Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, was nominated as one of the 25 most influential business leaders in the world along with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Alan Greenspan, etc.
In an interview with Nightly Business Report, Muhammad Yunus said poverty is unnecessary. Human beings are quite capable of taking care themselves. but we have created a society that denies some unfortunate people the opportunities.
This made me ponder: what is wrong with our society? Why are 80% of the world’s population living in bad conditions, and proximately 1.5 billion people stricken by poverty (less than $1 a day)? It can’t be just because of the greed of the few and corruption of the governments….
Does this make us – who are fortunate to be in the 20% with reasonably good living conditions – feel responsible to do something about it?
Grameen Bank did something about it. It offers small amount of loans to very poor people, giving them means to generate income and work their way out of poverty.
Now the microcredit institutions are operating in more than 100 countries worldwide. Started with only $27, Grameen Bank has grown into a $5 billion fund with more than four million borrowers.
Poverty is unnecessary. Extreme wealth is also unnecessary.
microfinance, entrepreneurship, leadership, most influential
I read recently that for the $80 billion first installment on Iraq, we could have built the infrastructure to supply clean water to everyone in Africa.
Meamwhile Ken Lay has spent $38,000,000 on his lawyers.
Yes, WM, $80 billion is a lot of money and it could have been used in a much constructive way!
I just don’t understand this government…will we ever see a presidency that actually is FOR the people. I know people continuously connect Bill Clinton with Monica L. but they don’t take into account all the wonderful things he did and how Mr. President Bush has taken apart.
Helen, you speak much truth in few words.
Our society considers money a reality instead of the illusion it is.
Helen, you are so right.
Thank you so much for continuing the conversation on poverty. Of course there is a solution. You know the adage, “If we can put a man on the moon…” and we (the United States and other rich countries) have done much more than that.
Too often, with some exceptions, the less fortunate are the ones who go out of their way to help the even less fortunate. Why is this? Exceptions include the fantastic work the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are doing to eradicate TB. Sadly, there aren’t enough of these “exceptions” in a country where lawyers get paid billions of dollars to defend the guilty.
There are better ways to share the cost of poverty, and the government could facilitate some of these measures if addressing poverty were actually a priority.
Certainly part of the problem is that we do not really want to solve the problem (as a whole I mean) It is just too nice to compare ourselves to those who have less. So much of ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ is ‘relative’. The rich are afraid of two things really A) that they will no longer be ‘rich’ if there are no ‘poor’ and B) that the poor will be poor even when they (the rich) give until they are no longer rich. The appeal of the Garmeen Bank is that it does not require the poverty of the rich to improve the lot of the poor. Good answer to problem ‘B’ but there is just no getting around problem ‘A’.
I teach a class to kids (6th-12th graders) called “How to Save the World in Your Spare Time.” In the short form of the class (I have a 2 hour curriculum and a 15 hour curriculum) I take the kids through sort of a rush of mind-blowing stuff. We start with the image of a person standing at the foot of a brick wall, staring at this gray amorphous cloud labelled “GOVT” — but by the end of an hour and a half, I’ve taught them a way to view society as a system of interested parties, how to find allies, form a plan to change something in society, and create a working group of friends to assume local leadership in an issue they care about passionately.
Most people in the world are in despair. They do not believe they can change the world, and because of this belief, of course it is true! If you give people hope, some good mental and organization tools, and the barest resources to start…they can change the world! Certainly, they can change their own lives.
We keep workin’ it! 🙂
Wealth creates greed and greed creates poverty, poverty creates crime and crime creates waste. Waste is the wealthys problem because it comes back to bite them where they love to make money and money begats greed among the poor and so on and so forth. It is all for nothing when life itself becomes worthless instead of priceless. A mother does not bring children into this world to lose them to war or crime. The fact is, the wealthy need to learn to quit hording the goods. It is also the way we are all labled in society as to where we belong, we belong together not in clicks and labels. We need to help each other achieve a better way of life for all. Freeze the prices for a few years like President Ford did and let this country recover because the government says economy is doing good then why do so many from different states claim there are no jobs there where they live? I know many from across the states and they have to go away from their families to get jobs to work and leave their families alone for weeks at a time, how is that recovering our economy? The government paints illusions to the people about an economy that is not recovering very well. If it were so good, I and many others would have great jobs and not have to be on the road to find jobs else where. Traveling is not an option, it should be you can be home for dinner or what have you so where is this great economy of theirs? Poverty is here and as long as billions are sent over to other countries and jobs exported to India and Mexico and other cheap countries our economy will stay the same and keep people on welfare which drains us no need for that and keep us seeking other places to make it. Too many people can not be wrong about the shape oru country is in, I believe it to be in bad shape and struggling to heal. Governement needs to be restructured in many, many ways and on different levels. I wish, I could say where to start but it has to start with its people. Thanks for the article:) Great Job!