In talking to 12 year olds, I am joyfully able
to report that a simple pattern rule for understanding how to respect systems is - a system is like a game where there
are certain rules that if you change them the whole game will change often to be compound tragically opposite consequences
of the goodwilled ones the games founder intended people to action learn around
A
corollary is that any system designer who wants to open source the system needs to both make it clear what rules must not
be changed and find a way that sufficient networkers around the world are there to devalue anyone who falsifiues
the game. Please tell us (chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk) if there is a hot discussion space for sharing this idea -eg 1
7 billion beings have breached humanity's biggest system crisis -what's it all about? quite simply how we make and
take things from each other, our societes and nature through our lives-
There's nothing mysterious about the
S-word: SYSTEM MAPS DEFINE WHATS INTERCONNECTED
So 2010's system crisis is NOT to analyse any problem
the way that many global professions sadly do - as just economic/financial , or just social, or just ecological; it is all
three. Doing triple bottom line analyses separately -as most responsibility audits do - misleads everyone communally
dependent on interconnected systems- healthy societies sustain strong economies not vice versa; clean air and water
are the greatest developers of healthy brains and bodies
This web site chose 4 of the great system experienced people
of our era - Obama, Yunus, Mandela and Clinton - now we welcome other knowledge but let's start with some simple questions:
1
what do these people say they stand for in system terms? what are their wishes?
3 can we form a catalogue of pattern rules that become a curriculum of all ages from 12 up so that we never get
so muddeled by system problems as we clearly are today
Can you blog micro's good news with us? on schools or on energy ?
examples of patterm rules that interest me include:
a system however important powerful human
beings make it out to be is very blunt - it will spin one of 2 ways - exponentially sustainably up, or expoentially crashing
down (it doesnt balance in some steady middle)
unfortunately or fortunatley depending on how risk-competent and
collaborative we all are, this generation alive today is the first to become more globally connected than separated-
so that means this generation will be responsible for exponential consequences for all future time - sustainably up or expoentially
extinguishing (in case you need maths to ward off naysayers on this one go to both einstein and von neumann, it is clearly
there)
(my father and I wrote a book on this nack in 1984- it forecast 10 times difference in worldwide wealth*health between compounding best and worst by 2024
- there is absolutely no evidence yet that this forecast was wrong and it is absolutely clear from wall street, healthcare,
energy, and darn wars/arm trades etc between big goverments that we are exponentially tracking to 10 time less health
and wealth unless we intervene so that the system integrates a wholly opposite pattern to the one it is both currently ruled
by and maps flows around)
more shockingly in terms of lack of preparedness - it is the case that if a new system
(or one previously interconnected) interfaces with an old system you will get the worst of both systems unless a lot of forward
thinking care has been openly/transparently worked on to get the best of both systems from the bottom up - as one
example we will get the worst of mass media and interactive media unless enough of us connect the best
MUCH
OF REST OF WEB IS UNDER RECONSTRUCTION
Tell us if your network conceived a collaboration project on Mandela Day
Our journalists, youth and educators returned from our 69th birthday dialogue with Dr Yunus, YunusCentre, BRAC and the British Council, it is evident for all to see that Dhaka is economics' epicente of sustainability investment and living
systems designs in every vital way that Wall Steet bankers & DC lobbyists are not. See this BBC blog
by Climate Enthusiast and Polar Explorer Paul Rose one of our dialoguers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8130130.stm
As my father forecast from The Economist in 1984, 10 times more economic futures are possible in networking age but
only if microeconomics slays macroeconomics - the latter has over the last decade as Clinton mentioned in CGI 2008 become the theory
(and globalisation monopoly) of how to compound ever less economic systems not only in banking but healthcare, energy,
education, anything that takes life's times to get more communally productive at -see also Obama broadcast).
We believe it is neither moral nor exponentially sustainable for American Universities and schools to examine young minds on how to be 10 times less economical. The first project Dhaka has set us
at http://yunusforum.net/ is to unite 5000 youth ambassadors of university year 09/10 by asking them to collaborate in developing their
own presentation of micro economics and micro everything as sustainability's system design. In the event that you have 10
or more clinton uni students who might want to form a team connecting that do tell us.
We will also be encouraging
as many youth ambassadors as possible to send a delegate to microcreditsummit in kenya in april- this is timely for the
09/10 uni year, and may be the last worldwide opportunity to re-empower Obama as Yes We Can community building President; as
a true microeconomics bonus, mapping Kenya's Jamii Bora connects Africa's most sustainable microeconomic model yet.
The two attachments show some of the other
jigsaw pieces that our dialogue is working on. In the event that anyone in your network wants contextual or collaboration debriefings
at any time, please tell me.
Thanks
Chris Macrae 301 881 1655 Yes We Can bureau of 4 Hemisphere Unis
- 1234
Extracts from inaugural yes we can (under 30s interactions) newsletter:
The heart of the matter as i see it
is the start fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of 2 million vllages, and this a problem of 2 billion vilagers.
The solution cannot be found in the cities of the world. Unless the hinterland can be made tolerable, the problem of world
poverty is intolerable, and ineveitably will get worse. EF Schumacher
practical advice from
the world's number 1 ranking collaboration entrepreneur - whenever you use the internet -or any hi-trust media - to end poverty invite everyone who seriously cares about the millennium goal race as seen in poor communities to question
what searches you have come from and which ones you may love to click next
Obama: "this victory alone is not the
change we seek it is only the chance for us to make that change."
Gordon Brown hailed the election of Barack Obama as a source of "hope and inspiration" as he urged the United States to join
with Europe to build a new global order.
Brown hails Obama as 'new hope' . In his annual foreign policy address to the City of London, the Prime
Minister called on fellow world leaders to "seize the moment" and lay the foundations for the "first truly
global society"
What
the World Needs Now : unite goal of end poverty
Jane Wales:
Dr Yunus- because you’re the world’s best problem solver I have ever known , I
am going to ask you about some of the things that are in the plate of the next president of the united states. He will come in and he will face
poverty including new poverty at home and abroad
the employment crisis
the need to provide quality education for all
the need to provide affordable healthcare
post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation
if were you advising the new president, would you urge him to take an integrated approach or to deal with
each independently?
