Nobel Peace Prize

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Bangladesh Banker Wins Nobel Peace Prize</p>

<p>By DOUG MELLGREN
The Associated Press</p>

<p>OSLO, Norway —</p>

<p>Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans _ microcredit _ to lift millions out of poverty.</p>

<p>Through Yunus’s efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cell phone they desperately needed to get ahead.</p>

<p>The 65-year-old economist said he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor. The rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh, he said…</p>

<p>Yunus is the first Noble Prize winner from Bangladesh…</p>

<p>Grameen Bank was the first lender to hand out microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed and repayment is based on an honor system.</p>

<p>Anyone can qualify for a loan _ the average is about $200 _ but recipients are put in groups of five. Once two members of the group have borrowed money, the other three must wait for the funds to be repaid before they get a loan.</p>

<p>Grameen, which means rural in the Bengali language, says the method encourages social responsibility… the bank says it has a 99 percent repayment rate.</p>

2

<p>It’s terrific (really terrific!) that Yunus and Grameen got the award. Unfortunately, it is NOT true that he (they) were the first to give out microcredit loans. That honor belongs to Accion in Recife, Brazil, approximately two years before Yunus even got the idea for his work.</p>

3

<p><a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199512/grameen-bank[/url]”>http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199512/grameen-bank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

</p>

4

<p>Even though what they did is good most clear thinking people do not take the peace prize seriously since arafat won it</p>

5

<p>are you saying becuase of the events to come in later years, its that your point golani</p>

6

<p>No, I am saying that because of events that came before he was awarded the noble peace prize AND after he was awarded the noble peace prize, AND during the noble peace prize nomination period. He was a terrorist before the prize, during the prize, and after getting the prize</p>

7

<p>So, he was given the prize, okay, and he turned out to be a bad man, in your opinion</p>

<p>So, let us look at another case, Saddam, he was embrased as a great man by George HW Bush, and yet, he was not, so do you hold Bush to the same standards as you hold the Nobel people?</p>

8

<p>Look, Oslo was a great thing. If it had worked, the world would be a much better place. I don’t have any problems with the Nobel people trying to reward a powerful, bad person for doing something good (and maybe thereby encourage other powerful, bad people to follow his example).</p>

9

<p>No you misunderstand what I said, although it was clearly stated. “he was given the price, okay, and he turned out to be bad man, in your opinion”. Reread my post- i said that arafat was a bad man BEFORE the prize AND after the prize. This is not my opinion, by the way, it is fact. And yes to a certain degree I do hold bush to the same standard, however, the NOble Prize is supposed to be given to the greatest of the great among men of peace. It is a distinction which is very hard to match. What one person says is really not so big deal but if in fact Bush embraced Saddam as a great man then yes I am disgusted with what he said however can you provide some kind of quote or something along those lines</p>

10

<p>And before Arafat, Henry Kissinger</p>