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Grameen Foundation : What we do : Microfinance in Action : FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about Microfinance

What is microfinance?
What do local microfinance institutions (MFIs) do?
Where do MFIs get the money for loans?
Why is this different from other loan programs?
Are these people really poor?
What is the difference between microcredit and microfinance?
Why do you focus on women?
Can very poor people actually start and run a successful business?
Do very poor people repay their loans?
Do people really get out of poverty?
I’ve heard that MFIs charge a high rate of interest for the loans. Is that so?

What is microfinance?

Sometimes called “banking for the poor,” microfinance is an amazingly simple approach that has
been proven to empower very poor people around the world to pull themselves out of poverty.

Relying on their traditional skills and entrepreneurial instincts, very poor people,
mostly women, use small loans (usually less than US$200), other financial services,
and support from local organizations called microfinance institutions (MFIs) to start,
establish, sustain, or expand very small, self-supporting businesses.
 A key to microfinance is the recycling of loan dollars. As each loan is repaid—usually
within six months to a year—the money is recycled as another loan, thus multiplying the value of
each dollar in defeating global poverty, and changing lives and communities.

What do local microfinance institutions (MFIs) do?

These front line organizations reach out to the very poor and deliver microfinance services to
local clients daily. They educate local communities about the opportunity to improve their lives
with microfinance; make microloans and provide other financial services such as savings
accounts and insurance; collect weekly loan payments; and assist clients in solving some of
the life challenges they may face.

Many also provide social services, such as basic health care for clients and their children.

MFIs differ in size and reach: some serve a few thousand clients in their immediate area, while
others serve hundreds of thousands of very poor people through hundreds of branches covering
large regions. Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which was founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate
Dr. Muhammad Yunus, is the world’s largest and most successful MFI. It serves more than seven
million clients.

Where do MFIs get the money for loans?

Grameen Foundation provides funding for MFIs through direct loans, grants, loan
guarantees and other innovative financing techniques.

Other funding comes from individuals, philanthropists, foundations, and governments

and international institutions such as the World Bank.

MFIs also borrow funds from traditional banks to loan to their clients. In addition, the interest
paid by clients on microfinance loans goes back into the program to cover costs and fund more
loans.

One of the most attractive features of microfinance is the goal of self-sufficiency for both
microentrepreneurs and MFIs.

Grameen Foundation is spearheading several initiatives to give MFIs access to the private market
financing options available to traditional banks. By combining access to private market financing
with more efficient management and technology, MFIs can begin to move from reliance on
philanthropy to self-sufficiency.

Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has proven that this can be accomplished. It is totally self-
supporting and accepts no grants or donations.

Why is this different from other loan programs?

Unlike other loan programs, clients are not required to provide collateral to receive loans. This
allows people who would not qualify for loans at traditional financial institutions to receive credit.
MFIs are also very client-friendly
; most usually go to their clients to provide loans and receive payments, rather than
requiring their clients to come to them.

A few of them also use focal centers where clients gather to conduct financial transactions and
receive other social services.

The peer support system practiced by many microfinance programs is another unique
feature. When clients gather weekly at “center meetings” to make loan payments, or informally
in smaller support groups, they share successes and discuss ideas for solving business
and personal problems. Maybe most importantly, they empower each other to stay on the
path out of poverty. This mutual support strengthens their resolve.

In addition, MFI staff members share vital information and resources to improve their clients’ well
being. This might include bringing in local nurses to provide health and nutrition counseling, or
providing help with literacy. .

Are these people really poor?

Grameen Foundation’s MFI partners serve very poor people, many of whom are in rural areas
and live on only a dollar or so a day. While the exact dollar figures for measuring their level of
poverty may vary from country to country, one thing is constant: they are literally struggling
to live from day to day.

What is the difference between microcredit and microfinance?

Microcredit refers specifically to loans and the

credit needs of clients,
while microfinance covers a broader range of financial services that create a wider
range of opportunities for success.

Examples of these additional financial services include savings,

insurance,

housing loans

and remittance transfers.

The local MFI might also offer microfinance plus activities such as entrepreneurial and life skills
training,

and advice on topics such as health and nutrition, sanitation, improving living conditions,

and the importance of educating children.

Why do you focus on women?

Women have proven to be the best poverty fighters

. Experience and studies have shown that they use the profits from their businesses to send their
children to school, improve their families’ living conditions and nutrition, and expand their
businesses.

Can very poor people actually start and run a successful business?

Absolutely.

Many poor people have skills that can quickly become an income producing activity.

With small sums of money,------------------------------------------------- they are able to purchase the

inventory, supplies and tools needed to start or expand microbusinesses
------------------------------------------

------------------------------that range from weaving,

sewing,

grinding grain,

reselling produce,

and growing and selling vegetables,

to catching and selling fishing,

wholesaling dried fish,

raising chickens to sell eggs,

and breeding livestock.

We also help the rural poor start technology microbusinesses, ------------------------------------------such

as selling cell phone time to other villagers, (which also provides valuable means of
communications and access to vital information.)

These small ventures can grow into vibrant community businesses. One microentrepreneur in the
Philippines dried fish caught by her husband and sold them to local markets. The demand grew
quickly and she then hired her neighbors to help. Now, nearly 20 neighbors earn an income from
her family fish business, and her entire community is benefiting.

Do very poor people repay their loans?

Yes, microfinance clients are excellent credit risks. The repayment rate is between 95 and 98
percent. In fact, it is higher than the repayment rate of student loans and credit card debts in
the United States. They value the opportunity to improve their lives.

Do people really get out of poverty?

Microfinance is not a silver bullet.

It will not defeat global poverty by itself. But, it is an important part of the solution.

Microfinance provides a stable and sustainable source of income that enables clients to
climb steadily out of poverty, while providing better living conditions and opportunities for their
families. For some, that progress means moving from a house made of mud to one made of
wood. For others, it means better nutrition and the money to finally send their children to school.
A 1998 World Bank study showed that, in Bangladesh, Grameen Bank’s clients were escaping
poverty at the rate of 10,000 per month.

I’ve heard that MFIs charge a high rate of interest for the loans. Is that
so?

Like other financial institutions, microfinance institutions (MFIs) charge interest for the loans they
make to their clients.

The interest covers the high cost----------------of making very small loans

----------------------------------------------------and personally servicing each client every week.

-----------------------------------------------It also covers the cost of managing the “center meetings”;

-----------------------------------------------------& the peer support group process;

---------------------------------------and providing information on social services,

-----------------------------------& personal development,

______________________& health and

______________other critical information that helps clients improve their lives and the future of
their families. ----------Their rates are also largely influenced by the rates MFIs themselves pay for
borrowing the funds that they in turn lend to their clients.

MFI interest rates can range from 18 to 60 percent, depending on the conditions in each
MFI’s service area. Without microfinance programs, the most common alternative for very poor
people is the local “money lenders,” who regularly charge between 120 and 300 percent.

Muhammad Yunus
The Nobel Peace Prize 2006

English © THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2006

General permission is granted for the publication in newspapers

Norwegian
in any language. Publication in periodicals or books, or in digital

or electronic forms, otherwise than in summary, requires the

consent of the Foundation. On all publications in full or in major

parts the above underlined copyright notice must be applied.

Nobel Lecture
Nobel Lecture, Oslo, December 10, 2006.

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Grameen Bank and I are deeply honoured to receive this most prestigious of awards. We are thrilled and

overwhelmed by this honour. Since the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, I have received endless messages

from around the world, but what moves me most are the calls I get almost daily, from the borrowers of Grameen

Bank in remote Bangladeshi villages, who just want to say how proud they are to have received this recognition.

Nine elected representatives of the 7 million borrowers-cum-owners of Grameen Bank have accompanied me all

the way to Oslo to receive the prize. I express thanks on their behalf to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for

choosing Grameen Bank for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. By giving their institution the most prestigious prize in

the world, you give them unparalleled honour. Thanks to your prize, nine proud women from the villages of

Bangladesh are at the ceremony today as Nobel laureates, giving an altogether new meaning to the Nobel

Peace Prize.

All borrowers of Grameen Bank are celebrating this day as the greatest day of their lives. They are gathering

around the nearest television set in their villages all over Bangladesh , along with other villagers, to watch the

proceedings of this ceremony.

This years' prize gives highest honour and dignity to the hundreds of millions of women all around the world who

struggle every day to make a living and bring hope for a better life for their children. This is a historic moment

for them.

Poverty is a Threat to Peace

Ladies and Gentlemen:

By giving us this prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has given important support to the proposition that

peace is inextricably linked to poverty. Poverty is a threat to peace.

World's income distribution gives a very telling story. Ninety four percent of the world income goes to 40 percent of

the population while sixty percent of people live on only 6 per cent of world income.

Half of the world population lives on two dollars a day.

Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. This is no formula for peace.
The new millennium began with a great global dream. World leaders gathered at the United Nations in 2000

and adopted, among others, a historic goal to reduce poverty by half by 2015. Never in human history had such a

bold goal been adopted by the entire world in one voice, one that specified time and size. But then came

September 11 and the Iraq war, and suddenly the world became derailed from the pursuit of this dream, with the

attention of world leaders shifting from the war on poverty to the war on terrorism. Till now over $ 530 billion has

been spent on the war in Iraq by the USA alone.

I believe terrorism cannot be won over by military action. Terrorism must be condemned in the strongest

language. We must stand solidly against it, and find all the means to end it. We must address the root causes of

terrorism to end it for all time to come.

I believe that putting resources into improving the lives of the poor people is a better strategy than

spending it on guns.

Poverty is Denial of All Human Rights

Peace should be understood in a human way − in a broad social, political and economic way.

Peace is threatened by unjust economic, social and political order, absence of democracy, environmental

degradation and absence of human rights.

Poverty is the absence of all human rights.

The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. For

building stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives.

The creation of opportunities for the majority of people − the poor − is at the heart of the work that we have

dedicated ourselves to during the past 30 years.

Grameen Bank
I became involved in the poverty issue not as a policymaker or a researcher. I became involved because

poverty was all around me, and I could not turn away from it. In 1974, I found it difficult to teach elegant

theories of economics in the university classroom, in the backdrop of a terrible famine in Bangladesh. Suddenly, I

felt the emptiness of those theories in the face of crushing hunger and poverty.

I wanted to do something immediate to help people around me, even if it was just one human being, to

get through another day with a little more ease. That brought me face to face with poor people's struggle to

find the tiniest amounts of money to support their efforts to eke out a living. I was shocked to discover a woman in

the village, borrowing less than a dollar from the money-lender, on the condition that he would have the exclusive

right to buy all she produces at the price he decides. This, to me, was a way of recruiting slave labor.

I decided to make a list of the victims of this money-lending "business" in the village next door to our campus.

When my list was done, it had the names of 42 victims who borrowed a total amount of US $27. I offered US $27

from my own pocket to get these victims out of the clutches of those money-lenders. The excitement that was

created among the people by this small action got me further involved in it. If I could make so many people so

happy with such a tiny amount of money, why not do more of it?
That is what I have been trying to do ever since. The first thing I did was to try to persuade the bank located in the

campus to lend money to the poor. But that did not work. The bank said that the poor were not creditworthy. After

all my efforts, over several months, failed I offered to become a guarantor for the loans to the poor. I was stunned

by the result. The poor paid back their loans, on time, every time! But still I kept confronting difficulties in

expanding the program through the existing banks. That was when I decided to create a separate bank for the

poor, and in 1983, I finally succeeded in doing that. I named it Grameen Bank or Village bank.

Today, Grameen Bank gives loans to nearly 7.0 million poor people, 97 per cent of whom are women, in 73,000

villages in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank gives collateral-free income generating, housing, student and micro-

enterprise loans to the poor families and offers a host of attractive savings, pension funds and insurance products

for its members. Since it introduced them in 1984, housing loans have been used to construct 640,000 houses. The

legal ownership of these houses belongs to the women themselves. We focused on women because we found

giving loans to women always brought more benefits to the family.

In a cumulative way the bank has given out loans totaling about US $6.0 billion. The repayment rate is 99%.

Grameen Bank routinely makes profit. Financially, it is self-reliant and has not taken donor money since 1995.

Deposits and own resources of Grameen Bank today amount to 143 per cent of all outstanding loans. According to

Grameen Bank's internal survey, 58 per cent of our borrowers have crossed the poverty line.

Grameen Bank was born as a tiny homegrown project run with the help of several of my students, all local girls

and boys. Three of these students are still with me in Grameen Bank, after all these years, as its topmost

executives. They are here today to receive this honour you give us.

This idea, which began in Jobra, a small village in Bangladesh, has spread around the world and there are now

Grameen type programs in almost every country.

Second Generation
It is 30 years now since we began. We keep looking at the children of our borrowers to see what has been the

impact of our work on their lives. The women who are our borrowers always gave topmost priority to the children.

One of the Sixteen Decisions developed and followed by them was to send children to school. Grameen Bank

encouraged them, and before long all the children were going to school. Many of these children made it to the top

of their class. We wanted to celebrate that, so we introduced scholarships for talented students. Grameen Bank

now gives 30,000 scholarships every year.

Many of the children went on to higher education to become doctors, engineers, college teachers and other

professionals. We introduced student loans to make it easy for Grameen students to complete higher education.

Now some of them have PhD's. There are 13,000 students on student loans. Over 7,000 students are now added to

this number annually.

We are creating a completely new generation that will be well equipped to take their families way out of the reach

of poverty. We want to make a break in the historical continuation of poverty.

Beggars Can Turn to Business

In Bangladesh 80 percent of the poor families have already been reached with microcredit. We are

hoping that by 2010, 100 per cent of the poor families will be reached.

Three years ago we started an exclusive programme focusing on the beggars.

None of Grameen Bank's rules apply to them. Loans are interest-free; they can pay whatever amount they wish,

whenever they wish.

We gave them the idea to carry small merchandise such as snacks, toys or household items, when they went from

house to house for begging. The idea worked. There are now 85,000 beggars in the program. About 5,000 of them

have already stopped begging completely. Typical loan to a beggar is $12.

We encourage and support every conceivable intervention to help the poor fight out of poverty. We always

advocate microcredit in addition to all other interventions, arguing that microcredit makes those interventions work

better.

Information Technology for the Poor

Information and communication technology (ICT) is quickly changing the world, creating distanceless,

borderless world of instantaneous communications. Increasingly, it is becoming less and less costly. I saw an

opportunity for the poor people to change their lives if this technology could be brought to them to meet their

needs.

As a first step to bring ICT to the poor we created a mobile phone company, Grameen Phone. We gave loans from

Grameen Bank to the poor women to buy mobile phones to sell phone services in the villages. We saw the synergy

between microcredit and ICT.

The phone business was a success and became a coveted enterprise for Grameen borrowers. Telephone-ladies

quickly learned and innovated the ropes of the telephone business, and it has become the quickest way to get out

of poverty and to earn social respectability.

Today there are nearly 300,000 telephone ladies providing telephone service in all the villages of Bangladesh .

Grameen Phone has more than 10 million subscribers, and is the largest mobile phone company in the country.

Although the number of telephone-ladies is only a small fraction of the total number of subscribers, they generate

19 per cent of the revenue of the company. Out of the nine board members who are attending this grand

ceremony today 4 are telephone-ladies.

Grameen Phone is a joint-venture company owned by Telenor of Norway and Grameen Telecom of

Bangladesh. Telenor owns 62 per cent share of the company, Grameen Telecom owns 38 per cent. Our vision was

to ultimately convert this company into a social business by giving majority ownership to the poor women of

Grameen Bank. We are working towards that goal. Someday Grameen Phone will become another example of a big

enterprise owned by the poor.

Free Market Economy

Capitalism centers on the free market. It is claimed that the freer the market, the better is the result of capitalism

in solving the questions of what, how, and for whom. It is also claimed that the individual search for personal gains

brings collective optimal result.

I am in favor of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the

conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that

entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives − to

maximize profit. This interpretation of capitalism insulates the entrepreneurs from all political, emotional, social,

spiritual, environmental dimensions of their lives. This was done perhaps as a reasonable simplification, but it

stripped away the very essentials of human life.

Human beings are a wonderful creation embodied with limitless human qualities and capabilities.

Our theoretical constructs should make room for the blossoming of those qualities, not assume them away.

Many of the world's problems exist

because of this restriction on the players
of free-market . The world has not resolved the problem of crushing poverty that half of its

population suffers. Healthcare remains out of the reach of the majority of the world population. The country with

the richest and freest market fails to provide healthcare for one-fifth of its population.

We have remained so impressed by the success of the free-market that we never dared to express any doubt

about our basic assumption. To make it worse, we worked extra hard to transform ourselves, as closely as

possible, into the one-dimensional human beings as conceptualized in the theory, to allow smooth functioning of

free market mechanism.

By defining "entrepreneur" in a broader way we

can change the character of capitalism radically,
and solve many of the unresolved social and
economic problems within the scope of the free
market.
Let us suppose an entrepreneur, instead of having a single source of motivation (such as, maximizing profit), now

has two sources of motivation, which are mutually exclusive, but equally compelling –

a) maximization of profit and

b) doing good to people and the
world.
Each type of motivation will lead to a separate kind of business. Let us call the first type of business a
profit-maximizing business, and the second type of business as social business.
Social business will be a new kind of business introduced in the market place with the objective of making a

difference in the world.

Investors in the social business could get back their investment, but will not take any dividend from

the company.

Profit would be ploughed back into the company to expand its outreach and improve the quality of its product or

service.

A social business will be a non-loss, non-dividend company.

