Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

This is so cool.  There is a good article on National Geographic News site here

They call him the "banker of the poor." Now Muhammad Yunus can add Nobel Peace Prize winner to his resume.

The Bangladeshi economist and his Grameen Bank won the 1.4-million-U.S.-dollar prize on Friday for pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans.

I first heard about this on NPR a long while ago - they were talking about making a loan as small as a few dollars to by a single chicken.  To start an egg business in a small village.

Interesting enough, his default rate is BETTER than that of any major bank.  (Proof enough that economic status is NO indicator of a person's character OR honesty!)

I am also heartened that most of the loans go to women in areas that it's traditional for women to be essentially "property".  It gives me hope, that humanity is waking up from a long adolescence, and beginning to recognize that a persons faith, gender, race, economic condition etc is NO MEASURE of a persons' ability to contribute to humanity as a whole.  (Yes, I'm a bleeding optimist -- too much Gene Roddenberry, I suppose <heh>)

I even got to hear a all-too-brief interview on NPR the other day, by Muhammad Yunus.  Worth looking up and listening to, if you can find the time Link Here

[Sibling Chatty]

Kudos to the Nobel Committee for recognizing the fact that there are more things that help the world than just political negotiation.

Interesting program, very interesting man. It's sobering to think that what some people spend on coffee or sodas in a month can change the lives of other people completely.

[Bluenose]

One of the things I particulalry like about this program is that it is not like so many other aid programs which are often a case of the us Westerners going in and telling everyone else what to do or providing "aid" that really is just a big hand out to our own businesses, nor is it providing inappropriate materiel for which the necessary infrastructure is missing - I have visions of rusting tractors in Africa from aid programs of years gone by.  Also, this program seems to me to be much less likely to be subverted by corrupt officials who often syphon off millions from aid programs into their own personal wealth.

Instead, this program works at the root level and provides a hand up for people to make real differences in their own lives in ways that they control.  I firmly believe that successful aid can only occur when the people being helped out have a stake in the progress and when (to use management jargon for a moment) those people "own" the process.  This is not to say that we should not provide disaster relief after natural (or man made) disasters, but the true ongoing programs would be so much more effective if they operaterd like the micro loan program.  It saddens me that so much of what is provided in good faith by donors all over the world is simply wasted or misdirected.

Lets hope that this award will help to redirect some of our aid efforts into more effective programs like this one.  We still need some of the big programs, but I think even these could be better targetted by dropping the paternalistic attitudes that so often go with them.

Better stop now before I go into full rant mode.   

Nick

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

As I deeply respect the decision of the Nobel commitee, and I agree with it, as the system created by Muhammed Yunus really works, there is one thing one might have to add (or I would like to say)...

Woldn't it be better to give Yunus a Nobel Prize for economy, rather than for peace?

Couldn't it be that there were more suitable candidates for the peace prize among the nominees, than Yunus?

I'm fully aware that not everyone can win (which in some cases is a pity)...

[Sibling Chatty]

An article I read (don't remember which, I read 7 or  mentioned that although there were suggestions for his receiving economics, the micro-loan concept is not new, just under utilized. The economics people prefer to award for new theories, not actual economic betterment. 

The peace committee felt, however, that the actual fiscal improvements in the areas served had contributed more to peace and stability than any amount of discussion or mediation had even done.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

As I recall, the micro-loan concept was first invented by a woman a number of years ago - in Africa, if memory serves.

I'm glad it has taken off - I'd love to see it at work in the poorer parts of the USofA ...