Paulo Coelho

Stories & Reflections

Ignorance and greed

Author: Paulo Coelho


Demonstrations in Dhaka these days, supporting Yunus

I was teaching in one of the universities while the country was suffering from a severe famine. People were dying of hunger, and I felt very helpless. As an economist, I had no tool in my tool box to fix that kind of situation.
I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over.
They explained to me that the bank cannot lend money to the poor.

‘Mohammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate, is one of the people I most admire in the world today.

In Nov 2010 e was one of my CHARACTERS OF THE WEEK in this blog.

A man who made an enormous difference in this world by creating the microcredit, Yunus now has to face ignorance and greed

Some alarming events have unfolded over the last days. This reached a climax on March 8th when the High Court of Bangladesh upheld the Central Bank’s decision to remove Professor Yunus from his post as Managing Director of the Grameen Bank, which he founded over three decades ago.

Poor people are a like bonsai tree, a little tree.
You pick the seed of the tallest tree in the forest and take the best seed out of it, and plant it in a flower pot. You get a tiny little tree, we call it a bonsai.
Nothing wrong with the seed, you’ve got the best seed possible.
Nothing wrong with the tree, because you actually picked the tallest tree in the forest.
But actually it grows this far… why? Because we put them in the flower pot. The base.
We need to change the base.

Next Tuesday (TOMORROW!!!) the ultimate decision about Prof. Yunus’ position as Managing Director of Grameen Bank will be taken by the Supreme Court. If the verdict is negative, Prof. Yunus would have to leave Grameen Bank and probably also his house. Yunus Centre could be shut down in order to block international communication and Prof. Yunus might even be arrested if he continues fighting after the verdict.

Poverty is unnecessary.

The only weapon that we currently have and that the government doesn’t, is international awareness and presence in media and people’s heads!
If you agree that Yunus deserves your support, please use this FACEBOOK LINK: Support Yunus and leave there your comment. It can make a huge difference.

For more information, please contact >Friends of Grameen

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