Once social business is recognized in law, many existing companies will come forward to create social businesses in

addition to their foundation activities. Many activists from the non-profit sector will also find this an attractive

option. Unlike the non-profit sector where one needs to collect donations to keep activities going, a social business

will be self-sustaining and create surplus for expansion since it is a non-loss enterprise. Social business will go into

a new type of capital market of its own, to raise capital.

Young people all around the world, particularly in rich countries, will find the concept of social business very

appealing since it will give them a challenge to make a difference by using their creative talent.

Many young people today feel frustrated because they cannot see any worthy challenge, which excites them, within

the present capitalist world. Socialism gave them a dream to fight for. Young people dream about creating a

perfect world of their own.

Almost all social and economic problems of the world will be addressed through social businesses.

The challenge is to innovate business models and apply them to produce desired social results cost-

effectively and efficiently.

Healthcare for the poor,

financial services for the poor,

information technology for the poor,

education and training for the poor,

marketing for the poor,

renewable energy − these are all exciting areas for social businesses.

Social business is important because it addresses very

vital concerns of mankind. It can change the lives of the
bottom 60 per cent of world population and help them to
get out of poverty.

Grameen's Social Business

Even profit maximizing companies can be designed as social businesses by giving full or majority ownership to the

poor. This constitutes a second type of social business. Grameen Bank falls under this category of social business.

The poor could get the shares of these companies as gifts by donors, or they could buy the shares with their own

money.
 The borrowers with their own
money buy Grameen Bank shares,
which cannot be transferred to
non-borrowers. A committed
professional team does the day-
to-day running of the bank.
Bilateral and multi-lateral donors could easily create this type of social business.

it could create
When a donor gives a loan or a grant to build a bridge in the recipient country,

a "bridge company" owned by the local poor.

A committed management company could be given the responsibility of running the company.
Profit of the company will go to the local poor as dividend, and
towards building more bridges. Many infrastructure projects, like roads, highways, airports,
seaports, utility companies could all be built in this manner.

Grameen has created two social businesses of the first type. One is a
yogurt factory, to produce fortified yogurt to bring nutrition to malnourished children, in a joint venture
with Danone. It will continue to expand until all malnourished children of Bangladesh are reached with this yogurt.

Another is a chain of eye-care hospitals. Each hospital will undertake 10,000 cataract
surgeries per year at differentiated prices to the rich and the poor.

Social Stock Market

To connect investors with social businesses, we need to create social stock market where only the shares of

social businesses will be traded.

An investor will come to this stock-exchange with a clear intention of finding a social business, which has a

mission of his liking.

Anyone who wants to make money will go to the existing stock-market.

To enable a social stock-exchange to perform properly, we will need to create rating agencies, standardization of

terminology, definitions, impact measurement tools, reporting formats, and new financial publications, such as,

The Social Wall Street Journal.

Business schools will offer courses and business management degrees on social businesses to train young

managers how to manage social business enterprises in the most efficient manner, and, most of all, to inspire

them to become social business entrepreneurs themselves.

Role of Social Businesses in Globalization

I support globalization and believe it can bring more benefits to the poor than its alternative. But it must be the

right kind of globalization. To me, globalization is like a hundred-lane highway criss-crossing the world.

If it is a free-for-all highway, its lanes will be taken over by the giant trucks from powerful economies. Bangladeshi

rickshaw will be thrown off the highway. In order to have a win-win globalization we must have traffic rules, traffic

police, and traffic authority for this global highway. Rule of "strongest takes it all" must be replaced by rules that

ensure that the poorest have a place and piece of the action, without being elbowed out by the strong.

Globalization must not become financial imperialism.

Powerful multi-national social businesses can be created to retain the benefit of globalization for the poor people

and poor countries.

Social businesses will either bring ownership to the poor people,

or keep the profit within the poor countries, since taking dividends will not be their objective.

Direct foreign investment by foreign social businesses will be exciting news for recipient countries.

Building strong economies in the poor countries by protecting their national interest from plundering companies will

be a major area of interest for the social businesses.

We Create What We Want

We get what we want, or what we don't refuse. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us,

and that poverty is part of human destiny. This is precisely why we continue to have poor people around us.

If we firmly believe that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized

society, we would have built appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world.

We wanted to go to the moon, so we went there. We achieve what we want to achieve. If we are not achieving

something, it is because we have not put our minds to it. We create what we want.

What we want and how we get to it depends on our mindsets. It is extremely difficult to change mindsets once

they are formed. We create the world in accordance with our mindset. We need to invent ways to change our

perspective continually and reconfigure our mindset quickly as new knowledge emerges. We can reconfigure our

world if we can reconfigure our mindset.

We Can Put Poverty in the Museums

I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not created by poor people. It has been

created and sustained by the economic and social system that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and

concepts that make up that system; the policies that we pursue.

Poverty is created because we built our theoretical framework on assumptions which under-estimates human

capacity, by designing concepts, which are too narrow (such as concept of business, credit- worthiness,

entrepreneurship, employment) or developing institutions, which remain half-done (such as financial institutions,

where poor are left out). Poverty is caused by the failure at the conceptual level, rather than any lack of capability

on the part of people.

I firmly believe that we can create a poverty-free world if we collectively believe in it. In a poverty-free world, the

only place you would be able to see poverty is in the poverty museums. When school children take a tour of the

poverty museums, they would be horrified to see the misery and indignity that some human beings had to go

through. They would blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhuman condition, which existed for so long, for so

many people.

A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself, but also to contribute

to enlarging the well being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree,

but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with.

They die unexplored and the world remains deprived of their creativity, and their contribution.

Grameen has given me an unshakeable faith in the creativity of human beings. This has led me to believe that

human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty.

To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you

get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted, only the soil-

base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society

never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an

enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very

quickly.

Let us join hands to give every human being a fair chance to unleash their energy and creativity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me conclude by expressing my deep gratitude to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for recognizing that poor

people, and especially poor women, have both the potential and the right to live a decent life, and that microcredit

helps to unleash that potential.

I believe this honor that you give us will inspire many more bold initiatives around the world to make a historical

breakthrough in ending global poverty.

Thank you very much.

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Muhammad Yunus

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Shirin Ebadi
The Nobel Peace Prize 2003

Autobiography

I was born in the city of Hamedan [northwestern Iran] in 1947. My family were

academics and practising Muslims. At the time of my birth my father was the head of Hamedan's Registry Office.
My father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, one of the first lecturers in commercial law, had written several books. He passed

away in 1993.

I spent my childhood in a family filled with kindness and affection. I have two sisters and a brother all of whom are

highly educated. My mother dedicated all her time and devotion to our upbringing.

I came to Tehran with my family when I was a one year old and have since been a resident in the capital. I began

my education at Firuzkuhi primary school and went on to Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir secondary

schools for my higher education. I sat the Tehran University entrance exams and gained a place at the Faculty of

Law in 1965. I received my law degree in three-and-a-half years, and immediately sat the entrance exams for the

Department of Justice. After a six-month apprenticeship in adjudication, I began to serve officially as a judge in

March 1969. While serving as a judge, I continued my education and obtained a doctorate with honours in private

law from Tehran University in 1971.

I held a variety of positions in the Justice Department. In 1975, I became the President of Bench 24 of the

[Tehran] City Court. I am the first woman in the history of Iranian justice to have served as a judge. Following the

victory of the Islamic Revolution in February 1979, since the belief was that Islam forbids women to serve as

judges, I and other female judges were dismissed from our posts and given clerical duties. They made me a clerk

in the very court I once presided over. We all protested. As a result, they promoted all former female judges,

including myself, to the position of "experts" in the Justice Department. I could not tolerate the situation any

longer, and so put in a request for early retirement. My request was accepted. Since the Bar Association had

remained closed for some time since the revolution and was being managed by the Judiciary, my application for

practising law was turned down. I was, in effect, housebound for many years. Finally, in 1992 I succeeded in

obtaining a lawyer's licence and set up my own practice.

I used my time of unemployment to write several books and had many articles published in Iranian journals. After

receiving my lawyer's licence I accepted to defend many cases. Some were national cases. Among them, I

represented the families of the serial murders victims (the family of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar) and Ezzat

Ebrahiminejad, who were killed during the attack on the university dormitory. I also participated in some press-

related cases. I took on a large number of social cases, too, including child abuse. Recently I agreed to represent

the mother of Mrs Zahra Kazemi, a photojournalist killed in Iran.

I also teach at university. Each year, a number of students from outside Iran join my human rights training

courses.

I am married. My husband is an electrical engineer. We have two daughters. One is 23 years old. She is studying

for a doctorate in telecommunications at McGill University in Canada. The other is 20 years old and is in her third

year at Tehran University where she reads law.

Social Activities

– Leading several research projects for the UNICEF office in Tehran.

– Cofounder of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights, 1995. I was the association’s

president until 2000, and have continued to assist them as legal adviser. Currently the
 association has over 500 active members.

– Providing various stages of free tuition in children’s rights and human rights.

– Cofounder of the Human Rights Defence Centre with four defence lawyers, 2001. I am the

centre’s president.

– Delivering over 30 lectures to university and academic conferences and seminars on human

rights. The lectures have been delivered in Iran, France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland,

Britain and America.

– Representing several journalists or their families, accused or sentenced in relation to

freedom of expression. They include Habibollah Peyman (for writing articles and delivering

speeches on freedom of expression); Abbas Marufi, the editor-in-chief of the monthly

Gardoun (for publishing several interviews and poems); Faraj Sarkuhi (editor-in-chief of

Adineh monthly).

– Representing families of serial murder victims (the Foruhar family).

– Representing the family of Ezzat Ebrahiminejad, murdered in the 9 July 1999 attack on the

university dormitory.

– Representing the mother of Arin Golshani, a child separated from her mother as a

consequence of the child custody law. She was found tortured to death at the home of her

stepmother.

– Proposing to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) to ratify a law on prohibiting all

forms of violence against children; as a result the law was promptly debated and ratified in

the summer of 2002.

In the name of the God of Creation and Wisdom

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Honourable Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I feel extremely honoured that today my voice is reaching the people of the world from this distinguished venue.

This great honour has been bestowed upon me by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. I salute the spirit of Alfred

Nobel and hail all true followers of his path.

This year, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a woman from Iran, a Muslim country in the Middle East.

Undoubtedly, my selection will be an inspiration to the masses of women who are striving to realize their rights,

not only in Iran but throughout the region - rights taken away from them through the passage of history. This
selection will make women in Iran, and much further afield, believe in themselves. Women constitute half of the

population of every country. To disregard women and bar them from active participation in political, social,

economic and cultural life would in fact be tantamount to depriving the entire population of every society of half its

capability. The patriarchal culture and the discrimination against women, particularly in the Islamic countries,

cannot continue for ever.

Honourable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee!

As you are aware, the honour and blessing of this prize will have a positive and far-reaching impact on the

humanitarian and genuine endeavours of the people of Iran and the region. The magnitude of this blessing will

embrace every freedom-loving and peace-seeking individual, whether they are women or men.

I thank the Norwegian Nobel Committee for this honour that has been bestowed upon me and for the blessing of

this honour for the peace-loving people of my country.

Today coincides with the 55th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; a

declaration which begins with the recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all

members of the human family, as the guarantor of freedom, justice and peace. And it promises a world in which

human beings shall enjoy freedom of expression and opinion, and be safeguarded and protected against fear and

poverty.

Unfortunately, however, this year's report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as in the

previous years, spells out the rise of a disaster which distances mankind from the idealistic world of the authors of

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2002, almost 1.2 billion human beings lived in glaring poverty,

earning less than one dollar a day. Over 50 countries were caught up in war or natural disasters. AIDS has so far

claimed the lives of 22 million individuals, and turned 13 million children into orphans.

At the same time, in the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human

rights by using the events of 11 September and the war on international terrorism as a pretext. The United Nations

General Assembly Resolution 57/219, of 18 December 2002, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1456,

of 20 January 2003, and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2003/68, of 25 April 2003,

set out and underline that all states must ensure that any measures taken to combat terrorism must comply with

all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights and humanitarian law.

However, regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms, special bodies and extraordinary courts, which

make fair adjudication difficult and at times impossible, have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of

the war on terrorism.

The concerns of human rights' advocates increase when they observe that international human rights laws are

breached not only by their recognized opponents under the pretext of cultural relativity, but that these principles

are also violated in Western democracies, in other words countries which were themselves among the initial

codifiers of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is in this framework that,

for months, hundreds of individuals who were arrested in the course of military conflicts have been imprisoned in

Guantanamo, without the benefit of the rights stipulated under the international Geneva conventions, the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and the [United Nations] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Moreover, a question which millions of citizens in the international civil society have been asking themselves for the

past few years, particularly in recent months, and continue to ask, is this: why is it that some decisions and

resolutions of the UN Security Council are binding, while some other resolutions of the council have no binding

force? Why is it that in the past 35 years, dozens of UN resolutions concerning the occupation of the Palestinian

territories by the state of Israel have not been implemented promptly, yet, in the past 12 years, the state and

people of Iraq, once on the recommendation of the Security Council, and the second time, in spite of UN Security

Council opposition, were subjected to attack, military assault, economic sanctions, and, ultimately, military

occupation?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to say a little about my country, region, culture and faith.

I am an Iranian. A descendent of Cyrus The Great. The very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power

2500 years ago that "... he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it." And [he] promised not to force

any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus The Great is one

of the most important documents that should be studied in the history of human rights.

I am a Muslim. In the Koran the Prophet of Islam has been cited as saying: "Thou shalt believe in thine faith and I

in my religion". That same divine book sees the mission of all prophets as that of inviting all human beings to

uphold justice. Since the advent of Islam, too, Iran's civilization and culture has become imbued and infused with

humanitarianism, respect for the life, belief and faith of others, propagation of tolerance and compromise and

avoidance of violence, bloodshed and war. The luminaries of Iranian literature, in particular our Gnostic literature,

from Hafiz, Mowlavi [better known in the West as Rumi] and Attar to Saadi, Sanaei, Naser Khosrow and Nezami,

are emissaries of this humanitarian culture. Their message manifests itself in this poem by Saadi:

"The sons of Adam are limbs of one another

Having been created of one essence".

"When the calamity of time afflicts one limb

The other limbs cannot remain at rest".

The people of Iran have been battling against consecutive conflicts between tradition and modernity for over 100

years. By resorting to ancient traditions, some have tried and are trying to see the world through the eyes of their

predecessors and to deal with the problems and difficulties of the existing world by virtue of the values of the

ancients. But, many others, while respecting their historical and cultural past and their religion and faith, seek to

go forth in step with world developments and not lag behind the caravan of civilization, development and progress.

The people of Iran, particularly in the recent years, have shown that they deem participation in public affairs to be

their right, and that they want to be masters of their own destiny.

This conflict is observed not merely in Iran, but also in many Muslim states. Some Muslims, under the pretext that

democracy and human rights are not compatible with Islamic teachings and the traditional structure of Islamic

societies, have justified despotic governments, and continue to do so. In fact, it is not so easy to rule over a people

who are aware of their rights, using traditional, patriarchal and paternalistic methods.
Islam is a religion whose first sermon to the Prophet begins with the word "Recite!" The Koran swears by the pen

and what it writes. Such a sermon and message cannot be in conflict with awareness, knowledge, wisdom, freedom

of opinion and expression and cultural pluralism.

The discriminatory plight of women in Islamic states, too, whether in the sphere of civil law or in the realm of

social, political and cultural justice, has its roots in the patriarchal and male-dominated culture prevailing in these

societies, not in Islam. This culture does not tolerate freedom and democracy, just as it does not believe in the

equal rights of men and women, and the liberation of women from male domination (fathers, husbands,

brothers ...), because it would threaten the historical and traditional position of the rulers and guardians of that

culture.

One has to say to those who have mooted the idea of a clash of civilizations, or prescribed war and military

intervention for this region, and resorted to social, cultural, economic and political sluggishness of the South in a

bid to justify their actions and opinions, that if you consider international human rights laws, including the nations'

right to determine their own destinies, to be universal, and if you believe in the priority and superiority of

parliamentary democracy over other political systems, then you cannot think only of your own security and

comfort, selfishly and contemptuously. A quest for new means and ideas to enable the countries of the South, too,

to enjoy human rights and democracy, while maintaining their political independence and territorial integrity of

their respective countries, must be given top priority by the United Nations in respect of future developments and

international relations.

The decision by the Nobel Peace Committee to award the 2003 prize to me, as the first Iranian and the first woman

from a Muslim country, inspires me and millions of Iranians and nationals of Islamic states with the hope that our

efforts, endeavours and struggles toward the realization of human rights and the establishment of democracy in

our respective countries enjoy the support, backing and solidarity of international civil society. This prize belongs to

the people of Iran. It belongs to the people of the Islamic states, and the people of the South for establishing

human rights and democracy.

Ladies and Gentlemen

In the introduction to my speech, I spoke of human rights as a guarantor of freedom, justice and peace. If human

rights fail to be manifested in codified laws or put into effect by states, then, as rendered in the preamble of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human beings will be left with no choice other than staging a "rebellion

against tyranny and oppression". A human being divested of all dignity, a human being deprived of human rights, a

human being gripped by starvation, a human being beaten by famine, war and illness, a humiliated human being

and a plundered human being is not in any position or state to recover the rights he or she has lost.

If the 21st century wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and war, and avoid repetition of

the experience of the 20th century - that most disaster-ridden century of humankind, there is no other way except

by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith,

nationality or social status.

In anticipation of that day.

