I landed back in New York on Tuesday after heading off for the airport at 4:40 am in Oslo with Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” still ringing in my ears. I resisted the impluse to tell everyone I met about the Nobel ceremony but I wondered if they knew. The people at SAS Airlines who checked me in had watched the Nobel Concert. They loved it and commented on how touching it was to hear Monica Yunus sing. They told me stories about their Princess (who has quite a past!) and the royal family.

DEBATES IN US?

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now wanted an interview for her Wednesday morning show so I agreed to do it. It turned out to also be a debate with well known activist Vandana Shiva from India. Had I known that in advance, I might not have gone! You can check out their website and judge the debate for yourself.

WHOLE FOODS IN OSLO

John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods, and his partner Deborah attended the festivities. Sitting next to me at the concert, John said that “Yunus spoke from his heart at the banquet Sunday night when he said he felt like he was in a dream….There is no higher honor for him. Now we should see a real acceleration of this movement around the world. It is one of the most important ways to end poverty. A lot more capital should flow into this movement now. Yunus has been so humble - there is almost no ego in it. And so gracious - and yet utterly confident and poised. He is a great role model in the public limelight. I’m really glad I came. As a businessman, I doubt if I’ll have the chance to come again.” And Deborah generously added, “One of the best things about coming here and being in this group is all the amazing people - doing what they can to be of service to the world.” Whole Foods’ foundation is backing Grameen Trust to build, operate and transfer a microfinance institution in Guatemala and Costa Rica.

LUNCH WITH THE BOARD, AUTOGRAPHING MY BOOK

One of my most tender memories is from my lunch on Monday that Grameen Foundation hosted for the Grameen Bank Board of Directors and staff and the visiting family members of Professor Yunus. I sat with the 9 Board members who come from the villages of Bangladesh. With the help of Jannat Quanine, one of the original students and the second highest ranking female staff person after Nurjahan Begum, I talked with the members about their lives and experience traveling to Oslo.

In addition to Taslima Begum who represented the Grameen Bank as the official Nobel Laureate, I spoke with Rukmiya from Sylhet who recounted her life story and the death of her father when she was just a baby. She spoke about the hard life her mother faced as she struggled to send her school to class 5 and the poverty she faced. Another member, Rohima was from Mushiganj. She asked, “how can I narrate my life? So terrible was my childhood I hate to remember it.” She also spoke about the loss of her father when she was very young and then the death of her mother 3 months later. Rohima struggled as most of the board members did with being married as a child, divorcing and being remarried. She also struggled to go to school and managed to get to class 8.

While all sharing common hardships and extremely difficult lives, Grameen Board members are generally the better educated members. Knowing this, I asked if the 9 women would do me the honor to autograph my copy of “The Poor Always Pay Back,” by Dipal Barua, Deputy Managing Director of Grameen Bank and Asif Dowla, now a professor at the University of Maryland. Both were students with Yunus in the original village of Jobra in 1976. Each member signed her name beautifully in Bangla, slowly drawing the characters with a deep reverance and pride.

I asked the Board members how they were enjoying this visit to Oslo, knowing that it was their very first time on a plane, and visiting any other country. It was their first time to see a Western-style hotel room and bathroom with tub and shower, to see a huge TV with remote and mini refrigerator. So many, many firsts! They drank it all in with amazement and delight. They each shared a room with a Grameen Bank staff person to help them adjust. While we had arranged Bangladeshi food for them for most meals, a few of them complained that they needed “green chiles” to make it tasty; it was just too bland!

They proudly proclaimed that they were heading from Oslo on to London, then Paris before returning to Bangladesh. Never before had they imagined such a trip! Their tour to ‘put poverty in the museum’ was certainly historic and most likely full of amusing moments and poignant memories.

At the Nobel concert, I looked over and saw half of them dozing off as the rock music blared. I smiled as they lept to their feet and began waving at the crowd when Yunus acknowledged them all to the crowd.

At the intermission, I carried back a bunch of gold medals with the face of Alfred Nobel on it that were filled with chocolate inside and distributed them to all the board members. With great curiosity they wondered what this was, probably hoping it was real gold. At least one of them discovered it was chocolate and ate it.

The Green Children

Another great moment was at the University of Oslo where the program was kicked off by a music video made by two Norwegian young people, Tom and Mille Sunde. To see it, go to their website www.thegreenchildren.org. It is a beautiful song, Hear Me Now, that has gorgeous footage of Bangladeshis in the village. These talented young people captured something essential about the beauty of the countryside and the people, no matter how poor in material terms. They want to continue to build a movement and engage more young people. Check it out.

www.muhammadyunus.org

Another fabulous organizing initiative by young people is the new website, www.muhammadyunus.org, that was established by Bangladeshi expatriates living in Japan, Korea, China, the US and other countries. They are young, well educated and idealistic. They seek to support and follow Dr. Yunus and do something for their country. Consider joining their Muhammad Yunus Support Association and getting a chapter going in your city. It is a spontaneous, genuine initiative worth supporting.

GANDHI?

The Chairman of the Nobel Committee mentioned something about Yunus being like Gandhi. Several news articles have made the same point. It made me recall my interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes in 1989 or so when I dared to compare Yunus to Mahatma Gandhi, or I said, in US terms, “Martin Luther King or Kennedy.” Many people at the time thought the comment was ‘over the top.’ But this insight had actually come to me like a thunder bolt some time earlier, in June 1987 when Yunus and me were visitng the Gandhi Ashram together in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. I recall looking over at him, carefully studying the exhibits - photographs of Gandhi’s campaign and life. I realized in a flash that this is what it must be like to be witnessing history in the making. That someday there would be exhibits chronicling his life and movement. From that point on, I had a clarity of conviction that never departed.

Now, back from Oslo, I meet friends in New York who tell me that they’ve seen his photos and can tell from those alone that he had a spiritual quality. He seems to radiate joy. His energy touches people in a way that moves them deeply. They feel his sincerity, his passion and compassion. They want to participate. They warn me people may want to use him now. They urge him to be careful.

I am moved listening to these stories. I feel hopeful. They ask me what Yunus’ agenda is now, post-Nobel. I reply in the best way I can. I tell them that he is serious about creating a world free from absolute poverty. He wants to scale up the microcredit movement and get people to participate in the Microcredit Summit Campaign. He also believes social business entrepreneurship is the best way to build sustainable solutions and alternatives. It is easy to critique. It is much harder though better to construct the alternative. Yunus wants us all to do what we can. He truly believes in the inherent potential of every person. He wants this power unleashed.

MUSLIM MAGIC

I think one of the most powerful messages of the Nobel Committee was to honor Yunus as one of the world’s greatest leaders and do it explicitly as a bridge to the Muslim world. When the word Muslim is often used in the same breath as ‘terrorist’ it is extremely significant that the Peace Prize go to a Muslim leader who has a different message. I happily follow his leadership and hope that the world understands the full import of his words and actions. Yunus lives his values. He is the real deal.

BLOG SINS

I fear I have now committed a real sin as I am told bloggers should keep their posts short and sweet. I have gone on way beyond this so I beg your forgiveness. This was my first time blogging and I confess that I loved it because so many people told me they’d read it and enjoyed it. Over 30,000 have read it even though only a few brave souls have posted comments. Alex, Sam and me all loved your comments. Feel free to post whatever you want. Someday this may end up as an exhibition in the world’s first poverty museum. Inshallah!

Susan

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 11:56 pm and is filed under nobelceremony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.