Muhammad Yunus
well I can only tell him of my way at looking at it –first of allif he wants
to be serious about poverty – after all, the president of US is de facto the president of the world, so what he doesimpacts the whole world. So when he talka
about poverty he provides the leadership that others take.
Now we have the millennium goals which are a wonderful set of goals which inspire all the
world but were unfortunately derailed by other things that came up so first of all restore total support for the millennium
development goals and withdraw from other stuff united states got involved in such as war on terror,
so concentrate on the one of making sure we achieve the millennium
goals, achieve them 100% this will be a tremendous achievement for the whole world that we have done something its not some
of UN goal setting and forgetting, this is a real goal and a realty to celebrate having done it
and
then for this president the best thing is to show total commitment of ending poverty set a new date when the world can be
at zero poverty – we have 2015 at halve poverty so why don't we set the next goal zero poverty so that we know this
is the direction we need to take,
when we set the date everything else will fall into place:
how do you measure, how do you do it there
are several things that will play an important part
1 microcreditbecause it has
shown its effectiveness in unleashing the capacity of people
2 technology how to bring technologyto the poorest people so that they can change their whole world
3 healthcare
so
its nothing separated, its integrated but you cant have one organisation doing everything, you need several organisations
but focused so that everything is achieving the same goal to lift the person
and as the president is declaring the
date for zero poverty in the whole world at the same time encourage the united states to set their date when their city be
zero poverty when their county gets to zero poverty- if someone says well we have no poverty how do you
know if you have poverty or not –its very simple the first question I ask is do you have a welfare program, a welfare
department? As long as you have a welfare department you have poverty, otherwise why do you have it, poverty means that nobody
is on welfare tat isclear sign so you have to close down your welfare department, find something else
for those people to do, so all the related things you have to welfare you close down as you have crossed that level and you
are never going back- city by city, county by county, state by state, it can be done and it will encourage everyone else –
that state can do it, we
can do it
this is the way
to go, so poverty will be the challenge –and once you have solved poverty other solutions come right away, environment
will come right away- like in the case of bangladesh environment and our survival is an integrated problem, we are the ones
on the front line – eliminated by global climate change because of our flat country, so for us its such an important
issue
the united states missed the whole leadership on the global warming issue, never got to the
Kyoto protocol and as a result the whole world got derailed,..so now is the chance to go back to preparing
for the 2012 UN binding resolution .. that way you n=know where you are
the moment government becomes serious
, technology starts going in, its not a question of it cant be done , simply we have to make a serious commitment that we
will do it-the moment we make the serious commitment, technologies will come , how do we replace the things that are causing
the problem, replacing them with new technology without harming anyone in any way
the present
way of living life in a way which might enjoy life today but may be harming someone else’s life somewhereon the planet, its not a good feeling: I am doing something that puts someone else life at stake because of the way
I do things – so the basic principle we should all adopt, every child should be taught, every family be taught my way
of living should not harm anyone else, and that’s how I would like to live
its
possible once you make that commitment all the environmental problems will be solved
we will set the goal of ending all deaths from malaria by 2015 Thursday 25 sept 2008
-help
worldcitizen.tv 301 881 1655 map actions at affiliate http://obamauni.com/
Barack Obama: "Disease stands in the way of progress on so many fronts; it can condemn populations to poverty,
prevent a child from getting an education, and yet far too many people still die of preventable illnesses. Today I'd like
to focus on just one, malaria. We have eliminated malaria in the United States, but nearly one million people around the world
still die from a mosquito bite every year. Eighty-five-percent of the victims are African children under the age of five.
In Africa, a child dies from a mosquito bite every 30 seconds, and by the way, this is something I've seem personally. If
you go to the village where my father grew up, where my grandmother still lives, the toll of malaria remains throughout the
region. And beyond the devastating human toll, malaria weighs down public health systems, setting back global capacity to
fight other disease. So today I want to join with the global malaria community that is meeting here in New York to make a
new commitment: When I am president, we will set the goal of ending all deaths from malaria by 2015. It's time to rid the
world of a disease that doesn't have to take lives. The United States must lead and when I am president we will step up our
focus on prevention and treatment around the world to get this done"
Our journalists, youth and educators returned from our 69th birthday dialogue with Dr Yunus, YunusCentre, BRAC and the British Council, it is evident for all to see that Dhaka is economics' epicente of sustainability investment and living
systems designs in every vital way that Wall Steet bankers & DC lobbyists are not. See this BBC blog
by Climate Enthusiast and Polar Explorer Paul Rose one of our dialoguers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8130130.stm
As my father forecast from The Economist in 1984, 10 times more economic futures are possible in networking age but
only if microeconomics slays macroeconomics - the latter has over the last decade as Clinton mentioned in CGI 2008 become the theory
(and globalisation monopoly) of how to compound ever less economic systems not only in banking but healthcare, energy,
education, anything that takes life's times to get more communally productive at -see also Obama broadcast).
We believe it is neither moral nor exponentially sustainable for American Universities and schools to examine young minds on how to be 10 times less economical. The first project Dhaka has set us
at http://yunusforum.net is to unite 5000 youth ambassadors of university year 09/10 by asking them to collaborate in developing their
own presentation of micro economics and micro everything as sustainability's system design. In the event that you have 10
or more clinton uni students who might want to form a team connecting that do tell us.
We will also be encouraging
as many youth ambassadors as possible to send a delegate to microcreditsummit in kenya in april- this is timely for the
09/10 uni year, and may be the last worldwide opportunity to re-empower Obama as Yes We Can community building President; as
a true microeconomics bonus, mapping Kenya's Jamii Bora connects Africa's most sustainable microeconomic model yet.
The two attachments show some of the other
jigsaw pieces that our dialogue is working on. In the event that anyone in your network wants contextual or collaboration debriefings
at any time, please tell me.
