During the winter vacation of 2019, out of yearning for the customs and customs of this mysterious country, and out of curiosity about the operation model of Grameen Bank, I embarked on a journey to Bangladesh.
The original travelogue has tens of thousands of words, which is really difficult to describe here. In just fifteen days, we had in-depth contact with this mysterious country, experienced human relationships, and experienced dangers. I just hope you can read it carefully.
In 1757, Bangladesh became a province of British India. After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, it belonged to Pakistan and was called East Pakistan. In 1971, it became independent from Pakistan. However, in this series of freedom struggles, Bangladesh lost a large number of high-quality talents, and has yet to make up for this loss, resulting in long-term stagnation of economic growth after independence.
Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world and one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2013, Bangladesh’s per capita GDP was US$818. In China, it was US$6,076 in the same year. The manifestations of this kind of poverty in Bangladesh are sharp and naked. When combined with the gap between rich and poor, it is even more difficult to accept. On the streets of Bangladesh, you can see poor people setting up dilapidated tents on the roadside eating unclean food, and you can see children who don’t go to school doing small businesses, but you can also see well-dressed locals, and you can see luxurious and expensive decorations. restaurants.
I am deeply impressed by this family. Their tent is on the road I pass every day. When I first saw them, they were happily eating together just like in the photo. It makes me feel that even if I struggle materially, my life can be happy and peaceful. And once when passing by, a child was crying because he had nothing to eat. The irritable mother was beating another naughty child severely, and the man was trying to dissuade her, with a confused and flustered expression. That image lingers in my mind.
Such emotions have become the background of our Bangladesh team. Bangladesh’s poverty and its endurance, resistance and hardship make everything in this land not so simple.
The main purpose of the Bangladesh trip is this famous bank. Its founder, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. This bank is very different from ordinary banks. Everything starts with a sentence: "Usually banks serve the rich. The rich get more funds and make more money by relying on mortgages. The poor never even have a chance to stand up."
This statement may not sound immediately acceptable because we have different definitions of rich and poor. In Bangladesh, the poor have nothing to eat, no houses, no education, and no toilets. It is not an exaggeration to say that they have no chance of turning around. The mission of Grameen Bank is to provide microfinance to these people.
If you want to borrow a small loan, you must meet Grameen Bank's conditions: "Landless and Assetless". Of course, banks quantify metrics. But what exactly are they using as collateral? The answer is: social relationships.
In our era, perhaps the most reliable thing to use as collateral is social relationships. Grameen Bank has made good use of this. If you want to apply for a microfinance loan, you must establish a team of five people, and the identity requirements of the team members are very strict: equal education, equal assets, living close to each other, not family members, etc. When a team is formed, one person will be selected as the team leader. From an economic and psychological point of view, this rule makes perfect sense. Among similar groups of people, peer pressure is the most obvious. Similar backgrounds ensure that everyone is motivated and fair enough.
After establishing the team, they began to receive the loan. Interestingly, Grameen Bank also requires them to save every month. After reviewing their business plans, the bank will lend them additional business loans of larger amounts with loose repayment requirements and provide them with guidance. After the business is successful, many people actually no longer need to borrow money, but they have kept the habit of saving money while taking loans. Maybe this is a self-habit, and this is also how banks make money.
Grameen Bank used this method to slowly establish a huge influence in rural Bangladesh.
It has reshaped Bangladesh to a certain extent, allowing the poor in Bangladesh to fundamentally gain the ability to live independently. And with this unsecured method, the repayment rate is as high as 97%.
What must be mentioned is Grameen Bank’s contribution to gender equality. Discrimination against women in Islamic countries is often very obvious. But in Bangladesh, we don't feel that bad. Because women are better at saving and running families than men, Grameen Bank targets women with microfinance loans. As you can see from the photo below of our meeting at a rural branch, almost all of the attendees were women. In fact, 97% of its members are women, and they account for 95% of total loans. Women have gone from earning the lowest income to becoming the backbone of the family income. This change has greatly improved the status of women and, to a certain extent, improved family relations in Bangladesh. Husbands pay more attention and respect to their wives.
One day we are free to travel. Our plan is to go to Dhaka University, then to the museum, and finally to go shopping to buy souvenirs. At Dhaka University, a local who claimed to be a Dhaka University student took us on a tour of the campus. Then he offered to take us to the museum. When we went to the restaurant together at noon, one of our team members discovered that he had lost his mobile phone. After surveillance, it was confirmed that he took the phone and left.
At that time, Bangladesh was experiencing the most serious demonstrations. Every day, domestic news reported the number of casualties and serious strikes. The police in Bangladesh are different from those in China. According to my understanding, they do not have strong obligations to the people. The restaurant manager said: "This is Bangladesh, not China." The bank's project leader said: "Things gone are gone."
They said that Bangladeshis have to catch thieves themselves when they lose something. The tone was helpless.
When we were young, we made bold decisions. Based on the photo we took with him, we went to Dhaka University to seek help from the school. It was the weekend, and we were asking, searching, and waiting on campus. Dhaka University takes it very seriously and assisted us in calling the police. In Bangladesh, it is difficult to get help by calling the police on your own, so you are extremely lucky to be able to call the police. At about 6 p.m., we received a call from the driver asking us to gather for the ride immediately. Maybe it’s because we are used to procrastinating that we didn’t take it seriously at first. Later, we all noticed the panic of the driver whom we called the "special bodyguard" - a burly driver with decades of driving experience. We left one after another, but there were still teammates who continued to negotiate. When everyone arrived, we saw the driver's nervous and grumpy face.
Chaos and sirens all the way. That night, we truly felt what "another world under the night" is. News of cars being set on fire fills us all with fear. There is a constant parade of motorcycles. The driver tried his best not to drive to the side of the road, but let the traffic on both sides protect us.
Back at the hotel, we reflected on whether the behavior of searching for the mobile phone was too impulsive and reckless. But no matter what, although it is an exception, our emotions towards the locals have become complicated, and the sense of integration we felt in the past few days has suddenly faded. In the next few days, every time we came into contact with strange and enthusiastic locals, we would subconsciously become defensive.
When I returned to China, the longer I stayed, the less I could complain about this incident. I can only seem to remember the hotel waiter teasing us in Chinese every day; I remember being treated like a star in the local supermarket, and the waiter who didn’t speak English used his hands to gesture with us in an attempt to communicate with us; I remember the cute kid playing with balloons by himself on the street; While eating in the restaurant, "Blue and White Porcelain" suddenly played and we sang together; I remember when I asked a man in the countryside why he didn't go to the city, he looked at his wife and children and said: "I am very happy here."
But I also remember the pain of their struggle in poverty; the regret in the eyes of adults when they talked about their children not being able to go to school; the messy and dark rooms in the countryside; an old couple said that their children would go abroad. I haven’t returned to work for 20 years.
Attached are some pictures:
The person in charge of receiving us in Bangladesh was an executive from the Grameen Bank. He was in his early 30s, fat, and spoke very good English. A few years after he entered Grameen Bank, he decided to go to Italy for further studies. He said that he did not take his wife and children with him during those years because he knew that he would not come back and that he would be needed here.
He is the dream of Bangladeshi youth, and we also see the hope of Bangladesh in him.
May God protect this country. May the people there be safe, prosperous and happy.