The question Muhammad Yunus was asking was whether it’s possible to harness the power of the market to address the problems of hunger, poverty and inequality. How could I go on telling my students make-believe stories in the name of economics?” And so he began studying the economic realities of the poor, and soon he hit upon a new theory that offering the poorest of the poor very small interest-free loans might be able to stimulate massive employment and economic development. He wrote at the time that “nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me. In 1974, when he was teaching economics at Chittagong University in southern Bangladesh, his country went through a terrible famine in which hundreds of thousands died. Our speaker today has spent his life forging a global alliance to combat poverty. Muhammad Yunus is an economist who has redefined what it means to be an economist. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?” against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. as a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle.

For if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” President Kennedy then goes on to issue one of his famous challenges: “Now the trumpet summons us again. One of them is this: “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves. Let me first express our thanks to the organizations that make these forums possible, starting with our lead sponsor, Bank of America, and our other generous supporters, Boston Capital, the Lowell Institute, the Corcoran-Jennison Companies, the Boston Foundation, and our media sponsors, the Boston Globe, NECN, and WBUR, which broadcasts these Kennedy Library Forums on Sunday evenings at 8.Īlthough it was delivered almost half a century ago, there are many passages in President Kennedy’s famous Inaugural Address that sound as if they might have been spoken yesterday.

I’m John Shattuck, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation, and on behalf of our Board of Directors and our Library Director, Tom Putnam, it’s a very special privilege to have this extraordinary program with our extraordinary guest.

We’re very honored to have all of you, and above all, to have our guest of honor who I will introduce. Congratulations on your good taste in coming to this event this afternoon in lieu of being outside in a very alluring and beautiful day. JOHN SHATTUCK: Good afternoon, and welcome to the John F.

Muhammad yunus religion