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[Music] you have spoken about the downside of a global globalized economy referring to
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it during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo as quote a dangerous free-for-all Highway whose Lanes will be
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taken over by the giant trucks from powerful economies even as Bangladeshi Rick Shaws will be thrown off the
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highway end quote I'm assuming you're referring to the onedimensional profit
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motive of these giant trucks that focus more on money than on social good but how do you think how do you think a a a
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scenario could could realistically be averted a global scenario and in fact isn't that somewhat
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desirable uh I was giving an image that uh globalization is like a multi-lane Highway all the products are moving back
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and forth in many directions and everybody on the road carrying their merchandise and giving the idea that uh
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big countries big economies Rich economies will have more merchandise to carry big trucks to carry and a very
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powerful and take over the lanes the small countries don't have space for themselves because it's all taken over
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by the big trucks and the big companies uh so I said if it if it that image fits
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into the picture then we should have uh traffic rules so that uh little company and the Little Country little economy
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have their safe Lanes where they're slow moving they carry little things and very
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fragile but they move safely uh so that they the big trucks don't take over everything so and I'm saying that if we
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accept the traffic rules idea then we'll need traffic police so that these rules
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are obeyed and the idea is to have a traffic Authority so that somebody has to say this is the rules of
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globalization that if you are a big company you cannot come to a weak economy and say I take over the whole
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economy they can because they have the money power uh so that will be wrong globalization in globalization both
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sides must be the winner and the whatever gain in the trade takes place it should be shared equitably just
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because I have the power I take out out of 100 I take 99.9 and give you 0.1% and
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say this is globalization I don't think that will be tenable that will be sustainable so we have to agree how much
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you should get and how much I should get although I could have taken over everything but by agreed principles we
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don't do that we give you some and we keep some and what that participation would be how division would be that
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would be the traffic police or the traffic Authority will decide that this is how we should do that otherwise
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globalization will become I suggested that will be an economic imperialism that uh big economies taken over the
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small economies well one effect we see of globalization right now is what's happening happening in the world banking
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industry and why I find that very interesting is because if you were to look at grin's own borrowers they are
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not just the subprime what are considered subprime but even the sub subprime uh in spite of that Grine
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repayment rates are 99% or so and you uh have never required a bailout uh from that perspective I wonder how you see
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this global banking crisis and what advice would you give to the CEOs of Institutions like City Bank or Bank of
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America about what they could do to salvage their operations it's a it's a
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paradoxical situation right now because uh back uh 33 years back when I was trying to start this program in a tiny
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village with a few people and arguing with the bankers that this would be a good idea to give loans to the poor
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people their argument was that poor people are not credit worthy they will never pay back and so on so today 33
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years later you can ask the same question who is credit worthy the answer obviously will be very different because
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it's the poor who turned out to be the better credit worthy than the other category of people because uh the
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programs microcredit programs all over the world still function very well still their repayment is very high
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uh whereas uh the big Banks and their big uh Landing operations are in situation of collapse it's falling down
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uh so uh with this experience uh kind of contradictory experience that we have uh
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now we have to uh we have no other way but to redesign the whole system recognizing the fact the strength
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in this non-collateralized loans for the poor people and the weakness in the cat
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has loan for the rich people so we have to find find a ground where we can have a an inclusive Financial system where
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nobody will be thrown out of the system uh not the poorest person not the homeless person or a beggar person
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nobody should be thrown out uh they can handle they have already shown examples shown and created a long-term credit I
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mean record that what they have done uh so this is one lesson from this uh to redesign the financial syst system uh
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the another point I would like to make that uh This Global crisis financial crisis uh is worst In Our Lifetime when
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whole world is going through it while we look at the crisis part of it we forget
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this is also the greatest opportunity when the system is not working that's the time you unpack it
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and redesign it so that not only it uh works it works better than ever before uh unless we do that we'll be committing
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a big mistake uh so I I emphasize on the opportunity part of it uh while the crisis will take its time it take its
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course to get get through it but we should be focusing attention and then start redesigning uh piece by piece
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where it needs to be fixed so that we don't have the same old system that we
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had before what qualities does one need to lead a micro Finance institution and how are these different from the
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qualities needed for another type of organization uh one idea I was just mentioning that we came from the
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Direction Where We wanted to bring Financial Services to the poor people to help them generate income for themselves
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and gradually move out of poverty by doing that build confidence build experience and step by step uh take care
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of themselves and see that they can move on uh and get out of poverty uh so we would like to keep microcredit in that
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fashion in that mood not profit maximization mode because then you are not looking at people's condition you're
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looking at your own condition uh so you want to take out as much Poss as possible to improve your uh Financial
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strength and so on so that is I think Number One requirement for microc credit that you have the right kind of attitude
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and right kind of mood when you get involved with it that here I have come to use my talent my creativity my
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management skills to help people get out of poverty uh without losing money losing money pushes
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you into another Direction it becomes a uh to it pushes in itself into the charitable uh kind of programs
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microcredit is not a charity program microc credit is a business program but business with a social purpose and uh in
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a c separate way have called it a social business and defined it in a very clear
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terms what a social business like so ideally I would like microc credit to be a social business where profit is zero
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for the person who has invested but the company can make profit profit stays with the company with a social objective
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in this case the social objective will be to help people get out of poverty but but in terms of individual leadership
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skills or or organizational skills how do you nurture these within individuals in say gine
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Bank uh within gramine Bank uh we just recruit people and uh let them learn by doing as apprentices with other older
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persons in the branches so it's not a classroom training which makes all the
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difference classroom training is a very small part of our training we simply introduce what we do and then let them
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figure out what how it is done and so on when they join gramine bank for them it's just a job they're looking for job
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not many jobs are available they got the job they're very happy they got the job
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they think now on uh I get I work can I get my salary so the intention of helping poor and all those things was
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not part of that job but once you start working with the poor people and get to know the system get to know the
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objectives of the system and gradually you are taken by it and more and more you feel um inspired by it and all these
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ideas that yes my work helps people excites them uh it's a wonderful experience uh to be able to touch other
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people's life it's almost intoxicating experience once you have it uh you
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cannot get away from it you want to have it more because you see things are happening in people's life their
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children going to school the kid you saw a little kid running around in the village uh now you see he or she is in
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school and doing very well and talking about what she wants to be what he wants to be and you remember your own
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childhood that how you went through and how difficult it was for you now these kids
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lucky kids uh they could have been they they are in a school and some of their older students are now going to higher
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education and gramine Bank gives them Education Loans and you say nobody gave me an education loan and my education
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finished After High School I couldn't proceed any further only job I could get
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is this one but I'm happy through my job I'm helping other kids to go to higher
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education becoming doctors engineers and University professors and so on so forth
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and that excites him that yes uh my service is useful [Music]