首页
登录
职称英语
Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Ba
Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Ba
游客
2023-12-14
12
管理
问题
Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Bangladeshi educated in Britain, an admirer of Shakespeare and Joyce, and a former accountant at Shell, he is the son of a distinguished family, his maternal grandfather was a minister in the colonial government of Bengal; a great-uncle was the first Bengali to serve in the governor of Bengal’s executive council. Now he received a very traditional distinction of his own. a knighthood. Yet the organization he founded, and for which his knighthood is a kind of respect, has probably done more than any single body to upend the traditions of misery and poverty in Bangladesh. Called BRAC, it is by most measures the largest, fastest-growing non-governmental organization (NGO) in the world—and one of the most businesslike.
Although Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for helping the poor, his Grameen Bank was neither the first nor the largest microfinance lender in his native Bangladesh; BRAC was. Its microfinance operation disburses about $ 1 billion a year. But this is only part of what it does: it is also an Internet-service provider; it has a university; its primary schools educate 11% of Bangladesh’s children. It runs feed mills, chicken farms, tea plantations and packaging factories. BRAC has shown that NGOs do not need to be small and that a little-known institution from a poor country can outgun famous Western charities.
None of this seemed likely in 1970, when Sir Faze turned Shell’s offices in Chittagong into a refuge for victims of a deadly cyclone. BRAC—which started as an acronym, Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, and became a motto, "building resources across communities"—surmounted its early troubles by combining two things that rarely go together: running an NGO as a business and taking seriously the social context of poverty.
BRAC earns from its operations about 80% of the money it disburses to the poor (the remainder is aid, mostly from Western donors). It calls a halt to activities that require endless subsidies. At one point, it even tried financing itself from the tiny savings of the poor (is, no aid at all), though this drastic form of self-help proved a step too far. hardly any lenders or borrowers put themselves forward. From the start, Sir Fazle insisted on brutal honesty about results. BRAC pays far more attention to research and "continuous learning" than do most NGOs. David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World", called it "as near to a pure example of a learning organization as one is likely to find. "
What makes BRAC unique is its combination of business methods with a particular view of poverty. Poverty is often regarded primarily as an economic problem which can be alleviated by sending money. Influenced by three "liberation thinkers" fashionable in the 1960s—Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freer and Ivan Iliac—Sir Fazle recognized that poverty in Bangladeshi villages is also a result of rigid social stratification. In these circumstances, "community development" will help the rich more than the poor; to change the poverty, you have to change the society.
That view might have pointed Sir Fazle towards left-wing politics. Instead, the revolutionary impetus was channeled through BRAC into development. Women became the institution’s focus because they are bottom of the heap and most in need of help: 70% of the children in BRAC schools are girls. Microfinance encourages the poor to save but, unlike the Graeme Bank, BRAC also lends a lot to small companies. Tiny loans may improve the lot of an individual or family but are usually invested in traditional village enterprises, like owning a cow. Sir Fazle’s aim of social change requires not growth (in the sense of more of the same) but development (meaning new and different activities). Only businesses create jobs and new forms of productive enterprise.
After 30 years in Bangladesh, BRAC has more or less perfected its way of doing things and is spreading its wings round the developing world. It is already the biggest NGO in Afghanistan, Tanzania and Uganda, overtaking British charities which have been in the latter countries for decades. Coming from a poor country—and a Muslim one, to boot—means it is less likely to be resented or called condescending. Its costs are lower, too. it does not buy large white SUVs or employ large white men.
Its expansion overseas may, however, present BRAC with a new problem. Robert Kaplan, an American writer, says that NGOs fill the void between thousands of villages and a remote, often broken, government. BRAC does this triumphantly in Bangladesh—but it is a Bangladeshi organisation. Whether it can do the same elsewhere remains to be seen. [br] Robert Kaplan’s attitude towards BRAC’s future is
选项
A、doubtful.
B、paradoxical.
C、contemptuous.
D、defensive.
答案
A
解析
态度题。由题干中的Ruben Kaplan定位至末段,最后两句提到“BRAC does this triumphantly in Bangladesh—but it is a Bangladeshi organization Whether it can do the s & ten elsewhere remains to be seen.”,可见Robert Kaplan对于BRAC的未来发展心存疑虑,故[A]为答案。[B]paradoxical意为“矛盾的”,Robert Kaplan意思表达清楚,[B]与原文不符;[C]contemptuous意为“鄙视的”,文中没有出现表达负面情绪的词汇,排除[C];[D]defensive意为“辩护的”,这里,Robert Kaplan也没有为BRAC进行辩护,排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3273369.html
相关试题推荐
Thatmanisanaggressivecreaturewillhardlybedisputed.Withtheexceptio
Exceptatnight,theyhardlyeverhavetimetogether.Heoftensitsalonein
Exceptatnight,theyhardlyeverhavetimetogether.Heoftensitsalonein
Exceptatnight,theyhardlyeverhavetimetogether.Heoftensitsalonein
Exceptatnight,theyhardlyeverhavetimetogether.Heoftensitsalonein
AimlessnesshashardlybeentypicalofthepostwarJapanwhoseproductivityan
AimlessnesshashardlybeentypicalofthepostwarJapanwhoseproductivityan
Wehardlysatdownwhenshebroughtplatesoffoodforus.∧hardly—hadwhen引导的从句中动
Smilinganddapper,FazleHasanAbedhardlyseemslikearevolutionary.ABa
Smilinganddapper,FazleHasanAbedhardlyseemslikearevolutionary.ABa
随机试题
[originaltext]M:MayIknowwhythegoodswedeliveredlastweekwererejected?
TherewasateapotfashionedlikeaChinaduck,outof______openmouththetea
每个人从呱呱坠地起,便有了自己的姓名,然后带着它进入各种社会活动,使之起到代表自我的作用。中国是世界上最早使用姓氏的国家。中国人的姓名文化,是中华民族物质
初期全胃肠外营养液中的葡萄糖与胰岛素的适宜比例是A.5~6g:1U B.6~7
A.黄连解毒汤 B.芍药汤 C.犀角地黄汤 D.白头翁汤 E.败毒散以清
2017年全国举办马拉松赛事达1102场,其中,中国田径协会举办的A类赛事223
患者,男,50岁。肩关节疼痛,痛有定处,抬举困难,夜间痛甚,劳累加剧,治疗应首选
关于慢性淋巴细胞白血病的治疗原则,下列叙述错误的是A.所有病人均需要接受化学治疗
.()认为心理官能只有通过训练才得以发展,迁移就是心理官能得到训练而发展
男,20岁。神志不清2小时入院,既往患1型糖尿病5年,长期皮下注射胰岛素。近3天
最新回复
(
0
)