Muhammad Wins the Nobel Price

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

'Banker' who lends to the poor wins Nobel Peace Prize

By Philippe Naughton

 

The inspirational economist Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for helping lift millions of his fellow Bangladeshis from poverty through a pioneering scheme that lends tiny amounts of money to the very poorest of borrowers.

 

 

 

Professor Yunus shares the prize, and the cheque for 10 million Swedish Kronor (£730,000) that accompanies it, with the Grameen Bank, which he founded after the Bangladeshi famine of 1974 and whose micro-credit model has since been copied in dozens of countries around the world.

 

The bank, which is owned almost entirely by its own borrowers, has lent out some £2.9 billion to more than 6 million Bangladeshis, 96 per cent of them women. Even though its borrowers are not asked for collateral, more than 98 per cent of the money is repaid.

 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Peace Prize, cited the economist and his bank for their efforts in helping to "create economic and social development from below".

 

It added: "Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

 

"Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries.

 

"Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

 

"Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development."

 

Muhammad Yunus was borning in Chittagong in 1940 and studied economics at Dhaka University before taking his PHD at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he went as a Fulbright scholar.

 

He returned to Bangladesh to become an economics professor at Chittagong University, where he first experimented with micro-credit after the 1974 famine.

 

The first loan he made came from his own pocket when he $27 to a group of women who made bamboo furniture in a village near Chittagong. That allowed the women - who borrowed money at usurious rates to buy the bamboo - to break out of a cycle of debt and create a profitable business that could support their families.

 

The Nobel Committtee particularly praised them for having focused on female borrowers, which was also a pioneering concept.

 

"Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions," it said.

 

"Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male."

 

The citation concluded: "Yunus's long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part."

 

The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901. It was won last year by the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Egyptian head, Mohammed ElBaradei.

[Qandalawi]

Very touching story, the sort of example thats we the future Bankers need to apply at home to lift the livelihood of the our people. The Big Businessmen and owners of money transfer companies like Dahabshiil should engage in such activities, after all we are only few Millions so a lot could be done I suppose, When there Is will there Is always a way..

 

Do you think Nomands back home could be trusted, will they ever return any worth of capital you lend them?

[Socod_badne]

Very hearty congrats to Mr. Mohammed.

 

Aint this egg in the face to all those who grumble muslims don't get fair recognition for their efforts?

[Cara.]

^Or the exception that proves the rule?

 

I remember hearing about what this man has done a few years ago. IMO he should also win the award for Economics. Instead of all those stuffy academics with their theories and models that do little to help ordinary people

 

Tukaale,

 

Do you think Nomands back home could be trusted, will they ever return any worth of capital you lend them?

The clever thing is that the borrowers themselves benefit from all individuals investing and returning money they owe. So there's great social pressure from your neighbors to be reliable. I think Somalis have a similar system with hagbad/sholongo, it's just not centralized.

[Miriam1]

Interesting. Congrats to him. His model was revolutionary 30+ years ago. But with all the competition in the area right now, borrowers have soo many options.

There are alot of critics out there as well, that don't support the almost exculsive focus on women and don't see it as a form of empowerment but manipulation.

 

heh.

[Som@li]

very touching story indeed, I was following the noble price and wanted him to win, Masha Allah....

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

Nobel winner donates prize money

 

BANGLADESHI Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said yesterday he would donate his share of the $1.8 million prize money.

 

Mr Yunus said he would use his share to fund a project to produce cheap, nutritious food for the poor, an eye hospital, a drinking water project and a health-care scheme. "I will donate all my money to these enterprises," he said.

 

"These will be purely social business enterprises - not-for-profit organisations."

 

The French food giant Danone and Mr Yunus's Grameen Bank said this year they would work together to produce food to provide nutrition to millions of poor people.

 

Source: The Sun-Herald

[Endeavour]

Didn't a turkish guy also win a noble prize of some sort , I cant remember it might have been to do with literature? I could be wrong!Orhan rather was his name.

[Socod_badne]

^^Yes, for literature. He was charged by the Turkish government with insulting/defacing turkishness or some BS charge while back.

[me]

How many Muslims have ever won a Nobel prize for a science related subject? Now lets compare it with the Jews.

