Outside event by Professor Yunus

The lecture of Professor Yunus
After hearing the lecture of Professor Yunus, I was very enlightened. Professor Yunus first talked about the bank that he created, which resembles the complete opposite of the conventional banking. He explains that instead of picking out the rich people and trying to benefit from them, his banks selected the poor and the poor only, and provide them with loans and funds to support their lives. Instead of basing in the cities, his bank focuses on villages and countrysides. The so called social business, relies on the fact that poverty exists not because of the people who are poor, but the system which is malfunctional. Therefore it is the system that needs to be changed. He also suggests that the solution to everything is to begin a business, instead of going to a charity. He starts a business for every problem he recognizes. He also clarifies that by setting up a business, we can invest in the business and get returns from the business, so that the money we invested can come back and extra money could be used to reinvest in the business. Thus the money becomes “alive” instead of “dead”, as would be the case for charity. He then commented on the critiques, which argued that the social business did not really help the poor. He mentioned that his bank loaned out 3 billion dollars each year and all total amount of money on the bank account of its customers exceeded this amount. This shows that at least they are doing better than they used to. He also separates right social business from wrong social business. He mentions that there are some individuals who use the concepts of social business to earn profit for themselves. Right social business, however, requires investors to take back their investment from the return and invest the rest again into the business. This is the main way for the social business to grow sustainably and help more poor people.

From the lecture, I realized that we should not only be job seeker, but also job creator. Professor Yunus talked about how poor women without a decent education can successfully start a business when they get enough funds, and how their sons and daughter, who receive college education do not know how to start their own business. He also talked about our educational system is limiting our creativity. It appeared to me also that the only thing I would do after my college study would be to find a job and work for a company. After this lecture, I am seriously considering dedicating myself to non governmental organizations or non-profit institutions, so that I can change the “system” in my own way.

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