, the wisdom — they are in our hands not for pride, but for service. If we ignore this duty, then no technology can save us from the emptiness of our own souls.

The lesson is plain: we must transform compassion into action. Do not say the problem is too vast, for the tools already exist. Support those who aid the displaced. Use technology not merely for entertainment, but for lifting lives. Demand that leaders direct resources toward healing, not hoarding. Begin in small acts, but keep the vision of the whole earth in your heart. For Antonio Guterres has spoken a truth for our time: that the greatness of humanity will not be measured by what it invents, but by how it uses its abundance to raise the lowest among us.