Thanks
Chris Macrae 301 881 1655 Yes We Can bureau of 4 Hemisphere Unis
- 1234
Extracts from inaugural yes we can (under 30s interactions) newsletter:
Dear Alex & DC Micro-Up practice groups -footnote peter and NY practice groups
Do you have any time on Thursday 22 Jan to meet Jerry and me. I suggest this meeting as
jerry's team http://www.microventuresupport.org/ serve as practical implementers of microfranchises - particularly those which groups like NY's http://www.reachthechildren.org/ may want to develop as social businesses in partnership with deep microcredits including the jamii boras and fincas and ASAa of
Africa world as well as Grameens etc in the east hemisphere. Jerry is also managing editor USA for a leading Indian microcredit
newsletter. My grandad was mentored for 25 years by Gandhi face to face - barrister to barrister in
Mumbai - on how all imperalism busting is ultimately a 3-in-micro-up entrepreneurial revolution against empires historic monopplies of profession, education and media. So there is hope that Indian media will give at least
50% share of voice to microcredit busienss models governed by the oorest not by wall street's advertising agencies.
I
think this search -and open network cataloguing - for practice cases has a synergy that may be interactive with
university micro clubs; with clinton uni; with 10000 person collaboration festivals in boston and other yes we can
green happenings or replications of for-the-community banks across main street which eg Grameen America is now aiming to extend
to the unbanked in 5 new states every 6 months or so after the first year of proving how to do it in queens new york
I
am also excited alex by the fact that you already have micropractice experience from school. So for all these sorts of reasons
I think having a quick first meeting with jerry and I may be mutually beneficial
you mentioned over in new york that you may know a lady who has jumped ship from big banking to starting
a micro fund for social business cases in africa; is there a chance of meeting her while the new york festivities are going
on jan 26, 27 - I think we need to connect the dots between potential funders, youth searching out how micro works opposite
from macro, and the most replicable collaboration frabchises the end poverty and yes we can world needs. The collaboration
network with the best package catalogue to replication franchises seems to me to be the one that can best serve Obama and
thence the worldwide; doubtless I am oversimplifying but only by a tad; the idea of searching out 30000 replicable projects
ahs 25 years support among thos economists aware of schumachers view of how to end povery
The
heart of the matter as i see it is the start fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of 2 million vllages, and
this a problem of 2 billion vilagers. The solution cannot be found in the cities of the world. Unless the hinterland can be
made tolerable, the problem of world poverty is intolerable, and ineveitably will get worse. EF Schumacher
practical
advice from the world's number 1 ranking collaboration entrepreneur - whenever you use the internet -or any hi-trust media - to end poverty invite everyone who seriously cares about the millennium goal race as seen in poor communities to question
what searches you have come from and which ones you may love to click next
that way you will help to verify that the free market of
ending poverty is the most central portal to compounding sustainability for generating the human race everywhere and
celebrating truly open learning by doing
Obama: "this victory alone is not the
change we seek it is only the chance for us to make that change."
Gordon Brown hailed the election of Barack Obama as a source of "hope and inspiration" as he urged the United States to join
with Europe to build a new global order.
Brown hails Obama as 'new hope' . In his annual foreign policy address to the City of London, the Prime
Minister called on fellow world leaders to "seize the moment" and lay the foundations for the "first truly
global society"
What
the World Needs Now : unite goal of end poverty
Jane Wales:
Dr Yunus- because you’re the world’s best problem solver I have ever known , I
am going to ask you about some of the things that are in the plate of the next president of the united states. He will come in and he will face
poverty including new poverty at home and abroad
the employment crisis
the need to provide quality education for all
the need to provide affordable healthcare
post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation
if were you advising the new president, would you urge him to take an integrated approach or to deal with
each independently?
Muhammad Yunus
well I can only tell him of my way at looking at it –first of allif he wants
to be serious about poverty – after all, the president of US is de facto the president of the world, so what he doesimpacts the whole world. So when he talka
about poverty he provides the leadership that others take.
Now we have the millennium goals which are a wonderful set of goals which inspire all the
world but were unfortunately derailed by other things that came up so first of all restore total support for the millennium
development goals and withdraw from other stuff united states got involved in such as war on terror,
so concentrate on the one of making sure we achieve the millennium
goals, achieve them 100% this will be a tremendous achievement for the whole world that we have done something its not some
of UN goal setting and forgetting, this is a real goal and a realty to celebrate having done it
and
then for this president the best thing is to show total commitment of ending poverty set a new date when the world can be
at zero poverty – we have 2015 at halve poverty so why don't we set the next goal zero poverty so that we know this
is the direction we need to take,
when we set the date everything else will fall into place:
how do you measure, how do you do it there
are several things that will play an important part
1 microcreditbecause it has
shown its effectiveness in unleashing the capacity of people
2 technology how to bring technologyto the poorest people so that they can change their whole world
3 healthcare
so
its nothing separated, its integrated but you cant have one organisation doing everything, you need several organisations
but focused so that everything is achieving the same goal to lift the person
and as the president is declaring the
date for zero poverty in the whole world at the same time encourage the united states to set their date when their city be
zero poverty when their county gets to zero poverty- if someone says well we have no poverty how do you
know if you have poverty or not –its very simple the first question I ask is do you have a welfare program, a welfare
department? As long as you have a welfare department you have poverty, otherwise why do you have it, poverty means that nobody
is on welfare tat isclear sign so you have to close down your welfare department, find something else
for those people to do, so all the related things you have to welfare you close down as you have crossed that level and you
are never going back- city by city, county by county, state by state, it can be done and it will encourage everyone else –
that state can do it, we
can do it
this is the way
to go, so poverty will be the challenge –and once you have solved poverty other solutions come right away, environment
will come right away- like in the case of bangladesh environment and our survival is an integrated problem, we are the ones
on the front line – eliminated by global climate change because of our flat country, so for us its such an important
issue
the united states missed the whole leadership on the global warming issue, never got to the
Kyoto protocol and as a result the whole world got derailed,..so now is the chance to go back to preparing
for the 2012 UN binding resolution .. that way you n=know where you are
the moment government becomes serious
, technology starts going in, its not a question of it cant be done , simply we have to make a serious commitment that we
will do it-the moment we make the serious commitment, technologies will come , how do we replace the things that are causing
the problem, replacing them with new technology without harming anyone in any way
the present
way of living life in a way which might enjoy life today but may be harming someone else’s life somewhereon the planet, its not a good feeling: I am doing something that puts someone else life at stake because of the way
I do things – so the basic principle we should all adopt, every child should be taught, every family be taught my way
of living should not harm anyone else, and that’s how I would like to live
its
possible once you make that commitment all the environmental problems will be solved
we will set the goal of ending all deaths from malaria by 2015 Thursday 25 sept 2008
-help
worldcitizen.tv 301 881 1655 map actions at affiliate http://obamauni.com/
Barack Obama: "Disease stands in the way of progress on so many fronts; it can condemn populations to poverty,
prevent a child from getting an education, and yet far too many people still die of preventable illnesses. Today I'd like
to focus on just one, malaria. We have eliminated malaria in the United States, but nearly one million people around the world
still die from a mosquito bite every year. Eighty-five-percent of the victims are African children under the age of five.
