Confidential to MY
Do you really want to go there? It wasn't so long ago, you know.
One doesn't want to be too mean about Grameen, because their heart is in the right place, (albeit their bank is in a very different place on the Bangladeshi income scale than it used to be pre- the massive restructuring in 2001, a fact which is not always made clear in publicity material). But they really do have a strong habit of overselling their projects. Sobi Rani, the woman quoted in the article "'gets' the basis of successful banking". How much does she get it? She sells yoghurt door to door, that's how much she gets the basis of successful banking. Well, she doesn't actually sell yoghurt any more because the yoghurt didn't taste very nice, but there's a profitable Grameen yoghurt business now and she's involved in it. Well, maybe it's not profitable, but it's been redesigned and it's going to be all over the country! Well, it might not get distribution right away, but they're still growing and opening up factories. Well, they're not actually opening up any more factories, but if the sales get better and they solve all the problems and make a profit, then they might. But at least it's Bangladeshi people helping themselves. Well, Danone is doing most of the managing at the moment, but anyway, the point is, ADVANTAGE: GRAMEEN! In your face, capitalism and foreign aid! Microfinance rules!
I mean, give me a break here. After 33 years since Grameen was set up, Bangladesh is still a desperately poor country. The time for pretending that you had a silver bullet is long gone. Microfinance schemes probably have a role in the world, but it doesn't seem obvious at all to me that the planning of aid and development in Bangladesh ought to be built round the marketing material of one particular organisation.
In memoriam Daniel Pearl, by the way, who died seven years and just under three weeks ago.
Speaking of Russian jokes...
ReplyDeleteThat's the "Danny Pearl the able business reporter", not the "Danny Pearl sainted martyr of the war against Islamofascism."
ReplyDeleteWho's MY? The article's by someone called Liam Black...
ReplyDeleteMuhammad Yunus?
ReplyDelete... in one - he's quoted in there talking smack about other people being bailed out, and also telling outright porkies about his repayment rates.
ReplyDeleteThat's the "Danny Pearl the able business reporter", not the "Danny Pearl sainted martyr of the war against Islamofascism."
ReplyDeleteHas all connection between the two been severed, then?
Yunus has a very bad reputation among other people working in microfinance, in my (limited) experience - the concept is much older than him, and yet he talks as if he invented it. Hell, the Guomingdang were running near-identical schemes in China in the 30s and 40s, and I'm told there were similar Jesuit programs in South America as early as the 18th century.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous. I'd also tentatively suggest that if one were to score Grameen Bank on one of those lists of "red flags" that people conjure up for spotting Bernard Madoff (ex post), then you'd notice that you've got a high-profile chief executive who collects awards and medals, who promises totally unrealistic and undeliverable returns, who never pays dividends and who changes his explanation of what his business model is when under questioning. I think that this probably shows how useless those checklists are rather than anything more sinister (and I certainly wouldn't want to accuse Yuunus of peculation of any sort), but it does kind of explain how people get antsy. He sets off my radar like nothing on earth.
ReplyDelete