During his keynote address at the BIMSTEC Young Gen Forum, which was held on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit here, Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus urged the young people to become “three-zero persons” in order to save the planet.
“If we want to provide service, we will have to go to a new civilisation of three zeros – zero carbon emission, zero waste and zero wealth concentration,” he told the forum this afternoon.
According to Prof. Yunus, as long as carbon emissions, waste production, and wealth concentration persist using outdated economic models, the world is on the verge of becoming a self-destructive civilization.
The chief adviser emphasized the need of protecting the environment, saying, “Unless your wealth is shared, you cannot sustain in society.”
He urged the younger generation to remember entrepreneurship, pointing out that people are not born to work for others but rather to be entrepreneurs.
Calling the present young generation as the most powerful generation ever in the world, the 2006 Noble Peace Laureate said life is about preservation and protection and that is why the new civilisation of three zeros should be created.
About the importance of three-zero clubs, he said once five persons get together, they can create a three-zero club where they will not personally contribute to carbon emission, waste generation and wealth concentration, and they will be three-zero persons.
“You cannot change the world in a day…if you want to change, start from your village,” the chief adviser told youths.
During his lecture, Professor Yunus recalled the Grameen Bank’s journey, which has already helped thousands of impoverished rural women escape poverty.
He said that when a famine struck Bangladesh in 1974, following its independence, he was considering what he might do to help the nation.
The chief adviser claimed that while he was a professor at Chittagong campus, he had the idea to do something for a little community that was adjacent to the campus.
He emphasized the difficulties he encountered when Grameen Bank was just starting out, saying that there was mistrust but that “fortunately I could speak local dialect so there was no language difference.”
He said for the first time, he disbursed money equivalent to one dollar to a woman and that was the beginning of journey, and later a village bank (Grameen Bank) was established.
The founder of Grameen Bank referred to the rights to credit as human rights and noted that other rights might be formed if these rights were protected.
He stated that the goal of social enterprise is to address societal issues without generating financial gain.
Prof. Yunus began his address by expressing his sincere condolences for the deaths caused by the recent earthquake that struck Myanmar with great severity.
