Banker to the Poor - Discussion

Okay, so it’s been a long time coming, but finally, here is my discussion on Banker to the Poor. I’ll start with a very brief synopsis of the book and the ideas that Yunus discusses. I’ll then talk about the ties I see between his book and the way it relates to technology & social justice. Finally, I’ll talk a little about some observations made my myself and people the book club I joined. ☺

On the whole, I’d say that the beginning of the book is probably the most “exciting.” We hear the story of Yunus’ childhood – what it was like growing up in Bangladesh, from family stories to his education - progressing through different universities around the world, as well as the independence of Bangladesh. The book then proceeds as sort of a timeline, from Yunus’ first ideas of ways to help the poor, to the growth and expansion of Grameen bank.

Yunus contends that credit should be a human right – along with food, clothing, and shelter. Unfortunately, only those that have the collateral are able to access credit. What the Grameen bank does is lend credit to those living in poverty to buy what they need to make a living. For example, someone who makes chairs would be able to buy the supplies to make the chairs that they then sell. –This is opposed to taking out loans from other money lenders that charge such a high rate of interest that the poor can never benefit and just continue living their lives in poverty. The Grameen bank allows the opportunity to grow – where they are able to pay back their loans and profit from their businesses. There are requirements, of course – they must sign up as a group of five. In a sense, this is the collateral – everyone feels the pressure from their friends to keep up their end of the bargain, and if one person is unable to pay for some reason, the others must find a way to pay up. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, the Grameen bank focuses on lending to women. His idea for this was that women are the ones that are often in charge of the family and the household and are the ones living in the worst conditions. He found that men that get money will spend it on themselves while women will instead use the money to better their family and their communities.

While a professor at Chittagong, Yunus noticed the dichotomy between the university – a place full of wealth and knowledge – and those in the surrounding areas – illiterate and stricken by poverty. He sees the university as having a responsibility to its surrounding community, “If a university is a repository for knowledge, then some of this knowledge should spill over to the neighboring community. A university must not be an island where academics reach out to higher and higher levels of knowledge without sharing any of their findings” (p. 34).

When he first discovered the plight of those suffering in poverty, he came in contact with a woman who was suffering, essentially, because she did not have twenty-two cents. Yunus realized that he could easily just give her the money, but that would not solve the problem permanently. Here begins a theme that runs throughout his book: charity is not the answer. Yunus calls charity as “a way to shrug off our responsibility” and that it “appeases our consciences” (p. 249). People (including myself) donate to causes they wish to support but oftentimes, charity just perpetuates the cycle of poverty. If we look at the welfare system in the US and really think about it, it’s almost as if it’s designed to keep those living in poverty poor and to then pass this on to their children and their childrens’ children. The benefits they receive from the welfare system help them – but it’s incredibly difficult to get off welfare because jobs they often get pay less and offer fewer benefits than welfare does! –Giving people the opportunity to take out a microcredit loan so they can improve their own lives can offer not only a long-term solution, but can improve their morale and self-esteem.

Related to this is the idea that technology can help. Of course, technology cannot change a situation when it is just presented and given to a community. In a sense, this is like charity – throwing money or technology at a problem does not solve it. For technology resources, effort, and education are essential. Yunus noticed this as one community had large amounts of land that was not being used – it was because the government had brought in modern irrigation technology but it broke, and nobody new how to get it fixed! Access to information is, of course, the key – that all groups of people might have access to the same information is one of the most wonderful things about the Internet.

Okay, let me step back a minute. I just spewed out a bunch of information about microcredit lending, charity, welfare, and technology, but what’s the bigger picture here? In my eyes, the bigger picture is that people can change their lives and become citizens capable of political action. When Yunus started this project, it was really just trying to find a solution to a problem – there was no desire for personal or political gain – it was just a problem that needed a logical solution. Yunus really had no idea how big this would get and how drastically he could change the lives of these people – who eventually proved to play a large role, politically!

Think about it – if you are able to give people the opportunity to make an honest living for themselves and improve their standard of living, they will have higher levels of self-esteem and self-respect. They learn and grow and have a desire to educate their children (Yunus even found that Grameen families even started to choose to have fewer children!), educate themselves, find value in their own opinions, and exercise their political will! In fact, Grameen borrowers (who are predominatly female) voted in the 1996 election and were able to almost wipe out a political party out of the Parliament that was against women’s rights! In fact, more females voted in that 1996 election than males did!

So where does this leave us now? Some of the ideas we talked about in the book group were that this did not (for understandable reasons) work out in the U.S. – part of the problem is the welfare system and part of it is cultural. We also discussed how much time and energy Yunus put into changing the lives of these people. He literally started one person at a time, one village at a time. He exercised incredible patience with women who would not speak to a male – showing up day after day after day just to start his bank out. It is as if he saw every little bit of improvement as positive, and every negative situation he faced as a challenge – incredibly impressive. We also liked how he came at this from neither the left nor the right, but from a position of logic and social-consciousness. He just wanted to help people and was willing to work hard, through trial and error, to find a solution.

Yunus proposes a future of social businesses, a new sector that is driven by social-consciousness because, “We don’t have to put everything on the shoulders of the government. Governments are limited; they cannot do everything and we have responsibilities as citizens” (p. 266). I look forward to reading his next book, Creating a World Without Poverty, to find out more about his ideas of social businesses.