 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

 

* Ahmad H. Zewail, 1999

 

 

Nobel Prize in Literature

 

* Naguib Mahfouz, 1988 [1]

* Orhan Pamuk, 2006

 

 

Nobel Peace Prize

 

* Anwar El-Sadat, 1978

* Yasser Arafat, 1994

* Shirin Ebadi, 2003

* Mohamed ElBaradei, 2005

* Muhammad Yunus, 2006

 

 

Nobel Prize in Physics

 

* Abdus Salam (arguable because he is Qadiani, 1979

 

 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

 

* None

 

 

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

 

 

* None

 

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

List of Jewish Nobel Prize winners

 

Nobel Prize in Physics

 

* Alexei Alexeevich Abrikosov, Russia, for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids (Jewish mother)

* Zhores Alferov, Russia, (Jewish mother)

* Hans Bethe, US, (Jewish mother)

* Felix Bloch, Swiss and US, for his development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith

* Niels Bohr, Denmark, for his quantum model of the atom (Jewish mother)

* Max Born, Germany, UK and US, for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction

* Georges Charpak, France (Jewish father)

* Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, France,(Tunisian-Jewish parents)

* Leon Neil Cooper, US,

* Albert Einstein, German, later US, for theory of the photoelectric effect

* Richard P. Feynman, US, for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles

* James Franck, Germany, for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom

* Ilya Frank, Russia, (Jewish father)

* Jerome Isaac Friedman, US, for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics

* Dennis Gabor, Hungary, for his invention and development of the holographic method

* Murray Gell-Mann, US, for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions"

* Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, Russia, for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids

* Donald Arthur Glaser, US, for the invention of the bubble chamber

* Sheldon Lee Glashow, US, for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current

* Roy Glauber, U.S. physicist, Nobel Prize (2005)

* David Gross, US, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction

* Robert Hofstadter, US, for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons

* Brian David Josephson, UK, for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effect

* Lev Davidovich Landau, Russia, for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium

* Leon Max Lederman, US, for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino

* David Lee, US,

* Gabriel Lippmann, France, for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference

* Albert Abraham Michelson, US, for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid

* Ben Roy Mottelson, US and Denmark,for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection

* Douglas Osheroff, US, (Jewish father)

* Wolfgang Pauli, (one non-Jewish grandparent)

* Arno Allan Penzias, US, for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation

* Martin Lewis Perl, for the discovery of the tau lepton

* David Politzer, US, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction

* Isidor Isaac Rabi, US, for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei

* Frederick Reines, US,

* Burton Richter, US, for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind

* Arthur Schawlow, US, (Jewish father)

* Melvin Schwartz, US, for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino

* Julian Schwinger, US, for his work on quantum electrodynamics

* Emilio Segre, Italy and US, for discovery of antiproton

* Jack Steinberger, US, for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino

* Otto Stern, US, for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton

* Steven Weinberg, US, for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current

* Eugene Wigner, US, Nuclear Engineering

 

 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

 

* Sidney Altman, Canada, discovery of catalytic properties of RNA

* Christian Anfinsen, US, work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation (convert)

* Adolf von Baeyer, Germany, for services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds (Jewish mother)

* Paul Berg, US, for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA

* Herbert Brown, Ukraine, development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis

* Melvin Calvin, US, research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants

* Aaron Ciechanover, Israel, 2004, for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

* Walter Gilbert, US, contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids

* Fritz Haber, Germany, for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements (converted to Christianity)

* Herbert Hauptman, US, development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures

* Alan Heeger, US, for the discovery and development of conductive polymers

* Avram Hershko, Israel, 2004, for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

* George de Hevesy, Hungary, the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes

* Roald Hoffmann (1937 - ) American, for theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions (1981)[1]

* Jerome Karle, US, development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures

* Aaron Klug, Lithuania, development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes

* Walter Kohn, Austria, for his development of the density-functional theory

* Roger Kornberg, US, for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription

* Harold Kroto, UK, (Jewish father)

* Rudolph Marcus, Canada, contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems

* Henri Moissan, France, for investigation and isolation of the element fluorine, and for the adoption in the service of science of the electric furnace called after him (Jewish mother)

* [citation needed]George Olah, Hungary, for his contribution to carbocation chemistry (unconfirmed)

* Max Perutz, Austria, studies of the structures of globular proteins

* John Polanyi, German-born British Canadian chemist, (1986), (Jewish father),

* Viscount Ilya Prigogine, Belgium, contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures

* Irwin Rose, US, for the discovery of ubiquitin -mediated protein degradation

* William Stein, US, contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active center of the ribonuclease molecule

* Otto Wallach, Germany, pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds

* Richard Willstatter, Germany, for his researches on plant pigments, especially chlorophyll

 

 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

 

* Richard Axel, US, discoveries concerning the celular and molecular organization of the olfactory system.

