Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
A book about poverty in Europe. In Bangladesh it’s all about poverty, but this is a book about the lives the poor led in Europe. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine. He discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate further, Lantier leads a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all.
Can you talk about some of the novels that have influenced your approach to poverty?
Both Germinal and A Tale of Two Cities made an impression on me. They are about the lives of poor people and the kind of life they lead in poverty. In Bangladesh it’s all about poverty, the extreme poverty you see around you and you want to do something about it. These books talk about poverty in Europe.
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Professor Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker, founder of Grameen Bank, economist and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance – loans for those too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. He has lifted millions of Bangladeshi families out of poverty. Yunus serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s $1 billion gift to support UN causes.
