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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Extract from Yunus Speech to Indian Parliament

Putting Today’s Powerful Technology to Work
The world today is in possession of amazingly powerful technology. That technology is growing very fast, becoming more powerful every day. Almost all of this technology is owned and controlled by profit-making businesses. All they use this technology for is to make more money, because that is the mandate given to them by their shareholders. Imagine what we can achieve if we use of this same technology to solve the problems of the people!

Technology is a kind of vehicle. One can drive it to any destination one wants. Since the present owners of technology want to travel to the peaks of profit-making, technology takes them there. If somebody else decides to use the existing technology to end poverty, it will take the owner in that direction. If another owner wants to use it to end diseases, technology will go there. The choice is ours.

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Grameen Bank is a Social Business owned by the borrowers. Nine of the thirteen members of the board of directors are elected by the borrowers as shareholders. Grameen Bank lends out over $ 100 million a month in collateral-free loans averaging about $ 200. It encourages children of Grameen families to go to school. It offers education loans to them to pursue higher education. There are more than 42,000 students who are currently pursuing their education in medical schools, engineering schools, and universities financed by education loans from Grameen Bank. We encourage these young people to take a pledge that they will never enter job market to seek jobs from anybody. They'll be job-givers, not job seekers. We explain to them that their mothers own a big bank, Grameen Bank. It has plenty of money to finance any enterprise they wish to float—so why waste time looking for a job working for someone else? Instead, be an employer, rather than an employee

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