In Africa, a child dies from a mosquito bite every 30 seconds, and by the way, this is something I've seem personally. If
you go to the village where my father grew up, where my grandmother still lives, the toll of malaria remains throughout the
region. And beyond the devastating human toll, malaria weighs down public health systems, setting back global capacity to
fight other disease. So today I want to join with the global malaria community that is meeting here in New York to make a
new commitment: When I am president, we will set the goal of ending all deaths from malaria by 2015. It's time to rid the
world of a disease that doesn't have to take lives. The United States must lead and when I am president we will step up our
focus on prevention and treatment around the world to get this done"
here are 3 short videos that connect clinton, yunus, gordon brown, and millennial goals; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB1tSDXbOzg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klUu03EMeRs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP5QlLoIc5s&feature=user they are also what both usa presidential candidates pledged to during the clinton global initaitive; if you join in
the tri-partite discussion boards of clinton , yunus and others - please help bridge any connecting views you see on why we
are now all in community-building economics and social policies - in many ways the exact opposite of what the white house
until today has accidientally systemised; this is not a party political comment nor an anti-american one; its actual pure
maths if sustainability is the world you want for your children http://yunus10000.com/
Lower down you can help us checklist collaboration activities and cross-cultural networks that Yunus and Microeconomics friends Indian-Bangladeshi citizen forums around the world are experimenting with in 2008/2009 - we love edgy experiments - micro but openly
replicable when successful - for next generation progress for humanity and whole planet
21 April
2008. Gordon Brown met with Nobel Peace Prize Winner and founder of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus,
to discuss the ...21 April 2008. Gordon Brown met with Nobel Peace Prize
Winner and founder of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, to discuss the potential for microcredit and social business schemes in
Africa. Microcredit is the innovative banking program that provides poor people--mainly women--with small loans they use to
launch businesses and lift their families out of poverty.
Seen from compounding a 24 year perspective of who's globalisation will the planet be ruled we seek bot deep community and cross-cultural kinds of ways hi-trust people power will need to take back globalisation if we are not to end up in ever more failures of banks and
bubbles, global warming and drowning in waste (see prince's accounting project, interfaces death of birth), created
by people who rule quarterly from the top without exponentially mapping consequences of what's most needed deeply and collaboratively in
each community.
Can you help?- do your citizen networks have better ideas for encouraging people power and free universities?
0 various Yunus citizen
networks; 0.1 Y10000 dvd youth –specific host debriefing guide; 0.2 bangla5000 includes twin city export webs concepts; 0.3 Y1000 Forum –
how does city publish ist first 300 socila actions/busiensses; 0.4 Y1000 bookclub; 0.5 Y100 city’s monthly meetings – and sharing agendas; 0.6
Special 7 dialogue in Dhaka; 0.7common resource out of latest updates
– eg all Yunus partners in Future Capitalism or Yunus peer to peer mentors
0.8 how we help protect quality of yunus open source
maps Microcredit & ABC maps
0.9 collaboration between Yunus networks and bangladesh’s micromethods export networks
1 microsummits
1.1 health including water?
1.2 media including internet/mobile
for poor
1.3
education
1.4
professions –what does each hard prof need to change; multipro practice; map of new capitalism
July 08 update to this site's experimental invitations to youth: after our 2nd week in Dhaka this year,
we can now see: YunusUni.com (and invited associates) explores 1000+ youth social action experiments Beginning Oct 2007, Our
social action value determined with Yunus secretariat after 4 months of dialogue - Impossible becomes
possible when right time people action place and spaces (including 1000+ inter-city and youth flowing networks)
Our 2nd concept Yunus 1000 bookclub on Future Capitalism’s ABC of social business and actions
Our 3rd concept Yunus10000DVD – see search space
http://futuresunited.com/ - blends with our belief in a 7-brand architecture being openly most valuable to multiplying all people’s futures
http://brand.blogspot.com/
.Main Clinton Flows of Interest to us:
Clinton Global
Uni outreach to 800 university's social actions
.July speech of Obama: relearning job creation everywhere
is american peoples number 1 goal
.Mandela: through entrepreneurial liberation flows of Branson links to Free
Universities and elders-for-humanity networks
Quotes by local citizens:
South Africa's First Lady Mrs Mbeki:
Bangladesh is the Open University of Microfinance 12 - source page 41 (Marilou Jane C Uy- Director FSD, The World Bank) Attacking Poverty with Microcredit -Proceedings
of 2003 Conference hosted by PKSF
blog not what you can do for thyself- ask what your city can do for the world
$500 bursaries available to edit & micropublish your own communities links and open source wishes
for social Action*Business*futureC
Debate videos at ned's virtual community New York book tour launch January 2008 "The crisis is here... this is also an opportunity to rethink
the whole system (of local & global) -how to make it happen so we do things we know humans truly need and you and I know
how to do", and question what UN*US don't yet know how to do.. With thanks to youth who remind us all on
how learning is actioned 12 in humanity's real deep cases -community truth way beyond image-making ones.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Dear Lauren and David
Mostofa brought back 8 sets of leaflets wriiten at various time our of grameen betrween
1974-2008 including my favourite that I gave rachel the morning she and alexis represented 19-25 year old's concerns to
dr yunus - growing up with 2 giants - the national collaboration strategy of bangladesh as world collaboration
leader of micro replication and sustainability solutions with regards to future free marketing with china
and india
we gave a set to peter ryan today- and he recommended I post you each a set - could you provide me with a snailmail for that purpose and so we can accelerate
boston-region as the replicvable franbchise that schools and unergrads can co-edit anywhere
if possible please
share with marriah -boston having 2 sets will already me it has more access to these booklets than any city than dhaka
Last night Mohammad Yunus spoke to a sold-out crowd of 1400 at George Washington
University. Earlier in the day he visited visited with the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the International Monetary
Fund. He spoke about those visits as well as his recent trip to the World Economic Forum at Davos.
