October 15, 2006 - Microcredit Can Work in Baltimore as Well as Bangladesh

It was inspiring and instructive to read about Noble Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer of “microcredit” in which small loans “unleash the entrepreneurial talents of people who had historically been written off” (“Small-loan pioneer wins peace prize”, 10-14-06.)

I believe that in this new millennium, governments, institutions and corporations will be judged by how well they promote social justice, grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom and nonviolence.

The example of Yunus should be repeated elsewhere—even here in Maryland— as a practical method of finally breaking the recurring cycle of poverty amongst our own “permanent underclass.”

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