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Title: Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
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Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
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| Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Creativity from below : Muhammad Yunus | | Yunus with his Grameen Bank initiative has brought a new notion that the bank can be truly too at the total dedication to the poor not just the rich one. Rural poor women are changing the face of the family situation through this initiative of Grameen Bank that not only bring micro-credit to poor people but also keep introducing new opportunities and creative assets for quenching poverty. | | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs The birth of micro-lending | Banker to the Poor, is by written Nobel peace prize reciepent, Muhammad Yunus. As a professor in Bangladesh, Yunus, with just twenty-seven dollars of his own money, was the "mid-wife" to micro-lending movement. He parlayed his success into remarkable achievements which have bettered the lives of millions.
It wasn't always easy, and his telling of the story, is inspirational, if somewhat repetitive. You can easily imagine the tears of joy of villagers, who with micro-lending, are able to rise above mere substience living.
He makes the case that much misery is alleviated when micro-lending is available to the poor in the Third World. While Yunus does not say so directly it is easy to extrapolate, that poor people leading better lives do not take up violence. America would be a lot more secure if it took a few millions from "military assistance" and instead invested it in micro-lending.
However, Yunus claims, "everyone" benefits when trade barriers are dropped. Trade barriers have largely been lifted in the apparel industry Consequently, the textile industry in the US employs a mere fraction of workers than it used to. Guess "everyone" doesn't include the tens of thousands of former American texitle workers.
There must be a way, to support the developement of the Third World, without America losing jobs. While Yunus doesn't answer that question, he does have a lot of answers. A five-star book.
| | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Inspiring, a concrete way to change the world & end poverty, for real | One of the most inspiring books I've ever read, and certainly the most eye-openning about how REAL change can be made in the world, on the grand scale--and not through the way that I would think change such as ending world poverty, could come about (through philanthropists, donations, taking care of the poor's needs for them)...but instead through a radically new economic/business model, that simply replaces "doing good" with "making profit" in the traditional capitalist way.
This is clearly written, extremely engaging and down to earth--no lofty economic theories here. These are all the details by the man who has proven simple empowerment of the poor through microcredit is the catalyst needed for widesweeping social change. | | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Some great ideas, but . . . | As with many people who review the poverty issue, Dr. Yunus has some great ideas. His microfinance ideas are very useful and should be part of aid packages and promoted by the World Bank.
However, it is not the panacea that he sees to ameliorate the world's poverty. This winter's Wilson Quarterly showed that a large part of the microloans made go not toward business but towards home improvement and schooling. Yunus' Grameen Bank has addressed this through creating special loan packages for these purposes. Yet the availability of credit to the poorest of the poor is a great innovation that must be recognized.
Yunus does fall into the usual trap of specialists where their specialty is all we should pay attention to. Hernando de Soto is the same with his opening the bell jar of property, and Sachs argues for spending in his own pet projects.
Additionally, Yunus is quite full of himself. his detracts from the quality of the book as well. However, it is a good read and will make you want to put micro finance on the list of options: 3 and a half stars. | | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Ever sat with a Nobel Prize winner? Ever had a conversation with a saint? | Reading Muhammad Yunus' book, Banker to the Poor, is as close to that as you need to open your eyes to the possibility of a world where poverty is history. This man presents his extraordinary accomplishments and contribution in such a humble, first-person, and, straightforward manner that you cannot help but be moved to think about what each of us can do to make the world we live in a better place. Truly an inspiration!
The first fifth of the book tells the story of his youth growing up in the turbulent period bridging World War II, Indian independence, Pakistani independence and finally the Bengali struggle for independence from Pakistan. Yunus finds himself a U.S. educated economist back in his homeland to teach university when famine hits the country and shakes his faith in traditional economics. He seeks out to tackle understanding the problem of poverty, from the perspective of the poor rather than looking down form the Ivory Tower or down a Social Darwinist nose. What he finds is not a lack of skills, motivation and human ingenuity but rather a lack of access to capital and credit - essentially a failure of the market, rather than a failing on the part of its victims. Yunus goes about conducting an experiment, lending $27 from his own pocket to 42 villagers for various small-scale ventures and cottage industries. His efforts bear fruit and snowball from there, microcredit is born. The story from then on is about how he single-mindedly and judiciously builds on the early successes and incorporates a philosophy of empowerment and deferring to the skills of his staff and especially his clients. Among the poorest of the poor, Yunus finds an incredible fountainhead of innovation and motivation whereby people, if given the chance, pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Many of Yunus' approaches break with tradition and taboo, for example, lending primarily to women, though he is Muslim and operating in a traditional rural context. Likewise, his philosophy and politics do not fit neatly in the typical Left and Right framework - he seems above the divide and willing to borrow or discover what works without regard to ideological boundaries - bearing flak from the Leftist rebels and derision from the banking establishment.
Ok, enough said - go get the book, thank me later. | | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Product Description | Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, and repayment rates are near 100 percent. Around the world, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are blossoming, with more than three hundred programs established in the United States alone.
Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's memoir of how he decided to change his life in order to help the world's poor. In it he traces the intellectual and spiritual journey that led him to fundamentally rethink the economic relationship between rich and poor, and the challenges he and his colleagues faced in founding Grameen. He also provides wise, hopeful guidance for anyone who would like to join him in "putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long." The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is necessary and inspirational reading for anyone interested in economics, public policy, philanthropy, social history, and business.
Muhammad Yunus was born in Bangladesh and earned his Ph.D. in economics in the United States at Vanderbilt University, where he was deeply influenced by the civil rights movement. He still lives in Bangladesh, and travels widely around the world on behalf of Grameen Bank and the concept of micro-credit. | | Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by PublicAffairs Amazon.com | | It began with a simple $27 loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted. After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed. The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent. Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The Grameen Bank is now a $2.5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today." Dr. Yunus's efforts prove that hope is a global currency. --Shawn Carkonen |
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