The following are my notes
from his speech and the question and answer period which followed. It is not an exact transcript. I paraphrased some and couldn't
hear everything, but this should give you a pretty good idea of the tone and content of his message. Tom Tolman, GWU
Good evening.
I didn’t think there would be such a big audience here.
I thought
everyone in this town was busy doing the bailout package. (laughter)
They wouldn’t have time to come here.
I had a good day today. I spent the whole day today here starting out with a meeting with Fed Chairman Bernake. I
did that to update him about the work we have been doing in this country.
This is my second visit with him. I met
him in October 2007 and at that time I was trying to explain the importance of microcredit to him in the USA. He knew all
about microcredit. I thought we should start a microcredit program in this country – a prototype which could be expanded
later. And he gave all his support. Go right ahead. Any support you need from us we will give it to you. We talked about creating
a legal home so that we can use that legal home to create an organization. It is important that we have the legal ability
to take deposits. If we can take deposits then it becomes easy to raise money.
We created a program in Queens last
January. [see Jessica's recent report about Grameen America] At the inauguration of the program there were lots of journalists. One journalist asked why we chose New York City instead
of the villages like in Bangladesh. My answer was we deliberately choose New York City because it is the capital of world
banking. New York City does not, however, bank with its neighbors. The people that live there do not have access to financial
services. It is important to have a small example to break fear. We follow the same principles – five women forming
a group, weekly meetings. The average loan size is $2200. Repayment is 99.3%. This provides an interesting contrast. The women
in New York take loans, without collateral, without any lawyers and they pay back every week. For one year they have been
doing it.
Then the big banks. (laughter)
I remember my first encounter in 1976 with the bank manager.
He kept trying to convince me the bank couldn’t loan money to the poor because they were not credit worthy. Now I think
it is a good time to ask the question – who is credit worthy? (applause)
And then I went to IMF [after visiting
with Ben Bernake today]. I also recently went to [the World Economic Forum] at Davos…I took the same message to IMF.
The deep [economic] crisis is also exciting. It is an exciting opportunity to create a new normalcy. When we get out of this
crisis what kind of normalcy will we have – the old normalcy or something new? Please make sure, today, right now, that
we create a new normalcy. People wonder what this new normalcy will be. The financial system will be built in such a way that
in this country there will be no payday loans. (applause) People can go to the bank and borrow money without paying 500%,
700%, 1000% interest. It is such a disgrace to see payday loans all over the cities in the United States. What a gaping hole
the banking system has left behind.
The new normalcy will be that everyone in this country will have the right
to open a bank account. There are millions of people without a banking account. To get a check cashed you have to go to a
checking company which takes a large percentage of the check…nobody should be denied service.
There will
no longer be a financial apartheid where people are denied service. You cannot say anymore that it cannot be done. Why not
create a financial system that works for everyone?
We deliberately created a system that is focused on the beggars.
We have 100,000 beggars in the program. It is not complicated. All we do is go to the beggars, talk to them, and see how they
make their livelihood. We suggest to them –as you go from house to house will you carry some merchandise with you? Some
food, candy or toys for the kids. Give people options – let them buy from you. We make it sound very easy – you
are going there anyway. They immediately see the point. And we started giving money to them. We started four years ago. In
those 4 years more than 11,000 have stopped begging. (applause) They are now successful door-to-door salesman. Some are personal
shoppers…the other 90,000 are part-time beggars mixing begging and sales. They are very smart. When you talk to them
they explain which houses are good for selling and which are good for begging. They never went to business school but they
understand market segmentation. (laughter and applause)
Everyone has an ability. It doesn’t matter if you
are a beggar or a big businessman – everyone has an ability. The one who starts at the bottom struggles and cannot move
up. Some do not even know they have ability. Everyone carries such wonderful gifts inside of them – gift of creativity,
gift of innovation, gift of entrepreneurship…
I talk about this when I see the differences in the families
of Grameen members. We give them loans to continue with higher education. We have students in medical and engineering schools.
Students whose parents never went to school…
Who creates poverty? The poor do not create poverty. Poverty
is created by the system. The system we designed. The system we work with. That’s what creates poverty. It is not nature.
It is the exact opposite. It is artificial. People have unlimited potential but we don’t go that way. All these policies
and concepts that we promote [create poverty].
Why should financial institutions make up their mind they cannot
do business with you? It doesn’t make sense. Let us now decide who is creditworthy.
One concept I try to
explain in the book is the concept of business. One interpretation of business is profit maximization. We interpret human
beings in such a narrow way, as if human beings are money making robots. Human beings are so much more than that. There is
selfishness in us but we also have selflessness.
…Why cannot we create another kind of business? A social
business. A business where our goal is to change the world, not to make money. If we give money to charity the money goes
and never comes back. With a social business the money recycles and with each iteration produces more benefit at every turn.
We have created several social businesses. We created a plan to create yogurt – a social business. We put the
nutrients children need in the yogurt and make it very cheap so everyone can buy it. Experts say if a child eats two cups
of yogurt each week for 8-9 months a malnourished child will become a healthy child. In a profit making yogurt company, the
CEO would ask how much money we made this year and how we can make more money next year. In a social business the CEO will
ask how many children got out of malnutrition this year and how many more children can get out of malnutrition next year.
Another social business [we created is] a water company. Bangladesh has a serious water problem. Almost half the water
is poison. We created a company to create safe bottled water. It costs one penny for four liters so everyone can afford it
and everyone has safe water. The social objective is to bring safe water to the people.
We recently had a discussion
with a major shoe company about how to create a social business. You create a motto. And you believe in it. That motto is
that nobody in the world should go without shoes. And make it happen. Yes, you can make shoes for the poorest at a low price.
Keep the cost under a dollar with your brand name. That would send a big message. And continue to go down [in price] and never
come up again. And make it a green shoe so that no material in the shoe will make any kind of pollution problem.
