Enemies of Nobel Laureate Dr. Yunus

Noble Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus

  When discussing an issue, is it intellectually honest if certain information is kept hidden, while some selected information is released? Why is it done by certain people? Is it their intention to mislead the uninitiated public into thinking their way ? Is it a desire to fool people and make them adopt their own viewpoints?



I will give a specific example to show  you what tactics  some people employ to present partial information to the public to advance their cause.  You can then decide if the tactic employed is intellectually dishonest or not.

For example, in the recent barrage of attacks  unleashed on the brightest son of Bangladesh, Prime Minister   Sheikh Hasina, and her government's entire machinery started an ugly and vicious campaign to defame Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus. One of the tactics employed is to publicize selected statements from articles to sway public opinions against the father of microcredit. The hope is that by mounting blatant misinformation campaign by virtue of publishing excerpts from some articles  while hiding other facts from the same articles, public sentiment could be driven against the brightest star  of Bangladesh who is revered worldwide as the Poor Man's Banker.  Here's an example of an excerpt that Hasina's followers chose to publicize :

"In 1991, for example, Bangladesh ranked 136th on the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index (a measure of societal well-being); 15 years later it ranked 137th. And aside from the shortage of data showing benefits, there is evidence that some microcredit programs may actually be harmful, plunging the poor deeper into debt."

Hasina's Brigade is going gaga over the above mentioned lines published in an edition of Harvard Business Review because, to them, it looks pretty damaging to the concept that Dr. Yunus have floated and perfected over the decades. They have decided to selectively take these lines and flash it to the world making sure that the name "Harvard" is seen by all. 


In reality, is it really damaging?  Yes, it is damaging but for Hasina's Writing Squad only. It is not damaging to Dr. Yunus. Why not, you ask?

Well, you will be amused to learn that in the same article, authors Steve Beck and Tim Ogden , clearly and unequivocally stated:

"Don’t misunderstand: Microcredit can raise borrowers’ standard of living and help reduce poverty. In the past three years we’ve brokered investments in more than 150 carefully selected microcredit programs and have seen positive effects firsthand, including improved school enrollment, women’s empowerment, better nutrition, and increases in household incomes."

For the full article, click here:

Interesting, isn't it ? Question is why did Hasina's misinformation brigade forget to include these lines? Or was it intentional? I felt quite amused catching them red handed trying to pull a Hasina on their readers?


By the way, "pulling a Hasina" has a multitude of meanings:

1. Misleading
2. Lying, cheating
3. Stabbing on the back
4. Violating trust
5. etc.

Hasina has replaced the word Mir Zafor  (traitor)  in the Bangla vocabulary.

Prime Minister Hasina mobilized the entire state machinery to demonize Dr.Muhammad Yunus. The Economist said, "Sheikh Hasina’s government has chosen to join the ignominious little club of governments who turn against their own Nobel peace-prize-winning citizens."

Now that we have exposed these not-so-kosher claims by Hasina's Writing Squad, let us turn our attention to the authors - why did the duo say something negative about microcredit ?

In order to understand that, all we need to know is that Harvard Business Review listed the authors as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Knowledge Officer respectively of a philanthropic advisory firm! 

Hmmm, now it is clear - these two authors want the donations for micro-credit programs to go through them !! They want to play an advisory role to the donors for a fee! Genius !!! Now I understand why on one hand they say how lives have improved due to micro-credit, and then on the other hand they scare the donors so that the advisory firm the authors are in charge of may be retained as adviser ! It is, therefore, crystal clear that these two authors were also trying to pull a Hasina on the donors' eyes! A picture perfect example of conflict of interest.

So far we have clearly pointed out two things:

• Dishonest misinformation campaign by publicizing selected quotes but hiding other quotes from the same article, 
• The true intention of the authors which is to earn money as advisers by stoking fear among donors. 

We will now examine the claim the authors made about Bangladesh's Ranking on Human Development Index by the United Nations Development Programme or UNDP. For that let us visit the official website of UNDP. Below is a chart I got from that site.  Click the figures to enlarge.

Figure 1: Human Development Index (HDI) of Bangladesh obtained directly from the UNDP website . The chart clearly shows the rise of HDI of Bangladesh from mid 80s till date. The higher the number, the better. The lower line in Golden color is Bangladesh. Screen shot date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Just to have fun, lets look at another chart that shows the HDI of the U.S., Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.  Click to enlarge the chart.

Figure 2: In the above chart, the United States is shown in Blue. The line in red represents Zimbabwe. And the golden line represent Golden Bangladesh! This is directly from the UNDP website. From the chart it appears that Zimbabwe should urgently get into the micro-credit program, while the United States should consider it as well. Good thing is that Dr. Yunus' concept is also been embraced in the United States too. They know what a good thing is when they see one ;-)
Screenshot date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

And if you would like to see other graphs comparing Bangladesh's growth with the world and its region, here it is:

Bangladesh - Country profile of human development indicators

Screen shot date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Here is the rest of the page that shows the graph that will make you the proudest if you love Bangladesh or have no animosity towards it. It clearly shows that the Human Development Index of Bangladesh is rising at a steady rate which is much better than the World and SE Asia. Bangladesh is shown in blue.

Bangladesh - Country profile of human development indicators. This graph is an excellent visual representation of the rise of HDI of Bangladesh compared to the south east region of the world as well as the world. Screenshot date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Grameen Bank was established in the early eighties. As one can see, the rise of HDI accelerated since 1990.

By now, the reader must have an understanding whether to label Hasina's Writing Squad as dishonest or not. Also, Members of Hasina's Writing Squad know now that they have lost few more on whom they cannot preach with misinformation.  Hasina's Writing Sqaud of course will not stop and continue with their spreading of misinformation. 

I have spent a fair amount of time to expose how the not-so-fair tactic is employed with the hope that the next time you see something like this again, you can easily recognize it. When you see it again, and see you will, just walk away with a grin. They will know, "we know, we understand"  :-)

Resources:

1. Yunus Center

2. Grameen Bank - Wikipedia page 

3. Good Man Yunus

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