It is rare that I idolise someone, but there are a few exceptional souls whom I cannot stop myself from worshipping. One of these rare idols is Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Yunus and his bank are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2006.
The Bangladeshi economist Yunus, through the Grameen Bank he founded, pioneered micro-credits in Bangladesh in the 1970s, providing small business loans to poor people without collateral. Millions of people benefiting from the small loans have worked out of poverty through their own development.
According to a report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yunus’s first loan was pocket money – $27 to a group of 42 women – and his next loans were $100 and $200, amounts he borrowed from a local bank, with himself as the guarantor. He set up Grameen Bank in 1983, and since then he has guided the bank’s development and led banks and governments outside Bangladesh in applying micro-lending principles in their own countries and communities.
He proves that he can turn his vision into reality, and that by living close to the people and being “sur le terrain”.
The official press release of The Nobel Foundation announcing the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 states: “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.” Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. Although the Foundation considers that this vision cannot be realised by means of micro-credit alone, micro-credit can play a major part in it.
There is a sublime quote from Yunus: “One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.” What a bold and compassionate vision! What a beautiful soul!
Catégories : nobel peace prize
New to the blogosphere, I have yet to discover the blogs that I would love to visit on a regular basis. I have absolutely no time to follow the trivial everydayness of celebrities, nor would I be intrigued by the life of politicians. I adore animals, but I want to touch them and play with them rather than acting as an onlooker at their photos and videos.
As I am going through a phase with intense interest on an inward journey of self discovery, the blog of Steve Pavlina would be what I consider as the most inspiring. The blog focuses on, as its headline sums it up smartly, personal development for smart people.
The author has a no-fuss and focused writing style, easy to read, and quick to get to the points. And the content is so rich that I have yet to explore every chapter. I randomly click on one chapter – how to discover your life purpose in 20 minutes -with the pre-judgement that the title is too naive and simplistic for such a profound subject matter. But I was delightfully surprised how the author gets around complex matters in a smart and neat way.
One thing I really appreciate about the blog of Steve Pavlina is the balance of the personal and the non-personal. The author writes for an audience, and in every line of his blog he is conscious of the existence of the person reading his blog. He writes, he dialogues, he shares. It is not a narcissistic monologue of “how smart I am”.
Some of the fascinating chapters include:
The blog indeed opens up to a new level of consciousness.
Catégories : personal development
While surfing on the subject matter of pearls using different search engines, I discover that the difference is striking when using google and blog google.
The blog search takes us to blogs of many individuals expressing their opinions about many pearls, while the google search takes us to authoritative sites such as American Museum of Natuaral History, which offers more reliable information on pearls.
Other prominent pearl sites include Nova also give accurate information on pearls.
Catégories : pearl websites · pearls
