The attacks on Muhammad Yunus and the micro-credit movement continue to pick up speed.

Yunus, who founded Grameen Bank thirty-four years ago, pioneered the practice of lending small amounts to impoverished people, mostly women. Literally millions of people have transformed their prospects and their lives through micro-lending.

I heard Mr. Yunus speak in San Francisco a few years ago. He described the genesis of his own personal transformation as an encounter with a woman making baskets in a public square. A conversation ensued.

Yunus discovered that the woman was obliged to borrow the money required to make baskets from the man who sold her the raw materials at a high premium. It was the only way she could finance her trade, and as the only wage earner, take care of her family.

An economist by training, Mr. Yunus had a flash of insight. He realized that by making a small loan, he could assist the basket-maker in bettering her business condition and her life at the same time. Grameen Bank was born.

The Bank’s mission is:

• extend banking facilities to poor men and women;

• eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders;

• create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh;

• bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand and manage by themselves;

• and reverse the age-old vicious circle of “low income, low saving & low investment”, into virtuous circle of “low income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investment, more income”.

The practice of micro-lending has been a huge contribution to development in Pakistan and abroad. In 2006, Mr. Yunus and Grameen won the Nobel Peace Prize. In it’s citation, the Nobel Committee said:

“Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.”

The bank has 8.3 million borrowers and loans of approximately $10 billion dollars. Over 90 per cent of Grameen is owned by it’s borrowers. Unlike some other micro-financing institiutions, Grammeen has never charged exhorbitant interest rates, nor have they been aggressive in collections. As well, they have enjoyed enviable repayment rates.

Today, Mr. Yunus finds himself facing accusations about the activities of one of his nonprofits and defamation charges by political rivals. The New York Times suggests that the charges against Mr. Yunus are seen as “frivolous” and are politically motivated attacks.

Reporter Lydia Polgreen, writing in today’s paper, quotes Mahfuz Anam, editor of The Daily Star, a leading English-language newspaper:

“This man has done so much for the country. He does not deserve to be treated this way because of dirty politics.”

 

Muhammad Yunus has been more than a friend to the poor. He has been a liberating force in the fight against global poverty. He deserves much, much better.

 

© Patrick O’Neill 2011. All rights reserved.

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I notice that the Conservative Party of Canada is launching attack adds aimed at opposition parties, nasty business designed to demonize opponents and score points with partisan voters. Undoubtedly, they are readying their campaign should the budget be opposed and the government falls.

Everyone claims that they hate this kind of advertising. Everyone agrees that it works.

You can’t ignore last week’s events in Tucson as you consider the debate about politics and civility. Like many of you, I listened to President Obama’s speech at the “pep rally” for the victims. (Was it just me or did the whole thing look and sound “off”?)

Of course, the President’s message was important even if the backdrop was hard to fathom. Society has become increasingly polarized and discourse increasingly aggressive.

Even here in mild-mannered Canada that is evident. You wouldn’t have to go any further than Mayor Ford’s inauguration, where Don Cherry characterized the left as commies and pinkos, to experience the demonization of those that see the world differently. Propaganda 101.

Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times, points out: “If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we are back where we started. And where we started was with two years of accelerating political violence–actual violence, not to be confused with violent language–that struck fear into many, not least of whom was Gabrielle Giffords.” Rich, an excellent analyst and writer, suggests that “antigovernment radicalism” has contributed to this acceleration of vandalism and attacks.

In a comparison worthy of her intelligence, Sarah Palin says things are, in fact, getting better: “When was it less heated–back in those calm days when political figures literally settled their differences with duelling pistols?”

OMG!

Is the President-In-Waiting suggesting that words do not lead to action and that hateful words do not incite violence? Uh, Sara, remember Hitler? Mao? Milosevic? Osama bin Laden?

Or is she suggesting that a psychopath at a meet-and- greet represents progress?

Those of us capable of rational thought need to send the politicians and pundits a message: Knock it off! Violent language leads to violence. That’s all there is to it.

We can turn off Fox News, the extremists on the left and right, and our elected officials. Maybe then they will understand that freedom of speech and irresponsible rhetoric are not one and the same thing.

© Patrick O’Neill 2011. All rights reserved.

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Thanks for your patience while I took a break over Christmas and New Years. Ready now to re-engage!

We’ve have been exploring transition in the last couple of posts and I will continue that theme here. As you recall, transition is a passage from one state to another. Generally, there are five transitions that we are involved in:

• work

• relationship

• health

• finances

• identity

This post explores the cause of transition–choice and consequence.

Choice is a decision-making process that moves us towards what we desire. It is a vehicle of transition. For example, we may make a choice to change a job because we no longer find our current employment satisfying. The decision to make a change, when is supported by action, generates a transition.

Similarly, we may decide that we want to enjoy a committed relationship. We use the medium of choice to create an opportunity for that relationship to occur.

When we employ choice as a means of transition, it supports authorship. Authorship comes from the root word “authority.” It means that we are the cause of transition and that we take responsibility for our choices.

The second cause of transition is consequence. Consequence is a result of choices made, not made, or made by others. This is also a powerful igniter of transition.

For example, your finances take a hit from the collapse of the banking system in your country or interest rate hikes by the federal regulator and the banks. As a result, your can no longer afford your mortgage payments or your lose your job in an economic downturn. These are choices made by others that carry consequences for you. Transition begins whether we like it, agree with it, or not.

Or, let’s say you smoke and have done so for many years. You know you shouldn’t but through magical thinking, you have convinced yourself that you are invulnerable. As a result, you wind up with a dark spot on your chest x-ray. A health crisis ensues throwing you, and your loved ones, into transition.

Consequences are stimulus for a more challenging transition. Seemingly, consequences create transition without our permission. Consequence, then, is the effect that we experience.

Either by choice or consequence, we are always in one or more transitions. In our next post on this subject, I’ll explore what we can learn from transition, which is a vehicle for transformation.

© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved.

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