| Microcredit: A Weapon In Fighting Extremism |  |
| By Alan Jolis Herald International Tribune Published with the New York Times and The Washington Post Singapore, Wednesday, February 19, 1997 PARIS - The success of microcredit in combating finally being recognized this month. Hillary Clinton opened the World Summit on Microcredit in Washington. The occasion highlighted the effectiveness of using tiny loans to help the most destitute people on earth pull themselves and their families out of poverty. But there is another, astonishing side of this story: the political consequences of putting capitalism to work for the have-nots. Microcredit not only liberates the poorest of the poor from hunger, it liberates them, and us, from fanatical extremists. Microcredit was invented 20 years ago in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus. Today, Professor Yunus's Grameen Bank and copycat organizations have 3.5 million women borrowers; adding their dependents, that amounts to about 20 percent of Bangladesh's population. In the latest elections, held on June 12, 1996, these newly enfranchised flexed their muscle. The Islamic Society, the fundamentalist party antagonistic to the West that wants to keep women at home, lost 14 of its 17 seats in Parliament. Immediately after the vote, Mr. Yunus began getting angry phone calls from people blaming him for the results. But Mr. Yunus assured them that fundamentalists had only themselves to blame. It was their supporters who burned down microcredit banks, attacked borrowers and condemned microcredit as un- Islamic because it helps women become self-employed. Every woman borrower I interviewed in Dhaka, Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar had suffered enormously at the hands of fundamentalists. Some were beaten; others were told they would be denied proper Islamic burial; still others that Grameen would sell them into slavery, feed them to tigers, take them out to sea and drown them, or tattoo their arms with a number and secretly turn them into Christians. Having braved physical and mental abuse and used microcredit to build decent housing, freshwater wells and sanitary toilets for their families - it's not surprising that these women went to the polls and voted against the mullahs. The exact number of women who voted is not known, but observers across Bangladesh estimated that for the first time, more women voted than men. At a meeting of the Council of the Americas in New York, geo-strategists astonished by how microcredit worked to combat fundamentalism peppered Mr. Yunus with questions. He explained that microcredit was not at war with anyone, certainly not with Islam; it avoids all use of force and relies on future borrowers to convince village patriarchs to invite banks in. Giving those whom society treats as less than human access to personal profit and self- esteem unlocks a static hierarchy. It allows social mobility. Suddenly, the old repressive, patriarchal ways become less relevant. Microcredit does what billions of dollars worth of AWACS and Patriot missiles cannot. For decades, the West has tried to defeat fanatical extremists militarily; this has been bloody, costly and highly unsuccessful. But quietly, every day, the attraction of militant Islam is being blunted, at the ballot box and in people's hearts and minds, thanks to the economic development of the poor. We have known that micro-credit helps solve a host of in-tractable, long-term social ills related to poverty: In Norway's arctic circle, it is helping repopulate the Lofoten Islands. In Oklahoma, thanks to Chief Wilma Mankiller of the Cherokee Nation, microcredit is helping reduce alcoholism. In Chicago, it is helping get unwed mothers off welfare. But we should not overlook microcredit's political dividends. If the West is truly concerned about pariah states exporting terrorism, it should get behind microcredit and support it with more than just lip service. What is needed is patient start-up capital: 99 percent of the loans are repaid. After 20 years, Grameen is a commercially profitable bank. But more important, it saves its borrowers' lives - and it can save ours, too. The writer, a novelist, is writing a biography of Muhammad Yunus. He contributed this comment to the Herald Tribune. Mr. Abid is it true? It is Zia N Khaleda Zia who promoted politically thousand of fundamentalist in Bangladesh.Who shout against America but Dr. Younus is ---- of America. |
On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Fame Electronics <fameelectronics@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Writer,
This is nothing but is only bad mouthing from a blind Zia's supporter.
How long you will sing such a disgusting song praising the ZIA whose
hatred activities is widely known to all except you guys. Call a spade
a spade. Don't try to talk ill of others without knowing the truth.
One sided thinking is not a solution rather shall drive us to hell in
the comming days. We all have to come out from ill talkings about "
Khaleda -Zia, Sk. Mujib-Hasina & llike these. There are other so many
people in this
country who can dedicate their lives for the wellbeing of this country.
Before saying anything try to look your face in the mirror- if you say
Hasina was a house wife became Prime Minister but what other will say
about Khaleda ? Who was Khaleda , what was her identity before
becoming Prime Minister later. Who is Zia ,became president & how
....??
AND if you talk about Khaleda's house, Very funny, who says it is
khaleda's house, she was only given permission and took undue
previledge to live in a Public property for along time and she should
be grateful to Mr. Ershad. So, it was never Khaleda's house. Khaleda
is already given a house to live in, now pls no more argument about
these much talked issue.
Let all think for our beloved country forgetting all evils of the past.
Zayeed
On 3/4/11, abid bahar <abid.bahar@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hasina Removes Everyboy before she Qualifies herself to be Removed
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Abid bahar
>
> Hasina fights with the shadow of Zia and removed his name from airport to
> everyother place names.
> She removed Khalida by force from Khalida's home.
> She removed Bhasani's name from the Novo theatre and Bhasani Medical college
> (Bhasani was the man who in 1969 saved Mujib's life.)
> She removed Mahmudur Rahman from Amerdesh news paper for writing against her
> and puts him on remand.
> Now she removed Dr. Yonus from Gramin Bank. Surprisingly, she appoints
> vandals, murder convicts or accused of murder in High Court and other
> appoinments. True, in all this, Hasina's principle is "For my friends,
> anything; for my enemies, the law!"
> This by a woman who was once a housewife turned politician after her
> father's death.
> Isn't the same type of hyperactivism by Mujib and his sons, his nephews, his
> Mujibbadi cadres, the Rakkhi bahini, and his killing of the infant democracy
> that qualified him to be removed only within 3 years of his rule? Read the
> Italian journalist Fallacy who interviewed Mujib in order to understand how
> was Mujib's mind worked.
> Surely Hasina's is the continuation of the fascist spirit in the Sheikh
> duynesty! Unfortunately Mujib the BKSAL autocrat continues to be recognized
> by mostly the ALs as a democrat and a great leader and as the symbolic
> founding father of Bangladesh that is striving to become a modern democratic
> nation. Hasina's is truly about "empire strikes back," I mean the evil
> Sheikh dynasty empire.
> Although many ALs in his time, challenged Mujib, shamelessly, no AL dares to
> challenge Hasina!Seems like, Hasina first removes everyboy and annoys every
> quarter including the USA before she qualifies herself to be removed. We
> hope this time it would be peaceful.
>
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