Muhammed Yunus - Banker to the Poor

In conjunction with my previous post...

I'm currently reading the book "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammed Yunus, founder of the the Grameen Bank in India and a man committed to the proliferation of micro finance organizations restoring so many in extreme poverty around the world. Mr. Yunus was formerly an acclaimed economic professor in Bangladesh before the outstanding famine of 1974 hit Bangladesh. Experiencing people of mere skin and bones arriving in the great city, strew on sidewalks and train station platforms, incapable in their hunger to find energy even to beg, shocked Yunus out of the classroom and into the countryside were the famine was so widespread. In the countryside, Mr. Yunus became (first) an anthropologist, studying in a new way his people in a time of crisis. His interviews and relationships led him to begin the Grameen Bank, the first of its kind, creating small loans for ingenious peoples who simply lacked the capital for their skill to create gain.

Last year Yunus was awarded for his own ingenuity by obtaining the Nobel Peace Prize. This man understood the power of microfinance long before it gained its modern-day popularity.

I first learned about Muhammed Yunus through the Chicago Council on Global Affairs of which I am apart. He is coming this month to speak on his experience and knowledge of microfinance, bringing it into the context of urban Chicago in a way many others have failed to articulate.

Crain's Business is onto the trend and have put together a presentation, which includes a clip on Mr. Yunus, on the intersection of globalization and microfinance (one concept more complex than another).

You can find this presentation on the Crain's Business website.

Bringing Hope to the Far Stretches of Uganda

This past weekend I attend an event at The Barn in Barrington. The event was sponsored by the npo Bright Hope International which, is also located in Barrington. Bright Hope's mission is to bring hope to those who live on only a dollar each day - those who live in the extremest of poverty. More specifically they provide for the physical, economic and spiritual needs of people living at the lowest economic level through personal, empowering, holistic, local church partnerships.

One of Bright Hope's partnerships is with Eagle's Nest - a Christian education & relief endeavor which has sites in several regions of Uganda. Bright Hope brought in Pastor Butch, director of Eagle's Nest, and his wife to speak this weekend on their ongoing work. The video above is Part I of a two Part video series on the heartbreaking direction of many people in Uganda due to the destruction caused by the Lord's Resistance Army (militia) in the North as well as natural disasters, like floods, which have destroyed many people's crops.

I first learned about Bright Hope through my parents. My mom volunteers time at the organization and is continually excited to bring to my attention partnerships
of all kinds which Bright Hope is apart of. Fair trade is core to many of their global partnerships and, while they help indigenous euntrepreneurs distribute their goods more widely they also import some of the goods at their store, also located in Barrington. I encourage you to take a look at this video and also take a Saturday trip out to the Bright Hope store, stocking up on birthday or holiday gifts.

You've all undoubtedly heard it by now (or felt it by now)...a cold, Artic blast has overcome Chicagoland and the Middle West. I live in an old (I believe I was told) 1860's duplex which likely has many chilly stories to tell. Its drafty windows, cracked panes, and dirt tell me this.

While most of the time, I take pride in the quaint, historical touch these windows offer our pad, the past two days have not been one of those times. I've plastic-ed the windows. Piled what blankets I have on my bed. Bundled up in long-sleeved shirtS and hoodie. Still...chilled to the bone.

Yesterday afternoon, though, all bundled on the couch and catching up on my latest novel read, sunlight twinkling through our frozen windows, I was brought back in memory to Calvin College. I rememeber a handful of times in college when temperatures dropped this low. I mostly remember housemates and I hundling together in the the living room - the warmest room in our house - trying, albeit not our hardest efforts, to get Monday's work complete.

There was one other place, though, you could find me on a dry, icy, yet sunny day at Calvin - the foyer of the Science Building - glass windows surrounding me, sunglasses on, and textbook in my lap. On cold days, windows are generally the one thing people stay away from but, at the time this newly-constructed building with sealed seams was an incubator - the sunlight warming the place like the beaches of Florida, the cold banned.

So, needless to say, I wish I could be back there today, either in the living room with friends or the incubator-like foyer of Calvin's lastest build.

Alas, a story!

i was riding the CTA red line this afternoon and on my way home sat next to this large man who seemed rather anxious, for several stops, to get off the train. once we'd passed a couple stops and he didn't get off, i started becoming anxious along with him.

all of the sudden (with these four words you know this is going to be a great story), in between stops, he gets up, unlatches the emergency exit bar on the rear door (the bells didn't go off which was half my disconcert)and proceeds to straddle the two cars, each foot supported only by a three each lip on each car. he stared down at the cables and chains that jiggled and straped below. i look around the car. i wondered: does anyone think this is as absurd as i do? i was certain I was going to witness this man's suicidal death. no one else saw him. truly. only i. i wondered if i was to reach out and save him. shoudl i give him some interventive therapy? question his choice? was this one of the pavlovian moments where they are many people surrounding a person in distress and everyone, hoping the next person would act, doesn't reach out in care?

just when i thought i couldn't take it any longer, he comes back into my car, sits down, and proceeds to call his buddy on his shiny verizon cellphone. everyone else still not giving a s**t. And I...completely perplexed!

Still Thinking...

I've been away for some time now, all the while thinking about what my next entry should be about. my friends who are compelling, humorous writers are observer types. i, on the other hand, don't know if i'm too focused to make the 10-degree head tilt required to soak in the world around me OR, if I am so unfocused that I blindly go through life.

I'd like to stay off the spiritual for at least one entry. I'm not planning on analyzing why I'm so opposed.

Although a single, city girl I am, indeed, the last thing I'm willing to talk about right now is dating. It nauseates me. Distracts from my mystery. (Ha!) And for all the cloud-nine moments dating in Chicago leads to, the whole process is generally ... painful. What does not lead to success leads to experience...that's what someone recently told me. Still trying to figure out how that softens the pain.

I would talk about my intense fondness for my new neighborhood - the South Loop/Pilsen neighborhood - but I have yet to be able to describe in words how exactly this neighborhood is the only fulfilled aspect of my 5-year-old dreaming about urban adulthood

I'd discuss work. But, work is inherently a rollercoaster ride I only subject family and close friends to. How kind of me, right?

I'd discuss some great mishap but, I'm fortunate enough to have stayed mishap-free for 30 days and would rather relish it as opposed to reach back and remember any of it.

I'd discuss New Year's resolutions but mine remain the same each year...which is revealing enough.

I'd discuss my recent vacation to see a dear friend in Toronto. But, I don't welcome the scoff I'd get for taking a trip in early January to Toronto over somewhere like Clearwater, Florida. Nor, do I want to describe my friendship...some things are too precious to put into words.

I could discuss my latest movie rentals. But, they were each sad and the analytical reflection that ensued afterward is, once again, too personal and too painful for a blog.

So, I'm speechless (am I ever, really?)...and still without a blog entry.