Post the Muhammad Yunus essays here with the thesis: Credit is a human right.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 10:18 AM
Thursday, May 05, 2011
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- Name: Professor Wanda's Posse
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I have a Master's Degree from the University of San Francisco in Writing, and an undergraduate degree from Holy Names College in Humanistic Studies. I write a weekly column for a local newspaper, San Francisco Bay View. I also have an Internet Radio Show: Wanda's Picks http://wwww.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks
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7 Comments:
Kaijie Zhang
Amani Ali
David Guzman
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9 a.m.
05 May 2011
Poor People Poduce Profits
Social Entrepreneurs are creative people that find solutions to social problems because they dream about a more equalitarian world. Muhammad Yunus found that the main problem of poor people was precisely their lack of money. Therefore he came up with a solution: Why not lend money to poor people with no collateral? This sounded crazy to the traditional bankers but somehow it worked. After all, credit is a human right.
Credit is very important. If one looks at the world today, there is probably two-thirds of the world population that does not have access to financial services. That is the first thing that society should take care of. Money begets money. If a person does not have money, that person must wait around to be hired by somebody at the mercy of others. With money in hand, a person desperately tries to make the best use of it and move ahead. In that way one is generating income for himself. Micro lending is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and good credit history. Therefore they cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit.
Microcredit is an interesting approach to encourage self-sufficiency and end poverty, especially in developing countries. The idea may have begun in Bangladesh and is now a popular one. Essentially small amounts of money are usually lent to very poor people who have little way to pay the loans back. These people are often “fledgling” entrepreneurs because with a small loan they may be able to start a successful business, eventually repay their loan, and raise their income status dramatically.
There are for-profit companies that practice micro lending, but many companies are not-for-profit like Grameen Bank founded by Yunus. In this bank a certain amount of interest is charged to keep the company working, but beyond that non-profit types do not hope to make huge amounts of money on loan transactions. Instead, most merely help people who otherwise would be unable to get a loan. This help, though small, can make a huge difference.
Mohamad Yanus saw a niche that needed to be filled, and filled it in a way that improves the general welfare of the communities in which Grameen Bank operates. A loan should be given to poor people to help them get out of poverty; not make rich people richer.
Stacey Kidder
Professor Sabir
English 1A 9-9:50am
8 May 2011
(Writing an essay alone since I wasn't in class to write one with a group.)
The world is unfortunately filled with many disappointments. As much as we'd like to rid it of all of the things that are bad, it is impossible. Fortunately, there are many out there who are known as social entrepreneurs that aren't out to only benefit themselves, but to make the world a better place by creating a company that gives back to the community in some way. Muhammad Yunus, a Bengalis man who was raised in the heart of Bangladesh's poverty, created a bank called Grameen Bank to help alleviate some of that poverty by giving micro-loans out to those who were poor and had no collateral. His theory was that credit is a human right, and that it those who need that credit the most are those who have nothing.
Prior to creating Grameen Bank, Yunus set out into the communities near him to find out why these people were so poor and unable to do anything about it. What he found out was basically that no banks would lend them any money because they had no collateral, since many of which were completely homeless. He also found out that the total amount of money needed for all of the people that he'd talked to was less than fifty dollars, which was astounding. Grameen Bank was a way for these people to finally get back on their feet, financially.
In starting Grameen Bank, two important factors were stated: there was no collateral necessary needed to take out a loan, and women were the ones who were preferred in taking the loans. As discussed, the people taking these loans had no money, no home, nothing, thus collateral was out of the question. It was simply a pact of trust. Women were the preferred ones to take the money because, as Yunus thought, they were the most responsible and made decisions for their families, i.e. with their children in mind, instead of selfishly using the money only to benefit themselves.
As it turned out, Grameen Bank was a success. The rate of repayment by those who took the loans was 95%, which is higher than most banks. The people repay little by little, but most seemed so happy for the second chance at life that they felt it only fair to repay all of the money. It also helped the women, especially, because they went from being nobody to being an extremely important part of their families and communities. Yunus helped give the communities around him a chance to finally make it, financially, and have some sustainability within themselves when other people (other banks) would not.
Zinaida Dzhilavdaryan
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1 A
6 May 2011
Credit is a Human Right
The economy of most developed countries is growing due to credit system, but people, who have bad credit history, have no chance to get a credit. As a result, these people have to live in poverty all their life. Muhammad Yanus, the Bangladesh economist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, proved that credit is a human right.
Muhammad helps people overcome poverty in rural Bangladesh by giving them credit without collateral. While most economists keep thinking that credit cannot exist without collateral, Muhammad helped 4.4 million families since 1974, and in 90 percent of the times people pay back. When economic theories were first formulated, they were aimed to increase money of those, who already have some capital. Economy has never focused on poor people.
According to Muhammad Yanus, economists have to discover “real-life economics of a poor person’s existence.” Really, why financial position of a person should reflect his or her human rights? In poor countries even a small loan of 27 dollars can change the life of whole family. Grameen Bank started an economic revolution, and proved that poor people deserve a chance to improve their life.
Cherefah Obad
May 10,2011
Eglish 1A
Credit Is A Human Right
As human beings we all have
something to give and share with our cmmunity. Nobel peice prize winner Mohammed Yunus knows that and is doing his part to help his community. Mohammed Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangledash in 1976. He realized the poverty that many people from his community were going through and felt the need to do something about it. He believed that as human beings, credit is a human right. Yunus believes that microcredit is a good way to help those people who are in poverty.