* Julius Axelrod, US, discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation

* David Baltimore, US, discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell

* Robert Barany, Sweden,

* Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuela, discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions

* Konrad Bloch, Germany, discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism

* Baruch Blumberg, US, discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases

* Sydney Brenner, South Africa, discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death

* Michael Brown, US, discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism

* Ernst Chain, Germany, discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases

* Stanley Cohen, US, discoveries of growth factors

* Gerty Cori, US (born in Prague), discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen (born Jewish but converted to Catholicism when she married)

* Gerald Edelman, US, discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies

* Paul Ehrlich, Germany, for work on immunity

* Gertrude Elion, US, discoveries of important principles for drug treatment

* Joseph Erlanger, US, for discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibers

* Edmond H. Fischer, US, (Jewish father)

* Robert Furchgott, US, discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system

* Herbert Gasser, US, (Jewish father)

* Alfred Gilman, US, discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells

* Joseph Goldstein, US, discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism

* Paul Greengard, US, for signal transduction in the nervous system

* Robert Horvitz, US, discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death

* Francois Jacob, France, discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis

* Eric Kandel, Austria, for signal transduction in the nervous system

* Bernard Katz, Germany, discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation

* Arthur Kornberg, US, discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid

* Hans Adolf Krebs, Germany, discovery of the citric acid cycle

* Karl Landsteiner, Austria, for discovery of human blood groups

* Joshua Lederberg, US, discovered genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria

* Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italy, discoveries of growth factors

* Fritz Lipmann, Germany, discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism

* Otto Loewi, Austria, for discoveries relating to chemical transmission of nerve impulses

* Salvador Luria, Italy, discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses

* Andre Lwoff, France, discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis

* Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, France, (Jewish mother)

* Otto Meyerhof, Germany, for discovery of the relationship between consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle

* Cesar Milstein, Argentina, theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies

* Hermann Muller, US, discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation (Jewish mother)

* Daniel Nathans, US, discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics

* Marshall Nirenberg, US, interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis

* Stanley Prusiner, US, discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection

* Tadeus Reichstein, Poland, discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects

* Martin Rodbell, US, discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells

* Andrew Schally, Lithuania, discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain

* Howard Temin, US, discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell

* John Vane, UK, (Jewish father)

* Harold Varmus, US, discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes

* Selman Waksman, Russia, discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis

* George Wald, US, discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye

* Otto Warburg, Germany, (Jewish father)

* Rosalyn Yalow, US, for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones

 

 

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

 

* George Akerlof (2001), American economist, (Jewish mother)

* Kenneth Arrow (1972), American economist,

* Robert J. Aumann (2005), German-born American Israeli mathematician, game theory,

* Gary Becker (1992), American economist,

* Robert Fogel (1993), American economist,

* Milton Friedman (1976), American economist,

* John Harsanyi (1994), Hungarian-born American economist,

* Daniel Kahneman (2002), Israeli-born French American psychologist,

* Leonid Kantorovich (1975) Russian mathematician, linear programming, (Jewish mother),

* Lawrence Klein (1980), American economist,

* Simon Kuznets (1971), Ukrainian-born American economist,

* Wassily Leontief (1973), Russian-born American economist, (Jewish mother)

* Harry Markowitz (1990), American economist,

* Robert Merton, (1997), American economist, (Jewish father),

* Merton Miller (1990), American economist,

* Franco Modigliani (1985), Italian-born American economist,

* Herbert Simon (1978), American scientist, (Jewish father)

* Paul Samuelson (1970), American economist,

* Myron Scholes (1997), Canadian-born American economist,

* Robert Solow (1987), American economist,

* Joseph Stiglitz (2001), American economist,

 

 

Nobel Prize in Literature

 

* Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse, German writer, (Jewish mother), 1910

* Henri Bergson, French philosopher, 1958

* Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and writer, 1958

* Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-born Israeli writer, 1966

* Nelly Sachs, German poet and dramatist, 1966

* Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American writer, 1976

* Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born American writer, 1978

* Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born British-Austrian novelist, 1981

* Joseph Brodsky, Russian American writer and poet, 1987

* Nadine Gordimer, South African novelist, 1991 (Jewish father)

* Imre Kertész, Hungarian author, 2002

* Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian playwright and novelist, (Jewish father), 2004

