This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve it by adding citations to reliable sources. Tagged since February 2010.

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Good works, or simply works, within Christian theology are a person's (exterior) actions or deeds, contrasting with interior qualities such as grace or faith.

In the New Testament[link]

The New Testament exhibits a tension between two aspects of grace: the idea that grace is from God and sufficient to cover any sin (except the Unforgivable sin) and the idea that grace does not free humans from their responsibility to behave morally.

Principle of Sola fide[link]

The Protestant principle of Sola fide states that no matter what a person's action, salvation comes through faith alone. Ephesians 2:8–9 reads, "For by grace ye are saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." (KJV) According to Protestants, salvation is God's gift at God's sole prerogative. Were it achieved by works, men could take pride in their efforts toward holiness, and God's gift of grace would be diminished in contrast to man's efforts.

A more works-orientated perspective is presented by the text of James 2:1-26, which concludes that "faith without works is dead." By works the author here appears to include both acts of charity and righteousness according to the laws of the Spirit, as opposed to Mosaic Law

See also[link]

• Works of Mercy
• Charity (practice)
• Christian soteriology
• Divine grace
• Prevenient grace
• Live by the sword, die by the sword
• Lordship salvation
• Altruism (ethics)
• Karma
• Protestant work ethic
• New Perspective on Paul
• Paul of Tarsus and Judaism
• Biblical law in Christianity

References[link]

This Christianity-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Bill Cosby
Cosby speaking at Riverside Church, New York City, in 2010
Born	William Henry Cosby, Jr. (1937-07-12) July 12, 1937 (age 74) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist
Years active	1962–present
Spouse	Camille Hanks (1964–present)
Children	Erika Ranee, Erinn Chalene, Ensa Camille, Evin Harrah & Ennis William Cosby
Website
http://www.billcosby.com/

William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the situation comedy The Bill Cosby Show. He was one of the major characters on the children's television series The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the educational cartoon comedy series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby has also acted in a number of films.

During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in what is considered to be one of the decade's defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which aired eight seasons from 1984 to 1992. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family. He also produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which became second to The Cosby Show in ratings. He starred in the sitcom Cosby from 1996 to 2000 and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things for two seasons.

He has been a sought-after spokesman, and has endorsed a number of products, including Jell-O, Kodak film, Ford, Texas Instruments, and Coca-Cola, including New Coke. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included him in his book, the 100 Greatest African Americans.^[1]

In 1976, Cosby earned a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For his doctoral research, he wrote a dissertation entitled, "An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning".

Early life[link]

US Navy photo of Cosby.

Cosby was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is one of four sons born to Anna Pearl (née Hite), a maid, and William Henry Cosby, Sr., who served as a sailor in the U.S. Navy.^[2][3] During much of his early childhood, Cosby's father was away in the U.S. armed forces and spent several years fighting in World War II. As a student, he described himself as a class clown. Cosby was the captain of both the baseball team and the track and field team at Mary Channing Wister Elementary School in Philadelphia, as well as the class president.^[4] Early on, though, teachers noted his propensity for clowning around rather than studying.^[5] At Fitz Simmons Junior High, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports.^[6] He went on to Central High School, an academically challenging magnet school, but his full schedule of playing football, basketball, baseball, and running track made it hard for him.^[6] In addition, Cosby was working before and after school, selling produce, shining shoes, and stocking shelves at a supermarket to help out the family.^[6] He transferred to Germantown High School, but failed the tenth grade.^[7] Instead of repeating, he got a job as an apprentice at a shoe repair shop, which he liked, but could not see himself doing the rest of his life.^[6] Subsequently, he joined the Navy, serving at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.^[8]

While serving in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman for four years, Cosby worked in physical therapy with some seriously injured Korean War casualties,^[8] which helped him discover what was important to him. Then he immediately realized the need for an education, and finished his equivalency diploma via correspondence courses.^[9] He then won a track and field scholarship to Philadelphia's Temple University in 1961–62,^[10] and studied physical education while running track and playing fullback on the football team. Cosby also joined the school's chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.^{[citation needed]}