With much gratitude

Shirin Ebadi
Tales of the Self-Sufficient City

Sarah Rich
January 31, 2007 3:51 PM

Somewhere at the intersection of New Urbanism, DIY culture, and the resurgence of gardening
for self-sustenance, an active and growing community of artist-maker-activists is redefining
urban survivalism. While their work addresses our tenuous food security and the threats of
catastrophic climate change, it's not a fear-driven movement. Rather, the best of these "new
survivalists" are embracing radical self-sufficiency because it fuels their creativity, arms them
with a sense of personal empowerment, and strengthens their communities.

Tale 1:

These are part of what motivates Amy Franceschini and what comprises the "win scenario" for
her newest project, Victory Gardens 2007+, in which ubiquitous, small-scale urban agriculture
paves the way towards "less CO2 emissions, neighborhood organizing, seasonal growing, urban
planning, seed saving, art action and independence from corporate food systems."

Franceschini, the ceaselessly inspired art activist who founded Futurefarmers and Free Soil, will
unveil Victory Gardens 2007+ this Saturday, January 27, as part of an exhibition at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art. But Victory Gardens is not just an exhibition, it's an actual
proposal for the city of San Francisco to provide local residents with the tools and skills to begin
utilizing yards and vacant productive spaces for growing food. The program would present
subsidies from the Parks and Recreation Department to home gardeners over the course of a 2-
year pilot period, "to create and support a citywide network of urban farmers by (1) growing,
distributing and supporting starter kits for home gardeners and (2) educating through lessons,
exhibitions and web sites."

The project takes its name from 20th century wartime efforts to address food shortages by
encouraging people to plant gardens on public and private land. These were also known as "Food
gardens for defense." This second wave adoption of wartime survival strategies appears
elsewhere, too. During WWII, car-sharing and carpooling became tantamount to being a
responsible citizen. Slogans like "Carry More to Win the War" communicated the need to save
resources in order to alleviate gas, steel and rubber shortages.

In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a
civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their
contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. These gardens produced
up to 41 percent of all the vegetable produce that was consumed in the nation.
--City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America, Laura Lawson

Victory Gardens 2007+ would offer a home delivery service (by tricycle) to bring starter kits
right to home gardeners' doors, complete with instructions for building a raised bed, installing
drip irrigation and saving seeds. Franceschini is also establishing a seed bank for the city to
preserve the biodiversity of native edible plants of the SF region.

The VG2007+ exhibition will run through the third week of April at the SFMOMA. Those of
you in the Bay should definitely go see it, and if you aren't already sprouting fava beans between
the cracks in your sidewalks, contact the good people at Victory Gardens and get yourself some
seeds.

Tale 2:

One of the great projects of this nature which we've talked about before is Edible Estates, the
nationwide call to gardening action of LA-based architect/designer/gardener Fritz Haeg.
Archinect has an excellent new interview with Haeg, exploring his motivation for Edible Estates,
his feelings on its impact so far, and his current and forthcoming projects. Like Franceschini,
Haeg believes in the power of small, local, individual action to incite widespread change, as
perfectly exemplified in his one-family-at-a-time approach to replacing the American lawn with
food rich gardens.

Do you have a theory of small scale revolution?

I'm not interested in big monuments. I'm interested in singular gestures

that become models --- small gestures in response to common issues that
can be instituted by anyone in the world. And in that way, my projects on
the surface seem quite modest and benevolent until you think of the
implications if they were replicated. That potential has become most clear
to me with Edible Estates. You can't imagine anything less threatening
than a small vegetable garden in front of someone's house. It's the most
modest, basic, primitive human gesture: planting your own food. I like the
idea of creating the edible landscape in the front lawn and then saying,
"What? What's the big deal?" To be totally unprepared for any kind of
controversy. "What do you mean? We're just making our own food!" As
people start to analyze why the garden's unsettling to them, they start to
understand the absurdity of any argument against it.

Did you intend to address food security or to demonstrate the possibilities

of urban agriculture through Edible Estates?

Yes, I think it's really interesting what happens when you graft agriculture onto a
city. The more you keep people in touch with the byproducts of their daily lives, the
more you see it's connected.
We used to have cities that sucked resources from a 20 mile radius around them -
so you ended up with a poor working class ring around a city where all the trash
went and where you got all the raw materials. So there was this pocket of
prosperity within a bubble of blight, really - and now we don't see that anymore
because it's global. All the resources we're sucking and all the shit we're putting out
is happening at a global scale, so you don't get that immediate relationship, even in
terms of agriculture.

Tale 3:

A perennial favorite amongst blog readers everywhere, the vertical farm concept has tremendous
implications for food production in rapidly densifying cities.

By building up, layer upon layer of "hothouse" style gardens can be cultivated inside of
skyscrapers, providing nourishment for urban populations.

This, of course, is a more intensive variation on rooftop farming, which doesn't occupy the
interior of a building, just makes use of the neglected space overhead.

Similar concepts have been proposed at a small scale in residential circumstances, though most
are less about productivity and more about taking a design risk, turning the ordinarily horizontal
garden on its ear [literally], and taking greenery vertical. On yesterday's episode of The Leonard
Lopate Show on WNYC, one of the leading researchers in vertical farming, Dr. Dickson
Despommier of Columbia University, spoke about the benefits, challenges and progress in
thinking through this future-conscious approach to growing food. You can listen and download
the show here.

Tale 4:

Back in LA again, less than two hundred feet from the 210 freeway in Pasadena, an "urban
homesteader" is proving that city living doesn't have to mean shackling oneself to complex
supply chains of food, energy, and transportation. The .2-acre yard behind Jules Dervaes's Los
Angeles bungalow produces 3 tons of produce per year, sustaining not only himself and his three
children, but also providing fresh, organic ingredients for local chefs. Last week's LA Times
featured two articles about Dervaes: one a history of his path to the urban farm lifestyle (which
was partially incited by the discovery in 2000 of "Starlink" GMO corn in Taco Bell's tortillas),
and one a short how-to for Angelenos aspiring to grow a little something, if only the makings of
a simple Caprese salad. Dervaes' story is much more back-to-the-land than the others here, and
it's a story of incredibly hard work, day in and day out. He has a hand-cranked clothes washer
and a bike-powered blender, as well as a little family of farm animals. It might not be a
model we'll all replicate any time soon, but it certainly is a remarkable tale of juxtaposition
and the far extreme of self-sufficiency one can achieve with enough dedication.

Tale 5
Four tales in and we are still on U.S. soil, but the urban farming movement is, of course, global.
Many of its immediate benefits, as we have discussed before, are incredibly relevant in
developing world cities, where new urban residents come from an agricultural context, and find
themselves in food-scarce situations where the best solution is to plant one's own source.

A beautiful photo essay from the BBC shows us how urban gardening is taking root in Caracas,
Venezuela. The 1.2-acre Bolivar Garden in the heart of Caracas models itself after similar garden
projects in Cuba. Six farmers work the plot and live nearby. They use organic techniques and
make use of vermiculture to enrich the soil. It's a year-round operation, the yield from which can
be purchased from a stall on the edge of the farm at below-market prices. The goal of the Bolivar
farm is not only to provide fresh, nutritious food at low prices, but like Dervaes' produce
profusion, to serve as a model for locals who might try growing a few things themselves.

Tale 6:

And since we're talking about survival, it's worth pointing out this article on Biointensive Mini-
Farming. It's not brand new (the article was first printed in 1995), but was recently highlighted
by the Organic Consumers Association as a practical guide to doing more with less on your
small-scale urban (or rural) farm. This brings the whole round-up here full-circle and points to
the fact that where proposed solutions finally converge with the troubled realities they aim to
address, people start to adopt them. Now that crowded cities and climate change are forcing us to
consider survival in emergency situations, old ideas have new relevance.

Biointensive mini-farms------------------------------------------- require much less area to

produce the same yield of crops, so the nutrients contained in one person's wastes
can be applied in a more concentrated way. This enables the nutrients to be fully
effective, and high yields can result.

Because of this higher productivity, Biointensive practices------------------ could allow

one-half to three-quarters of the world to be left in wild for the preservation of plant
and animal diversity.

It has been said that Biointensive practices might make it possible to grow food for
all the people in the US in just the area now used for lawns. This possibility could
mean thriving agriculturally self-reliant cities with 'green belts' to produce all their
food.

Twelve years later, this "victory" scenario appears more viable than ever.

[image]
 Sarah Rich

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"Film and Discussion

"The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil"
*Monday, February 5, 2007 @ 7.30pm*
*Coolidge Corner Cinema, Brookline, MA*
*
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost most of its access to oil, fertilizers and
pesticides. Learn how Cuba’s response to this crisis has led it to the forefront of the movement
for sustainable and organic agricultural practices.
*
Did you know that 50% of the vegetables eaten in the city of Havana, Cuba are organically
grown within the city limits?
Admission: $5

Speakers: Elizabeth Morrow, Sajed Kamal"

Sajed has been doing grassroots solar all around the world for the last twenty years and
more.

Burlington, Vermont grows about 10% of its produce within the city limits and has been working
on a local agriculture infrastructure for a decade or two now.

Thirty years ago, Santa Cruz, CA started a program of planting food-producing trees, vines,
bushes, and other perennials on public lands, the Fruition Program. Massachusetts adopted the
program and funded it for a few years on a state-wide basis. I wonder if any of those plantings
are still fruitful.

Posted by: gmoke on January 31, 2007 8:16 PM

Thanks for the post - lead to a few happy hours surfing the net following different links - all to
do with food growing. Cheers. :)

Posted by: Christopher on February 1, 2007 10:32 AM

Berkeley,CA has a new business in its midst called "All Edibles" which is a landscaping service
that transforms plots into mini-urban farms with edible plants. It's a really good service for a
good price done by people with great hearts. www.alledibles.com

Posted by: sactown on February 1, 2007 2:51 PM

I love this idea I am in the process of converting my 1/4 acre home's lot into an edible estate. I've
got alot of work to do this Spring! I also wanted to share something else related to cities and
design with everyone.
The Florida Chapter ASLA's Committee on a Sustainable Environment is organizing a charette
in association with myregion.org's "How Shall We Grow?" initiative and the UCF's Metropolitan
Center for Regional Studies. The charette will take place during Landscape Architecture
Appreciation Month in Orlando, FL. Please visit our website for more information and to share
your ideas for our region.

Regards,

Urban Farming: Sustainable Agriculture and

Permaculture for Africa.
John J. Nzira
John was born in Zimbabwe and currently lives and
works in South Africa. He is one of the first African
Permaculture legends and has been teaching and
establishing farms and orchards and gardens for
seventeen years. A former coordinator of the
Fambidzanai Permaculture Training Center and
program manager for Food and Trees for Africa, he
is currently the director for the Ukuvuna
Do you want to learn about productive organic
Permaculture Consultancy. John is a recipient of the gardening, bee keeping, worm farming, seed
DEAET award for conservation and the Silver Gilt saving, alternative economics, water management,
medal 2006 Chelsea Flower Show – UK Royal orchards, companion planting or any of the other

Horticultural Society presented by HRM the Queen of Permaculture principles?

England.
View our training options >

Urban Farming focuses on the development of

practical skills in permaculture food gardens,
nutrition, medicinal food and landscaping with
indigenous plants.

• People Care:
The enhancement of people's quality of life (shelter, food, water

and socio-economic development) in a sustainable way.

• Earth Care:
Ecologically sound methods of land use to minimise the negative

impact on our planet. View the Urban Farming

gallery of community
• Surplus Share:
projects >>
Maintaining an upward spiral of

learning by re-investing time, skills

and resources back into society.

With the slow improvement

of quality of life for many
impoverished South Listen to John Nzira talk at
Africans (78% of the the 8th International
population earn less than R Permaculture Conference
1 500 per month), as well held in Brazil, May 2007 >>
as the growing interest in
organic foods, there is a
need for individuals and
communities to take
responsibility for their own
health and welfare through
learning how to improve
their nutrition and develop
self sufficiency and
sustainable livelihoods.
According to Nzira, "Permaculture’ is a term used to describe a system of
farming and gardening that combines plants, animals, buildings, natural
resources, water, people and environment in a way that produces more
energy than it uses, recycles all nutrients and waste, and imitates nature
as far as possible."

Clean Air Island, Mumbai,

Vermiculture of Waste with Electric Vehicles and Enviro Road
through Social Economy. Summary.

The project has initiated a composite use of vermiculture and electric

vehicle technology and greening, for healthy clean air and waste
managementpractices which are soil enriching with its end product,
vermi-compost, in a waste-to-food cycle. This compost has been used
and has obtained improved results in organic farming.

Vermiculture of public waste through the deep burrowing earthworm

technology, has been carried out at the Colaba Pumping Station by the
applicant, since 2000, recycling up to 5 tons of wet waste, a day.
Electric tow tractors with closed trolleys have been used through busy
roads
to collect waste from markets, and defence establishments, employing
marginalized persons from slums near the area and teaching them skills.
Over 4000 tons have been recycled.
The savings achieved have been 59% of the present costs of the
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai transporting waste to fast
depleting dumping grounds outside the city.

Removal of the toxins above, was complemented by oxygen. An Enviro

Road was set up, greening key areas in the Fort Conservation Precinct,
using an automated Electric Vehicle for watering plants at heights from
ground level to 12', using recycled sewage water. Old tyres were
designed as vase type flowering pots, planted parking lot dividers,
dry and wet waste bins using vermiculture, vermiculture of road
waste around trees and vermiculture hanging baskets for recycling
waste in vertical spaces in slums, and Eco Tubs for heritage office
spaces.

Local people from nearby slums have been largely used for all these
activities, giving them employment and a sense of participation, self help.
Extension work of vermiculture in a slum, housing societies, gardens,
farms and corporate establishments has been carried out, giving further
job opportunities and encouraging people to take responsibility for their
environment.

An Urban Development Program has been developed for further

expansion of this integrated approach, in the first Clean Air Island of
about 10sq. km. in 'A' Ward. Vermiculture has been tried out by us in other
countries and the composite project is replicable. Trainees from Japan,
Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Mexico and USA have worked with the
project.
The specific objective is to demonstrate the practicality of this medium
scale model, as being sustainable and replicable for vermiculture of public
waste transported by electric vehicles at a Ward level, in order to act as a
bridge between the successful micro level executed in the last 5 years and
the city scale macro level possible.
• The model will develop a network of waste transportation through
electric tow tractors with trolleys for covering recycling of 50 tons/ day
of all the public wet waste of 'A' Ward in Mumbai within the Ward,
 through vermiculture.
This is aimed to

Eliminate long-distance, expensive and polluting traffic caused

by transportation of waste to fast depleting, hazardous
dumping grounds outside the city

Strengthen the Social Economy by providing skills and

employment to disadvantaged sections of society in the
city slums and rural areas, which will also benefit women as
key beneficiaries,

Demonstrate to the community, the feasibility of adopting

vermiculture of their own waste through deep burrowing
earthworms in their own premises and how they can accept
responsibility for their local environment, ensuring long-term
community involvement,

Consolidate working relationships between the local community /

local enterprises and the local municipal authorities, to complement
the existing local authority service provision and be an important
additional resource for the local delivery of a quality environmental
waste recycling and transport service.

• The project will carry out research in the benefits of the end product,
the self-regenerating vermi-compost, for ornamental plants, vegetables,
fruit and agricultural farms in urban/ rural settings and set up an
example of vermiculture of farm and forest waste, for organic farming,
in a self-propagating waste- to- food cycle.

The model will help the Municipal and Transport authorities to establish
technologies to meet the requirements of the Supreme Court and
High Court guidelines on urban pollution and provide the Courts with
 a working model on which to base further guidelines for incorporating
best practices to mitigate local pollution and global warming and reduce
the use of scarce landfill areas. It will also
help assess the modalities of calculating savings in the emission of
chloro fluro carbon, methane and other greenhouse gases which qualify
for obtaining carbon credit that are available from polluting countries, for
using such environmentally benign technologies on a large scale by
India, as Clean Development Mechanisms.

Many gardeners who desire to grow a productive vegetable garden are challenged by their
limited growing area and a small space in which to cultivate their vegetable plants.

Sylvia recently raised the following question about plans to start a vegetable garden in
Cleveland, Ohio: “I have only one place in my yard with sufficient sunlight to grow a nice
vegetable and flower garden.”

“Any suggestions on how I should approach the layout and design of my limited space to
maximize incorporating both vegetables and flowers?”

Raised Beds are Ideal for Small Space Gardens

My solution for getting the most out of a small garden area is through the use
of raised beds. Raised beds will allow you to squeeze far more out of a small garden than any
other growing method. Add vertical gardening techniques and even a tiny garden area will
produce impressive amounts of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

You don’t need framing to construct raised beds, they don’t have to be fancy, and the soil
doesn’t even have to be very “raised” in order to maximize your growing space. The key is in
organizing and planting the small garden area so that all of it can be devoted to actually growing
vegetables and flowers.

Raised beds eliminate paths, walkways, and vacant gaps from between the rows of plants,
allowing you to grow more plants in areas that would normally go unused. The growing beds are
just wide enough to allow you to work them from the narrow surrounding paths without a need
to actually walk on the garden bed.

Higher Yields from Small Vegetable Gardens

Paths that are required to get around in most gardens can now be employed
for growing vegetables and flowers in the small space garden. Plants that would normally be
arranged in straight rows are now staggered across the entire growing bed resulting in a higher
concentration of plants and more production per square foot of garden area.

Another advantage of using raised beds in a small space garden is that the beds can be shaped to
blend into the layout of your growing area. They can curve, follow an “L-shaped” design, or be
created in the traditional rectangular pattern, depending on what best fits your unique setting and
landscape.

ShareThis

Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:

• Growing Vegetables in a Small Garden Plot

• Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
• Go Hydroponic: Grow Longer
• Heirloom Apple Trees
• Edible Borage Flowers

Check Out These Home and Garden Resources You May Like...

