BSS:

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Thursday called on the youths to build themselves as “three-zero persons” to protect the planet from destruction as he delivered keynote speech at BIMSTEC Young Gen Forum on the sidelines of 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 to a self-destructive civilisation as carbon emission, waste generation and wealth concentration continue applying the old economic models.

Stressing the need for protection of nature, the chief adviser said: “Unless your wealth is shared, you cannot sustain in the society.”

Mentioning that human being is not born to work under anybody else but they were born to be entrepreneurs, he asked the young generation to keep entrepreneurship in mind.

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.

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 that how he could do something for the country.

As a result, the chief adviser said he thought to do something for a small village next to Chittagong University while he was a teacher of that university.

Highlighting the challenges that he faced during the initial stage of Grameen Bank, he said there was suspicion over it but “luckily 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.

Terming the rights to credit as human rights, the Grameen Bank founder observed that if the rights to credit are ensured, other rights could be established.

About social business, he said the social business is to solve social problems where it does not accumulate wealth.

At the beginning of his speech, Prof Yunus expressed deep condolence over the loss of lives in a recent earthquake that severely hit Myanmar.