Obama honours Prof Yunus
Friday, 14 August 2009
US President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honour, to 16 agents of global change Wednesday, including Bangladeshi nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, South African anti-apartheid veteran Bishop Desmond Tutu and British physicist Stephen Hawking, reports bdnews24.com.
Professor Yunus, 'banker to the poor', broke new ground with micro-loans to the poor, now replicated worldwide. In Bangladesh in 1983 Yunus, an economist by training, founded the Grameen Bank that has since disbursed over US $8.0 billion micro-loans. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work.
Handing Yunus the Medal of Freedom, Obama said: "Thirty-five years ago, a young economics professor at a university in Bangladesh was struck by the disconnect between the theories he was teaching in class and the reality outside."
"Mohammed Yunus was just trying to help a village, but he somehow managed to change the world," said Obama.
At the start of his address, Obama thanked the "agents of change" and "finest citizens" of his own and other countries.
"The recipients of the Medal of Freedom did not set out to win this or any other award. They did not set out in pursuit of glory or fame or riches. Rather, they set out, guided by passion, committed to hard work, aided by persistence, often with few advantages but the gifts, grace, and good name God gave them," the US President said.
US's highest civilian honour is awarded for "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours".
Stephen Hawking is an internationally recognised theoretical physicist who has a severe physical disability due to motor neuron disease. Awarding the medal to Hawking, Obama said, ""From his wheelchair, he's led us on a journey to the farthest and strangest reaches of the cosmos. In so doing, he has stirred our imagination and shown us the power of the human spirit here on Earth."
Bishop Desmond Tutu, widely regarded as "South Africa's moral conscience," led a formidable crusade in support of justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1984.
Other figures to receive the Medal were Mary Robinson, Ireland's first woman president, who left the presidency early to serve as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights; Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to be nominated for and win a Best Actor Academy Award; and Senator Edward Kennedy, who has served in the US Senate for nearly 50 years, a career dedicated to "fighting for equal opportunity, fairness and justice for all Americans.
Senator Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, was missing from the ceremony, and was represented by his daughter Kara.
Professor Yunus, 'banker to the poor', broke new ground with micro-loans to the poor, now replicated worldwide. In Bangladesh in 1983 Yunus, an economist by training, founded the Grameen Bank that has since disbursed over US $8.0 billion micro-loans. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work.
Handing Yunus the Medal of Freedom, Obama said: "Thirty-five years ago, a young economics professor at a university in Bangladesh was struck by the disconnect between the theories he was teaching in class and the reality outside."
"Mohammed Yunus was just trying to help a village, but he somehow managed to change the world," said Obama.
At the start of his address, Obama thanked the "agents of change" and "finest citizens" of his own and other countries.
"The recipients of the Medal of Freedom did not set out to win this or any other award. They did not set out in pursuit of glory or fame or riches. Rather, they set out, guided by passion, committed to hard work, aided by persistence, often with few advantages but the gifts, grace, and good name God gave them," the US President said.
US's highest civilian honour is awarded for "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours".
Stephen Hawking is an internationally recognised theoretical physicist who has a severe physical disability due to motor neuron disease. Awarding the medal to Hawking, Obama said, ""From his wheelchair, he's led us on a journey to the farthest and strangest reaches of the cosmos. In so doing, he has stirred our imagination and shown us the power of the human spirit here on Earth."
Bishop Desmond Tutu, widely regarded as "South Africa's moral conscience," led a formidable crusade in support of justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1984.
Other figures to receive the Medal were Mary Robinson, Ireland's first woman president, who left the presidency early to serve as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights; Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to be nominated for and win a Best Actor Academy Award; and Senator Edward Kennedy, who has served in the US Senate for nearly 50 years, a career dedicated to "fighting for equal opportunity, fairness and justice for all Americans.
Senator Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, was missing from the ceremony, and was represented by his daughter Kara.