• Hypertufa How To: Create Beautiful Garden Art & Planters

• Top Quality Fountains for Every Home & Garden
• Professional Secrets to Growing Stunning Bonsai Trees

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 26th, 2006 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Beginner
Garden Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Small Space Gardens”
1. Jenn Says:
May 18th, 2006 at 11:39 am

I have also found raised beds to be beneficial. In addition to the reason you discuss (small
space), it makes gardening easier overall. Gardening in central Pa (specifically State
College), I find the soil has a lot of clay. I do amend the soil, but the extra inches of a
raised bed are possibly even a little loser than the lower levels, which I’m sure seedlings
(and seeds) have an easier time navigating.

By the way, Kenny, I really like your blog. It’s quite useful.

2. linda Says:
April 16th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Question: Where can I see pictures or videos about a gardener who has pots in the same
monochromatic colors? I mean the pots — not the flowers. For instance, i am thinking
about only buying various blue pots, something daring and different. Thanks!

Linda

3. quickthinker Says:
October 18th, 2007 at 7:44 pm

Thanks, this would really help me cultivate my own plot of plants and flowers.

Leave a Reply
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Website
Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহামদ ইউনুস, pronounced Muhammôd Iunus) (born 28 June 1940)
is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics and is
famous for his successful application of microcredit - the extension of small loans. These loans
are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the
founder of Grameen Bank. In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."[1] Yunus himself
has received several other national and international honors. He is the author of Banker to the
Poor and a founding board member of Grameen Foundation. In early 2007 Yunus showed
interest in launching a political party in Bangladesh named --------------Nagorik Shakti (Citizen
Power), but later discarded the plan. He is one of the founding members of --------------Global
Elders. Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public
charity created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift
to support UN causes.

The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s
most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN.[2]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Early years
• 2 Grameen Bank
• 3 Recognitions
• 4 Political activity
• 5 Family
• 6 Africa Progress Panel
• 7 Books
• 8 References
• 9 See also
• 10 External links

o 10.1 Videos

[edit] Early years

Muhammad Yunus at Chittagong Collegiate School, while visiting the school in 2003.

The third oldest of nine children,[3] Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 to a Muslim family in the
village of Bathua, by the Boxirhat Road in Hathazari, Chittagong, then in British India (now in
Bangladesh).[4][5] His father was Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar, a jeweler, and his mother was Sofia
Khatun. His early childhood years were spent in the village. In 1944, his family moved to the
city of Chittagong, and he was shifted to Lamabazar Primary School from his village school.[4][6]
By 1949, his mother was afflicted with psychological illness.[5] Later, he passed the matriculation
examination from Chittagong Collegiate School securing the 16th position among 39,000
students in East Pakistan.[6] During his school years, he was an active Boy Scout, and traveled to
West Pakistan and India in 1952, and to Canada in 1955 to attend Jamborees.[6] Later when
Yunus was studying at Chittagong College, he became active in cultural activities and won
awards for drama acting.[6] In 1957, he enrolled in the department of economics at Dhaka
University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.

Following his graduation, Yunus joined the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant to the
economical researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan.[6] Later he was appointed
as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961.[6] During that time he also set up a
profitable packaging factory on the side.[5] He was offered a Fulbright scholarship in 1965 to
study in the United States. He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University in the
United States through the graduate program in Economic Development in 1969.[7] From 1969 to
1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in
Murfreesboro, TN.

During the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, Yunus founded a citizen's committee and ran
the Bangladesh Information Center, with other Bangladeshis living in the United States, to raise
support for liberation.[6] He also published the Bangladesh Newsletter from his home in
Nashville. After the War, Yunus returned to Bangladesh and was appointed to the government's
Planning Commission headed by Nurul Islam. He found the job boring and resigned to join
Chittagong University as head of the Economics department.[8] He became involved with poverty
reduction after observing the famine of 1974, and established a rural economic program as a
research project. In 1975, he developed a Nabajug (New Era) Tebhaga Khamar (three share
farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme.[6] In order to make the
project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed the Gram Sarkar (the village
government) programme.[9] Introduced by then president Ziaur Rahman in late 1970s, the
Government formed 40,392 village governments (gram sarkar) as a fourth layer of government
in 2003. On 2 August 2005, in response to a petition filed by Bangladesh Legal Aids and
Services Trust (BLAST) the High Court had declared Gram Sarkar illegal and unconstitutional.
[10]
[edit] Grameen Bank

Grameen Bank Head Office at Mirpur-2, Dhaka

Main article: Grameen Bank

In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong
University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a
poor person. Jobra women who made bamboo furniture had to take out usurious loans for buying
bamboo, to pay their profits to the moneylenders. His first loan, consisting of USD 27.00 from
his own pocket, was made to 42 women in the village, who made a net profit of BDT 0.50 (USD
0.02) each on the loan. Thus, vastly improving Bangladesh's ability to export and import as it did
in the past, resulting in a greater form of globalization and economic status.[4]

The concept of providing credit to the poor as a tool of poverty reduction was not unique. Dr.
Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now Bangladesh
Academy for Rural Development), is credited for pioneering the idea.[11] From his experience at
Jobra, Yunus, an admirer of Dr. Hameed[11], realized that the creation of an institution was
needed to lend to those who had nothing.[12] While traditional banks were not interested in
making tiny loans at reasonable interest rates to the poor due to high repayment risks[13], Yunus
believed that given the chance the poor will repay the borrowed money and hence microcredit
could be a viable business model.

Yunus finally succeeded in securing a loan from the government Janata Bank to lend it to the
poor in Jobra in December 1976. The institution continued to operate by securing loans from
other banks for its projects. By 1982, the bank had 28,000 members. On 1 October 1983 the pilot
project began operations as a full-fledged bank and was renamed the Grameen Bank (Village
Bank) to make loans to poor Bangladeshis. Yunus and his colleagues encountered everything
from violent radical leftists to the conservative clergy who told women that they would be denied
a Muslim burial if they borrowed money from the Grameen Bank.[5] As of July 2007, Grameen
Bank has issued US$ 6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers.[14] To ensure repayment, the bank
uses a system of "solidarity groups". These small informal groups apply together for loans and its
members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-
advancement.[9]

The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it started attending to unutilized or
underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells.[15] In 1989, these
diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became
Grameen Motsho (Grameen Fisheries Foundation) and the irrigation project became Grameen
Krishi (Grameen Agriculture Foundation).[15] Over time, the Grameen initiative has grown into a
multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, including major projects like Grameen
Trust and Grameen Fund, which runs equity projects like Grameen Software Limited, Grameen
CyberNet Limited, and Grameen Knitwear Limited,[16] as well as Grameen Telecom, which has a
stake in Grameenphone (GP), biggest private sector phone company in Bangladesh.[17]. The
Village Phone (Polli Phone) project of GP has brought cell-phone ownership to 260,000 rural
poor in over 50,000 villages since the beginning of the project in March 1997.[18]

The success of the Grameen model of microfinancing has inspired similar efforts in a hundred
countries throughout the developing world and even in industrialized nations, including the
United States.[19] Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain its emphasis on lending
specifically to women. More than 94% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer
disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to
their families.[20] For his work with the Grameen Bank, Yunus was named an Ashoka: Innovators
for the Public Global Academy Member in 2001.[21]

Further information: Grameen family of organizations

[edit] Recognitions
Main article: List of awards received by Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for
their efforts to create economic and social development. In the prize announcement The
Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned:[1]

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into
practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many
other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an
impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost
through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the
struggle against poverty.

Muhammad Yunus was the first Bangladeshi and third Bengali to ever get a Nobel Prize. After
receiving the news of the important award, Yunus announced that he would use part of his share
of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for
the poor; while the rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh.[22]

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton was a vocal advocate for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to
Muhammed Yunus. He expressed this in Rolling Stone magazine[23] as well as in his
autobiography My Life.[24] In a speech given at University of California, Berkeley in 2002,
President Clinton described Dr. Yunus as "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize
[and] I’ll keep saying that until they finally give it to him."[25]

Conversely, The Economist stated explicitly that Yunus was a poor choice for the award. In their
words "...the Nobel committee could have made a braver, more difficult, choice by declaring that
there would be no recipient at all." [26]

He has won a number of other awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award,[27] the World
Food Prize[28] the Sydney Peace Prize, [29] and in December 2007 the Ecuadorian Peace Prize [30].
Additionally, Dr. Yunus has been awarded 26 honorary doctorate degrees, and 15 special
awards.[31] Bangladesh government brought out a commemorative stamp to honor his Nobel
Award.[32] In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared January 14 as "Muhammad Yunus Day".[33]

He was invited and gave the MIT commencement address delivered on June 6, 2008. [34]

[edit] Political activity

In early 2006 Yunus, along with other members of the civil society including Prof Rehman
Sobhan, Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman, Dr Kamal Hossain, Matiur Rahman, Mahfuz
Anam and Debapriya Bhattchariya, participated in a campaign for honest and clean candidates in
national elections.[35] He considered entering politics in the later part of that year.[36] On 11
February 2007, Yunus wrote an open letter, published in the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star,
where he asked citizens for views on his plan to float a political party to establish political
goodwill, proper leadership and good governance. In the letter, he called on everyone to briefly
outline how he should go about the task and how they can contribute to it.[37] Yunus finally
announced the foundation of a new party tentatively called Citizens' Power (Nagorik Shakti) on
18 February 2007.[38][39] There was speculation that the army supported a move by Yunus into
politics.[40] On 3 May, however, Yunus declared that he had decided to abandon his political
plans following a meeting with the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed.[41]

On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond
Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and
integrity together to the world. Nelson Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The
Global Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday.[42][43] Archbishop
Tutu is to serve as the Chair of The Elders. The founding members of this group include Machel,
Yunus, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, and Mary
Robinson. The Elders are to be independently funded by a group of Founders, including Richard
Branson, Peter Gabriel, Ray Chambers; Michael Chambers; Bridgeway Foundation; Pam
Omidyar, Humanity United; Amy Robbins; Shashi Ruia, Dick Tarlow; and The United Nations
Foundation.

[edit] Family

In 1967 while Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, he met Vera Forostenko, a student of
Russian literature at Vanderbilt University and daughter of Russian immigrants to Trenton, New
Jersey, U.S. They were married in 1970.[8][5] Yunus's marriage with Vera ended within months of
the birth of their baby girl, Monica Yunus (b. 1979 Chittagong), as Vera returned to New Jersey
claiming that Bangladesh was not a good place to raise a baby.[8][5] Yunus later married Afrozi
Yunus, who was then a researcher in physics at Manchester University.[8] She was later appointed
as a professor of physics at Jahangirnagar University. Their daughter Deena Afroz Yunus was
born in 1986.[8]

His brothers are also active in academia. His brother Muhammad Ibrahim is a professor of
physics at Dhaka University and the founder of The Center for Mass Education in Science
(CMES), which brings science education to adolescent girls in villages.[44] His younger brother
Muhammad Jahangir is a popular television presenter. Monica, the eldest daughter of Yunus, is a
Bangladeshi-Russian American soprano singer, working in New York City.[45]

[edit] Africa Progress Panel

Yunus is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa
launched in April 2007 to focus world leaders’ attention on delivering their commitments to the
continent. The Panel launched a major report in London on Monday 16 June 2008 entitled
Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects[46].

[edit] Books

Muhammad Yunus at a book signing at the London School of Economics with a

masters student.

By Muhammad Yunus

• a World Without Poverty]]: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism;

Public Affairs; 2008; ISBN 9781586484934
• Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty;
Public Affairs; 2003; ISBN 9781586481988
• Grameen Bank, as I See it; Grameen Bank; 1994
• Jorimon and Others: Faces of Poverty (co-authors: Saiyada Manajurula
Isalama, Arifa Rahman); Grameen Bank; 1991
• Planning in Bangladesh: Format, Technique, and Priority, and Other Essays;
Rural Studies Project, Department of Economics, Chittagong University; 1976
 • Three Farmers of Jobra; Department of Economics, Chittagong University;
1974

On Muhammad Yunus

• David Bornstein; The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank and
the Idea That Is; Simon & Schuster; 1996; ISBN 068481191X

[edit] References

1. ^ a b "The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006". NobelPrize.org (2006-10-13).

Retrieved on 2006-10-13.
2. ^ United Nations Foundation, additional text.
3. ^ "About Dr. Yunus :: Family". MuhammadYunus.ORG. Retrieved on 2008-05-
14.
4. ^ a b c First loan he gave was $27 from own pocket, The Daily Star, 2006-10-
14, Front page, Retrieved: 2007-08-22
5. ^ a b c d e f Mhammad Yunus: The triumph of idealism, New Age Special, The
New Age, 2007-01-01; Retrieved: 2007-09-11
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Yunus, Muhammad. Printed interview in Bengali with Rahman,
Matiur. গরীেবর উপকাের লােগ েদেখ বহ েলাক আমােদর বযাংেক টাকা রাখেত এিগয এেসেছ. The daily Prothom
Alo. Dhaka. 14. Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
7. ^ Yunus to receive Nichols-Chancellor's Medal, Vanderbilt News, 2007-03-12;
Retrieved: 2007-09-09
8. ^ a b c d e Yunus, Muhammad; Jolis, Alan [2003-09-25]. Banker to the Poor:
micro-lending and the battle against world poverty (in English). New York:
PublicAffairs hc, 20-29. ISBN 978-1-58648-198-8.
9. ^ a b "[www.guzelsozler.web.tr/son-eklenen/6-yatakta-sevisme.html Ramon
Magsaysay Award Citation]". Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (1984).
Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
10.^ BANGLADESH: Country of Origin Information Report, Country of Origin
Information Service, Border & Immigration Agency, 2007-06-15; Retrieved:
2007-09-09
11.^ a b Yousaf, Nasim (2006-10-17). "7th Death Anniversary – A Tribute to Dr.
Akhter Hameed Khan" (in English). Statesman. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
12.^ Yunus, Muhammad; Jolis, Alan [2003-09-25]. Banker to the Poor: micro-
lending and the battle against world poverty (in English). New York:
PublicAffairs hc, 46-49. ISBN 978-1-58648-198-8.
13.^ "Profile: 'World banker to the poor'" (in English), BBC NEWS (2006-10-13).
Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
14.^ GB at a glance, Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Info;Retrieved: 2007-09-09
15.^ a b Introduction, Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Family; Retrieved: 2007-09-
07
16.^ Grameen Fund ventures on Grameen official website
17.^ "About Grameenphone" (in English). Grameenphone (2006-11-16).
Retrieved on 2007-08-22. “Grameenphone is now the leading
telecommunications service provider in the country with more than 10 million
subscribers as of November 2006.”
18.^ "Village Phone" (in English). About Grameenphone. Grameenphone (2006).
Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
19.^ Grameen Bank, a Nobel-winning concept, The Hindu, 2006-10-
23;Retrieved: 2007-09-09
20.^ Yunus, Muhammad. Transcript of broadcast interview with Negus, George.
World in Focus: Interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Foreign
Correspondent; ABC online. 1997-03-25. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
21.^ "Muhammad Yunus, Ashoka's Global Academy Member, Wins Nobel Peace
Prize" (in English). Ashoka.org (2006-10-13). Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
22.^ "Yunus wins peace Nobel for anti-poverty efforts" (in English), AP (2006-10-
13). Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
23.^ Boulden, Jim (2001-03-29). "The birth of micro credit" (in English),
Europe/Business, CNN. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
24.^ Clinton, Bill (2004). My Life: The Presidential Years (in English). New York,
Knopf.: Vintage Books, p. 329. ISBN 0375414576. “Muhammad Yunus should
have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics years ago.”
25.^ Ainsworth, Diane (2002-01-29). "Transcript of the Jan. 29, 2002 talk by
former President Bill Clinton at the University of California, Berkeley" (in
English). Clinton: education, economic development key to building a
peaceful, global village. UC Regents. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
26.^ ((cite web |url=http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=E1_RDQVDGJ |title=Losing It's Lustre |accessdate=2008-06-28 |
publisher= {{The Economist]]
27.^ Ramon Magsaysay Award, 1984: Citation for Muhammad Yunus; Retrieved:
2007-09-01
28.^ "Dr. Muhammad Yunus - 1994 World Food Prize Laureate" (in English).
WorldFoodPrize.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
29.^ Lauret 2006, Seoul Peace Prize website; Retrieved: 2007-09-09
30.^ [1], Wild River Review Coverage; Retrieved: 2007-12-03
31.^ Lists of his awards are found at Grameen Bank website,
[www.guzelsozler.web.tr/son-eklenen/6-yatakta-sevisme.html his personal
website], and his profile at Bangladesh News website.
32.^ Sydney Peace Prize recipients, Sydney Peace Prize Foundation website;
Retrieved: 2007-09-09
33.^ Staff Correspondent, Houston mayor declares Jan 14 "Yunus Day", 2008-
01-16; Retrieved: 2008-01-16
34.^ "Yunus Speaks About Capitalism, Poverty, and the Future of ‘Social
Business’" - The Tech, Volume 128, Issue 28 : Friday, June 13, 2008
35.^ "Parliament with honest, efficient must for development". The New Nation
(2006-03-21). Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
36.^ Staff Correspondent (2006-10-18). "Yunus not willing to be caretaker chief"
(in English), The Daily Star. Vol 5 Num 853. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
37.^ Staff Correspondent (2007-02-12). "Yunus seeks people's views on floating
political party" (in English), The Daily Star. Vol 5 Num 961. Retrieved on
2007-08-18.
38.^ Siddique, Islam (2007-02-18). "Bangladesh Nobel Laureate Announces His
Political Party's Name" (in English), AHN. 7006502326. Retrieved on 2007-08-
18.
 39.^ Staff Reporter (2007-02-12). "'I will do politics of unity': Yunus names his
party Nagorik Shakti" (in English), The New Nation. 34138. Retrieved on
2007-08-18.
40.^ Mustafa, Sabir (2007-04-05). "Bangladesh at a crossroads" (in English),
BBC. Retrieved on 2007-08-18. "At first glance, the current state of
Bangladesh appears to be a paradox : a country under a state of emergency,
but where the general public seem quite content."
41.^ "Yunus drops plans to enter politics" (in English), Al Jazeera (2007-02-18).
Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
42.^ "Mandela unveils 'council of elders'" (in English), Al Jazeera (2007-07-19).
Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
43.^ Associated Press (2007-07-20). "Mandela joins ‘Elders’ on turning 89" (in
English), MSNBC. 19836050. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
44.^ Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES) - Bangladesh, Human
Resource Development Recommendations, International Labour Organization;
Retrieved: 2007-08-27
45.^ "Monica Yunus, Soprano" (asp) (in English). Biography. VoxPagel.com.
Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
46.^ APP, Press Release: Africa Progress Panel demands action on global food
crisis “reversing decades of economic progress”, 16 June 2008,
http://www.africaprogresspanel.org/english/newsreleases.php

[edit] See also

Sustainable
development portal

Bangladesh
portal

• Microfinance
• Grameen Bank
• Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
• Bangladesh
• Chittagong
• Islamic banking

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Muhammad Yunus
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Muhammad Yunus

• Grameen Bank - Grameen Bank's Official Web Site.

