Nobel prize good news for all the poor: winner

[madokie]

Now heres a man I would like to drink a beer with.


http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-13T105140Z_01_SP167433_RTRUKOC_0_US-NOBEL-PEACE-POOR.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-8


OSLO (Reuters) - The Bangladeshi banker who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for lending to the poorest of the poor said the award was good news for those living in poverty around the globe.

"This is fantastic news for all of us, for Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, and all the poor countries and all the poor people all around the world," Muhammad Yunus told Norwegian television after news that he and his Grameen Bank were sharing the prize.

He said the Nobel Peace Prize was the pinnacle of recognition after the several awards he had already received for his work of lending to the poor, mainly women.

"This is the last prize. That's what's so special about it ... it's the sky," he said.

[RestoreGore]

1. Very Good Choice

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace

Would that we in this country would care so much for our poor this much. The committee was also absolutely correct in that there will not be peace until people are self-sufficient enough to pull themselves out of poverty. I also believe that will not ever come to be as long as we continue to destroy our planet which also affects those living in poverty the most. What a great man to do what he is doing, especially considering where he is doing it.

I suppose it is hard for people in this country who have the world at their fingertips to understand how it feels to have to live on less than two dollars a day, and then have a chance to break through that, especially if you are a woman in a society where women are not respected. Again, good choice by the Nobel committee and I hope it leads to more of this on a grander scale in more countries where poverty is a silent killer. This is what people need instead of having Western organizations collecting huge sums of money we never see going to alleviate these social ills.

And also, just as an aside based on some threads I read about the prize last night... this wasn't about sticking it to the freepers and Bush. This is an esteemed prize. But actually, this does stick it to all elitists like Bush around the world who think those living in poverty are content to stay there. It is because of people like Muhammad Yunus that the world will hopefully have its balance back someday.

[RestoreGore]

2. Unfortunately this won't make the greatest thread list...

like a couple others did. I guess it's who you talk about regarding it and not the symbolism of the prize itself that people are really concerned about.

[City Lights]

3. Excellent quote from that article:

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation.

K&R

[bullwinkle428]

9. That quote can definitely be related to something Thom Hartmann

says all the time, about a strong middle class being essential in order for a democracy to exist...

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Hey, do you remember when we had a government that gave to the poor?

Oh, yeah, that was during a Democratic administration...

[DinahMoeHum]

5. I had a feeling he would win the Nobel for peace or economics

sooner or later.

I first read about him a few years ago in Frances Moore Lappe's book: Hope's Edge-The Next Diet for a Small Planet. There's a whole chapter devoted to him and his work.

www.smallplanetinstitute.org

http://www.amazon.com/Hopes-Edge-Diet-Small-Planet/dp/1...

Indeed, congratulations are in order. This is the 2nd time a profile from Lappe's book has been awarded a Nobel Prize. The first time was when the Peace prize was awarded to Wangari Maathai of Kenya for her Green Belt movement: www.greenbeltmovement.com

:toast:

[Pendrench]

6. Have you ever read his book "Banker to the Poor"? It's part autobiography

but it mainly focuses on his creation of the Grameen Bank...very interesting story (it began with a $27 loan lent to 42 women so that they could produce and sell stools).

Tim

[Brazenly Liberal]

7. K&R Percolate up works where trickle down fails

Grameen has been doing great work for years. Their small loans (I recall some as small as $40) change lives.

This is what we need in the US. An unbelievably small amount of money can turn things around for some folks. It doesn't need to be many thousands of dollars to open a business. It can be as little as fifty bucks to buy a sewing machine.

A single mom in the nearby town bought a bookmaking kit for something like $35 last year and makes keepsake books for parents, binding the kiddies' artwork, etc. It's become an enormously popular gift item locally and she's got half the county backordered as she makes a living for herself and her boys.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Bravo for Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. K&R

And, bravo for the Nobel committee for selecting him. I saw a documentary about Grameen Bank on Link. It's too bad that all the "brilliant" economists who have all the grand plans for the world economy can't imagine the impact of loaning small amounts of money to real people rather than billions to corrupt governments.

A great man, with a great heart, and a simple, effective way of helping, really helping, millions of people.

[1932]

10. I heard a radio program on Grameen Bank

which said that recent studies show that the Bank's work, although successful, isn't the fastest and surest way out of poverty for its client.

Grameen Bank, essentially, allows people to leverage their way out of poverty using their own labor. The radio show said this is good, but that they're competing in a world where others have, not only their labor, but a lot of other assets and capital to pile on top of labor, that make it more productive than bank clients' labor.

The program said that it is land reform that has the greatest capacity for lifting people out of poverty because owning the title in your land adds so much more to your leverageable assets (labor+land is worth much much more than labor alone). It's the people who have land and labor who are able to secure loans for, for example, heavy machinery that really magnifies the value of labor.

You sort of see this when you read about the Bank's success storis: people pool together and start sewing collectives with the most rudimentary of tools; or they rent a phone and charge people to use it. That's great stuff. But compare that to a person who owns her land and then takes a loan out to buy a tractor or a stamping press, or something that can do the labor of 20 horses or 20 people. Those are the people who have the surer route out of poverty and who climb much higher in terms of wealth.

[ThatsMyBarack]

11. What does he mean by LAST prize?!

I sthi sthe end of another great institiution of our times?? :nuke:

[file83]

12. Meaning is probably lost in translation...

:shrug:

[Cruzan]

13. It was the only prize left he'd been up for that he hadn't won

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. "ultimate," I'd imagine.

[cmkramer]

15. Clinton's 1992 campaign

I remember he talked about the Bangladesh program in his ROLLING STONE interview back when he first ran for president. I'm guessing Clinton heartily approves the award.