00:14The fact that the poor are alive is clear proof of their ability.
00:20Muhammad Yunus
00:22Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 for their work to create economic and social development from below.
00:35Grameen Bank's objective since its establishment in 1983 has been to grant poor people small loans on easy terms, so-called micro-credit, and Yunus was the bank's founder.
00:49Muhammad Yunus was born on June 28, 1940, in the Bangladeshi seaport of Chittagong, when the city was still part of India under British rule.
01:00His father was Hazidullah Mir Shahudagar, and his mother was Sophia Hatun Yunus.
01:06Yunus was the third of fourteen children, nine of which survived, and they grew up in the village of Bathur before moving into the city of Chittagong,
01:17where their father opened a jewelry shop.
01:20Yunus was always active, even in his youth.
01:23He participated in the Boy Scouts, and even traveled with his troop to Canada in 1955.
01:30He earned an undergraduate degree in economics at Chittagong College in 1960, and a master's degree from Decker University a year later.
01:41Yunus then traveled to the United States to attend Vanderbilt University on a Fulbright scholarship, where he married a Russian student named Vera Forostenko.
01:53They had a daughter, Monica Yunus, who became an opera soprano.
01:58In 1972, following studies in Bangladesh and the United States, Yunus was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Chittagong.
02:10When Bangladesh suffered a famine in 1974, he felt that he had to do something more for the poor beyond simply teaching.
02:20He decided to give long-term loans to people who wanted to start their own small enterprises.
02:27This initiative was extended on a larger scale through Grameen Bank.
02:32According to Yunus, poverty means being deprived of all human value.
02:38He regards microcredit both as a human right and as an effective means of emerging from poverty.
02:46Lend the poor money in amounts which suit them, teach them a few basic financial principles, and they generally manage on their own, Yunus claims.
02:58There are many critics as well as devout enthusiasts of microlending in general, and Yunus in particular, from both the left and right ends of the political spectrum.
03:09In a 2007 article in The American, writer Tom Bethel was critical of Yunus and the microcredit movement, but grunted that Yunus is developing market opportunities in a country that sorely needs them, and added that he seems to represent an emerging consensus that government-to-government aid enriches only the rulers.
03:34The American, writer Tom Bethel noted that some critics have questioned Grameen's assumption that poor individuals want to be self-employed instead of earning a paycheck, or that accumulating debt rather than savings will alleviate their poverty.
03:51It was not the first time the Nobel Committee related peace to the eradication of poverty.
03:57They stated that lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.
04:05Microcredit is one such means.
04:08The committee's choice not only underscored the growing efforts to eradicate poverty, but also opened channels of communication with the Muslim world.
04:19While the political career appears to have been shelved, people from all over the world have continued to shower Yunus with praise.
04:27messages have included thanks to Yunus from many countries including Kenya, Malaysia, the Keruvian Amazon, New Zealand, Somalia, Italy and the United States.
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