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Carter: Occupy Movement 'relatively successful'

Former President Jimmy Carter weighs in on Occupy movement

Former President Jimmy Carter weighed in on the Occupy Movement at an event at Duke University on Wednesday.

"It's been relatively successful even acknowledging there's no leadership, there's no coherence and there's no single list of issues they want to succeed," the former president said, according to an Associated Press report.

Carter said the group put corporate greed and economic inequality back in the news.

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"That issue was basically ignored by the Congress and the news media a year ago," he said. "I believe they've achieved putting that back on the agenda."

More from the event Wednesday, courtesy of the Huffington Post:

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The former president said his travels abroad since he lost the 1980 election helped him realize the U.S. is "extra stingy" about sharing its wealth with developing nations, particularly when compared to European democracies that put an emphasis on foreign aid. Helping the less fortunate, he said, should be viewed as a moral obligation and not an act of charity.

"It dawned on me they were just as intelligent, they were just as ambitious, and their family values were just as good as mine," he said. "It's not a matter of superiority or generosity or handing out gifts to others who are less than you. They just haven't had a chance in life."

Read more on HuffPo.

The Carter Center, a nonprofit started by the Carter family, is based the Poncey-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta.


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