Monday, February 2, 2009

Dr. Muhammad Yunus to speak on microcredit at George Washington University

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and a pioneer of microcredit, will speak at George Washington University in Washington DC on Wednesday. I have a ticket and a bunch of questions I'd love to ask if I get a chance. What would you ask?

Hooks Book Events presents Dr. Muhammad Yunus
2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the quest for a more humane world—and tells the inspiring stories of companies that are doing this work today.

In the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe, bringing with them enormous potential for positive change. But traditional capitalism cannot solve problems like inequality and poverty, because it is hampered by a narrow view of human nature in which people are one-dimensional beings concerned only with profit.

In fact, human beings have many other drives and passions, including the spiritual, the social, and the altruistic. Welcome to the world of social business, where the creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today's most serious problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and protecting the planet.

Creating a World Without Poverty tells the stories of some of the earliest examples of social businesses, including Yunus's own Grameen Bank. It reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already under way—and in the worldwide effort to eliminate poverty by unleashing the productive energy of every human being.

Muhammad Yunus, a native of Bangladesh, was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. In 1972 he became head of the economics department at Chittagong University. He is the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, a pioneer of microcredit, an economic movement that has helped lift millions of families around the world out of poverty. Yunus and Grameen Bank are winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Update: Transcipt of speech

1 comment:

JessicaW said...

In fact, human beings have many other drives and passions, including the spiritual, the social, and the altruistic.

--This is what draws me so much to social lending--it's putting humanity back into our financial transactions. Where once upon a time your financial transactions were based on trust--would you buy a horse from a man you didn't trust? Somewhere along the lines we started making our financial transactions without our social conscious.

I'm looking forward to seeing your report Tom. As for my questions, I see Dr. Yunus as a great futurist--though many may not. I would like to know what his vision of the future of microlending and the future face of poverty may be.

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