And another company [that came to us] is a car company. They want to do a social business. We gave them a challenge –
why don’t you make a very cheap car. And not only that – base it on a green engine. It will be a multi-purpose
engine. You can take it off and use it for irrigation or to generate electricity or to use for a boat. They are working with
designers and engineers to see if they can do that.
Health is a big problem – not only in this country but
in every country. The bottom half do not have access to health care – private or public. Medical science can be applied
to help people have good health. A health care social business could be created to give everyone access to health care.
So, if you change your concepts there is no reason people should be poor. If we block that road it cannot come. Then,
no poor.
Poverty does not belong in human society. Poverty belongs in a museum. And that is where we should put
it and it will stay there. (applause)
Questions:
Is it harder
to implement microcredit in the United States than in Bangladesh?
It is harder in the United States due
to the legal structure. Welfare laws require the poor to report each dollar they earn so it can be deducted from their check.
It does not make sense. If you make a dollar the government should match you with a dollar.
How do you
approach poor women who are reluctant to become involved in microcredit because they do not believe they have the skills or
potential to become entrepreneurs?
The real trick is to create an example. You cannot change their mind
right away. If you can create one example to break the fear then the others see that. Then everyone becomes curious –
how did she do it? I can do better than her.
What advice would you give to a group of George Washington
students here who are trying to create a social business?
Young people like you can start a business.
If you cannot start one, then design one. Look at the problems and decide which one you want to solve. For example, set a
goal to bring 100 people out of welfare. And design a solution to the problem. At first it may seem impossible but you can
do it. Microcredit seemed impossible but now it looks easy. If you can get 100 people out of poverty then you can get millions
out of poverty by planting that seed.
What abuses do you see in the microfinance system?
You can say microfinance and not do microfinance. Some require collateral. Some due not target the poor. Some microfinance
organizations charge exorbitant interest rates – rates similar to loan sharks. Loans should be for income generating
activity. Some give loans for consumer goods such as refrigerators and televisions. This is not microfinance.
In
your book you propose a rating system to determine which ones help the poor and which ones don’t. In the year since
you wrote the book has anyone come up with such a system? [note: this is my question]
Oh yes. A big organization is coming up with that very system. It will tell you exactly what interest
rate is charged, conditional fees and so on. Yes, we will start seeing the results of that from this organization.
What is the best way right now to determine the best organizations to contribute money? [my follow-up question]
One way would be to contact that organization to choose which one you want and they will give you the results and
then you decide which ones you want to give your money to.
I run a microfinance organization here in DC.
It seems the lack of transparency is one of the biggest challenges in our financial industry and particularity in microfinance.
I understand Grameen has a very high repayment rate. How does Grameen calculate repayment rate?
If you
do not pay back your loan in the period in which it is due then you are overdue. This is all explained on our website. The
definition which we use to define overdue is explained there.
What are the edges between commerce and the
ecosystem?
We need to figure out how much of our resources are for our generation and how much is for
future generations. We need to spread our resources over as many generations as possible. The real objective is to make
the world safer than we found it. And the next generation will make it safer.
Grameen Dannon is a small company.
The total investment is less than $500,000. We designed it as a social business. When we started I asked what kind of container
we would be using. They showed me. It was plastic. I told them we did not want plastic in a social business. They were surprised.
They told me they use plastic all over the world. I told them we want a biodegradable material. They said they did not have
a biodegradable material. I told them they better find it. (laughter and applause)
So, about three months later
they came back. They were very happy they found a biodegradable material to use in the cups. I asked what it was. They said
it was cornstarch and they found it in China. It looks beautiful. I asked if I could eat it. They said why would you want
to eat it? I said because poor people are spending money on it. They don’t want to waste money. Why can’t you
make edible cups? And put nutrition in it? People will eat the yogurt and then eat the cup. And they could not figure out
how that could be. I told them when I get ice cream I get an ice cream cone. I eat the cone. They said this is not ice cream.
I told them the scientists need to work on it. They told me it will take a year. I told them they have six months. So, they
are working on it.
You have to raise the question. The scientists in Paris are very happy to have the challenge.
Dear Alex and Nalini -may I start with you two and Nalin'is son A as i always most confident to start
sustainable maps up with triangles of human connections
can I introduce you
-alex is 19 year old at GWU who
I wholly endorse to linkiin all 18-25s in DC universities inspired by yunus or true microcredit up and anyhwre that DC can
unite other colaboration youth cities - alex is a veteran of having started microcredit in schools and coopting elder networks
such as young presidents towards that- he's off to clinton uni network but asap it would be fantastic if he can meet you
Nalini and Abhi your son at GWU
I understand Nalini your particular love and career is in development
is connecting health especially in Indian region and across to GWU in -perhaps you could share a bio if you wish
health
is very much the number 1 worldwide future capitalism partnering connections search among grameen leadership at the moment
(and what the head of www.grameenamerica.com career has been about connecting) as well as an area where Dhaka wants interns who may become lifelong knowledge
connecting ambassadors between :
1 bangladesh what it knows or needs
2 other developong countries that
need health franchises to replicate
3 rich world resourced medical systems that have knowhow or could collaborate
in future capitalism innovations
mostofa in london works on connecting this back through everyone on grameen involved
in making helath connections with dr yunus; also in london modjtab sadria mentors mostofa and me- he is at the aga khan university
- while the london branch doesnt specialise in medicine I believe it is mainly a medical university and cross-cultural network
up
in boston, marriah who is encouraging 10000 youth is married to a doctor who works and studies at harvard medical
school; peter ryan has several hundred mit youth championing micro investment when we all met on tedsay of this week;
in new york alewis and rachel were the first under 25s to help research what the missing links are between yunus and empowering
youth in north west hemispheres to choose smba instead of mba, as well as being women who spent their summer interning for
ASA in Bangladesh and in Rachel's case now representing ASA across USA; they helped launch the youth yes we can competition