• MuhammadYunus.org - Official website of Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
• Grameen Foundation - Dr. Yunus led Organization.
• Grameen America - The US Part of Grameen Foundation.
• Campaign website - 2007 campaign to elect Yunus prime minister of
Bangladesh
• Muhammad Yunus Receives the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize - A Photo Essay by
Scott London
• Microcredit Missionary - A BusinessWeek Profile
• The next steps for microcredit Interview with Muhammad Yunus
• Audio Interview with Muhammad Yunus - By Wolfgang Blau (a.k.a. Harrer)
and Alysa Selene, ZDF Germany
• PBS Biography An article on Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank.
• A short biography
• UN Foundation Board of Directors
• Interview with Muhammad Yunus by INSEAD Knowledge in February 2008

[edit] Videos
• Lecture by Muhammad Yunus at MIT (53 minutes)
• A Lecture by Muhammad Yunus, on BUniverse, Boston University's video
lecture archive.
• A Collection of Video Documentaries about Muhammad Yunus and Grameen
Bank
• "Pennies A Day" video featuring Muhammad Yunus
• The poor need infotech, says Mohd Yunus by Venkatesan Vembu, Daily News
& Analysis
• International Forum Social Entrepreneurship Award: Honoring Muhammad
Yunus -- video
• Charlie Rose interview Muhammad Yunus -- 58 mins video interview
• Yunus speaks at Council on Foreign Relations - Nov 16th, 2006

Honorary titles

Preceded by World Food Succeeded b

He Kang Prize y
1994 Hans R.
 Herren

Name: Grameen
Age: None

Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit organization that uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and
bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly
women, start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty.

Country: United States

Website: http://www.grameenfoundation.org

Sunflower Greens, the Super Food!

Growing this Nutritional Powerhouse is Easier than Many People Think
© Christopher J. Kline

Aug 11, 2007

Sunflower greens have unsurpassed nutritional value, and can be easily grown at home with a step-by-step process.

Considering that sunflower seeds are almost 25% protein, it is no wonder that sunflower sprouts and greens, grown
from these seeds, are nutritional super foods with few rivals. A mere 3.5 ounces of sprouted seeds contains a
whopping 22.78 grams of protein! The same amount of chicken breast meat contains just slightly more protein at
26.25 grams. Sunflower sprouts and greens are a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, D, and E and minerals
including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc.

In addition to these vitamins and minerals, sunflower sprouts and greens are a rich source of lecithin which helps
break down fatty acids into an easily digestible water soluble form, and chlorophyll which benefits many functions
within the body, including building blood supply, revitalizing tissue, calming inflammation, activating enzymes, and
deodorizing the body. But if they are this good for you, they must taste bad? Wrong! Sunflower greens are considered
a delicacy among gourmets and are known for a crisp nutty flavor.

So there is no confusion regarding terminology, sunflower sprouts are generally regarded as hulled sunflower seeds
that have been soaked and sprouted for a day or so. Sunflower greens are the baby plants that result when unhulled
seeds are grown in soil, generally for 7-8 days.

Sunflower greens can be grown indoors, without soil (in jars or trays). However for highest nutrient value, it is best to
grow them in soil, and in natural sunlight. A spot near a sunny kitchen window works well. They can be grown in soil
on any shallow tray, but it is best to use the plastic trays used by plant nurseries for growing seedlings because they
provide proper drainage. For soil, a premium potting mix is recommended with a hand full of rock dust (including
lime), and/or kelp powder added to enhance mineral content. Proper seeds for sprouting and supplies can be found
by doing an internet search on “sunflower sprouting”.
 The Growing Process - Fill trays with one inch of soil, and if using standard 10x21 inch trays, spread one half cup of
rock dust on top. Two cups of unhulled seeds can be sprouted in this size tray. Soak the seeds for 8 hours in two
quarts of filtered water. Drain seeds and spread them evenly over the prepared soil. Cover with 3 layers of white
paper towel and water well with a quart of filtered water. Keep the paper towel moist at all times. In dryer climates this
may require watering twice a day. On the third day, the sprouts will be pushing the paper towel up and it can be
removed.

The greens will generally be ready on day 7 or 8 (where soaking of the seeds is day 1). Be sure to harvest the greens
before the 2nd set of leaves emerge, as they get very bitter after that. To harvest, cut the greens from the tray with
scissors, and remove any hard hulls that remain on the greens. Sunflower greens will keep for 2-3 weeks in the
refrigerator and are great on sandwiches and in salads.

The copyright of the article Sunflower Greens, the Super Food! in Kitchen Gardens is owned by Christopher J.
Kline. Permission to republish Sunflower Greens, the Super Food! in print or online must be granted by the author
in writing.

Nobel Lecture
The Chinese Novel
by Pearl S. Buck
American Writer/Nobel Laureate

December 12, 1938 at at Stockholm Concert Hall, Stockholm, Sweden

When I came to consider what I should say today it seemed that it would be wrong not to
speak of China. And this is none the less true because I am an American by birth and by
ancestry and though I live now in my own country and shall live there, since there I belong.
But it is the Chinese and not the American novel which has shaped my own efforts in writing.
My earliest knowledge of story, of how to tell and write stories, came to me in China. It would
be ingratitude on my part not to recognize this today. And yet it would be presumptuous to
speak before you on the subject of the Chinese novel for a reason wholly personal. There is
another reason why I feel that I may properly do so. It is that I believe the Chinese novel has
an illumination for the Western novel and for the Western novelist.

When I say Chinese novel, I mean the indigenous Chinese novel, and not that hybrid product,
the novels of modern Chinese writers who have been too strongly under foreign influence
while they were yet ignorant of the riches of their own country.

The novel in China was never an art and was never so considered, nor did any Chinese
novelist think of himself as an artist. The Chinese novel its history, its scope, its place in the
life of the people, so vital a place, must be viewed in the strong light of this one fact. It is a
fact no doubt strange to you, a company of modern Western scholars who today so
generously recognize the novel.

But in China art and the novel have always been widely separated. There, literature as an art
was the exclusive property of the scholars, an art they made and made for each other
according to their own rules, and they found no place in it for the novel. And they held a
powerful place, those Chinese scholars. Philosophy and religion and letters and literature, by
arbitrary classical rules, they possessed them all, for they alone possessed the means of
learning, since they alone knew how to read and write. They were powerful enough to be
feared even by emperors, so that emperors

-------------------------------------------------devised a way of keeping them enslaved by their own

learning, and made the official examinations the only means to political advancement, those
incredibly difficult examinations which ate up a man's whole life and thought in preparing for
them, and kept him too busy with memorizing and copying the dead and classical past to see
the present and its wrongs.

In that past the scholars found their rules of art. But the novel was not there, and they did not
see it being created before their eyes, for the people created the novel, and what living
people were doing did not interest those who thought of literature as an art. If scholars
ignored the people, however, the people, in turn, laughed at the scholars.
--------------------------------------------------------------------They made innumerable jokes about
them, of which this is a fair sample: One day a company of wild beasts met on a
hillside for a hunt. They bargained with each other to go out and hunt all day and meet
again at the end of the day to share what they had killed. At the end of the day, only
the tiger returned with nothing. When he was asked how this happened he replied very
disconsolately, «At dawn I met a schoolboy, but he was, I feared, too callow for your
tastes. I met no more until noon, when I found a priest. But I let him go, knowing him to
be full of nothing but wind. The day went on and I grew desperate, for I passed no one.
Then as dark came on I found a scholar. But I knew there was no use in bringing him
back since he would be so dry and hard that he would break our teeth if we tried them
on him.»

The scholar as a class has long been a figure of fun for the Chinese people. He is frequently
to be found in their novels, and always he is the same, as indeed he is in life, for a long study
of the same dead classics and their formal composition has really made all Chinese scholars
look alike, as well as think alike. We have no class to parallel him in the West - individuals,
perhaps, only. But in China he was a class. Here he is, composite, as the people see him: a
small shrunken figure with a bulging forehead, a pursed mouth, a nose at once snub and
pointed, small inconspicuous eyes behind spectacles, a high pedantic voice, always
announcing rules that do not matter to anyone but himself, a boundless self-conceit, a
complete scorn not only of the common people but of all other scholars, a figure in long
shabby robes, moving with a swaying haughty walk, when he moved at all. He was not to be
seen except at literary gatherings, for most of the time he spent reading dead literature and
trying to write more like it. He hated anything fresh or original, for he could not catalogue it
into any of the styles he knew. If he could not catalogue it, he was sure it was not great, and
he was confident that only he was right. If he said, «Here is art», he was convinced it was not
to be found anywhere else, for what he did not recognize did not exist. And as he could never
catalogue the novel into what he called literature, so for him it did not exist as literature.

Yao Hai, one of the greatest of Chinese literary critics, in 1776 enumerated the kinds of
writing which comprise the whole of literature. They are essays, government commentaries,
biographies, epitaphs, epigrams, poetry, funeral eulogies, and histories. No novels, you
perceive, although by that date the Chinese novel had already reached its glorious height,
after centuries of development among the common Chinese people. Nor does that vast
compilation of Chinese literature, SsuV Ku Chuen Shu, made in 1772 by the order of the
great Emperor Ch'ien Lung, contain the novel in the encyclopedia of its literature proper.

No,--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- happily for the Chinese

novel, it was not considered by the scholars as literature. Happily, too, for the novelist!
Man and book, they were free from the criticisms of those scholars and their
requirements of art, their techniques of expression and their talk of literary
significances and all that discussion of what is and is not art, as if art were an absolute
and not the changing thing it is, fluctuating even within decades! The Chinese novel
was free. It grew as it liked out of its own soil, the common people, nurtured by that
heartiest of sunshine, popular approval, and untouched by the cold and frosty winds
of the scholar's art. Emily Dickinson, an American poet, once wrote, «Nature is a
haunted house, but art is a house that tries to be haunted». «Nature», she said,

Is what we see,
Nature is what we know
But have no art to say -
So impatient our wisdom is,
To her simplicity.

No, if the Chinese scholars ever knew of the growth of the novel, it was only to ignore it the more
ostentatiously. Sometimes, unfortunately, they found themselves driven to take notice, because
youthful emperors found novels pleasant to read. Then these poor scholars were hard put to
it.--------------------------------------------------------------------------- But they discovered the phrase «social
significance», and they wrote long literary treatises to prove that a novel was not a novel but a
document of social significance. Social significance is a term recently discovered by the most
modern of literary young men and women in the United States, but the old scholars of China
knew it a thousand years ago, when they, too, demanded that the novel should have social
significance, if it were to be recognized as an art.

But for the most part the old Chinese scholar reasoned thus about the novel:

Literature is art.
All art has social significance.
This book has no social significance.
Therefore it is not literature.

And so the novel in China was not literature.

In such a school was I trained. I grew up believing that the novel has nothing to do with pure
literature. So I was taught by scholars. The art of literature, so I was taught, is something
devised by men of learning.----------------------------------------------------------------- Out of the
brains of scholars------------------------------------------------------------------------------ came rules to
control the rush of genius, that wild fountain which has its source in deepest life.
Genius, great or less, is the spring, and art is the sculptured shape, classical or
modern, into which the waters must be forced, if scholars and critics were to be served.
But the people of China did not so serve. The waters of the genius of story gushed out as
they would, however the natural rocks allowed and the trees persuaded, and only
common people came and drank and found rest and pleasure.

For the novel in China was the peculiar product of the common people. And it was solely their
property. The very language of the novel was their own language, and not the classical Wen-
li, which was the language of literature and the scholars. Wen-li bore somewhat the same
resemblance to the language of the people as the ancient English of Chaucer does to the
English of today, although ironically enough, at one time Wen-li, too, was a vernacular. But
the scholars never kept pace with the living, changing speech of the people. They clung to an
old vernacular until they had made it classic, while the running language of the people went
on and left them far behind. Chinese novels, then, are in the «Pei Hua», or simple talk, of the
people, and this in itself was offensive to the old scholars because it resulted in a style so full
of easy flow and readability that it had no technique of expression in it, the scholars said.

I should pause to make an exception of certain scholars who came to China from India,
bearing as their gift a new religion, Buddhism. In the West, Puritanism was for a long time the
enemy of the novel. But in the Orient the Buddhists were wiser. When they came into China,
they found literature already remote from the people and dying under the formalism of that
period known in history as the Six Dynasties. The professional men of literature were even
then absorbed not so much in what they had to say as in pairing into couplets the characters
of their essays and their poems, and already they scorned all writing which did not conform to
their own rules. Into this confined literary atmosphere came the Buddhist translators with their
great treasures of the freed spirit. Some of them were Indian, but some were Chinese. They
said frankly that their aim was not to conform to the ideas of style of the literary men, but to
make clear and simple to common people what they had to teach. They put their religious
teachings into the common language, the language which the novel used, and because the
people loved story, they took story and made it a means of teaching. The preface of Fah Shu
Ching, one of the most famous of Buddhist books, says, «When giving the words of gods,
these words should be given forth simply.» This might be taken as the sole literary creed of
the Chinese novelist, to whom, indeed, gods were men and men were gods.

For the Chinese novel was written primarily to amuse the common people. And when I
say amuse I do not mean only to make them laugh, though laughter is also one of the
aims of the Chinese novel. I mean amusement in the sense of absorbing and
occupying the whole attention of the mind. I mean enlightening that mind by pictures
of life and what that life means. I mean encouraging the spirit not by rule-of-thumb talk
about art, but by stories about the people in every age, and thus presenting to people
simply themselves. Even the Buddhists who came to tell about gods found that people
understood gods better if they saw them working through ordinary folk like
themselves.

But the real reason why the Chinese novel was written in the vernacular was because the
common people could not read and write and the novel had to be written so that when it was
read aloud it could be understood by persons who could communicate only through spoken
words. In a village of two hundred souls perhaps only one man could read. And on holidays
or in the evening when the work was done he read aloud to the people from some story. The
rise of the Chinese novel began in just this simple fashion.

After a while people took up a collection of pennies in somebody's cap or in a farm wife's
bowl because the reader needed tea to wet his throat, or perhaps to pay him for time he
would otherwise have spent at his silk loom or his rush weaving. If the collections grew big
enough he gave up some of his regular work and became a professional storyteller. And the
stories he read were the beginnings of novels. There were not many such stories written
down, not nearly enough to last year in and year out for people who had by nature, as the
Chinese have, a strong love for dramatic story.

So the storyteller began to increase his stock. He searched the dry annals of the history
which the scholars had written,

and with his fertile imagination, enriched by long acquaintance with common people, he
clothed long-dead figures with new flesh and made them live again; he found stories of court
life and intrigue and names of imperial favorites who had brought dynasties to ruin;

he found, as he traveled from village to village, strange tales from his own times which he
wrote down when he heard them. People told him of experiences they had had and he wrote
these down, too, for other people. And he embellished them, but not with literary turns and
phrases, for the people cared nothing for these. No, he kept his audiences always in mind
and he found that the style which they loved best was one which flowed easily along, clearly
and simply, in the short words which they themselves used every day, with no other
technique than occasional bits of description, only enough to give vividness to a place or a
person, and never enough to delay the story. Nothing must delay the story. Story was
what they wanted.

And when I say story, I do not mean mere pointless activity, not crude action alone. The
Chinese are too mature for that. They have always demanded of their novel character above
all else. Shui Hu Chuan they have considered one of their three greatest novels, not primarily
because it is full of the flash and fire of action, but because it portrays so distinctly one
hundred and eight characters that each is to be seen separate from the others. Often I have
heard it said of that novel in tones of delight, «When anyone of the hundred and eight begins
to speak, we do not need to be told his name. By the way the words come from his mouth we
know who he is.» Vividness of character portrayal, then, is the first quality which the
Chinese people have demanded of their novels, and after it, that such portrayal shall
be by the character's own action and words rather than by the author's explanation.

