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The awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank is a cause to celebrate. Yunus is widely
credited with inventing micro-credit loans as a means of creating economic and social development from below. Starting in
Bangladesh with the American equivalent of $27 thirty years ago, the Grameen Bank has extended millions of small loans to
poor people who have no financial standing or security. These loans have generated successful businesses that are raising
the living standards of some of the world's poorest people, especially women.
In his compelling book The End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs describes the effect of these investments in a community he visited
near Dhaka in Bangladesh. Sachs met with thirty-six women who were organized into groups of six. One woman in each group
was in charge of the borrowing of the group. The group in each line took responsibility together to repay the loans taken
by any member within the group.
Grammen specializes in small loans of a few hundred dollars to be used as working capital for microbusinesses. The women
Sachs interviewed "had grown up in the countryside, extraordinarily poor, illiterate and unschooled, and vulnerable to
chronic hunger and hardship in a domineering, patriarchal society. Had they ...stayed in the villages, they would have been
forced into a marriage arranged by their fathers, and by seventeen or eighteen, forced to conceive a child."
Now these women are "able to save some small surplus from their meager pay, manage their own income, have their own
rooms, choose when and whom to date and marry, choose to have children when they felt ready, and use their savings to improve
their living conditions and especially to go back to school to enhance their literacy and job-market skills."
In an area where women typically would have six or seven children, these women are limiting their families to two children.
Independence and empowerment has reduced the rates of child mortality and increased the literacy and education of children.
"With fewer children, a poor household can invest more in the health and education of each child, thereby equipping the
next generation with the health, nutrition, and education that can lift Bangladesh's living standards in future years."
Sachs calls this "the first rung of the ladder of development." It creates hope and confidence. In Gospel language,
"the poor receive the Good News."
Micro-credit loans are one of the many strategies being employed in the Millennium Development Goals which seek to abolish
extreme poverty in our lifetime. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for investing over $5.7
billion among the world's poorest people since 1976. The bank's repayment rate is above 98%.
As wonderful as these statistics are, put in a wider economic perspective it seems more modest. Currently, Grameen Bank
has $459 million extended in loans. Our local Bank of Fayetteville has a loan balance of $268 million, more than half the
investment of Grameen. The Bank of Fayetteville is one of at least 22 different banks we have in Northwest Arkansas. The
contrast in wealth is extreme. Expanding economic opportunities in poorer countries will take partnerships that include businesses,
non-governmental not-for-profit agencies, and government resources. The Millennium Development Goals describe that kind of
partnership.
Thank God for visionary people like Muhammad Yunus. We need more moral leaders like him. One last note: Muhammed Yunus
is a Moslem. There are Christians who will say that he is going to hell unless he converts to Christianity. Shame on them.
I've never understood why anyone would worship or follow a god who would be as trivial, tribalistic and unjust as to eternally
torture great spirits like Yunus or Gandhi or the Dalai Lama. Why would people believe in a God who is less loving and just
than normal human beings are? Such expressions of Christianity demean the God of Jesus Christ. Such beliefs are blind to
the presence of the Holy Spirit active and effective beyond the borders of the Church.
What the world needs now is for all of the loving, compassionate traditions within the world's great religions to unite
behind visionary leaders like Muhammed Yunus (Moslem) and Desmond Tutu (Christian). We need to embrace the large-heartedness
that is present in each of our faiths. We need to inspire and heal the mean, divisive expressions of tribal fundamentalism
that are also present in our various traditions.
To promote what Jesus called the Kingdom of God which overcomes poverty, violence, and oppression we must call forth our
highest values. Pray that religious people everywhere may work together, so "that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness
heal guilt, and joy conquer despair." (Book of Common Prayer, p. 429)
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