Posted on 10/14/2006 7:39:08 AM PDT by Valin
Walking alongside rice paddies and water buffalo on the outskirts of Dhaka with Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus was like walking down the red carpet with a Hollywood movie star. Women in saris grabbed at the handsome man with thick gray hair, flirting and addressing him with ease. I was surprised, given we were in a conservative Muslim country where rural women typically take a backseat to men.
But this man, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, had taught them to stand up to their husbands by giving them small loans that now put them in the driver's seat. "The first hostile person to our program is the husband. We are challenging his authority," Yunus said as we walked around Kashipur, where water buffalo lumbered down dirt paths alongside women barking Bengali into the cell phones they had bought with small loans from his bank. "In the family, he's a macho tyrant,'' Yunus said. ``He starts to see that she's not as stupid as he thought. He says, `Now she cannot nag me about money, because she understands now how hard it is to make.' The tension eases and they become a team."
We had driven to the village just north of Dhaka in April 2004. I wanted to profile the father of the banking revolution known as microcredit, fueled by his Grameen Bank, which now shares the prestigious Nobel prize. When we arrived, the women sat on benches in a tin-roof shack with hard mud floors and reported on their projects, laughing and cheering as they tallied up their earnings. One complained her cow was sick; another missed her son, a construction worker in Saudi Arabia. Yunus has enormous faith in these women, who make their payments on time and put their profits back into the family. In Kashipur, the barefoot women lined up to hand the local Grameen representative small wads of cash. After 17 years with the bank, they had 100 percent repayment.
Some had borrowed to buy another cow or expand their rice paddies or mustard fields. Others bought cell phones, walked about the phoneless village, making and taking calls for a fee. "Mr. Yunus has done more for the poor people of Bangladesh than anything our government has ever done," said Anju Monwara, one of the country's now-famous "telephone ladies." They help seal deals, find out the price of shrimp in rival fishing villages and even mediate marriage ceremonies from across the seas. "This is a form of globalization," Yunus said. "They have the whole world at their fingertips."
The crushing poverty in a country Henry Kissinger once dubbed "South Asia's basket case" has decreased since Yunus founded Grameen in 1983. Bangladesh's per capita income has grown from $280 in 1985 to $440 in 2006, according to World Bank figures. Anju Monwara had been one of Kashipur's telephone ladies for six years, earning on average $50 a month making and taking phone calls for others. Her most memorable, and profitable, call was a 36-minute marriage ceremony between a young woman and a fellow villager on a construction site in Saudi Arabia. He had sent a wedding ring and some money, but could not afford to come home. "So, he brought a local registrar with him and they said their vows over the phone."
Hmmmmmmm..."telephone ladies"....
I work with a Bangladeshi engineer and mentioned yesterday that one of his fellow countrymen won the prize. He hadn't heard about it and I him it was some guy that invented "micro-loans". He then recognized him and said that he was just a high-priced cell phone salesman. According to my co-worker, he was the first guy to sell cell phones and service in Bangladesh, and charged exorbitant rates for his products. Could his "micro-loan" plan be just a multi-level marketing scheme...?
I'm surprised he still has his head.
Well he does make these loans to people with no collateral. The poorest of the poor, people that the banks won't touch (Yes I know this makesd him sound like a loanshark) but...it appears to work. As opposed to the World Bank IMF and other large aid groups. Strikes me as a bottom up solution, something I approve of.
He is a modern day saint and a very smart guy. He gets over 98% of his micro loands repaid promptly. Way above the commerical banks with their high interest loans. The people on this thread who's knee' immediately jerked to smear him, with no information or knowledge should be ashamed of themsleves. What have they done lately to make a positive difference in the world?
From the article, the ladies rent usage of the cell phones. So you want to call your son working in Saudi or the US, you tell him to call or expect a call at a certain time.
"Strikes me as a bottom up solution, something I approve of."
I agree too. A much better way to help lift people out of poverty than no strings attatched aid.
Hmmmmmm. You're pretty new here. Are you in favor of the UN MIllenium Goals and the Eco-social Market Economy Global Marshall Plan Initiative (which espouses Younis' Grameen Bank)?
interesting that you would take note of that when you did :
2010 : (NORWEGIAN DOCUMENTARY CHARGES GRAMEEN BANK'S MOHAMMAD YUNUS WITH DIVERTING BANK FUNDS TO HIS PRIVATE ENTERPRISES - INCLUDES A TELECOM) [Mohammad] Yunus first ran into trouble when a 2010 Norwegian documentary charged that he diverted nearly $100 million of Grameen Bank funds to finance his private enterprises. Yunus presently owns more than 50 private and nonprofit companies, ranging from Grameen Telecom to firms in the fashion industry and even a yogurt company. Wazed said word of the $100 million diversion did not sit well with many Bangladeshis who earn an annual per-capita income of $1,314. “The whole Grameen Bank embezzlement issue was important for us,” Wazed said. “You know, he took $100 million from Grameen bank and transferred to his private trust to create 57 personal, private sector projects.” Wazed added that “Yunus eventually paid it back, but that’s not the point. He took the money, and the bank is a state-bank not authorized to provide big business loans.”---- EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Aides Threatened Prime Minister’s Son With IRS Audit, He Says, BY Richard Pollock, Reporter; 9:17 PM 04/25/2017 http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/25/exclusive-hillary-aides-threatened-prime-ministers-son-with-irs-audit/
2010 - 2012 : (IN THIS PERIOD, SENIOR STATE DEPT OFFICIALS REPEATEDLY THREATEN U.S. RESIDENT SAJEEB WAZED JOY, SON OF BANGLADESH'S PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA, WITH THREATS OF IRS AUDITS, IN EFFORT TO GET HIM TO PERSUADE HIS MOTHER TO DROP THE INVESTIGATION OF FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT OF GRAMEEN BANK [see MICROFINACING BANKER MOHAMMED YUNUS, CLINTON FOUNDATION DONOR & MEMBER OF MANDELA'S GROUP "THE ELDERS" [see JIMMY CARTER] ) Membership has its privileges.[http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/25/exclusive-hillary-aides-threatened-prime-ministers-son-with-irs-audit/]
JULY 2011 : (SBA GRANTS START ROLLING IN TO BANGLADESHI BANKER MOHAMMAD YUSUF’S GRAMEEN AMERICA FOR ITS GRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA)
2012 : (AROUND THE TIME INVESTIGATION OF GRAMEEN BANK IS LAUNCHED BY BANGLADESHI GOVERNMENT, WORLD BANK RESCINDS BRIDGE PROJECT LOAN TO BANGLADESH; IRS APPLIES PRESSURE TO BANGLADESH’S PM’S SON SAJEEB WAZED JOY, WHO IS A U.S. RESIDENT, TO INDUCE HIM TO INFLUENCE THE PM TO STOP INVESTIGATION)
You really think so? What's it take to be considered a regular around here............Sheesh!
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