Mohammed Mehedi Masud( the writer) with Professor Muhammad Yunus at the University of California Berkeley in U.S.A. on April 19 ,2002.
   

December The news came as a delight to Bangladeshis living at home and abroad, who cheered the event as a great national honour. Telephone calls from international media and world dignitaries started pouring in congratulating Professor Yunus. Giving his reaction, Yunus said that the award is a great honour for him as well as for Bangladesh. ‘It’s a recognition of our work. As a Bangladeshi, I am proud that we have given something to the world. Our work has now been recognised by the whole world.’
   Dr.Yunus, the micro-credit pioneer, is now 66. He, however, conquered the world much before. He has been almost a household name in many developed and developing countries for his unique model of micro-finance targeting the poor, who have no access to banking fund. His model of small-credit, with the best possible repayment record, has been replicated in many countries including USA, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda, and acclaimed by global agencies like the UN.
   As a young professor of economics at Chittagong University, Yunus took a small credit scheme in his country home for cooperative farming. Perhaps he did not know that his experimental scheme sowed the seed of a micro-credit bank, which would be a brand name for Bangladesh in a few decades and bring him the Nobel prize just after 30 years. Set up in 1976, the Grameen Bank now have nearly 66 lakh small borrowers, mainly women, supported by the bank for taking micro ventures—be it farming or small shops. Yunus, whose interest ranges from farming to information technology, loves to tag poverty to everything. He ventured upon a mobile phone scheme targeting rural women to give them self-employment and help widen communication scopes in remote countryside. A campaigner of information superhighway, he also believes that information communication technology can play a great role in the fight against rural poverty.
   Dr.Yunus has already had scores of other global prizes, including Seoul Peace Prize to be handed over this month. he announcement of Yunus and Grameen Bank winning the Nobel peace prize this year came as a surprise to many observers and commentators, who had expected someone involved in global peace-making deals to win the prize. Former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, who brokered Indonesia’s Aceh peace deal and Australia’s former foreign minister, Gareth Evans for his International Crisis Group were the forerunners.
   This is for the second time in three years that the Nobel Peace Prize went to the area of sustainable development instead of direct peace-making efforts. Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai got the award in 2004, while the 2005 peace prize went to International Atomic Energy Agency and its Egyptian director general Mohamed El Baradei.

Poverty-free world is Yunus’s dream
----By Md. Abul Baki

    Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus termed the accolade a great pride for the country and said it will encourage him further to dedicate himself for improving the lives of the poor. Soon after hearing the news of getting the Nobel Peace Prize, professor Yunus said a world free from poverty is his dream and he will work to make Bangladesh as a poverty-free nation.‘I am delighted. It is a matter of great joy for the country and countrymen. It’s such a pride that will elevate the country’s image abroad,’ Yunus said, giving his formal reaction to the media at his Mirpur residence.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and Mohammed Masud While was studying his Engineering degree at the University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A. on April 19,2002.
   Clad in his trademark fatua, a smiling Yunus was busy receiving friends, colleagues and admirers, who started flooding in their hundreds since the news broke in the afternoon to greet him.
  Prof. Yunus said that he will donate all the prize money to the interest-free projects of the Grameen Bank to help economic development for the poor people. Asked how he sees the winning of peace prize when he works in the field of economic development, Yunus said, ‘Though we work for eradicating poverty, but ultimately it establishes peace in the society as there is a link between peace and poverty. I believe that economic growth and development will ultimately establish peace. Eradication of poverty can give you real peace. There is no self-respect and status when you are poor,’ he said. About his next steps, the first-ever Bangladeshi Nobel prize winner said the war against poverty would get further boost across the world through a bigger network of micro-credit stretching from country to country.
   Every poor person has the vision to live a decent life and there is a need to show them the way for making the vision true, he said. Dr.Yunus also believed peace will descend on the country if all efforts are put together.
   Prof. Yunus appeared before the media accompanied by his wife Afroz Yunus and daughter Deena Afroz Yunus at the lawn of his residence at 4:00pm. It took him about one hour to make his way into the conference through a thick crowd of admirers, many holding bouquets in their hands.