Curiously enough, while the novel was beginning thus humbly in teahouses, in villages and
lowly city streets out of stories told to the common people by a common and unlearned man
among them, in imperial palaces it was beginning, too, and in much the same unlearned
fashion. It was an old custom of emperors, particularly if the dynasty were a foreign one, to
employ persons called «imperial ears», whose only duty was to come and go among the
people in the streets of cities and villages and to sit among them in teahouses,
disguised in common clothes and listen to what was talked about there. The original
purpose of this was, of course, to hear of any discontent among the emperor's subjects, and
more especially to find out if discontents were rising to the shape of those rebellions which
preceded the fall of every dynasty.

But emperors were very human and they were not often learned scholars. More often,
indeed, they were only spoiled and willful men. The «imperial ears. had opportunity to hear all
sorts of strange and interesting stories, and they found that their royal masters were more
frequently interested in these stories than they were in politics. So when they came back to
make their reports, they flattered the emperor and sought to gain favor by telling him what he
liked to hear, shut up as he was in the Forbidden City, away from life. They told him the
strange and interesting things which common people did, who were free, and after a while
they took to writing down what they heard in order to save memory. And I do not doubt that if
messengers between the emperor and the people carried stories in one direction, they
carried them in the other, too, and to the people they told stories about the emperor and what
he said and did, and how he quarreled with the empress who bore him no sons, and how she
intrigued with the chief eunuch to poison the favorite concubine, all of which delighted the
Chinese because it proved to them, the most democratic of peoples, that their emperor was
after all only a common fellow like themselves and that he, too, had his troubles, though he
was the Son of Heaven. Thus there began another important source for the novel that was to
develop with such form and force, though still always denied its right to exist by the
professional man of letters.

From such humble and scattered beginnings, then, came the Chinese novel, written
always in the vernacular, and dealing with all which interested the people, with legend and
with myth, with love and intrigue, with brigands and wars, with everything, indeed, which went
to make up the life of the people, high and low.

Nor was the novel in China shaped, as it was in the West, by a few great persons. In China
the novel has always been more important than the novelist. There has been no Chinese
Defoe, no Chinese Fielding or Smollett, no Austin or Brontë or Dickens or Thackeray, or
Meredith or Hardy, any more than Balzac or Flaubert. But there were and are novels as great
as the novels in any other country in the world, as great as any could have written, had he
been born in China. Who then wrote these novels of China?

That is what the modern literary men of China now, centuries too late, are trying to discover.
Within the last twenty-five years literary critics, trained in the universities of the West, have
begun to discover their own neglected novels. But the novelists who wrote them they cannot
discover. Did one man write Shui Hu Chuan, or did it grow to its present shape, added to,
rearranged, deepened and developed by many minds and many a hand, in different
centuries? Who can now tell? They are dead. They lived in their day and wrote what in their
day they saw and heard, but of themselves they have told nothing. The author of The Dream
ofthe Red Chamber in a far later century says in the preface to his book, «It is not necessary
to know the times of Han and T'ang - it is necessary to tell only of my own times.»

They told of their own times and they lived in a blessed obscurity. They read no
reviews of their novels, no treatises as to whether or not what they did was well done
according to the rules of scholarship. It did not occur to them that they must reach the
high thin air which scholars breathed nor - did they consider the stuff of which
greatness is made, according to the scholars. They wrote as it pleased them to write
and as they were able. Sometimes they wrote unwittingly well and sometimes
unwittingly they wrote not so well. They died in the same happy obscurity and now
they are lost in it and not all the scholars of China, gathered too late to do them honor,
can raise them up again. They are long past the possibility of literary post-mortems.
But what they did remains after them because it is the common people of China who
keep alive the great novels, illiterate people who have passed the novel, not so often
from hand to hand as from mouth to mouth.

In the preface to one of the later editions of Shui Hu Chuan, Shih Nai An, an author who had
much to do with the making of that novel, writes, «What I speak of I wish people to
understand easily. Whether the reader is good or evil, learned or unlearned, anyone can read
this book. Whether or not the book is well done is not important enough to cause anyone to
worry. Alas, I am born to die. How can I know what those who come after me who read my
book will think of it? I cannot even know what I myself, born into another incarnation, will think
of it. I do not know if I myself then can even read. Why therefore should I care?»

Strangely enough, there were certain scholars who envied the freedom of obscurity, and who,
burdened with certain private sorrows which they dared not tell anyone, or who perhaps
wanting only a holiday from th weariness of the sort of art they had themselves created, wrote
novels, too under assumed and humble names. And when they did so they put aside
pedantry and wrote as simply and naturally as any common novelist.

For the novelist believed that he should not be conscious of techniques. He should write as
his material demanded. If a novelist became known for a particular style or technique, to that
extent he ceased to be a good novelist and became a literary technician.

A good novelist, or so I have been taught in China, should be above all else tse ran,
that is, natural, unaffected, and so flexible and variable as to be wholly at the
command of the material that flows through him. His whole duty is only to sort life as it
flows through him, and in the vast fragmentariness of time and space and event to
discover essential and inherent order and rhythm and shape. We should never be able,
merely by reading pages, to know who wrote them, for when the style of a novelist
becomes fixed, that style becomes his prison. The Chinese novelists varied their
writing to accompany like music their chosen themes.

These Chinese novels are not perfect according to Western standards. They are not always
planned from beginning to end, nor are they compact, any more than life is planned or
compact. They are often too long, too full of incident, too crowded with character, a medley of
fact and fiction as to material, and a medley of romance and realism as to method, so that an
impossible event of magic or dream may be described with such exact semblance of detail
that one is compelled to belief against all reason. The earliest novels are full of folklore, for
the people of those times thought and dreamed in the ways of folklore. But no one can
understand the mind of China today who has not read these novels, for the novels have
shaped the present mind, too, and the folklore persists in spite of all that Chinese diplomats
and Western-trained scholars would have us believe to the contrary. The essential mind of
China is still that mind of which George Russell wrote when he said of the Irish mind, so
strangely akin to the Chinese,« that mind which in its folk imagination believes anything. It
creates ships of gold with masts of silver and white cities by the sea and rewards and faeries,
and when that vast folk mind turns to politics it is ready to believe anything.»

Out of this folk mind, turned into stories and crowded with thousands of years of life, grew,
literally, the Chinese novel. For these novels changed as they grew. If, as I have said, there
are no single names attached beyond question to the great novels of China, it is because no
one hand wrote them. From beginning as a mere tale, a story grew through succeeding
versions, into a structure built by many hands. I might mention as an example the well-known
story, The White Snake, or Pei She Chuan, first written in the T'ang dynasty by an unknown
author. It was then a tale of the simple supernatural whose hero was a great white snake. In
the next version in the following century, the snake has become a vampire woman who is an
evil force. But the third version contains a more gentle and human touch. The vampire
becomes a faithful wife who aids her husband and gives him a son. The story thus adds not
only new character but new quality, and ends not as the supernatural tale it began but as a
novel of human beings.

So in early periods of Chinese history, many books must be called not so much novels as
source books for novels, the sort of books into which Shakespeare, had they been open to
him, might have dipped with both hands to bring up pebbles to make into jewels. Many of
these books have been lost, since they were not considered valuable. But not all - early
stories of Han, written so vigorously that to this day it is said they run like galloping horses,
and tales of the troubled dynasties following - not all were lost. Some have persisted. In the
Ming dynasty, in one way or another, many of them were represented in the great collection
known as T'ai P'ing Kuan Shi, wherein are tales of superstition and religion, of mercy and
goodness and reward for evil and well doing, tales of dreams and miracles, of dragons and
gods and goddesses and priests, of tigers and foxes and transmigration and resurrection
from the dead. Most of these early stories had to do with supernatural events, of gods born of
virgins, of men walking as gods, as the Buddhist influence grew strong. There are miracles
and allegories, such as the pens of poor scholars bursting into flower, dreams leading men
and women into strange and fantastic lands of Gulliver, or the magic wand that floated an
altar made of iron. But stories mirrored each age. The stories of Han were vigorous and dealt
often with the affairs of the nation, and centered on some great man or hero. Humor was
strong in this golden age, a racy, earthy, lusty humor, such as was to be found, for instance,
in a book of tales entitled Siao Ling, presumed to have been collected, if not partly written, by
Han Tang Suan. And then the scenes changed, as that golden age faded, though it was
never to be forgotten, so that to this day the Chinese like to call themselves sons of Han.
With the succeeding weak and corrupt centuries, the very way the stories were written
became honeyed and weak, and their subjects slight, or as the Chinese say, «In the days of
the Six Dynasties, they wrote of small things, of a woman, a waterfall, or a bird.»

If the Han dynasty was golden, then the T'ang dynasty was silver, and silver were the love
stories for which it was famous. It was an age of love, when a thousand stories clustered
about the beautiful Yang Kuei Fei and her scarcely less beautiful predecessor in the
emperor's favor, Mei Fei. These love stories of T'ang come very near sometimes to fulfilling in
their unity and complexity the standards of the Western novel. There are rising action and
crisis and dénouement, implicit if not expressed. The Chinese say, «We must read the stories
of T'ang, because though they deal with small matters, yet they are written in so moving a
manner that the tears come.

It is not surprising that most of these love stories deal not with love that ends in marriage or is
contained in marriage, but with love outside the marriage relationship. Indeed, it is significant
that when marriage is the theme the story nearly always ends in tragedy. Two famous stories,
Pei Li Shi and Chiao Fang Chi, deal entirely with extramarital love, and are written apparently
to show the superiority of the courtesans, who could read and write and sing and were clever
and beautiful besides, beyond the ordinary wife who was, as the Chinese say even today, «a
yellow-faced woman », and usually illiterate.

So strong did this tendency become that officialdom grew alarmed at the popularity of such
stories among the common people, and they were denounced as revolutionary and
dangerous because it was thought they attacked that foundation of Chinese civilization, the
family system. A reactionary tendency was not lacking, such as is to be seen in Hui Chen
Chi, one of the earlier forms of a famous later work, the story of the young scholar who loved
the beautiful Ying Ying and who renounced her, saying prudently as he went away, «All
extraordinary women are dangerous. They destroy themselves and others. They have ruined
even emperors. I am not an emperor and I had better give her up » - which he did, to the
admiration of all wise men. And to him the modest Ying Ying replied, «If you possess me and
leave me, it is your right. I do not reproach you.» But five hundred years later the
sentimentality of the Chinese popular heart comes forth and sets the thwarted romance right
again. In this last version of the story the author makes Chang and Ying Ying husband and
wife and says in closing, «This is in the hope that all the lovers of the world may be united in
happy marriage.» And as time goes in China, five hundred years is not long to wait for a
happy ending.

This story, by the way, is one of China's most famous. It was repeated in the Sung dynasty in
a poetic form by Chao Teh Liang, under the title The Reluctant Butterfly, and again in the
Yuan dynasty by Tung Chai-yuen as a drama to be sung, entitled Suh Hsi Hsiang. In the
Ming dynasty, with two versions intervening, it appears as Li Reh Hua's Nan Hsi Hsiang Chi,
written in the southern metrical form called «ts'e», and so to the last and most famous Hsi
Hsiang Chi. Even children in China know the name of Chang Sen.

If I seem to emphasize the romances of the T'ang period, it is because romance between
man and woman is the chief gift of T'ang to the novel, and not because there were no other
stories. There were many novels of a humorous and satirical nature and one curious type of
story which concerned itself with cockflghting, an important pastime of that age and
particularly in favor at court. One of the best of these tales is Tung Chen Lao Fu Chuan, by
Ch'en Hung, which tells how Chia Chang, a famous cockfighter, became so famous that he
was loved by emperor and people alike.

But time and the stream pass on. The novel form really begins to be clear in the Sung
dynasty, and in the Yuan dynasty it flowers into that height which was never again surpassed
and only equalled, indeed, by the single novel Hung Lou Meng, or The Dream of the Red
Chamber, in the Ts'ing dynasty. It is as though for centuries the novel had been developing
unnoticed and from deep roots among the people, spreading into trunk and branch and twig
and leaf to burst into this flowering in the Yuan dynasty, when the young Mongols brought
into the old country they had conquered their vigorous, hungry, untutored minds and
demanded to be fed. Such minds could not be fed with the husks of the old classical
literature, and they turned therefore the more eagerly to the drama and the novel, and in this
new life, in the sunshine of imperial favor, though still not with literary favor, there came two
of China's three great novels, Shui Hu Chuan and San Kuo-Hung Lou Meng being the third.

I wish I could convey to you what these three novels mean and have meant to the Chinese
people. But I can think of nothing comparable to them in Western literature. We have not in
the history of our novel so clear a moment to which we can point and say, «There the novel is
at its height.» These three are the vindication of that literature of the common people, the
Chinese novel. They stand as completed monuments of that popular literature, if not of
letters. They, too, were ignored by men of letters and banned by censors and damned in
succeeding dynasties as dangerous, revolutionary, decadent. But they lived on, because
people read them and told them as stories and sang them as songs and ballads and acted
them as dramas, until at last grudgingly even the scholars were compelled to notice them and
to begin to say they were not novels at all but allegories, and if they were allegories perhaps
then they could be looked upon as literature after all, though the people paid no heed to such
theories and never read the long treatises which scholars wrote to prove them. They rejoiced
in the novels they had made as novels and for no purpose except for joy in story and in story
through which they could express themselves.

And indeed the people had made them. Shui Hu Chuan, though the modern versions carry
the name of Shi Nai An as author, was written by no one man. Out of a handful of tales
centering in the Sung dynasty about a band of robbers there grew this great, structured
novel. Its beginnings were in history. The original lair which the robbers held still exists in
Shantung, or did until very recent times. Those times of the thirteenth century of our Western
era were, in China, sadly distorted. The dynasty under the emperor Huei Chung was falling
into decadence and disorder. The rich grew richer and the poor poorer and when none other
came forth to set this right, these righteous robbers came forth.

I cannot here tell you fully of the long growth of this novel, nor of its changes at many hands.
Shih Nai An, it is said, found it in rude form in an old book shop and took it home and rewrote
it. After him the story was still told and re-told. Five or six versions of it today have
importance, one with a hundred chapters entitled Chung I Shui Hu, one of a hundred and
twenty-seven chapters, and one of a hundred chapters. The original version attributed to Shih
Nai An, had a hundred and twenty chapters, but the one most used today has only seventy.
This is the version arranged in the Ming dynasty by the famous Ching Shen T'an, who said
that it was idle to forbid his son to read the book and therefore presented the lad with a copy
revised by himself, knowing that no boy could ever refrain from reading it. There is also a
version written under official command, when officials found that nothing could keep the
people from reading Shui Hu. This official version is entitled Tung K'ou Chi, or, Laying Waste
the Robbers, and it tells of the final defeat of the robbers by the state army and their
destruction. But the common people of China are nothing if not independent. They have
never adopted the official version, and their own form of the novel still stands. It is a struggle
they know all too well, the struggle of everyday people against a corrupt officialdom.

I might add that Shui Hu Chuan is in partial translation in French under the title Les
Chevaliers Chinois, and the seventy-chapter version is in complete English translation by
myself under the title All Men Are Brothers. The original title, Shui Hu Chuan, in English is
meaningless, denoting merely the watery margins of the famous marshy lake which was the
robbers' lair. To Chinese the words invoke instant century-old memory, but not to us.

This novel has survived everything and in this new day in China has taken on an added
significance. The Chinese Communists have printed their own edition of it with a preface by a
famous Communist and have issued it anew as the first Communist literature of China. The
proof of the novel's greatness is in this timelessness. It is as true today as it was dynasties
ago. The people of China still march across its pages, priests and courtesans, merchants and
scholars, women good and bad, old and young, and even naughty little boys. The only figure
lacking is that of the modern scholar trained in the West, holding his Ph.D. diploma in his
hand. But be sure that if he had been alive in China when the final hand laid down the brush
upon the pages of that book, he, too, would have been there in all the pathos and humor of
his new learning, so often useless and inadequate and laid like a patch too small upon an old
robe.

The Chinese say «The young should not read Shui Hu and the old should not read San
Kuo.» This is because the young might be charmed into being robbers and the old might be
led into deeds too vigorous for their years. For if Shui Hu Chuan is the great social
document of Chinese life, Sa Kuo is the document of wars and statesmanship, and in
its turn Hung Lou Meng is the document of family life and human love.

The history of the San Kuo or Three Kingdoms shows the same architectural structure and
the same doubtful authorship as Shui Hu. The story begins with three friends swearing
eternal brotherhood in the Han dynasty and ends ninety-seven years later in the succeeding
period of the Six Dynasties. It is a novel rewritten in its final form by a man named Lo Kuan
Chung, thought to be a pupil of Shih Nai An, and one who perhaps even shared with Shih Nai
An in the writing, too, of Shui Hu Chuan. But this is a Chinese Baconand-Shakespeare
controversy which has no end.

Lo Kuan Chung was born in the late Yuan dynasty and lived on into the Ming. He wrote many
dramas, but he is more famous for his novels, of which San Kuo is easily the best. The
version of this novel now most commonly used in China is the one revised in the time of
K'ang Hsi by Mao Chen Kan, who revised as well as criticised the book. He changed, added
and omitted material, as for example when he added the story of Suan Fu Ren, the wife of
one of the chief characters. He altered even the style. If Shui Hu Chuan has importance
today as a novel of the people in their struggle for liberty, San Kuo has importance because it
gives in such detail the science and art of war as the Chinese conceive it, so differently, too,
from our own. The guerillas, who are today China's most effective fighting units against
Japan, are peasants who know San Kuo by heart, if not from their own reading, at least from
hours spent in the idleness of winter days or long summer evenings when they sat listening to
the storytellers describe how the warriors of the Three Kingdoms fought their battles. It is
these ancient tactics of war which the guerillas trust today. What a warrior must be and how
he must attack and retreat, how retreat when the enemy advances, how advance when the
enemy retreats - all this had its source in this novel, so well known to every common man and
boy of China.

