What do You think about Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending And The Battle Against World Poverty (2003)?
i wanna give this book 6/5!Muhammad Yunus is certainly an outstanding thinker and leader. he has a clear view of what he wants to achieve and is a real revolutionary in the way he works to help his society and humans all over. he's highly passionate when it comes to the poor, and he really shows us how we can do a lot of good though social activity rather than going into politics.the book starts with the an account of his typical childhood and his memories of those days. he finishes school, gets a scholarship and flies to the US where he earns a PhD in economics. everything changes when Bangladeshi people raise up against the Pakistani army asking for independence and all hell breaks loose, at which time Yunus shines as one of the leaders of the Bengali workers/students in the states as they lobbied and demonstrated in Washington to build support for their country against Pakistan.returning to Bangladesh after the independence with his American wife, his work to serve his society is really impressive. the book tells the tale of his work to help the poor, how he started and developed his ideas of how to best assist the really poor villagers to have a more human and decent lives. through it all, his ideas and views are really inspiring. the work he's done spans from early 70s till date, starting from a small village near the campus of his University, and all the way to the national level. afterwards he takes his idea to various countries of the 3ed world and then to the rich industrial ones (United States!). Grameen Bank (rural bank) that he worked really hard to establish best serves his ideas of providing micro-credit to the poor. this means providing small loans to the poor allowing them to buy the raw material/instruments they need to start making money and support themselves. its a unique organization, where 95% of it is owned by the poor borrowers themselves, and the remaining 5% is owned by the government. the bank has grown to the level of providing housing loans, disaster support, and it now serves more than 8 million poor people and has so far provided loans amounting to 10 billion US$.the book is full of Yunus's strong views on how to help the poor, and heavily criticizes the current international "industry" of relief which is largely controlled by politics, and is filled by "consultants" who charge huge amount of money to write biased useless reports on situations on the poor areas of the world.i strongly recommend everyone to read this book.
—Mustafa
If you think there is no good left in the world, you should read Banker to the Poor. Muhammad Yunus takes us through his experience, going from a university teacher to a worker at the grassroots level, lending money to the poorest of village people, to help them get started through offering microcredit loans.It's a fascinating story, of how an initial $27 helped 42 people get their life back on track again, to break free from the vicious circle of poverty. The Grameen organization has now spread and grown to more than just a bank, and reading the book gives a lot of hope, of how one man desiring to do good can actually accomplish it despite everyone and even the system working against him.The only thing that made me uncomfortable while reading the book was how everything seemed to flow and progress so smoothly. Setbacks and negative experiences were dealt with in one paragraph, and the following success was given much more space. It would have been interesting to read a bit more about the problems and reflections on those experiences. All in all though, it's a very good book and well worh reading.
—Borna Safai
Muhammad Yunus and I are best friends. (Oops, I had to double check, and I'd spelled "Muhammad" wrong. Sorry, buddy!)Anyways, me and Mr. Yunus are best friends because once he spoke at the library in Salt Lake City, and when I heard about it I drove down and sat shyly on the back row of the auditorium and clapped really hard for him. Then after it was all over, I saw him just kind of hanging out all alone on the stage, and thought, "Maybe I could go and meet him and we could be best friends!" So I went down and said, "Mr. Muhammad Yunus, I just think you are the greatest guy in the whole world and I love you!!" Then he goes, "Oh, thank you!" and he HUGS ME! I have hugged Mr. Yunus. (Or, I guess, he has hugged me.) That's why we are best friends.Then, like the next day (or maybe the same day), I went to the Stadium of Fire in Provo, UT, and he was one of the honored people of the Freedom Festival and got an award on stage in front of millions (or thousands) of people! And I yelled "Hey buddy!" and he waved in my general direction. That's the story of our friendship.So anyways, the reason why he is so cool is this: he is the guy who started the whole idea of micro credit, where he would give very small loans (like, $2) to poor women who would then start their own business, rise above generations and generations of poverty, and save the world. He set up the most amazing programs with groups of women, and has the highest repayment percentage in like, the entire world. His program grows and grows and grows and helps woman and families all over the place. (When the LDS church started up the Perpetual Education Fund, I thought, "HEY! That's totally just like Muhammad's idea. Maybe President Hinckley read his book, too!")Oh, and it all started in his native Bangladesh. There is some website where you can do micro loans with your own money. My sister sent it to me once after I made her read this book. I invited her to see Muhammad Yunus in SLC, but she declined, and so she is not his friend. But, she might have that website still.Banker to the Poor is a cool book. Read it.
—Abby
