there is little point wasting time that can be spent on
exciting 2010s but if you want to join me on this longer-term transparency campaign project "demanding world
service apology from the governors of BBC" then this is what your peers and you need to start thinking about in
terms of the media crisis we are in
Below is roughly the reality of the
relationship between Grameen and leadership in Norway during the decade 1996-2006
(if the 5 million good citizens of norway need help in publishing consider norway as one of 5 most peace investing nations then my family's associations would happily pay for the micropublishing but meanwhile why not paste what I have started and open space it among those
peers who understand wordwide innovation as conflict resolution )
and below that
the BBC’s fragrant mis-reporting in the last week. If there are any networks of people who feel able to join in communications
to BBC governors about this appalling misuse of the media in the name of british people who own the BBC (and therefore are
ultimately responsible for its transparency and truthful purpose of world service) I would like to hear from leaders
of Womens networks - www.journalistsforhumanity.comhttp://www.guidemakers.net/http://www.worldcitizen.tv/http://www.sbfilms.com/www.microcredit.tvwww.saintjames.tvhttp://www.sbworld.tv/www.unacknowledgedgiant.comjournalists networks ; good news youth goals
networks; yunus social business partners in 2010s most exciting decade, as well as economists - INDEED
all most welcome to send me ideas on BBC project at any future time
En Passant: Some interconnecting projects
I am expecting responses on from leaders who my family social business invested in or invited to openly collaborate:
Youth ambassador 5000 - connecting 5000 youth alumni who have actually
visited bangladesh and know how microcredit works and whosepeer to peer networking processes need to be
able to swarm on false media stories; ultimately we get what global media youth stand up for- all of the
huge expenses of branding (now often more than the production cost of anything) ultimately come back to dialogue with youth
; unlike so-called democratic western governments whose macroeconomists ultimately represent the interests of elders and speculators
in vested interests who can change short-term voting patternsConnecting the bangladeshi intern instructions with one portal run by
worldwide youth – www.mficonnect.com seems the most obvious candidate unless you have other viewsGlasgow partners
of yunus starting a youth survey on 2020 goals with the thousand plus youth whose email permissions they have for such a purpose
so we can start cataloguing goals and matching social businesses; open source use of such uptodate league tables of sustainability
goals and solutions wherever 3000 youth festivals are staged to celebrate social business or joy of economics grounded in
community sustainability and investing in the next generationUniting action newsletters to an
end of month deadline on next month’s events and project needs until a million supporters of social business have the
same timely actionable news to hub round
Publishing good
news leaflets from twin future capitals in the series my father started in The Economist with consider Japan in 1962 and commemorated
with his life last month with the launch of www.considerbangaldesh.comat the boardroom of The Economist – nest year the world’s most
entrepreneurial networking nation Bangladesh is 40 year old- that ought to be one of the great celebration of exciting 2010s
– is your capital joining in or not?
What happened out of Norway
1996: Norad the Norwegian Aid agency questioned Grameen Bank as to why some
of its aid for microcredit was also helping with the emerging social business of microhealth “Grameen Kalyan”
1998: The formal conclusion to this inquiry was completed with these words:
May 26, 1998: H.E. Ambassador
Hans Fredrik Lehne and Einar Landmark write, "The Embassy highly appreciates your cooperation in solving this issue,
and is pleased to have arrived at a solution which is satisfactory for Grameen Bank as well as the embassy".2006 Norway awards Yunus half a Nobel prize, and the
then 7 million (female) members of the bank the other half of the Nobel Prize Dec 2010 A sensation-driven journalist called Heinemann gets "Caught in Micro Debt" shown on Norwegian National Television mis-contextualising 1996
all over again. An online web published out of bangladesh co-sponsored by the BBC viralises the noise
http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=180277
What Happened in Bangladesh taken from the book : Women at The Centre published in 1996
In 1992, the Malaysian journalist Helen
Todd started2 years statistical study of what had happened to grameen families who had taken multiple
loans over the 10 year period since the opening of Grameen as a bank constituted by bangladeshi law as owned my the members.
