Banker to the Poor - The Story of the Grameen Bank
by Muhammad Yunus with Alan Jolis
Aurum Press, HK$125
'Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means.' So said the Nobel committee in awarding this year's peace prize to Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank he founded in 1976. Banker to the Poor, first published in 1998, is about how Yunus, a professor of economics at Chittagong University, turned an experiment in providing affordable credit to poor people lacking collateral into a 'people's bank' that has helped tens of millions of families and inspired microcredit schemes around the world. Yunus is critical of the likes of the World Bank, which lets the developed world escape the discomfort of looking properly into the faces of the poor, the vast majority of whom just need a helping hand, not a handout. Critics say the achievements are too small to have a real impact on poverty. Yunus doesn't claim Grameen is the solution to poverty, but he does believe poverty can be eliminated. Those who say it is impossible have just never tried.