Hung Lou Meng, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, the latest and most modern of these
three greatest of Chinese novels, was written originally as an autobiographical novel by Ts'ao
Hsüeh Ching, an official highly in favor during the Manchu regime and indeed considered by
the Manchus as one of themselves. There were then eight military groups among the
Manchus, and Tstao Hsüeh Ching belonged to them all. He never finished his novel, and the
last forty chapters were added by another man, probably named Kao O. The thesis that Ts'ao
Hsüeh Ching was telling the story of his own life has been in modern times elaborated by Hu
Shih, and in earlier times by Yuan Mei. Be this as it may, the original title of the book was
Shih T'ou Chi, and it came out of Peking about 1765 of the Western era, and in five or six
years, an incredibly short time in China, it was famous everywhere. Printing was still
expensive when it appeared, and the book became known by the method that is called in
China, «You-lend-me-a-book-and-I-lend-you-a-book».

The story is simple in its theme but complex in implication, in character study and in its
portrayal of human emotions. It is almost a pathological study, this story of a great house,
once wealthy and high in imperial favor, so that indeed one of its members was an imperial
concubine. But the great days are over when the book begins. The family is already
declining. Its wealth is being dissipated and the last and only son, Chia Pao Yü, is being
corrupted by the decadent influences within his own home, although the fact that he was a
youth of exceptional quality at birth is established by the symbolism of a piece of jade found
in his mouth. The preface begins, «Heaven was once broken and when it was mended, a bit
was left unused, and this became the famous jade of Chia Pao Yü.» Thus does the interest in
the supernatural persist in the Chinese people; it persists even today as a part of Chinese
life.

This novel seized hold of the people primarily because it portrayed the problems of their own
family system, the absolute power of women in the home, the too great power of the
matriarchy, the grandmother, the mother, and even the bondmaids, so often young and
beautiful and fatally dependent, who became too frequently the playthings of the sons of the
house and ruined them and were ruined by them. Women reigned supreme in the Chinese
house, and because they were wholly confined in its walls and often illiterate, they ruled to
the hurt of all. They kept men children, and protected them from hardship and effort when
they should not have been so protected. Such a one was Chia Pao Yü, and we follow him to
his tragic end in Hung Lou Meng.

I cannot tell you to what lengths of allegory scholars went to explain away this novel when
they found that again even the emperor was reading it and that its influence was so great
everywhere among the people. I do not doubt that they were probably reading it themselves
in secret. A great many popular jokes in China have to do with scholars reading novels
privately and publicly pretending never to have heard of them. At any rate, scholars wrote
treatises to prove that Hung Lou Meng was not a novel but a political allegory depicting the
decline of China under the foreign rule of the Manchus, the word Red in the title signifying
Manchu, and Ling Tai Yü, the young girl who dies, although she was the one destined to
marry Pao Yü, signifying China, and Pao Ts'ai, her successful rival, who secures the jade in
her place, standing for the foreigner, and so forth. The very name Chia signified, they said,
falseness. But this was a farfetched explanation of what was written as a novel and stands as
a novel and as such a powerful delineation, in the characteristic Chinese mixture of
realism and romance, of a proud and powerful family in decline. Crowded with men
and women of the several generations accustomed to living under one roof in China, it
stands alone as an intimate description of that life.

In so emphasizing these three novels, I have merely done what the Chinese themselves do.
When you say «novel», the average Chinese replies, « Shui Hu, San Kuo, Hung Lou Meng.»
Yet this is not to say that there are not hundreds of other novels, for there are. I must mention
Hsi Yü Chi, or Record of Travels in the West, almost as popular as these three. I might
mention Feng Shen Chuan, the story of a deified warrior, the author unknown but said to be a
writer in the time of Ming. I must mention Ru Ling Wai Shi, a satire upon the evils of the Tsing
dynasty, particularly of the scholars, full of a double-edged though not malicious dialogue,
rich with incident, pathetic and humorous. The fun here is made of the scholars who can
do nothing practical, who are lost in the world of useful everyday things, who are so
bound by convention that nothing original can come from them. The book, though long,
has no central character. Each figure is linked to the next by the thread of incident, person
and incident passing on together until, as Lu Hsün, the famous modern Chinese writer, has
said, «they are like scraps of brilliant silk and satin sewed together.»

And there is Yea Shou Pei Yin, or An Old Hermit Talks in the Sun, written by a famous man
disappointed in official preferment, Shia of Kiang-yin, and there is that strangest of books,
Ching Hua Yuen, a fantasy of women, whose ruler was an empress, whose scholars were all
women. It is designed to show that the wisdom of women is equal to that of men, although I
must acknowledge that the book ends with a war between men and women in which the men
are triumphant and the empress is supplanted by an emperor.

But I can mention only a small fraction of the hundreds of novels which delight the common
people of China. And if those people knew of what I was speaking to you today, they would
after all say «tell of the great three, and let us stand or fall by Shui Hu Chuan and San Kuo
and Hung Lou Meng.» In these three novels are the lives which the Chinese people lead and
have long led, here are the songs they sing and the things at which they laugh and the things
which they love to do. Into these novels they have put the generations of their being and to
refresh that being they return to these novels again and again, and out of them they have
made new songs and plays and other novels. Some of them have come to be almost as
famous as the great originals, as for example Ching P'ing Mei, that classic of romantic
physical love, taken from a single incident in Shui Hu Chuan.

But the important thing for me today is not the listing of novels. The aspect which I wish to
stress is that all this profound and indeed sublime development of the imagination of a great
democratic people was never in its own time and country called literature. The very name for
story was «hsiao shuo », denoting something slight and valueless, and even a novel was only
a «ts'ang p'ien hsiao shuo », or a longer something which was still slight and useless. No, the
people of China forged their own literature apart from letters. And today this is what lives, to
be part of what is to come, and all the formal literature, which was called art, is dead. The
plots of these novels are often incomplete, the love interest is often not brought to solution,
heroines are often not beautiful and heroes often are not brave. Nor has the story always an
end; sometimes it merely stops, in the way life does, in the middle of it when death is not
expected.

In this tradition of the novel have I been born and reared as a writer. My ambition, therefore,
has not been trained toward the beauty of letters or the grace of art. It is, I believe, a sound
teaching and, as I have said, illuminating for the novels of the West.
For here is the essence of the attitude of Chinese novelists - perhaps the result of the
contempt in which they were held by those who considered themselves the priests of art. I
put it thus in my own words, for none of them has done so.

The instinct which creates the arts is not the same as that which produces art. The
creative instinct is, in its final analysis and in its simplest terms, an enormous extra
vitality, a super-energy, born inexplicably in an individual, a vitality great beyond all
the needs of his own living - an energy which no single life can consume. This energy
consumes itself then in creating more life, in the form of music, painting, writing, or
whatever is its most natural medium of expression. Nor can the individual keep
himself from this process, because only by its full function is he relieved of the burden
of this extra and peculiar energy - an energy at once physical and mental, so that all
his senses are more alert and more profound than another man's, and all his brain
more sensitive and quickened to that which his senses reveal to him in such
abundance that actuality overfiows into imagination. It is a process proceeding from
within. It is the heightened activity of every cell of his being, which sweeps not only
himself, but all human life about him, or in him, in his dreams, into the circle of its
activity.

From the product of this activity, art is deducted - but not by him. The process which creates
is not the process which deduces the shapes of art. The defining of art, therefore, is a
secondary and not a primary process. And when one born for the primary process of
creation, as the novelist is, concerns himself with the secondary process, his activity
becomes meaningless. When he begins to make shapes and styles and techniques and new
schools, then he is like a ship stranded upon a reef whose propeller, whirl wildly as it will,
cannot drive the ship onward. Not until the ship is in its element agam can lt regain its course.

And for the novelist the only element is human life as he finds it in himself or outside himsel#
The sole test of his work is whether or not his energy is producing more of that life. Are his
creatures alive? That is the only question. And who can tell him? Who but those living human
beings, the people? Those people are not absorbed in what art is or how it is made-are not,
indeed, absorbed in anything very lofty, however good it is. No, they are absorbed only in
themselves, in their own hungers and despairs and joys and above all, perhaps, in their own
dreams. These are the ones who can really judge the work of the novelist, for they judge by
that single test of reality. And the standard of the test is not to be made by the device of art,
but by the simple comparison of the reality of what they read, to their own reality.

I have been taught, therefore, that though the novelist may see art as cool and perfect
shapes, he may only admire them as he admires marble statues standing aloof in a quiet and
remote gallery; for his place is not with them. His place is in the street. He is happiest there.
The street is noisy and the men and women are not perfect in the technique of their
expression as the statues are. They are ugly and imperfect, incomplete even as human
beings, and where they come from and where they go cannot be known. But they are people
and therefore infinitely to be preferred to those who stand upon the pedestals of art.
And like the Chinese novelist, I have been taught to want to write for these people. If
they are reading their magazines by the million, then I want my stories there rather
than in magazines read only by a few. For story belongs to the people. They are
sounder judges of it than anyone else, for their senses are unspoiled and their
emotions are free. No, a novelist must not think of pure literature as his goal. He must
not even know this field too well, because people, who are his material, are not there.
He is a storyteller in a village tent, and by his stories he entices people into his tent. He
need not raise his voice when a scholar passes. But he must beat all his drums when a
band of poor pilgrims pass on their way up the mountain in search of gods. To them
he must cry, «I, too, tell of gods!» And to farmers he must talk of their land, and to old
men he must speak of peace, and to old women he must tell of their children, and to
young men and women he must speak of each other. He must be satisfied if the
common people hear him gladly. At least, so I have been taught in China.

Source: Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, River Edge, NJ : World Scientific, 1967.

Your Majesties

Your Royal Highnesses

Honourable Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

I stand before you and the world humbled by this recognition and uplifted by the honour of being the 2004 Nobel Peace

Laureate.

As the first African woman to receive this prize, I accept it on behalf of the people of Kenya and Africa, and indeed the

world. I am especially mindful of women and the girl child. I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take

more space for leadership. I know the honour also gives a deep sense of pride to our men, both old and young. As a

mother, I appreciate the inspiration this brings to the youth and urge them to use it to pursue their dreams.

Although this prize comes to me, it acknowledges the work of countless individuals and groups across the

globe. They work quietly and often without recognition to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human

rights and ensure equality between women and men. By so doing, they plant seeds of peace. I know they, too, are proud

today. To all who feel represented by this prize I say use it to advance your mission and meet the high expectations the

world will place on us.

This honour is also for my family, friends, partners and supporters throughout the world. All of them helped shape the

vision and sustain our work, which was often accomplished under hostile conditions. I am also grateful to the people of

Kenya - who remained stubbornly hopeful that democracy could be realized and their environment managed sustainably.

Because of this support, I am here today to accept this great honour.

I am immensely privileged to join my fellow African Peace laureates, Presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Chief Albert Luthuli, the late Anwar el-Sadat and the UN Secretary General, Kofi

Annan.
I know that African people everywhere are encouraged by this news. My fellow Africans, as we embrace this

recognition, let us use it to intensify our commitment to our people, to reduce conflicts and poverty and thereby

improve their quality of life. Let us embrace democratic governance, protect human rights and protect our environment. I

am confident that we shall rise to the occasion. I have always believed that solutions to most of our problems must come

from us.

In this year's prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has placed the critical issue of environment and its linkage to

democracy and peace before the world. For their visionary action, I am profoundly grateful. Recognizing that sustainable

development, democracy and peace are indivisible is an idea whose time has come. Our work over the past 30 years has

always appreciated and engaged these linkages.

My inspiration partly comes from my childhood experiences and observations of Nature in rural Kenya. It has been

influenced and nurtured by the formal education I was privileged to receive in Kenya, the United States and Germany. As

I was growing up, I witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed local

biodiversity and the capacity of the forests to conserve water.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

In 1977, when we started the Green Belt Movement, I was partly responding to needs identified by rural women, namely

lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income.

Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant responsibility for tilling the land and feeding

their families. As a result, they are often the first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become scarce

and incapable of sustaining their families.

The women we worked with recounted that unlike in the past, they were unable to meet their basic needs. This was due

to the degradation of their immediate environment as well as the introduction of commercial farming, which replaced the

growing of household food crops. But international trade controlled the price of the exports from these small-scale farmers

and a reasonable and just income could not be guaranteed. I came to understand that when the environment is

destroyed, plundered or mismanaged, we undermine our quality of life and that of future generations.

Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs identified by women. Also, tree planting

is simple, attainable and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable amount time. This sustains interest and

commitment.

So, together, we have planted over 30 million trees that provide fuel, food, shelter, and income to support their children's

education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through their

involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and

relevance in the family. This work continues.

Initially, the work was difficult because historically our people have been persuaded to believe that because they are poor,

they lack not only capital, but also knowledge and skills to address their challenges. Instead they are conditioned to

believe that solutions to their problems must come from ‘outside'. Further, women did not realize that meeting their needs

depended on their environment being healthy and well managed. They were also unaware that a degraded environment

leads to a scramble for scarce resources and may culminate in poverty and even conflict. They were also unaware of the

injustices of international economic arrangements.

In order to assist communities to understand these linkages, we developed a citizen education program, during which
people identify their problems, the causes and possible solutions. They then make connections between their own

personal actions and the problems they witness in the environment and in society. They learn that our world is confronted

with a litany of woes: corruption, violence against women and children, disruption and breakdown of families, and

disintegration of cultures and communities. They also identify the abuse of drugs and chemical substances, especially

among young people. There are also devastating diseases that are defying cures or occurring in epidemic proportions. Of

particular concern are HIV/AIDS, malaria and diseases associated with malnutrition.

On the environment front, they are exposed to many human activities that are devastating to the environment and

societies. These include widespread destruction of ecosystems, especially through deforestation, climatic instability, and

contamination in the soils and waters that all contribute to excruciating poverty.

In the process, the participants discover that they must be part of the solutions. They realize their hidden potential and

are empowered to overcome inertia and take action. They come to recognize that they are the primary custodians

and beneficiaries of the environment that sustains them.

Entire communities also come to understand that while it is necessary to hold their governments accountable,

it is equally important that in their own relationships with each other, they exemplify the leadership values

they wish to see in their own leaders,

namely justice, integrity and trust.

Although initially the Green Belt Movement's tree planting activities did not address issues of democracy and peace, it

soon became clear that responsible governance of the environment was impossible without democratic space. Therefore,

the tree became a symbol for the democratic struggle in Kenya. Citizens were mobilised to challenge widespread abuses

of power, corruption and environmental mismanagement. In Nairobi 's Uhuru Park, at Freedom Corner, and in many parts

of the country, trees of peace were planted to demand the release of prisoners of conscience and a peaceful transition to

democracy.

Through the Green Belt Movement, thousands of ordinary citizens were mobilized and empowered to take action and

effect change. They learned to overcome fear and a sense of helplessness and moved to defend democratic rights.

In time, the tree also became a symbol for peace and conflict resolution, especially during ethnic conflicts in Kenya when

the Green Belt Movement used peace trees to reconcile disputing communities. During the ongoing re-writing of the

Kenyan constitution, similar trees of peace were planted in many parts of the country to promote a culture of peace. Using

trees as a symbol of peace is in keeping with a widespread African tradition. For example, the elders of the Kikuyu carried

a staff from the thigi tree that, when placed between two disputing sides, caused them to stop fighting and seek

reconciliation. Many communities in Africa have these traditions.

Such practises are part of an extensive cultural heritage, which contributes both to the conservation of habitats and to

cultures of peace. With the destruction of these cultures and the introduction of new values, local biodiversity is no longer

valued or protected and as a result, it is quickly degraded and disappears. For this reason, The Green Belt Movement

explores the concept of cultural biodiversity, especially with respect to indigenous seeds and medicinal plants.

As we progressively understood the causes of environmental degradation, we saw the need for good governance. Indeed,

the state of any county's environment is a reflection of the kind of governance in place, and without good governance

there can be no peace. Many countries, which have poor governance systems, are also likely to have conflicts and poor

laws protecting the environment.

In 2002, the courage, resilience, patience and commitment of members of the Green Belt Movement, other civil society

organizations, and the Kenyan public culminated in the peaceful transition to a democratic government and laid the

foundation for a more stable society.

Excellencies, friends, ladies and gentlemen,

It is 30 years since we started this work. Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated.

Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-

support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own – indeed, to

embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense

of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process.

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a

higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.

That time is now.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has challenged the world to broaden the understanding of peace: there can

be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the

environment in a democratic and peaceful space. This shift is an idea whose time has come.

I call on leaders, especially from Africa, to expand democratic space and build fair and just societies that allow the

creativity and energy of their citizens to flourish.

Those of us who have been privileged to receive education, skills, and experiences and even power must be role models

for the next generation of leadership. In this regard, I would also like to appeal for the freedom of my fellow laureate

Aung San Suu Kyi so that she can continue her work for peace and democracy for the people of Burma and the world at

large.

Culture plays a central role in the political, economic and social life of communities. Indeed, culture may be the missing

link in the development of Africa. Culture is dynamic and evolves over time, consciously discarding retrogressive

traditions, like female genital mutilation (FGM), and embracing aspects that are good and useful.

Africans, especially, should re-discover positive aspects of their culture. In accepting them, they would give

themselves a sense of belonging, identity and self-confidence.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is also need to galvanize civil society and grassroots movements to catalyse change. I call upon governments to

recognize the role of these social movements in building a critical mass of responsible citizens, who help maintain checks

and balances in society. On their part, civil society should embrace not only their rights but also their responsibilities.

Further, industry and global institutions must appreciate that ensuring economic justice, equity and ecological integrity are

of greater value than profits at any cost.