A huge amount of data was collected but on relatively small sample of 40 Grameen families and a control group of 24 non-grameen
families. It was found that among Grameen members : a majority 57% had ended poverty; conversely 15% were extremely poor,
the rest were in between. The main conclusion: when we look at the those who re floundering badly we find a combination of
chronic ill health of the male breadwinner coupled withlack of activity by his wife with their capital
being used for emergency consumption and medical treatment.Recommendations: for Grameen to improve its impact the health scheme currently being tested
should be encouraged everywhere;
we also note as
the average grameen female member with 10 years experience of the bank is 37 and half year old and husband 46 andhalf year old – so increasing number of members will become widowers so it is important to look t how they can
build their basis for independence and what the bank can do to strengthen them
No amount of quantitative data can make up for the verbatims
that the research notated. These are two examples from Grameen members:
There are women in this village who
are richer than me. They have taka, but they have no power. I know everything that goes on in my house. My husband will discuss
all the work with me and gives accounts to me of all that io sold. I am strong because the bank is behind me and if there
is any disaster then the Bank worker and the (60) centre members will come to see me and I know I will not fall. This is why
I am so brave nowadays.
Dont you dare write that
our husbands only love us because of Grameen Bank Taka. My husband loved me before. But since I becameGrameen
bank member , because I am earning and taking loans, the whole fmiliy treats me with more respect
Norway says it is examining reports that Nobel Peace Laureate
Muhammad Yunus allegedly diverted millions of dollars of aid money from a bank.
International Development Minister Erik
Solheim said that it was "totally unacceptable that aid is used for other purposes than intended".
A documentary
maker has alleged that cash was diverted from Professor Yunus' Grameen Bank to other parts of Grameen.
In a statement,
the bank said that the allegations were false.
It said that a full explanation with more details would be provided at
the "earliest convenient time".
The bank was set up by Professor Yunus to provide micro-credit - or small
loans - to the poor.
The move by the Norwegians - who insist that no criminal activity has taken place - comes at a
time when the reputation of the micro-credit industry has been under attack.
The original aim of the micro-credit concept
was poverty reduction, but in recent years some micro-financial institutions have been criticised over exorbitant interest
rates and alleged coercive debt collection.
In the south-eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, for example, micro-loans
have been blamed for a series of suicides among struggling farmers.
It is estimated some 250 organisations in the state
have handed out loans totalling more than £1.65bn (£883m), only a small proportion of which have been paid back.
Objections
The Grameen Bank's denial followed the release of a documentary by Danish filmmaker,
Tom Heinemann, who claimed Professor Yunus and his associates diverted nearly $100m of grant money to another company - Grameen
Kalyan - which was not involved in micro-credit operations.
Mr Heinemann said he stumbled upon the documents and letters
relating to the alleged transfer while doing research for his documentary on micro-credit.
"I got most of the
documents from the archives of Norad, the Norwegian aid agency in Oslo," he said.
The Grameen group of more than
30 companies headed by Professor Yunus is divided between those not operating for profit and those which do.
Mr Heinemann's
report alleged that after the Norwegian authorities raised objections to the alleged transfer of funds, the Grameen bank returned
about $30m. The aid money was from Norway, Sweden and Germany.
Professor Yunus, known as the Banker to the Poor, and
the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 "for their efforts to create economic and social development
from below".
Replicated model
The economist founded the bank, which is one
of numerous organisations now providing loans to the poor - especially women - in Bangladesh.
The micro-credit lending
model has been replicated in other parts of the world.
Reacting to the latest report, the Norwegian authorities say
they have no suspicions of tax fraud or corruption committed by Grameen Bank.
"Having said that, the Government
of Norway finds it totally unacceptable that aid is used for other purposes than intended no matter how praiseworthy the causes
might be," Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim said in a statement e-mailed to the BBC.
Mr
Solheim said that he had asked the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation for a full report on the matter.
"At
the same time it is important to stress that we are firm believers in micro-finance as a tool in the fight against poverty,"
he said.
The documentary "Caught in Micro Debt" was shown on Norwegian National Television earlier this week.
"I
travelled to Bangladesh, India and Mexico to find out whether micro-credit loans have really helped the poor. But I found
out that poor people are getting into more and more debt because of micro-credit loans," Mr Heinemann told the BBC.
He
said that he was not accusing Professor Yunus of misusing the money or personally benefiting from the transfer.
