Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (2004)

No individual nation can stand up to the project of corporate globalization on its own. Time and again we have seen that when it comes to the neo-liberal project, the heroes of our times are suddenly diminished. Extraordinary, charismatic men, giants in the opposition, when they seize power and become heads of state, they become powerless on the global stage. I'm thinking here of President Lula of Brazil...I'm thinking also of ex-president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. He instituted a program of privatization and structural adjustment, leaving millions of people homeless, jobless, and without water and electricity.

— Arundhati Roy on Nelson Mandela

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "No individual nation can stand up to the project of corporate globalization on its own. Time and again we have seen that when it comes to the neo-liberal project, the heroes of our times are suddenly diminished. Extraordinary, charismatic men, giants in the opposition, when they seize power and become heads of state, they become powerless on the global stage. I'm thinking here of President Lula of Brazil...I'm thinking also of ex-president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. He instituted a program of privatization and structural adjustment, leaving millions of people homeless, jobless, and without water and electricity." in the context of "Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (2004)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Nelson Mandela" (Quotes about Mandela: Sorted alphabetically by author or source) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Arundhati Roy

About Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian writer and social activist