* Harold Pinter, British playwright and theatre director, 2005

 

 

Nobel Peace Prize

 

* Tobias Asser, Dutch jurist, 1911

* Alfred Fried, Austrian pacifist, journalist, co-founder of German peace movement, 1911

* René Cassin, French jurist, drafted Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1968

* Henry Kissinger, German-born American Secretary of State (1973-77) 1973

* Menachem Begin, Belarusian-born Israeli Prime Minister (1977-83) 1978

* Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born French American writer, for his written accounts of the Holocaust, 1986

* Shimon Peres, Belarusian-born Israeli Prime Minister (1986-88 1995-96) 1994

* Itzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister (1974-77 1992-95) 1994

* Sir Joseph Rotblat, Polish founder of Pugwash Conferences, 1995,

 

 

Nobel Prize for organizations

 

* Ludwik Rajcman, founder of UNICEF United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund Prize in 1965

* Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International Prize in 1977 (baptized)

* Bernard Lown, co-founder of IPPNW International Physicians for Prevent of Nuclear War Prize in 1985

* Joseph Rotblat, founder of Pugwash Conferences Prize in 1995

* Bernard Kouchner, Médecins Sans Frontières Prize in 1999 (Jewish father)

 

 

Nobel Prize winners with one Jewish grandparent

 

* Willem Einthoven, medicine 1924 (Jewish paternal grandfather)

* Maria Goeppert-Mayer, physics 1963 (Jewish grandparent)

* Aage Bohr, physics 1975 (Jewish paternal grandmother)

* Betty Williams, peace 1976 (Jewish maternal grandfather)

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------

So you can see that the Jews that are world wide 20 million have so many Nobel prize winners. While the Muslims who are 1.4 billion people have just 9, so yes the Muslims are lagging behing. Waa laga tagay. We are no longer in the 15th century. Yes Muslims have a glorious past, but what about the present? or the future? Its time we did something instead of always complaining. No body gives it to you, you got to take it.

[ElPunto]

^Comparing apples to oranges no? Jews have been living in Europe for centuries now - the heart of scientific discovery and learning. It is natural that they should absorb and make use of opportunities to learn. It's a bit like comparing African Americans' accomplishments with those of Africans in Africa and then shaking one's head. Rather useless

[me]

^^^ wrong.

 

It is not were the people live, it’s their attitudes towards knowledge. There are Muslims in Albania, Bosnia, Chechnya etc etc and they are all part of Europe, why aren't the Muslims in those areas winning Nobel prizes? If it’s only about geographical location I might win a Nobel Prize.

 

We are comparing religions so we are comparing two apples. The Jews are more active in the sciences then the Muslims and the Nobel Prize proves it. The Muslims are lagging behind because they are not as active in knowledge gathering as are other religions.

 

 

Speaking about Jews and knowledge, there was this theory that the Jews enlightened Europe.

 

Jewish scientists and artisans came with the Muslim conquerors of Spain and they settled in Spain. After the Muslims were kicked out of Spain the Jews remained and started serving the Spanish court and the rest is history.

[ElPunto]

Originally posted by me:

^^^ wrong.

 

It is not were the people live, it’s their attitudes towards knowledge. There are Muslims in Albania, Bosnia, Chechnya etc etc and they are all part of Europe, why aren't the Muslims in those areas winning Nobel prizes? If it’s only about geographical location I might win a Nobel Prize.

 

We are comparing religions so we are comparing two apples. The Jews are more active in the sciences then the Muslims and the Nobel Prize proves it. The Muslims are lagging behind because they are not as active in knowledge gathering as are other religions.

 

 

Speaking about Jews and knowledge, there was this theory that the Jews enlightened Europe.

 

Jewish scientists and artisans came with the Muslim conquerors of Spain and they settled in Spain. After the Muslims were kicked out of Spain the Jews remained and started serving the Spanish court and the rest is history.

No YOU are wrong. Where you live influences your attitude and opportunity since the prevailing culture and society determines that. The Muslims in Albania, Bosnia and Chechnya live in the least developed areas of Europe. And if you wanted to make an accurate comparison - what Jews in those areas have gotten Nobel Prizes - then you could an appropriate comparison to Muslims.

 

You are not comparing religions - religion has nothing to do with one's aptitude or ability for education and thus potential Nobels. The place where you live and its attitudes determine that. And Muslims live in the developing world and are, not suprisingly, less educated and deficient in Nobels. Nor is a Nobel the only measure of deficiency in knowledge.