Today, Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus called the youths to build themselves as “three-zero persons” to protect the planet from destruction. He delivered the keynote speech at the BIMSTEC Young Gen Forum on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit here.
“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.
Prof Yunus said the world is approaching a self-destructive civilisation as carbon emissions, waste generation, and wealth concentration continue to apply the old economic models.
Stressing the need to protect nature, the chief adviser said, “Unless your wealth is shared, you cannot sustain yourself in society.”
He mentioned that humans are not born to work for anybody else but were born to be entrepreneurs, and he asked the young generation to keep entrepreneurship in mind.
Calling the present young generation the most influential generation in history, the 2006 Nobel 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 that once five people get together, they can create a three-zero club where they will not personally contribute to carbon emissions, waste generation, or wealth concentration, and they will be three-zero people.
“You cannot change the world in a day. If you want to change, start from your village,” the chief adviser told the youths.
In his speech, Prof Yunus recalled the journey of Grameen Bank, which has already brought thousands of rural poor women out of poverty.
He mentioned that when a famine hit Bangladesh in 1974 after its independence, he was thinking about how to help the country.
As a result, the chief adviser said he thought of doing something for a small village next to Chittagong University while he was a teacher there.
Highlighting the challenges that he faced during Grameen Bank’s initial stage, he said there was suspicion, but “luckily I could speak the local dialect, so there was no language difference.”
For the first time, he disbursed money equivalent to one dollar to a woman, which began his journey. Later, a village bank (Grameen Bank) was established.
The Grameen Bank founder referred to the rights to credit as human rights and observed that if these rights are ensured, other rights can be established.
Regarding social business, he said that social enterprise solves social problems where it does not accumulate wealth.
At the beginning of his speech, Prof Yunus expressed deep condolences over the loss of lives in a recent earthquake that severely hit Myanmar.
Cox’s Bazar Life Desk/BSS