http://yunusolympics.com eg 1 clean energy; 2 end nurseless communities; 3 create blion jobs with new tech and youth; 4 turn
education bottom up;
peterYour contribution to USAID virtual dialogue on this transparency-destructing
area of globalisation distortion is a really big one; I was quite upset I couldnt get into yunus berlin day hosted with
peter eigen ex head of transparency international but they called themselves some private berlin club
none
of us have the experience of battling the world bank and other elites as regards africa that you have; and when for example
you say in prior mails that the major systemic concern of the world bank these days is to fund the enormous pensions
now owing to the bubble of staff who are retiring, it seems to me clear that government to government institutions are the
greatest macroeconomic wastemakers blocking end poverty's race
YOUR FESTIVALPANEL
do we
anywehere have 3 or 4 people who as a group share your argument and life experience context?; I am in so many system changes
think-panels that I dont want to be in this one; it annoys me a hell of a lot that there is such system waste but there is
no way I can argue it politely
I am making an assumption that londoners will be asked to form abouth 12 olympics
sb festival panels and to make sure that all their ideas are animated, co-published, web-networked coming together in
summer of 2012; this is both a long way off and not at all a long way off if all panel's ideas are to be worked out in
a way that make sense to them and other panel members
we do not know if yunus will give us overall coordinating
authority of such panels; if we ever do get the green light then this panel question will urgently need to be formed if a
panel of this elite transparency is to be one of the things londoners sb festival animates
if understand
correctly yunus collaboration gameboard most matching peter is yunus call to start an asian union on a micro
up model that is every way the opposite of the euro union or world bank or united nation models -see left column of http://collaboration11.blogspot.com/ for yunus india speech that majored on asian union
I dont know if anyone circulated or whom I could
have circulated ultmately feels in the same area as I interpret peter to be; if so please communicate with him particularly
Peter we had that day when we both met senior guy from oxfam usa and guy who networks diversity interests
through world trade sites- are these people to try and get on this panel
chris
In a sensible world Yunus Olympics festival would build onWhatever global grameen summit 2010 connectsWhatever
microcreditsummit 2010 and 2011 connectsOther micro up or collaboration
partner events
As well as feed in to the milan 2015 whose mayor has already been booked by yunus as likely to be number millennium
goals SB festival; quite frankly UK outside scotland hasn’t actioned much in terms of yunus global partners except through
ashden energy dimension; if it wasn’t for the Olympics being the main world stage yunus wants to co-brand in the next
5 years he’d probably write most of uk off as not a SB country however hard people like mostofa and Sofia try t make
it one; but that is why uk yunus mustn’t lose Olympics sb festivals to outside organizers whilst inviting everyone in
micro change world to map how london can open source their micro up solutions or biggest crisis challenges and do this in
such a way that the bbc sees its future is in helping to animate the beyond gov solutions to sustainability not be constrained
within that as if one dimensional political parties can ever resolve sustainability most long term and cross-border challenges
--- On Tue, 29/12/09, communities@seepnetwork.org <communities@seepnetwork.org> wrote:
From: communities@seepnetwork.org <communities@seepnetwork.org> Subject: Comment for Discussion: USAID Launches Value Chain Development Wiki To: chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk Date:
Tuesday, 29 December, 2009, 15:07
(((Please Reply ABOVE this Line to Post a Comment))) ---------------- Greetings Chris Macrae, Comment by PeterBurgess: Distortion - economic damage and a better framework
for analysis Dear Mozharul Islam
You raise the issue of “distortion”
in the community economy that results from the activities of development agents …. whether this is government intervention,
humanitarian relief, World Bank “projects”, foreign direct investment, etc. This matter
is rarely incorporated either in the “planning” of projects for relief and development nor in the typical “monitoring
and evaluation” process. In my own work in this area, I have always tried to think through this because it is a big
issue and explains a lot about the rather widespread failure of development … as described in many books, and most
recently by Dambisa Moyo in her book “Dead Aid” The Community Analytics (CA) framework
has a value chain analysis dimension over time … essentially a combination of value accounting with some Keynesian
overtones, the good impact of a project when it is starting and being set up … then offset when the project is winding
down some time later. But it is worse, the good that a project does while it is being funded is also offset against the long
term distortion that the project introduces into the community. This distortion is in many aspects of the economic arena.
One important area is the salary distortion that externally funded projects introduce into the local economy that are totally
unsustainable without external funding. Another area is in funding expectations for local entrepreneurs who may get subsidy
while the project is operating, but not when it ends … and their business crashes. All sorts of other distortions come
into the local economy when a project launches … and another set when the project ends!
The metrics used by the World Bank, most academics, and all the other participants in the development space totally
fail to address this problem in part because most if not all of the metrics are about the project, the organization and the
intended clients with little consideration and analysis of the economic issues beyond this envelope … either in terms
of organization, space or time. The framework of Community Analytics addresses this in a very simple
but powerful way … rather than doing analysis from within the organization as is most usually practiced, the perspective
of the analysis is community centric. Thus for example it is possible with the prevailing metrics
for a BRAC or Grameen or any other MFI to report on their performance and it is difficult to validate or discount the claims
… and it is easy for the detractors of the BRAC or Grameen performance to find examples of places where the performance
seems to have been less than claimed. Both are probably right … but the argument is a waste of time.
