Banking on It

Back in the days when I was a wee cub reporter, my boss sent me to interview a Bangladeshi man by the name of Muhammad Yunus, who years after our interview became a Nobel laureate for his pioneering work in a field called microcredit. Microcredit is the act of giving small loans to the poorest of the poor so they build businesses and empower themselves.

So there I was, 24 years old at the time, and absolutely nervous about talking to this person, in part because I had enough of a history with college economics classes to fret that I would not understand what was going on. Though I didn't fail college economics, I didn't exactly excel in it. I think it was because a. it was an early morning class (and I had a tendency to socialize at night), and b. I was short-sighted about the fact that I would need to understand economics to actually be the reporter and writer I wanted to be. As an undergraduate, all I could think about was how much I'd rather be doing something else, like...sleeping.

My lone takeaway from that class was the following joke:

Two Auburn fans go hunting and decide to split up so they can bag more deer. One of them hears rustling bushes and opens fire, only to see his buddy fall out. He rushes his friend to the hospital, and sits there in the waiting room, fretting about what has just transpired. After a while, the doctor walks into the waiting room with a solemn look on his face and tells him: "He might have survived if you hadn't gutted him."

That was what I was equipped with when I went to the National Press Club to interview Yunus, who holds a PhD in economics from Vanderbilt, and who went back to Bangladesh in 1972 to teach. When famine ravaged the country two years after his return, Yunus decided he had to step outside of the classroom to help people in whatever small way he could.

"I became involved in the poverty issue not as a policymaker or researcher," he said. "I became involved because poverty was all around me. I could not turn my eyes away from it."

Yunus went from loaning people whatever pocket money he had to founding the Grameen Bank in 1983. His bank grew worldwide, doled out nearly $6 billion in loans, and changed the lives of countless people. The loan repayment rate was high too. People just needed a leg up, and Yunus was one of the rare folks willing to give it to them. Imagine being someone who looks at the world around him and figures out how to give it the one thing it needs the most.

No shade against the professor who taught me the lone joke I know how to tell well, but Muhammad Yunus was the college economics professor I needed all along, and a very nice and gentle man to boot. He explained things in a way that was not abstract at all. Rather, it was human. I was so transfixed by what he had to say that day, and learned so much from him, that I not only wrote a story about him and his work, but found ways to write more stories about entrepreneurs who have been helped by microcredit over the years for a business magazine that is, sadly, now defunct. This week, after deadly demonstrations that forced the Bangladeshi prime minister to resign, and the parliament to be dissolved, Yunus was called in by student protesters to bring stability to the country as its interim leader. In a text message to CNN this week, a student representative wrote: “We are very delighted to say that Dr. Yunus has agreed to accept this challenge to save Bangladesh as per our students’ request.”

Given his track record, I'm not surprised that he answered the call, and I look forward to seeing what sort of positive change he can to bring about. Besides, it's not every day that you can look at the paper and say to yourself, "Well, how about that? Seems like a good sign, and it's about damn time we got a flood of these."

Writing prompt: Think of a time when you were offered a seemingly little thing that wound up making a big impact in your life. What was that thing, who was the person who offered to you, and what sort of big changes did it make in your life?

Endnotes

An iconic shot: Fifty-five years ago this week, Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan snapped what would become one of the most popular – and copied – photos in pop culture: The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover.

Sources of delight: Record store runs, photos of someone's really cool donut-making class (you know who you are...), the friend whose squeaky wheel got the grease (you also know who you are...), friends with book launches (yep, you know who you are, too). Also, this story about a woman who will be opening a women's sports bar in Atlanta next year.

Where I hope you'll donate this week: Kiva is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that offers small loans to underprivileged and unbanked people around the world. One hundred percent of what you loan goes to helping someone who is just trying to improve their lives for the better, whether it's buying groceries and other goods that they can sell in their store, opening a catering business, or paying university fees that will help them get a degree. If you go to Kiva's website, you can scroll through people who are looking for help, and for as little as $25 you can make a difference in their lives. Ninety-six percent of these loans are repaid, and as Martha Stewart would say, "it's a good thing." So please, if you can, consider a small loan that will make a big difference to one of the people on this site.