Article summary
The writer, Muhammed Yunus, is reflecting at the time that he came back from the United States when his country became independent. He remembers how the country was devastated as the people were hopeless, he thought that he was supposed to try and help these people in any way that he could.
After seeing that many people were being exploited by sharks that they took insignificant loans from, he hoped of helping these people by himself since the banks wanted any form of security before they are given any loan. This is when the writer started focusing on the women who were the neglected lot with loans. The writer believes that poverty is caused by the system while the poor are just victims of circumstances.
Discussion
I agree with the idea that poverty is as a result of the system. The system is not ready to support the poor people to be able to improve on their life but instead they are interested in the well off persons. This can be very well illustrated by the example given by the writer where he picks on a doctors daughter and asks if she will go back to illiteracy. The answer is a resounding no! She will definitely work hard to be a better person than the father because she has the opportunity. She has an opportunity because her father has the money to pay for her education. It all comes back to one thing, opportunity; everyone needs this to be able to improve on their life. If you take scenario of a bright student coming from a poor background ends up missing an opportunity to pursue further studies and later in life ending up as worthless person who cannot afford descent life, it would be an understatement to write off this student as either lazy or useless since given a chance as one from rich family probably he/she would have become the a doctor would have discovered HIV cure or the prominent lawyer or educationist just to name but a few.
The writer posses the question, “what is wrong with the system?” I believe the system has been developed for the rich. Poor people do not belong. The system has no faith in the poor people and they are not willing to fix or change it in order to accommodate everybody. To do away with poverty systems should be changed and not the poor people trying too hard to be part of this system. Many people languish in poverty since they cannot sustain their businesses. If these people were entitled to loans they could slowly, but gradually build up the empires to be wealthy people. Instead, they try hard only to fall back due to lack of support. Many people are creative but lack the capacity to build their dreams into reality. If system is favorable to all, that is there are programs in place well laid down by the government that takes care of the education, health and wellbeing of all children regardless of their family background, every citizen could have the opportunity to shape their destiny. It from this reasoning that the writer believe that it is the system to blame and not the poor.
Reference
Yunus, M., 2000. The Role of Corporation in Supporting Local Development. Reflections, vol. 9 No. 2