Mohamed Yunus began his start to Grameen Bank from a very small yet powerful step. After his community conducted a family meeting, they relaized that in order to escape the poverty they are currently in, they would need $27 in total for forty seven families. Yunis happily donated the $27 with no intention of reayment. Many would think that Yunus is a fool to give money to people with no credit, because they might not pay him back. Statistics show that 95% of people who Yunus gave money to, repayed him. Yunus also did something that people found very odd. He gave loans to women in his community. He believed that women cared about thir family more than the men would.
Yunus believes microcredit is the only solution to end poverty. In total, there are 75 sectors all over the world, and Yunus loans around 1 million dollars dailyto people everywhere. Many find this very astonishing that Grameen Bank began with a simple donation of $27.
Summer Hurst
Alex Peña
Dereje Bizuneh
English 1A 9am
May 4, 2011
Muhammad Yunus
In order to get out of poverty people need loans. In result Muhammad Yunus provided these loans to those in need. At first people thought he was crazy because he was loaning money to poor people. Evevtually they learned to accept him of doing the right thing. Famin encouraged him to open his own bank “Grameen Bank” in order to help his village and the poorest of the poor.
Many individuals were affected by his hospitality when he didn’t ask of collateral. He believed the smalleswt amount of money can help a small community in a huge way. He even gave money to poor beggers on the street helping them get back on their feet with no expectation of being payed back. The error the other banks did was to benefit themselves by expecting money from the poor people in order to get loans. His knowledge of economics helped him to create the microloan to help others.
Yunus changed the view of people around him by helping women financially. He offered an opportunity to support their families. Before men looked down on him for loaning them money, but Yunus saw the important role of women and wanted to help.
Tyler Mecozzi
Eman Obad
Jeffrey To
Julie Phoukeo
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and founder of Grameen Bank. After he developed a concept of micro-finance and micro-credit, he went into the town of Bangladesh and researched their financial needs. Yunus believes that credit is a human right. In 1976, he started the Grammen Bank by giving twenty-seven dollars to 42 families.
Grmeen bank focused on women borrowers and people with no collateral but with potential ability to pay the loan back. Women were emphasized because they bettered their communities by supporting their families instead of just themselves. The people of Bangladesh started small businesses to repay their loans and earn more credit. Yunus' success was exemplified in the 95% repayment rate among the villagers.
Muhammad Yunus was criticized for thinking micro-finance was the only solution to poverty, but he denied those allegations by broadening the range of people he loaned to. Now Grameen Bank holds 75 sectors around the world and his empire provides $4.7 billion to 4.4 million families. According to one expert in innovative government, "The program established by Yunus at the Grameen Bank is the single more important development in the third world in the last 100 years."
Cody Henneman
Audrey Topacio
Professor Sabir
It takes a small solution to make a big problem a smaller one. Muhammad Yunnus, the founder of the GrameenBank, thought this way too. In 1974, Bangladesh suffered from a devastating famine. It was not as devastating to those with fortune than those with nothing. A ''flood" of poor starving men, women, children, and old folk reached the streets of Yunnus's hometown. "Hungry people were everywhere", he says. The economics teacher knew that he could no longer lie to his students about the remedy to problems within society when there were people in the street outside of his school "that sat so still that one could not be sure whether they were alive or dead." Bangladesh was suffering from a famine and the people who suffered the most, were the people who were without money. Yunnus saw this problem and visited the village Jobra. Here he learned that twenty-seven dollars split among the families of the village would put it back on it's feet. It is from his own pocket that Yunnus gave the village the money, and power to live. It is at that moment that Yunnus figures a small solution for a big problem. Credit is a natural human right, and with it the quality of life, and the amount of life surviving among the poor would increase greatly.
The twenty-seven dollars the Yunnus first lent out is the beginning of the GrameenBank. Yunnus began to regularly give micro loans to the poor people while asking for no collateral. The recipients of the loan paid Yunnus back with interest, and the bank began to grow. As the bank grew, more loans were given out; as more loans were given out, more loans were paid back. This created a mutual trust between the people and the bank. The more the loans were paid back, the bigger the loans became. The GrameenBank gave out countless amounts of loans and has a pay back rate of over ninety percent! The mutual trust between the people and the bank allowed for people to live much more comfortable than they were when they were poor and destitute. He also began giving loans to women as well. Because of the fact that women care for the family, Yunnus saw that by giving women money, the family had food to eat, clothes to wear, water to bathe, and some of the children had an education to receive. Although giving money to women was not easily accepted in a conservative society. Yunnus was heavily criticized for that as well as other things.
For someone who was so involved with the increasing the global economy and making the poor richer, Yunns was harshly criticized. However the criticism had little to no grounds to stand on. First of all, he was criticized for giving money to women, but because he did so, life in the villages which used the GrameenBank was much better and of higher quality. Secondly, he was criticized for the fact that his small solution was not going to fix the entire problem. There are still people who are even below the very poor, these people are the beggars of society. Because of this criticism Yunnus thought of a small solution for those people. The GrameenBank started giving money to beggars so that they may attempt to get back on their feet. It is very easy to criticize someone who completely turning traditional banking upside down. However, with traditional banking, the poor people were not thought of. Now, they are always thought of by the Grameen Bank.
unnus did more than just turn the traditional world of banking upside down, he gave hope to those who did not have any. Credit is a natural human right, Yunnus
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