December 10, 2006
-
SUNDAY GOOD NEWS
He
has such a sweet face. These days when it seems like we’ve come to
expect that every person who works in the world of money is a greedy
corrupt son-of-a-gun you just have to wonder where does a guy like this
come from. Bangladesh is a tiny independent country (since 1971) almost
totally surrounded by India. Muhammed Yunus, now 66, was born in a
village there to a father who was a jeweler. He was able to go to high
school and graduated 16th out of 39,000 students in East Pakistan. He
then got a BA and MA in economics at Dhaka University and joined the
Bureau of Economics. In 1969 he acquired a PhD in economics from
Vanderbilt University in the U.S. He returned to Bangladesh to teach
economics at university. He got involved in fighting poverty during the
famine of 1974 in Bangladesh. (Remember the Concert for Bangladesh back
then given by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison et al?) Yunus got the
brilliant idea that very small loans could make a huge difference to a
poor person. His first loan was $27 out of his own pocket to the women
of Jobra to make bamboo furniture. Later came the “telephone ladies”
who borrow money to own a mobile phone and now provide service to 80%
of villages in Bangladesh. A few years later, he founded the nonprofit
Grameen Bank that has now issued more than $5.1 billion to 5.3 million
borrowers. Together they received the Nobel Peace Prize today and
already China has asked Dr. Yunus to try out the microcredit program
there to see if it will work. Sweet. (Read more about this remarkable man here.)
Deep Thought:
“Probably one of the main problems with owning a robot is when you want
him to go out in the snow to get the paper, he doesn’t want to go
because it’s so cold, so you have to get out your whip and start
whipping him, and the kids start crying, and oh why did I ever get this
stupid robot?”
Today I am grateful for: Seaports
Guess the Movie: “When two people love each other, they come together – WHAM – like two taxis on Broadway.” Answer: Rear Window, 1954.
Winner: pray14me.
Feingold’s Skepticism
Editorial
The
Iraq Study Group report was greeted with a proper measure of skepticism
by U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who has been right
from the start about the ill-thought-out invasion and occupation of
Iraq.
“I’m not buying the Washington embrace
of this thing. … It’s time for us to have a clear plan to disengage
in Iraq. This doesn’t do it,” declared Feingold, who notes that the
report “leaves the strong possibility of an open-ended commitment.”
(Rest of article here.)
Comments (22)
Rear Window…, it has been awhile. How are you?
I remember the Concert for Bangledash? Does that make me ancient?
Hugs, Tricia
Rear Window – yeah, Rear Window
This non-western view of credit is such a powerful thing. Proof of how humans might live if they stop being hung up on “the rules of capitalism”
He’s an amazing man.
Rear Window rules.
on the news the story about Muhammed Yunus came on right after news of major violence and ugh… and it made me think that there are not enough people like Muhammed Yunus in the world to counter-balance the ugh… not enough…
Yes, mighty sweet!
Good for him. I had a classmate who was in law school specifically because she was interested in microfinance projects. She had done an MBA at Wharton prior, run a startup and raised kids. Microcredit is something I want to learn more about.
I do remember the Concert for Bangladesh… guess I better keep moving so I don’t start to petrify!
I was once the service manager for a company that made mobile trackless robots, but they were better behaved than the beastie described in your deep thought, most of the time. Once in a fit of pique I taught one to be surly and to swear. I was two hours away on the highway when I realized that I hadn’t returned it to its former polite and well mannered self. Fortunately the customer had a sense of humor and didn’t mind that I’d altered the personality of their $100,000 toy.
Yunus has been a great inspiration and he earned that prize because he now has the big banks taking notice. Now that they see the money the race for a cure to poverty could be on…
Ya for him and his insights. If you think about it, the poor can’t get normal loans like the rest of us do. How remarkable that his idea is doing so well.
He does have a sweet face. Gave me chills reading it, though I’ve read about him before. I had not heard about the China connection. It will be interesting.
Hi Lionne, yeah it was so cool they gave him the Nobel Prize & I hope he gets to do more work now that hes famous. I wonder what hes gonna do with the prize money. Dont they get a fortune for that? Kev
Good news like this is always welcome. Especially to me, this day, this hour. I’m troubled, and need my friends for support.
i like to study community psychology and indeed microfinance is a huge attribute. worth a nobel prize anyways!
Its nice to see intelligence used to make a possitive difference like this.I get educated on xanga.
It’s always a happy moment to hear about things people do to benefit others, thank you.
Stopping by to wish you a WONDEFUL weekend!
I saw him on Charlie Rose recently & was impressed with how a simple idea could benefit so many people when it’s done without all the entanglements of bereaucracy. Why can’t more people think outside the box?
Thanks for the kitty insights!!! The girl who has the kitten has to be out of her house on Friday….so as of now, I think I’ll be getting it….should be interesting!!!
I hope you have a wonderful week!!
Thank you for your posts, they are great to read. Mr. Yunus is an inspiration.
I see many thinsg comming forth from his honor
From what little I have read, his micro loans go to people who are actually doing something with their minds, labor and time. Sounds wonderful to me.