From a Nobel Prize winner

It’s a question that hits anyone living in countries with poverty. What does one do when one sees a beggar? Walk on by? Drop a coin in the bucket?

Last night, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China hosted a talk by Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi who won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month for creating a micro-credit system that has lifted millions of people out of poverty in Bangladesh and other parts of the world.

Yunus, 66, is a soft-spoken man with a compelling story. His Grameen Bank founded three decades ago gives tiny loans to poor women who have no collateral so they can start their own tiny businesses. The system works, with repayment rates well above 90 percent.

There were lots of questions about how micro-credit might work in China, and why it appeared to be so successful among women with no experience with money.

At one point, though, a colleague asked Yunus an interesting question: What does one do when one comes across a beggar in the street? Yunus said, 'Don’t give money.' But his reasoning was particularly interesting. Hear his response in this audio link.

(We think the audio link on this has been fixed. Let me know if you still have problems.)

Comments

[Fons Tuinstra]

Eh, what audiolink?

[Florian]

Tim, can you check the audio file again. When I download it, its size is 0 KB. Thanks

[China Law Blog]

I couldn't get it to work either. 50-50 as to whether it is you or me.

[Dani]

I can´t download it, neither...