The extreme global inequities and prevailing consumption patterns continue at the expense of the environment and

peaceful co-existence. The choice is ours.

I would like to call on young people to commit themselves to activities that contribute toward achieving their long-term

dreams. They have the energy and creativity to shape a sustainable future. To the young people I say, you are a gift to

your communities and indeed the world. You are our hope and our future.

The holistic approach to development, as exemplified by the Green Belt Movement, could be embraced and replicated in
more parts of Africa and beyond. It is for this reason that I have established the Wangari Maathai Foundation to ensure

the continuation and expansion of these activities. Although a lot has been achieved, much remains to be done.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

As I conclude I reflect on my childhood experience when I would visit a stream next to our home to fetch water for my

mother. I would drink water straight from the stream. Playing among the arrowroot leaves I tried in vain to pick up the

strands of frogs' eggs, believing they were beads. But every time I put my little fingers under them they would break.

Later, I saw thousands of tadpoles: black, energetic and wriggling through the clear water against the background of the

brown earth. This is the world I inherited from my parents.

Today, over 50 years later, the stream has dried up, women walk long distances for water, which is not always clean, and

children will never know what they have lost. The challenge is to restore the home of the tadpoles and give back to our

children a world of beauty and wonder.

©THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 1938. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Greens do well
near a Sunny
Kitchen Window
 Nobel Lecture
Disarmament, Technology, And The Growth In
Violence
by Alva Myrdal
1982 Nobel Peace Prize
December 11, 1982 at Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

Mr. Chairman, Honoured Guests:

In the first place it is my obvious and at the same time most pleasant duty to
express my gratitude for the honour that has been accorded me by the award
of the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize.

May I then mention that I shall deal not only with the general subject of
disarmament, but I shall also direct the attention to the connection between
armament problems and the headlong on-rush of technology and the growth
in violence. We must never forget the trampling down of human dignity and
rights, the increase in acts of violence and the use of torture. All of this
testifies to an incredible persistence in contempt for the suffering of individual
men and women.

But I would also like to express my very special thanks to the Nobel
Committee for hitting on the idea of dividing the prize between Dr. Garcia
Robles and myself. This indicates that we have not received the prize only as
personal tributes to ourselves, but that the entire movement which aims at
promoting peace and reducing the use of violence has been given a great
encouragement. This was emphasised, too, by the chairman of the Norwegian
Nobel Committee, Egil Aarvik. The whole popular movement of protest, which
at present is and has to be directed mainly against the use of the extreme
weapon of terror, the atom bomb, has acquired a recognised legitimacy. This
is bound to influence the attitudes and decisions not least of leading politicians
and military chiefs in the superpowers.

I am intentionally not using the phrase, "striving for peace" too frequently. The
longing for peace is rooted in the hearts of all men. But the striving, which at
present has become so insistent, cannot lay claim to such an ambition as
leading the way to eternal peace, or solving all disputes among nations. The
economic and political roots of the conflicts are too strong. Nor can it pretend
to create a lasting state of harmonious understanding between men. Our
immediate goal must be more modest: aimed at preventing what, in the
present situation, is the greatest threat to the very survival of mankind, the
threat of nuclear weapons.

I should in the beginning like to emphasise also that I am particularly gratified

that on this occasion the award goes to two citizens of nations which are both
denuclearised and non-allied. The mass media calls attention to this fact all
too seldom, as they are so one-sidedly concerned with the rivalry between the
two superpower blocs. There are, after all, so many other countries in the
world, and most have refused to serve as hostages to the superpowers.

Maybe I should add--and I hope this does not sound boastful-- that we are two
delegates who have shown at the disarmament negotiations and in the United
Nations that rhetoric is by no means enough. We have tried to speak for
greater emphasis on analysis, and constructivity.

More must be done in concrete terms in order to promote the cause of

disarmament. Garcia Robles has ingeniously constructed and tenaciously
sought to follow up the Tlatelolco agreement, with a view to making the whole
of Latin America a denuclearised zone. He has actually succeeded so far as
to get the nuclear weapon powers to enter into binding agreements to refrain
from attacking with nuclear arms nations that have joined a zone free from
nuclear weapons.

I for my part, with some colleagues of mine, have presented many concrete
and elaborated proposals. Sometimes we have had some success, though
more rarely on major questions. But I have, for example, managed to get the
Swedish government budget to pay the costs of SIPRI ( Swedish International
Peace Research Institute ) as well as the less known seismological Hagfors
station. That enables us to monitor independently, and systematically even
the smallest subterranean nuclear tests, using the most modern equipment,
and to publish the results internationally, unhampered by any political
considerations. This work has more recently been followed by efforts to build
up an international network for open verification of nuclear test explosions.

These efforts of our two countries are mentioned as examples of the

opportunities that exist for objectively refuting so many of the attempts by the
nuclear weapon powers to conceal or give false explanations of actual facts.
Or at least their attempts to delay the truth breaking through. The smaller
nations can in fact exercise greater influence on disarmament negotiations
than they have hitherto done. But then we must exert ourselves to break
through the wall of silence which, unfortunately, the great powers have
erected to ward off the small powers' influence in the international debate.

It is of the greatest importance that people and governments in many more

countries than ours should realise that it is more dangerous to have access to
nuclear arms than not to possess them. Without nuclear arms we run less risk
of being drawn into the orbit of the great powers, with their hyper-dangerous
weapons. And after all, there is no defense against them.

The world generally speaking is now drifting on a more and more devastating
course towards the absurd target of extermination--or rather, to be more
exact--of the northern hemisphere's towns, fields, and the people who have
developed our civilisation.

The distressing situation of our era, which recalls the fate that overtook Rome,
is rising from a clearly irredeemable misconception, viz. that the use of
weapons, violence, can lead to victory.

How would it be possible, even at immense expense, to inaugurate a new and

happy existence for the world on the ruins of one that would be at least half-
destroyed? The misconception that a victory can be worth its price, has in the
nuclear age become a total illusion.

There is no doubt that what the superpowers are now planning, and in which
they are investing billions, is precisely the preparation for waging war. New
super-technological weapons systems committed to the service of new
strategies are now quite openly aimed at the waging of war, and at an
imagined "victory".

The new generations of intercontinental missiles do not change the basis for,
but just continue the same old strategy, for example the United States MX
(which will not be ready for deployment before 1986, if ever) or its
counterparts, the SS-17, SS-18 and SS-19, which are already in place. They
do not alter the fact that both superpowers have possessed a decisive basic
capacity since about 1960, viz. to deal a decisive blow at one another's
mainlands. At that time, a so-called "balance of terror" may be said to have
existed. As I and so many others have pointed out, the two great powers
already at that time had "sufficient" capacity to deter one another from
launching a nuclear strike.

Soon after Kennedy had been elected President, General Taylor in 1960
advised him that between 100 and 200 long-range missiles would be
sufficient; and various experts ever since have made similar assessments.
One or two scientific writers have even gone so far as to say that one missile
on each side would be enough (e.g. McGeorge Bundy and Herbert York). As
the arms race proceeded, however, the experts have as a rule stayed at the
conclusion that the target for a sufficient deterrent would involve something
like 400 missiles, capable of reaching from one continent to the other. All
developments over and above this have simply meant one more step in the
direction of increased instability. They have been unnecessary, and at what a
cost!

A great amount has been talked and written about what constitutes a sufficient
balance and what really is meant by the concepts of "balance" and
"deterrence". And despite the fact that the experts have disclosed what is the
simple truth, misconceptions arise and are proliferated: the idea that more is
needed when one already has more than sufficient.

After having read reams and personally written so much on this subject on
numerous occasions, without obtaining a hearing, I am actually starting to find
it a trifle wearying. But the truth must be brought home and emphasised again
and again. This I have done most recently in the revised preface to the third
edition of my book The Game of Disarmament which had so far only been
available in English. Today, of all days, it is appearing in a Swedish
translation, in an issue of the periodical Tiden.

That the argument is mainly carried out with the long-range intercontinental
missiles in view, does not mean that other nuclear arms are not subject to the
same reasoning. I shall go on repeating the truth until the politicians get it into
their heads, that when one has sufficient, one does not need more.

The conclusion of where the rivalry of the two superpowers is leading us is

terrifyingly realistic. Just now the ongoing process is moving from deterrence
to the capacity for waging actual war. This has been described in a flood of
new books, particularly in America. Here I would like to give just one
quotation; it is from the highly respected, and by no means dangerously
radical, daily paper The Washington Post of April 13, 1982:

"A point was reached long ago at which both the United States and the Soviet
Union had such monstrous arsenals that further accretions became
senseless. These have been 37 years of lunacy, of idiots racing against
imbeciles, of civilised nations staggering blindly toward a finishing line of
unspeakable peril.

The immediate necessity is to call a truce, to stop the further buildup of

Nuclear weapons by either side".

I agree with the many who consider freezing all sorts of weapons systems a
first step in a realistic disarmament policy. If only the authorities could be
made to realise that the forces leading them on in the armament race are just
insane. I have lately come to understand this all the more clearly since being
in contact with the international campaign among medical doctors against
nuclear arms, both in Boston and Stockholm. They now encompass a
membership of 38,000, being specialists from both East and West. At the
present moment they are, in fact, holding a meeting in Stokholm.

Physicians have now clearly explained how human beings react to the threat
of nuclear weapons. On the one hand by just closing their eyes, and this, in
fact, has long been the reaction of the "ordinary man". Or, on the other hand,
by a kind of nationalistic paranoia. As the experts so bluntly put it: persecution
mania. There is a constant magnifying of the enemy, exaggerating the threat
he poses, persuading people he is "the absolute enemy", ready to gobble
them up. And so the reasoning goes, more armaments are required. But this
is insane when we know that both superpowers already have so much more
than "enough".

The medical specialists have also clearly demonstrated how completely

insufficient our resources are for giving medical care to the wounded, even in
highly developed countries, in the event of a strike with nuclear weapons.

The persecution mania supported by what already Eisenhower called the

military-industrial complex is what now motivates leading politicians to indulge
in an unlimited arms race. It is brought forth from the nationalism that flares up
during any conflict of interests between states. But it goes far beyond the
boundaries of any natural patriotism, which is based on love of one's own
country and its cultural traditions. We have recently seen examples of that
kind of distorted nationalism in the conflict between Great Britain and
Argentina.

A mighty protest movement, speaking the language of common sense in more

and more countries, has now arisen to confront all these forces that are
engaged in the armament race and the militarisation of the world. For the
moment this movement has won most remarkable strength in countries like
the Netherlands and Norway, but more recently in West Germany and the
United States as well. It also lives in the hearts of the people in the East,
although there it has so much greater difficulty in making itself heard.

In this new popular movement of protest against nuclear weapons women

and, more and more churches and professional organizations are playing a
leading role. I have unfortunately not the time to describe at greater length this
flood of mighty protests against the acceptance of nuclear weapons. But in all
sincerity, I personally believe that those who are leaders with political power
over the world will be forced someday, sooner or later, to give way to common
sense and the will of the people.

Violence and technology

War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential
major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the
victims would be numbered by the millions.

This naked truth must be faced.

The age in which we live can only be characterised as one of barbarism. Our
civilisation is in the process not only of being militarised, but also being
brutalised.

There are two main features which mark this senseless trend. Let me briefly--
just as everything in my lecture must necessarily be abbreviated and
simplified--refer to them as rivalry and violence. Rivalry for the power to
exploit the headlong on-rush of technology militates against cooperation. The
result is increased violence, with more and more sophisticated weapons being
used. This is precisely what sets out our age as one of barbarism and
brutilisation. But the moment of truth should now have arrived.

I know that these are strong words. I know, too, that there are good forces at
work, trying to check this ill-starred development.
May I at this juncture make a personal confession? I have always regarded
global development as a struggle between the forces of good and evil. Not to
be simplified as a struggle between Jesus and Satan, since I do not consider
that the process is restricted to our own sphere of culture. Rather perhaps to
be symbolised in the most general terms as a struggle between Ormuzd, the
good, and Ahriman, the evil. My personal philosophy of life is one of ethics.

It seems to me as if the evil forces have now concentrated more and more
power in their hands. Dare we believe that the leaders of the world's great
nations will wake up, will see the precipice towards which they are heading
and change direction?

The driving force in the development of our civilisation, at least since the
Renaissance, has evidently been the progress of technology. But technology
is two-edged. It can always be exploited either by good forces or by evil
forces. And we human beings do not seem to have succeeded to make a
choice quite consciously, nor how to steer the considerable consequences.

The credit side of this necessarily double-entry form of bookkeeping has

naturally to record the tremendous progress that has helped to overcome so
much misery and raise millions of people to a comfortable living standard. The
inventions and the great discoveries have opened up whole continents to
reciprocal communication and interchange, provided we are willing. The
scientific innovations, not least in the field of medicine, and a great deal more
must, of course, be placed to the credit of technology.

But on the other hand, the triumphs of the evil forces are visible in numerous
areas. I shall confine myself here to what I really know something about, and
which is also the most ominous development: the growing role played by
armaments. First and foremost arms are tools in the service of rival nations,
pointing at the possibility of a future war. War and preparations for war have
acquired a kind of legitimacy. The tremendous proliferation of arms, through
their production and export, have now made them available more or less to all
and sundry, right down to handguns and stilettoes. The cult of violence has by
now so permeated the relations between human individuals that we are
compelled to witness an increase in everyday violence, violence in the streets
and in the homes. These are the models we set for our young people. It does
not just happen. It is disclosed by science that practically one-half of trained
intellectual resources are being mobilised for murderous purposes. During the
post-war years we have been in a position to observe a development ranging
from the simple Hiroshima bomb to all sorts of advanced technological
devices. As an example I could select the invisible STEALTH aircraft, or the
increasingly razor-sharp competition being played out in the oceans of the
world, ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare).

I have indicated how armaments promote--though admittedly not cause--

collective military violence. But we should never forget the interconnections
with the fact that the aforementioned personal violence, the crimes of violence
committed in our cities, are to a large extent a result of the spread of arms.

How great is not the importance of weapons being so easily available? This
should be studied. How often and with what weapons are killing and murder
committed, in society and within families, which actually appears to be the
commonest scene of violent crime? Where do these arms come from, these
Saturday night specials that constitute the instrument of threats in bank
robberies, or the hand grenades used by terrorists? How can their sales and
their import be permitted?

The very fact that war, despite the ordinances issued by the United Nations,
should receive more and more of a kind of "sanction" as a natural exercise of
force by various nations, in my opinion plays a more ominous role in
maintaining what I have called the weaponry and violence cult of our age.

Militarisation proceeds not only through acts of war and the purchase of arms.
It is also promoted--primarily, of course, where young men are concerned--by
military training, defense manuals etc. Exercises and war games erode the
basic ethical values contained in the command "thou shalt not kill". We
tolerate, in fact, more and more the exact opposite of what both religious
creeds and the international law on more humane warfare are endeavouring
to instil in us.

It is frightening that in recent years such an increase has occurred in acts of

terrorism, which have even reached peaceful countries such as ours. And as
a "remedy", more and more security forces are established to protect the lives
of individual men and women. The life of a politician is becoming increasingly
hazardous. Where is the end of this spiral of force and counter-force?

Many countries persecute their own citizens and intern them in prisons or
concentration camps. Oppression is becoming more and more a part of the
systems. Lech Walesa's sufferings may stand as a symbol for the way in
which human rights are being trampled down, in one country after another.

A cultural factor promoting violence which nowadays undoubtedly is highly

effective is the mass media. And particularly everything that enters our minds
through pictorial media. A wide range of investigations on this subject have
been made and published in many countries. Some programmes tend to have
a more momentary effect, while others confirm more permanent effects of
indoctrination.

The violence shown in the mass media also has a differentiated effect, since
violence committed by the "good guys" is imprinted more deeply in our
apperceptions than violence committed by the "bad guys".

We also know that children and young people are more liable to accept a
brutal pattern of action. This inability to filter or select the impressions that
make their mark on us also has consequences in an international context: the
morals and customs of the Western world are taught to the Third World
through the medium of films and news exports, which are paralleled by the
export of arms, and which at any rate hardly work in the opposite direction.

These are signs that there is something very sick in our society.

Finally, I should like briefly to return for a moment to the subject of technology
and peace. I do this mainly in order to submit a practical proposal. And in this
connection I should like to mention Nobel, a man who maybe better than
anyone symbolises the two-edged nature of technology.

Nobel was a genuine friend of peace. He even went so far as to believe that
he had invented a tool of destruction, dynamite, which would make war so
senseless that it would become impossible. He was wrong.

But, in common with the forces of technology generally, his and other people's
inventions can be used in the service of both good and evil. Nitroglycerine is a
good example, which he himself cited. It is capable of soothing the pains of
cardiac cramp, as he experienced, in common with myself. It can be used to
blow up harbours as well as human beings. Nobel himself built up a great war
industry.

In that man's breast, as is so often the case with human beings, dwelt two
souls. Psychology is beginning, however, to draw aside the veil and reveal the
labyrinths which are part of our personalities.

I should like to quote a passage from Nobel's will and testament, which I
believe has gone unobserved and which is of direct practical value. Nobel
states, inter alia, that the purpose of the fund is to support "the holding and
promotion of peace congresses".
As far as I know, no peace congresses have been held in the nearly 100
years of the will's existence. I should like to suggest a change of policy for
coming years, welcoming organisers of "peace congresses" as Nobel Prize
candidates. Such conferences might provide excellent occasions for
submitting important questions to a dynamic, intellectually factual analysis and
debate. The mighty popular movement against the arms race which is now
gaining strength, will facilitate and at the same time require a stimulus of this
kind--to serve the building of our future.