that us cities will catalogue 1000 social businesses for dr yunus to browase through one web before end of june http://socialbusiness.tv - we are looking for similar collaboration challenges that can connect youth and bangladeshi micro-up as per
attachment- I hope it will become a student uniting booklet -launching the genre of Innovating Collaboration - in time
to mobilse yes we can micro waves of youthful energy across usa and www
nina down in florida is one of the interns
for health that mostofa has been in touch with for several months now
first actions are if nina and leax and abhi can meet when diaries permit and see if health-yout
microclubs can be networked across dc and then out to any other micro-youtch cities and through mostofa to colaboration dhaka
second
connecting actions are for everyone else to choose
if I have left out somone on health i should have circulated
please go
perhaps one day we can set a huge audacious goal for health and start up http://microhealthsummit.com I know obama has already declared his - end malaria deaths by 2015 at clinton global 08 (as attached) and expect this
will only happen if kenya's jamii bora test markets how to interate all bottom-up franchises that need to be weaved together if humans are to turn out smarter than
mosquitos at networking
Summary of microcredit networkers' contributions to Yes We Can Inauguration Week 2
Rachel, Alexis, Peter: Manhattan, tuesday jan 27 : dr yunus asked you if you will help him, banglalesh,
yes we can's world to end poverty- he can't do this without collaboration 19-25, nor can obama onr whomever you value
most as a local to global leader
the booklet I gave rachel growing up with 2 giants shows the united srartegy of
asa, grameen , brac and all microcredit and social business networkers; you can verify this in late june by coming to dhaka
and seeing all 3 company's leaders chat with each other
http://socialbusiness.tv new york needs to unlearn banking ; boston needs to unlearn mba; washington needs to unlearn superpower; youth networking
between those 3 cities are the only way yes we can 2009 will start to bend the curve from global down to micro up
HOW
ASA*GRAMEEN*BRAC bend the curve
peter went to a meeting on thursday and faiday which asa is designed to be the trojan
horse of micro-up to;
jamii bora is designed to be the trojan horse to anyone who says african communities cannot breed microentrreneurs and repkicate collaboration
franchsies;
BRAC is ultimately the trojan horse of all global aid wheresoever that ends going to national governments
instead of end poverty in local communities
PROTECTING THE 4 HEMISPHERES MAN
Obama's mum was an american
pioneer of microcredit in Indonesia and peer of Muhammad Yunus. His dad a Kenyan American. 4 Hemispheres united round
community sustainable investments that micro*mobil*collaboration agents entrepreneurially revolve the way round that builds every child's and human's abilities to make and commune a difference. He comes
to power empowerment's space race less than once in a generation
WHAT SCARES ME MOST
I am particularly
scared of 19-25 year olds because I dint want to give you or them advice that wastes what they would otherwise you would have
done. Tell me what insurance I need to give you if you decide to come to dhaka at end of june and it doesnt turn out to be
as good a 5 month journey plan as whatever else you would have done
I am in boston tuesday to see marriah's
10000 meeting plans and if possible to explore MIT media entrepreneurs- that is where the mobile phones dr yunus uses came
to him in 1994; I may bump into yunus with 50 of alex's friends in DC on wednesday ; go to london at the weekend
to see mostofa or the first time in 6 weeks and if he has got his visa plot what he and alex can do at clinton global
I
need help in the form of knowing what questions you most urgently have, what permissions we need to link around you, what
is it that will ultimately prove or disprove that last tuesday's meeting was one of the most important ever. Perhaps
the three of you will have tme for a coffee and a branstorm of what are the biggest unanswred questions of Micro UP in
The Search for Social Business, Transparently Beyond Excellence
cheers
chris
macrae 301 881 1655 rsvp info@worldcitizen.tv if you have any summaries to linkin to Micro Up - Yes We Can
Have your team already briefed rick wartzman in california? - he is a former full-time
journalist but may know some still mass channelling; he heads the drucker institute; was one of the few people to publicly
interview Dr Yunus on his book tour this time last year
as well as his own interests in waving your fabulous news
on millennium goal practice - and mapping who at drucker's school might be most interested because yunus and drucker
mean(t) by knowledge working what few others in Knowledge Management on west coast internet mean, Rick may know how to
contact jane wales who calls yunus the world's number 1 problem solver and thus the one Obama needs as his counsel and
alan webber who wrote in usa today back in march http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080521/oplede_wednesday.art.htm that we need to unite Nobel economics and peace prizes - boy that's the first thing Obama should ask of Nordica
region
Its possible that kevin will know Vivian the partly french lady at huffingtonpost because I think she is connected
with the film of yunus that the french have been making for 5 years - I am not sure about that all of that team's media
abilities but its clear where Vivian Norris de Montaigu is coming from
Two people who need a special (ie
timeless) brief because they are not going to write anything immediatley but want yunus choice debated are Charlie Rose
in NY and David Frost in London. The problem being instead of interviewing yunus live they need some time to reflect the bigger
future stories that are connecting around him which its difficult to ask if you havent had a brief first. There is a bigger
(much more pessimst's) problem at The Economist and Financial Times becasue unlike Frost and Rose who are at
least on the side of questioning choice, their reporters haven't questioned the futures wall street was spinning for at
least 8 years and they haven't exponentially questioned their own assumptions of what Free market means in each sector-and
frankly economists who dont transparently try to question exponentials arent worth an Enron damn and nor an Orleans levee
-at least btaht was the brief of the founder of The Economist in 1843 and it does no harm to inter-action it
Dear Friends of Meta-collaboration in community sustainability
May thanksgiving in the community
that matters most to you be replete with happiness and freedom
I think that Melanie & Friends http://theglobalsummit.org deck is quite a nice output; Laura was telling me that it will likely be January before http://chain-reaction.org knows its next prospectus out of London with Gordon Brown chairing Social Actions. With up to 1000 people including
200 under 21 to get feedback from there's clearly a lot of wonderful ideas to catalogue. January is a good time to get
a round-the-world millennium actions leaflet out in DC to young community-building people partying around Obama's inauguration. I
think formats for collaboration action prospectus are very difficult to map so I hope folk don't mind me attaching early
version of globalsummit deck as a nice benchmark
I am not an expert in mega-action summits but
in the 10 years or so that I have been going to large scale (100 to 5000 person) open spaces the difficult period seems
to be keeping projects developing after the summit- I feel project momentum will definitely increase year in
year out to 2015 in LA but wonder about how to get some other twin cities feeling the global summit is their worldwide
connector of action projects; I look forward to news of portal or other bookmarks of how to keep connecting
A
bit cheekliy I will try and assemble main links at http://www.yunusuni.com/id47.html if only as an aide memoire for my aging grey cells!