Profile of the visionary

By M Masud
 

Nation hails Yunus
Banglaconnect Correspondent

The entire nation went euphoric as soon as international media reported on Friday afternoon that Professor Muhammad Yunus had won this year’s Nobel peace prize.
   The proud nation greeted him for his being the first-ever Bangladeshi to win a Nobel prize as well as for his accomplishment and that of his famed Grameen Bank.
   People from all walks of life—from the head of state to the homeless, from learners to professionals—greeted the news with joy.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, congratulated Muhammad Yunus for winning the Nobel peace prize for his innovative micro-credit concept serving the poor.
   The president, in a message said, Yunus’s Grameen Bank was not only a model for Bangladesh, but was also being followed by different countries in alleviating poverty and his winning the Nobel peace prize had made the country and its people proud.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in her message said, ‘this is a much awaited prize. It is not only a great honour for Yunus himself, but also a pride for Bangladesh.’
   Khaleda said micro-credit concept was a basic innovation of Yunus that saw tremendous success in alleviating poverty in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
   ‘This is a recognition of the success of Bangladesh which has strengthened our national pride and identity,’ said the BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan. ‘I am congratulating him on behalf of the BNP and the people and also thanking the Norwegian Nobel Committee for naming Yunus as the winner of the prize,’ he said in a statement.
   The Awami League-led opposition alliance congratulated Muhammad Yunus on his winning Nobel peace prize.
   The AL presidium member, Tofail Ahmed, at a press briefing after a meeting of the opposition alliance leaders at the AL central office, said the prize was a great pride for our country. The Grameen Bank is working relentlessly for poverty alleviation, Tofail said on behalf of the 14 parties.
   The Jatiya Party chairman, Hussein Muhammad Ershad, who had issued licence to Yunus to launch his micro-credit scheme in 1980s, was also happy at the news.
   Ershad recalled that he had issued the licence to Yunus through an ordinance though the bank was then, in fact, a government organisation. ‘We have some contribution to his success,’ he told newsmen.
   The British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, said, ‘we congratulate Dr Yunus on his receipt of Nobel prize. This great award and honour is a tribute to him and the Bangladeshi nation.’
   Anwar Hossain Manju, the leader of a faction of the Jatiya Party, in a statement said, ‘we are delighted at the winning of Nobel prize for first time by a Bangladeshi national or institution.’
   President of the National Alliance of Disabled People’s Organisation, Abdus Sattar Dulal in a statement lauded Yunus on behalf of the poor and disabled people.
   The news came as a pleasant surprise to Nurnunnahar Begum, 40, a subscriber of Palli Phone service in village Lohair in Muksudpur of Gopalganj. ‘Is it so? I wish him more success,’ she said.
   The president and chef executive of Telenor, a major shareholder of the Grameen Phone, Jon Fredrik Baksaas said, ‘we are proud of being a part of the development in Bangladesh and for working in close cooperation with Grameen Bank. We convey our sincere congratulations to Muhammad Yunus, for whom we have the deepest admiration. I am looking forward to expressing our greetings to him in person.’
   Grameen Phone in close collaboration with Grameen Bank has introduced the unique Palli Phone concept. Palli Phone is based on the micro finance concept, offering low-cost loans to women, allowing them to buy a mobile phone and set up a mobile phone exchange service in the village.
   The Post Graduate Doctors Association president, Professor Kazi Shahidul Islam, and its secretary general, Rakibul Islam Litu, also congratulated Professor Yunus.
   Our staff correspondent reports from Jaipur: The Bangladesh cricket team on Friday congratulated Dr Muhammad Yunus on his winning the Nobel peace prize. The team was playing its final qualifying match of the ICC Champions Trophy against Zimbabwe when they received the historic news.
   ‘The news has uplifted the spirit of the team and we join in the celebration with every Bangladeshi around the globe at this proud moment of the nation,’ said the team in a statement.
   ‘The team wishes Yunus a lifetime success in his every endeavour,’ added the statement.
   Our staff correspondent from Chittagong reports: The Chittagong elite and leaders of different socio-cultural and political organisations greeted Yunus for his being named the winner of Nobel peace prize this year.
   The Chittagong City Corporation mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, vice-
   chancellor of Chittagong University, professor Badiul Alam, vice- chancellor of Premier University, Dr Anupum Sen, the BNP city unit convener, Wahidul Alam MP, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, chairman of Chittagong Metropolitan Socio-economic Development Coordination Committee, Nurul Islam BSc, chairman of the department of economics at the CU, Dr Mohammed Sirajul Haque and a former colleague of the Nobel laureate, professor Sikandar Khan were among the eminent persons who felicitated Yunus