Heard Muhammad Yunus, the Bengali economist and founder of Grameen Bank, speak today.
His autobiography, Banker to the Poor, touches on Bangladesh's historical patriarchy, terrible fight for independence, and periodic natural disaster as sources of its contemporary poverty.
Yunus is plain-spoken and inspirational: in fact, many of his stories sound too good to be true. While the economic ideas behind the bank are revolutionary, the social aspect is rooted in an almost unbelievable faith in human nature. But it works, and has worked for almost three decades; moreover, the system of microcredit he pioneered has been implemented in dozens of countries and cultures worldwide.
Events rolled neatly one into th' other today. Got up and rolled out down Market St., expecting to see crowds for San Francisco's Bike-to-Work Day. I grabbed a banana and a sticker, chin-wagged with a few cyclists, and then scooted down to the Embarcadero BART station.
The motto for the event was "Shift Gears, Bike to Work". I was riding the trusty ol' Dutchess.
A volunteer for the SFBC tried to get me to sign something in favour of the Jefferson St. transit plan. He was surprised to hear me offer an objection ("There's another point of view?" he asked naïvely, disingenuously, stupidly). I jumped down into the Embarcadero BART station, where I met up with Peter; we rode down to the Union City station, met up with Lupe, and then rode through the baylands, over the Dumbarton, and through the bird preserve in to work.