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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Grameen "banks"
  • Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 13:20:46 -0700

Toni Hawryluk wrote:

> Tvoivozhd---compassion is a poor engine for reform---it quickly burns out and relapses to the status quo. Self interest is more reliable. If the poor were perceived as a potential, but undeveloped market, you would have the business class clamoring to exploit a new opportunity. However our own poor within our own borders are perceived as worthless, indolent creatures upon which it is useless to expend money except for maintenance via soup kitchens and to some extent, temporary shelters. Grameen banks have proven this concept to be faulty, but we do not have
Grameen banks here or in poor Arab sections of rich Arab nations.
When I read the "story" of the original Grameen
bank (this was some years ago) I was struck by
two things :
first - the piddley (from a current industrialized
population viewpoint) $.amounts which, lent to the
"right" person, produced *such* results, and
second - that the "right" people were *all* women.

Toni


tvoivozhd---not surprising at all. In most societies dominated by instiutionalized religion (including our own) women are excluded from participation. It wasn't long ago that women in the U.S. could not own property, could not vote, could not hold public office and if slaves could be pursued, savaged and if their owner so chose, put to death without repercussion. Here the glass ceiling is a well-known phenomenon and wild disparity between pay for males and females, with one good result, most biisinesses are now started and owned by women in the U.S...

Women in any society tend to be more responsible than males, make better banking risks. The Grameen Bank in addition, inculcates even greater responsibility by lending to groups of women, making a group responsible for the debts of each individual woman, so they watch and cooperate with each other to minimize their own financial risk. Moreover, women in the Grameen experience, put aside a portion of their earnings to be re-invested in their initial or related business, so the multiplication factor is very high., and small initial amounts of capital quickly grow to large size. Grameen banks quite literally do not have credit losses.





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