As long as banks are not a social business the way that Dr. Muhammad Yunus defined it, people have to come up with creative alternatives:

The Robin Hood Tax is the UK version of the Tobin Tax which was at the beginning of ATTAC in France ten years ago.

As an anti-poverty campaign, it is more pragmatic than the economic theories of Tobin Tax definitions or the political demands of the Attac network.

Supported by a coalition of 48 organisations, the Robin Hood Tax campaign spells out what the income should be spent on.

And in the spirit of our times, it uses Twitter and YouTube.

The video is set to private until the launch which is set to 0.05am in parallel with the 0.05% tax that Robin Hood wants to take.

However, Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, dismissed the idea of a Tobin Tax only recently, according to the FT.

Of course, this tax doesn’t get to the root of all evils, but at least it’s bound to capture people’s imagination!

The Daily Star in Bangladesh once again has good news about Grameen and Dr. Yunus: Family Bank, a microfinance bank licensed by the central bank of Bahrain, opened in Bahrain on Tuesday, said a statement of Yunus Centre.

The full article is here.

Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, called on Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, and discussed healthcare programmes of Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Healthcare Trust yesterday.

During the meeting at the Grameen Headquarters at Mirpur in the city, they also discussed Grameen’s nursing colleges, health management centres, eye care hospitals, thalassemia initiative and overall health issues pertaining to women, says a press release.

The Daily Star, January 12, 2010

Big idea might be learning to think small

By Paul Bennett

Published: December 30 2009 22:06 | Last updated: December 30 2009 22:06

I spend my life sitting in boardrooms across from chief executives asking me to help them find that mythical beast, “the big idea”. To them, I say this: “Small is the new big.”

I feel this even more strongly after a recent visit to Bangladesh to meet Muhammad Yunus, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. I wanted to better understand the Grameen organisation, its micro­financing banking system, and its collaboration with the global French food group, Danone. There, I would see with my own eyes what social enterprise looks and feels like when the rubber hits the road. In recent years, Ideo’s client base has increasingly been about designing not only for financial but also for social impact, and a visceral sense of the opportunities and realities was what I was looking to learn.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

This article can be found at:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c085c5f2-f571-11de-90ab-00144feab49a,_i_email=y.html

Here’s the link to the programme on microloans.

Critics need to be negative, as they can’t be creative, it seems. But in the US, any publicity is good as long as names are spelled correctly…

This article in the Financial Times reminds people of Prof. Yunus and the Grameen Bank.

Another article from the Daily Star Dhaka that reports about Professor Yunus’ remarkable activities.

The Daily Star in Bangladesh reports:

Yunus to deliver commencement address

Duke University is in Durham, North Carolina and announces the address as The Banker to the Poor here

It is really good to read how Prof. Yunus’ ability to act as role model for students is expressed in giving commencement addresses. Last year at MIT!

“Yunus changed the world”

says Obama as he confers US Presidential Medal of Freedom upon micro-credit guru

Afp, Washington

Here is the full article in The Daily Star

Although listed as last of 16 recipients, Dr. Yunus will be honoured as “Agent of Change” and receive America’s highest civilian honour on August 12.