Of free markets and benevolence
Rashidul Bari admires the vision in the Nobel laureate
23 November 2007, 18:00 PM
Creating a World Without Poverty
Muhammad Yunus
Perseus Publishing
When I asked Jerald Posman, the Vice President of CUNY York College and columnist of The New York Times, to make a comment about Muhammad Yunus, he replied, "Nobody did as much to empower women as Muhammad Yunus. He is an icon in the women empowering movement". My sentiments are similar to Posman's when it comes to the contribution of Yunus to changing women's lives. In his new book, Creating a World without Poverty, Yunus tales the story of a movement begun forty years ago which changed millions of women' lives.
In Creating a World without Poverty, Yunus outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the mission which could make a compassionate world especially for women. In the past three decades, free markets have swept the globe, bringing with them enormous potential for positive change. But traditional capitalism cannot solve problems such as inequality and poverty, because it is held back by a narrow view of human nature in which people are unsophisticated beings and understand nothing but profit. However, Yunus believes that human beings are more than money spinning machines. According to him, human beings have many other drives and passions, such as sacredness, a societal sense of humor and philanthropic compassion. Welcome to Yunus' world, where the imaginative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to solve serious problems such as reducing poverty, improving education, housing the homeless, healing the sick and protecting the planet from CO2 emissions.
Creating a World Without Poverty tells the tale of Grameen Bank, and how it changed millions of women's lives in so little time. It reveals the next stage in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already under way; and through the worldwide effort to abolish poverty by unleashing the philanthropic part of human nature. In this book, the 2006 Nobel Peace laureate sketches his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the mission for a more benevolent world and tells inspiring stories of companies that are doing this work today. In the last three decades, free markets have expanded across the globe, bringing with them enormous potential for positive change. Yunus believes, however, that traditional capitalism cannot remove fundamental human tribulations such as inequality and poverty because it is held back by a few billionaires who understand nothing but the means of making money.
Posman writes, "Micro-credit is not about money, it is about unleashing the most abundant and least utilised resource in the world today human potential. It is about providing an opportunity for every person especially woman to become self-sufficient, personally responsible and creative-- and Yunus is the father of this movement."
Yunus was born in a rural village called Bethoea in Bangladesh. He earned Ph.D in economics from Vanderbilt University as a Fulbright Scholar. In 1974, when he was head of the economics department at Chittagong University, Bangladesh went through a devastating famine which led him to loan $27 to forty-two stool makers living in a tiny village. This small loan helped these women break out of the cycle of poverty. In 1983, Yunus founded Grameen Bank, a pioneer in micro-credit, an economic movement that has helped lift millions of families around the world out of poverty. The Grameen movement has now spread to nearly 100 countries. In 2006 Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Creating a World without Poverty will hit the stands on December 31, 2007. Yunus will make a month-long book tour of the United States to promote his book. "Yunus is coming to Barnes & Noble at Union Square to sign Creating a World without Poverty on January 23, at 7 pm" said Steven Harvey-its media manger.
Rashidul Bari, biographer of Muhammad Yunus, is a Bangladeshi born writer based in the United States.
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