Whether treating patients with drug-resistant diseases in the slums of Haiti or trying to reverse the hopelessness of the world's poor, optimism is essential, insists World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

"For me optimism is a moral choice," Kim told Reuters on his first trip to Africa, two months into the job as president of the global development lender.

"If you are a person who is privileged, has resources, and you go into a situation where you are working with people who are very poor, if you are cynical and pessimistic and negative, that is absolutely deadly for poor people," said the Harvard-trained physician and anthropologist.

(READ the story from Reuters News)