Tue 11 Oct 2005
This is the first article I read that criticizes Younus a bit.
As the Grameen empire grows, so do complaints that Yunus is losing touch with poor borrowers. A former economics professor at Chittagong University, Yunus is now a globally recognized figure. In July, he flew to Washington to confer with the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz; in August, meetings took him to the Netherlands
Ignoring the suggestions of the millions of Bangladeshis who rely on Grameen and support Yunus’s other ventures may be Yunus’s greatest flaw, Huq says.
“Grameen Bank is centrally controlled by Muhammad Yunus,” he says. “No one has any voice in his policy-making process.”
…They are all started by me and funded separately,” says Yunus, seated in his office in the bank’s 21-story building in Dhaka, the capital. “You can call it a Professor Yunus empire but not a Grameen Bank empire.”
October 12th, 2005 at 8:22 am
There are plenty of other critics out there. Funny thing is that for the longest time one of the main arguments against Grameen was that micro-loans can only do so much. Well if Grameen is able to diversify and show how to be sucessful in other areas, it can inspire a whole new legion of the Bangladeshi population. God knows we need to hear about more success stories.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Not only Prof. Yunus has built up Graeen empire, there are many others: the founders of Proshika, BRAC, GK, and many more. I beleive, many ways we can criticse them but what is the use? Let us forget about it. Look at their contributions, what we see? that is what a matter.
November 4th, 2005 at 9:21 am
While this article (on the NYTimes) has nothing to do with Bangladesh, it does highlight the growing collective conscience regarding microfinance, a concept that has been pioneered and expounded on with great success by Prof. Yunus (the founder of Grameen Bank).
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/education/04tufts.html
Tufts Is Getting Gift of $100 Million, With Rare Strings
By KAREN W. ARENSON
Pierre M. Omidyar, the founder of eBay, and his wife, Pamela, gave $100 million to Tufts University this week, with some unusual strings attached.
The gift, the largest Tufts has ever received, must be invested in organizations that make small loans to poor people in developing countries, a field known as microfinance. Further, Tufts may use only half the income from the investments for itself; the rest must be reinvested in microfinance.
“This is not the kind of thing that normally happens with a university,” said Mr. Omidyar, 38, a Tufts graduate and trustee with more than $10 billion in assets.
Mr. Omidyar had three goals in mind: He wanted to help the university, help poor people around the world and further the development of microfinancing.
Tufts was willing to oblige.
“Partnering with the Omidyars is a strategic fit for Tufts on many levels,” said Lawrence S. Bacow, the university’s president, who announced the gift last night.
Dr. Bacow said he liked the way it allowed the university “to do well by doing good” and “to make a difference in the world.”
At a time when universities are competing for maximum investment returns, the approach required by this donation is rare. But Mr. Omidyar said it was possible to earn solid returns and at the same time help the world’s poor.
“Business can be a force for good, and you can earn profit for doing good,” he said. “That view is really informed by my experience with eBay, and its social impact.” He said the company had become a source of “individual self-empowerment” for three-quarters of a million people who make a living on it.
Mr. Omidyar (pronounced oh-MID-ee-are) was born in Paris and moved to the United States when he was 6. He met his wife at Tufts, worked for a number of high-tech companies in California and, in his spare time, created eBay as an online auction market in 1995. Although he remains eBay’s chairman, he increasingly turned his attention to philanthropy after the company went public in 1998.
Along similar lines, 2005 has also been designated as the “Year of Microfinance” by the UN (The UN Year of Microcredit was launched on Thursday, 18th November, 2004 in New York)
http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org/
April 17th, 2007 at 1:05 am
What a ridiculous criticism. Yunus’s vision has lifted millions out of poverty. To do so he has had to expand his organisation, so it is inevitable that he will have to spend more time on organisational issues.
According to this critic he should spend more time with his grassroots constituents. Oh, really? well, which ones, there are after all, 7,000,000 of them.
And as for only him setting strategy, when do we get to the bad part. So far it is a strategy that has done more to aleviate poverty than any other efforts by anyone. Period.
Some people just can’t live with the idea of goodness; they have to find a way to sully it.
So, to Yanus’s critics, and on behalf of the millions whose lives have been transformed and who now have hopes and dreams, thanks for nothing.