Mostofa at http://yunusforum.net in London is our main relationship links to who does what around Dr Yunus in Dhaka and http://yunus10000.com and is also trying to connect alumni of clinton university with its next meetng in Texas in February. Yunus10000 dvd
dialogue aims to have a theme of the month- we are moving from Internetworking for the poor - november's theme to a review
of health partnerships that Dr Yunus and others have connected in year 1 of Future Capitalism - health being arguably Dr Yunus'
number 1 wish to develop back in Dhaka - he wants to set up a free medical training college but one where those why qualify
commit say 5 years of work in rural areas as an exchange for the free university.
Los Angeles www.thegreenchildren.org are one of his good news sources on health (hi Tom is your email working) -this pop duo has already funded nearly 2
eye care hospital social businesses linked to the model that Larry Brilliant at google.org and an Indian eye care group developed
that has 10 times less cost for eye surgery than anyhwre else on the planet. They have the "EMPOWER" album
coming out soon with "you can hear me now" as theme song of ending digital divides- something that yunus introduction
of mobile technology way back in 1996 has moved Bangladesh as a core innovator of with Kazi Islam at www.grameensolutions.com the ceo at epicentre of Yunus internet for poor revolutions. There are quite large youth newtorks signed up around thegreenchildren
but I am not wholly clear where we pool action projects.
I invite others to introduce their flows if they
may want to meta-collaborate.
My family's bias since 1984 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Macrae : The world needs to counter the ever spiralling bad news that will come down from wall street with good news
from micro-up community builders until microeconomists end the rule by macroeconomist and all their mathematically wrong professions and
image-ridden media
EF Schumacher - The heart of the matter is the stark fact that world poverty
is primarily a problem of 2 million villages, and this a problem of 2 billion villagers. The solution cannot be found
in the cities. Unless the hinterland can be made tolerable, the problem of world poverty is intolerable, and inevitably will
get worse.
H0.2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E615UKQWAWo poverty is absence of all human rights and root cause of lost peace; how microcredit
idea started; overcoming womens fears ; trust-based banking (10 minutes)
F0.4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKD8zR7thMI&NR=1 (10 minutes part 2/3) Yunus responds to competitive poverty entrepreneurs (eg Shiva)- I never said
microcredit is only solution for putting poverty in a museum but it is one of the basic flow structures needed and it systemically
offers collaboration interfaces with other grassroots up system maps we need to connect such as water, healthcare, education
–series offered by iwantdemocracynow (democracynow.org)
H1 Bangladesh 30000 employee/village
maps & vital community goals
Bangladesh MF- 3 part series
on fighting financial apartheid
It is the endless capability of human beings. It
just doesn’t have limits: if human beings can’s solve these (millennial rights) challenges- what good is human
being any way? We are created to solve problems .. not to create problems. Conventional wisdom tells us very little; conventional
wisdom hides conventional blunders; we have to go and hit the blunders and make whole circle so much bigger so that we create
the world we want to live in. Yunus, Oxford 07
In our survey of world’s
most trusted people, Yunus came top. Here are 20 most valued connections among those who have met Yunus and heard his future
goals.
21stSingapore at Cox’ Bazar with social business type 2 : not owned by .gov but nation’s poorest women
Poverty & sustainability crises
caused by 20th century’s big systems not being measurable to compound purpose
Photosynthesise energy before Bangladesh is deluged
Bangladesh - first country with
PovertyMuseum
10 minutes with Dr Yunus in New York on the day his book became a national bestseller yunussocialactiongroup.org
Citizens Diaries: please mail info@worldcitizen,tv if you be a Yunus diarist for your city
London, February 2008. Citizens were graced by 2 public performances within
24 hours - the likes of which I have never seen before: 1) 2 standing ovations at the London School of Economics was followed
by one of the most poignant climate crisis speeches heard in a city renowned for Stern warnings
Climate Capitalism : Dr
Yunus offers noted speech of 21st C
St James,
Piccadilly, 16 February 2008:The church used by Londoners to bury its richest men was taken over for an
afternoon by climate activists – a surprise setting for the last public appearance of Muhammad Yunus on his 3 day tour
of London for his new book “Creating a world without poverty- social business, the future of capitalism.”
This speech was unlike any other offered by the man whose faith celebrates
humanity in every corner of our earth. For the first 15 minutes, the audience participated in a requiem to Bangladesh... In
recent years Bangladeshi’s have had the storm of the decade, then a worse one our people named storm of the century,
then the worst of our history- we have run out of names on the scale of bad storms. So while climate crisis may be a subject
for debating in London, in Bangladesh it is a population killer- and in our low lying nation of over 150 million people, it
is the unnatural weapon of mass destruction we truly ask the world to help prevent
We are a people determined to celebrate humanity. On every other crisis: ending poverty, improving
communal healthcare, other millennial rights we wish to open source with the world solutions that the Grameen way perfects
at the grassroots before scaling up. Looking at climate, we have already passed a magic number of 100,000 solar homes- and
if the price of the photoelectric cells could come down by a half, I feel we could commit to making every Bangladeshi home
solar.But that will not be enough to turn the tide on climate given our geographic lot. Only a worldwide
collaboration can save us.
Then from minute 16, Yunus walks aside
from the pulpit towards the audience to explain how his new book shows how to practice communal collaboration systems. Each
major invitation in the book is meticulously designed and tested purposefully to serve vital needs. Much service detailing
is contextual, but the common denominators are compounding the end of poverty over time and empowering
people to love being their communally most productive through peer to peer action learning circles.
Uniquely, Dr Yunus’ style is both simple and modest. He urges you dare see with him
that if this is what one being can do, what could 6.5 billion of us achieve. Why not unite now by prioritising design of social
businesses - the future capitalism game that all our generations will depend on. Proposer: Dr Yunus. Seconder: Bill Gates...
Ironically, as the Banker for the Poor moves on to another
city, after 3 joyous days in his inspiring company, it is London’s banks that feel very poor indeed.
launch in browser
Yunus spoke for about 30 minutes then took questions from the audience. The event was hosted by the university and Hooks Books. Yunus' newest book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, was just republished in paperback with new material and he stayed to sign copies.
