Muhammad Yunus

On 8th of December, I had my 1st encounter with a Nobel Laureate. Professor Muhammad Yunus, economist, pioneer in microcredit, founder of Grameen Bank. He along with Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." He visited Malaysia and somehow HELP University managed to invite him over to give a talk.

I have always wanted to read his book "Banker to the Poor", though I have not bought it yet. HELP libraries have none of his 3 books! Erm... no wonder so many students have no idea who he is? Somebody actually said that they were invited to attend but chose not to go because they didn't know him. WHAT?! Ask your friend GOOGLE.


I was very intrigued, of course I had to go! My first impression of him was that he is a humble man, dressed in a simple punjabi suit, with a quiet and gentle voice. He'd make a great story teller.

It was a simple speech--just over half an hour long-- about the beliefs and motivations driving his career. He started off by introducing the environment he grew up in. A poor community in a Bangladeshi village, where loan-sharking was prominent. This is where he developed a "worm's-eye view", seeing things from close range; as opposed to the "bird's-eye view" he learnt in university. According to him, problems are not as threatening when you see them up close. Interesting, that.

The problem he saw, was of course, poverty. Banks cannot lend money to poor people, instead, they lend money to people who already have a lot. This is a wrong design. This led to his decision to create a bank with his ideology. How did he do it? Learn from conventional banks and do the OPPOSITE. (So cool)
For instance, people always go to the bank, so the bank should go to the people. Banks want collateral for borrowing, he omitted it. In his words, "Collateral is a CONSPIRACY against poor people." "CREDIT should be the equivalent of TRUST." "Banking systems are built on DISTRUST."
Grameen bank lends money based on trust, therefore they don't require collateral. This is why they do not need any papers/legal documents, and therefore do not hire lawyers. For some reason, the audience was impressed by this statement. Don't like lawyers? haha

Now I should mention that 95% of Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers, of which 97% are women. They also claim a loan recovery rate of 96.67%. I got this off Wikipedia.

"Poor people are like bonsai", he said. There are nothing wrong with their seeds, they just don't have enough space to grow. Society has limited their space, all because of the conceptual framework of Capitalism, which misunderstands human beings. We have all been taught selfishness, and turned into money chasers. But we are not robots; we are multi-dimensional. We can be selfish and selfless at the same time. (Contradictions, contradictions...) So we should express our selflessness, not selfishness. "Everything is for others."

That leads to the concept of social business--building companies to solve problems. Money-making business creates power, and this power can solve problems. He pointed out that it is different from charity--the money doesn't come back. (wow) Note that his problems are always associated with poverty.
Well, it seems I need to read his other books about social business too. My cousin tells me "it's pretty good stuff".

At the end, I had one big question in my mind.
So what the heck am I doing in university, learning all about capitalism?
Hahaha.
His courage and persistence is admirable. He had a simple dream and he found a way to make it happen.
There are, however, some criticisms against microlending and Grameen Bank, questioning its effectiveness. So is the simplicity of his framework its flaw as well?
I shall leave this question for another day...