What we need to know is whether the communities … all of them … each of them … are/is progressing or
not, and to what extent the various interventions, including or not, the intervention of MFIs seems to be helping or not …
and if not, whether it is the MFI’s performance that is at fault or other factors in the community.
Wherever I have worked with a community focus, it has been very clear what big issues were getting in the way of progress
… or facilitating progress. The further one moves away from community analysis the less clarity there is … and
the more the argument and the role of prejudice and opinion. Peter Burgess Tr-Ac-Net Inc. Community
Analytics (CA)
Posted in reply to: USAID Launches Value Chain Development Wiki in group SEEP Community Discussion.
Inconvenient Truth: Humanity has never been capable of sustaining
giant organisational systems and giant organisational systems cannot sustain humanity. Read how The Economist foresaw back in 1976 that gigantic organisations have no place in entrepreneurial futures.
Be the system corporate, government, capitalist, communist, profesional or academic, giant system failure happens
like this -
eventually an error or conflict with
true purpose enters into the giant system unchecked- it then spreads and compounds over time like a cancer -destroying
how goodwill needs to flow relentlessly when spinning true purpose between productive and demanding relationships
of all the people in the system;
next the top of the system gets separated from serving the
system's outside such as customers or environment; from then on each quarter the system gets ever more ruled by the vested
interests of the top people- often accidentally, often as they pay professionals to advise them who knowingly or unkowingly
echo what the top wants to hear. What Gandhi called loss of Satyagraha just as Winston Churchill was warning the West about
Inconvenient Truth
In the modern era, I first encountered giant system's vicious
conditioming in a Big 5 accounting firm in 1989. I had been summoned to a senior partner's office- there on the wall behind
his desk was a huge plaque - I recommend firm XXX because they always do precisely what I tell them to do. Robert Maxwell.
Maxwell was one of the early billion dollar collapses that the globalizing professions failed
to spot ahead of time. A few years later I encountered the same tragedy in one of the world's largest advertising agencies-
there was a plaque recommending the agency as always communicating what we want signed by one of the Big 5 accounting firms!
By 2000 Unseen Wealth expert research, whose reports were issued out of Brookings and Georgetown
in Washington DC and later confirmed by intangibles research at the European Union in Brussels: stated that unless we
introduced a missing mathematical audit to counter quarterly monetization's smash and grab, compound implosions of trillion
dollar entities would spiral- of which the impacts of Enron, Andersen and the media censorship of both sides of the Atlantic
in the carbonised race to the Iraq war were early examples.
By late 2007 the confusion between
DC and New York and globally mediated macroeconomists had set the stage of multi-trillion dollar meltdowns linking
subprime, ratings agencies, wall street's biggest banks and financial services and many of their bretheren in NW hemispheres.
Nor was this all. At least a decade of hiring america's brightest MBAs to work creative numbers replaced truly needed
investments like that of the next generation's green energy or healthcare. We will log deeper reporting of these folie
majeurs in 3 columns- on the left is the Scottish microeconomic view of why giant systems always fail eventually; it is based
on nearly a third of a millennium of entrepreneurial questioning how Scotals lost nation's independence to an international
banking scam of 1700; in the middle column is the only nation to have spent its entire life beaming up true microeconomics
solutions - a third of a century - building its economy up from the bottom and collaboratively across open networks : its
future capitalism offers of partnership offer solutions for the worldwide to connect with; in the right hand column we look at future
history since 1984 and help youth ask of future capitalism: will this turn of the first decade in century 21 map how to prevent the world wars and great depression
that the 20th century rolled out - Yes We Can collaborate transparently map, unite interactions around sustainability and
our generations race to end poverty - but will we?
coming soon - the 3 way contributions of Scotland, Bangladesh
and winwinwin Youthful curiosity
Transparency's Most Vital Survey
Ask
those who are over 50 and who make decisions or professionally advise on globalization system consequences, what have they
practiced over last third of a century.The people I trust most
to ending trillion dollar meltdowns
Muhammad Yunus who since 1976 has spent 33 years designing and practicing microcredit banking systems originally to help sustain the poorest
people and communities in Bangladesh, these systems now reach over 100 million or the poorest families around the world- they
have never needed a bailout. Dr Yunus invites youth ambassadors and leaders who facilitate what local to global future the www generation can sustain to his
69th birthday parts- Dhaka, 29 June 2009.
