As I began this month I was looking for books that addressed poverty. As I was looking at various titles I saw this one. I had never heard of Muhammad Yunus prior to seeing his name as the author of this book. The title intrigued me and I started reading. I had also never heard of micro-lending. I didn’t know what to expect but was ready to see what this book had to offer.
Yunus provides an outline of his life in the early chapters of the book but the bulk of the book is about his fight against poverty. He taught as an economics professor when famine hit Bangladesh in 1974. He shifted his focus to poverty reduction at this point.
Yunus noted “I hoped that if I studied poverty at close range I would understand it more keenly. My repeated trips to the villages around the Chittagong University campus led me to discoveries that were essential to establishing the Grameen Bank. The poor taught me an entirely new economics. I learned about the problems that they faced from their own perspective. I tried a great number of things. Some worked. Others did not. One that worked well was to offer people tiny loans for self employment.”
By immersing himself in the life of the poor he was able to reflect “In my university courses I theorized about sums in the millions of dollars but here before my eyes the problems of life and death were posed in terms of pennies.”
Yunus came to the idea of a micro-lending bank when he personally loaned $27 over 40 people. He realized he couldn’t continue to provide loans out of his pocket and over time he created the Grameen Bank.
Yunus believes in innovation as a key to defeating poverty. He encourages open debate at Grameen Bank because “Innovation can only sprout in an atmosphere of tolerance, diversity, and curiosity.”
Yunus notes “Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the structures of society and the policies pursued by society. Change the structure as we are doing in Bangladesh and you will see that the poor change their own lives.”
This book again reminded me of the power of ideas. Yunus wanted to help the poor. He came up with an idea and he worked hard to bring his micro-lending idea to fruition. His idea has helped lift millions of people out of poverty. Ideas put into action can change the world.
Overall I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.
William Wilberforce has been called an agitator for his commitment to ending the slave trade. One of his well known speeches on the subject was given on May 12, 1789.
Cardinal Richelieu has been hailed as a great statesman and as a subversive authoritarian. Depending on who you talk to he was a man needed to strengthen the monarchy in France, or he was a tyrant seeking personal power. Next week I will have a book review that may shed more light on Cardinal Richelieu.
When Lenin was working on his major writing projects he would often pace across the room formulating the ideas that he would write down by saying them out loud. Once he had the idea for what he wanted to write he would often repeat the idea to Nadezhda Krupskaya, who would provide feedback. Once this process was complete he would then write the ideas down.
Here is an AI rendering of what that might have looked like when he was drafting What is to be Done.
This month this community will focus on political subversion. What is subversion? When is it justified? What is the interplay between subversion and agitation? These are some of the topics to be discussed this month.
“You get used to the despot’s shortcomings, when they are not great vices, and the change of an autocratic ruler leads to involuntary fear.”
Sergei Trubetskoi