My father Norman Macrae whose 1976 survey in The Economist developed the concepts of Entrepreneurial Revolution around integrating small innovation
experiments until a community could understand the win-win-win purpose of any new invention and then replicate it through
free markets wherever societies could be sustained from the entrepreneur’s good news
As a mathematician
my own bio since 1976 is detailed and contributes some very minor pieces to such big picture heroes of where is humanity going
1976 started
compiling multi-million hours of interviews on what societies around the world wanted most; 1984 input scenarios of internet
age into my father's 2024 report - would the generation that went local to global design a hyper-connecting system to sustain
or end our species' future?; 1989 my book world class brands questioned whether transparency of global media would be
designed around hi-trust or low-trust; my 1995 book provided an audit of questions everyone connecting/compounding goodwill around
a leadership purpose needs to have updated answers to beyond just seeing quarterly numbers; 1998 first started mapping
value multiplying audits in response to a question on the future of the global accounting profession - on seeing interviews
of 100 leaders of one of Big 5 - forecast their implosion unless urgent and purposeful conflict resolution between entrepreneurial
inputs and value demands became their leadership team's job number 1; 2009 still struggling to explain to all 20th century's
biggest professions that their additive rules are the most dangerous theories we could possibly be ruled by in net working’s
connected (ie multiplicative) age. If you can help me or I can help you assess risks of a trillion dollar global system's
futures exponential up or down , I am chris.macrae@yahoo.co.ukWashington DC bureau 301 881 1655
co-author of monthly report on congressional oversight on tarp - in yesterday's monthly report we conclude
treasury policy only make sense if you believe the losses are unreal
kuttner - this is becoming the worst thing
ever to have happened to a generation of americans
help me if you have a simple way of explaining more of this since i get the feeling that 99%
of america doesnt really understand the full stories of what will happen next
anything surprise you on the weiss list ? personally I would upward rate whole foods, any others?
I must alert you, though, that many of today’s
safest banks are smaller, regional banks. So for the safest bank in YOUR area, be sure to follow my instructions on the Web
resource pages that come with your copy of The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide.
Second,
whatever bank you choose, make sure your deposits remain comfortably under the old FDIC insurance coverage limits
of $100,000. The new $250,000 per account limit is temporary; not something I believe you can rely on long term.
Third,
even the safest bank in America won’t be able to guarantee immediate access to your money if the U.S. government declares
a 1933-style banking holiday.
But if you’ve been worrying about how to make sure you have access to your cash
even in a massive banking meltdown, I have good news for you: The simple truth is, you don’t need to have a
savings or checking account at any bank, S&L or credit union!
In the 1930s banking crisis — and even in
the confusion of the Civil War — the U.S. Treasury has never defaulted on its debt. And even if you’re among the
minority of folks who would not trust the government with their money for the next 30 years, you can certainly trust them
for 13 weeks!
To buy a 13-week Treasury bill directly from the U.S. Treasury Department, just go to the TreasuryDirect
website, and follow the simple instructions they provide. You will have no intermediary standing between you and your investment.
Plus, if you check the appropriate box, your Treasury bills will be automatically rolled over as they mature.
Fourth,
money market funds that invest almost exclusively in short-term U.S. Treasury securities are even more convenient and can
give you most of the same deposit and checking services as a bank. Because your money is invested in Treasuries that are backed
up by the Rolls Royce of government guarantees, you never have to worry that your bank could go belly up.
Plus,
while the FDIC guarantees ONLY $250,000 of the funds you have deposited in banks, there is no limit to the Treasury
Department’s guarantee on all its Treasury securities, whether you buy them directly or through money market fund.
The
interest you earn is exempt from local and state taxes. The management fees are less than the account fees banks charge. When
you buy through a money fund, you can write checks on your balances, just as you do with any bank checking account —
and checking is truly free. Nor do you need separate accounts for checking, saving and time deposits.
Problem: Some
of these money market funds have close their doors to new investors. But in my book and with the Web resources that come with
my book, I give you the names of funds that continue to accept new money.
Plus, for my full list of 12 crucial
steps for keeping ALL of your money safe even in a worst case scenario, just grab a copy of The Ultimate Depression Survival
Guide and flip over to Chapter Six.
Step #4: Save your investments before it’s too late!
If you own stocks,
the best advice anybody could possibly give you right now is, simply, “SELL!”
Remember: From its peak in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 90%. That would be tantamount to
a plunge of more than 12,600 points from the Dow’s 2007 peak this time around — to a low of approximately 1500,
or an additional 80% decline from today’s levels.
But even in proportion to the size of the U.S.
economy, the debt bubble that preceded this depression is two times larger than the one that caused the great Wall
Street bloodletting in the 1930s. So it’s not a stretch to say that this bear market could be equally severe. And even
if it’s only half as bad, you’d still be looking at a further stock market decline of about 40%.
So
unless you can bear additional losses of 50% … 70% … up to 80%