As Cosby progressed through his undergraduate studies, he continued to hone his talent for humor, joking with fellow enlistees in the service and then with college friends. When he began bar tending at the Cellar, a club in Philadelphia, to earn money, he became fully aware of his ability to make people laugh. He worked his customers and saw his tips increase, then ventured on to the stage.^[11]

Stand-up career[link]

Cosby left Temple to pursue a career in comedy, though he would return to collegiate studies in the 1970s. He lined up gigs at clubs in Philadelphia and soon was off to New York City, where he appeared at The Gaslight Cafe starting in 1962.^[6] He lined up dates in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. He received national exposure on NBC's The Tonight Show in the summer of 1963 which led to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, who released his debut LP Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow...Right!, the first of a series of popular comedy albums, in 1964.

While many comics were using the growing freedom of that decade to explore controversial, sometimes risqué, material, Cosby was making his reputation with humorous recollections of his childhood. Many Americans wondered about the absence of race as a topic in Cosby's stories. As Cosby's success grew he had to defend his choice of material regularly; as he argued, "A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, 'Yeah, that's the way I see it too.' Okay. He's white. I'm Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike. Right? So I figure this way I'm doing as much for good race relations as the next guy."^[12]

Cosby remains an actively touring stand-up comedian, performing at theaters throughout the country.

Acting career[link]

[edit] I Spy

In 1965, when he was cast alongside Robert Culp in the I Spy espionage adventure series, Cosby became the first African-American co-star in a dramatic television series, and NBC became the first to present a series so cast. At first Cosby and NBC executives were concerned that some affiliates might be unwilling to carry the series. At the beginning of the 1965 season four stations declined the show; they were in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.^{[citation needed]} But the rest of the country^[vague] was taken with the show's exotic locales and the authentic chemistry between the stars, and it became one of the ratings hits of that television season. I Spy finished among the twenty most-watched shows that year, and Cosby would be honored with three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

During the run of the series, Cosby continued to do stand-up comedy performances, and recorded a half-dozen record albums for Warners. He also began to dabble in singing, recording Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings in 1967, which provided him with a hit single with his recording of "Li'l Ole Man".^{[citation needed]} He would record several more musical albums into the early 1970s, but he continued to record primarily stand-up comedy work.

In June 1968 Billboard reported that Cosby had turned down a five-year, US$3.5 million contract renewal offer and would leave the label in August that year to record for his own record label.^[13]

Tetragrammaton Records was a division of the Campbell, Silver, Cosby (CSC) Corporation, the Los Angeles based production company founded by Cosby, his manager Roy Silver, and filmmaker Bruce Post Campbell. It produced films as well as records, including Cosby's television specials, the Fat Albert cartoon special and series and several motion pictures. CSC hired industry veteran Artie Mogull as President of the label and Tetragrammaton was fairly active during 1968–69 (its most successful signing was British heavy rock band Deep Purple) but it quickly went into the red and ceased trading during 1970.^[14]

[edit] Fat Albert, The Bill Cosby Show, and the 1970s

Cosby in 1969.

Cosby pursued a variety of additional television projects and appeared as a regular guest host on The Tonight Show and as the star of an annual special for NBC. He returned with another series in 1969, The Bill Cosby Show, a situation comedy that ran for two seasons. Cosby played a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school. While only a modest critical success, the show was a ratings hit, finishing eleventh in its first season. Cosby was lauded for using some previously unknown African-American performers such as Lillian Randolph, Moms Mabley, and Rex Ingram as characters. According to commentary on the Season 1 DVD's for the show, Cosby was at odds with NBC over his refusal to include a laugh track in the show (he felt that viewers had the ability to find humor for themselves when watching a TV show). He was originally contracted with NBC to do the show for two seasons, and he believes the show was not renewed afterwards for that reason.

After The Bill Cosby Show left the air, Cosby returned to his education. He began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, qualifying under a special program that allowed for the admission of students who had not completed their bachelor's degrees, but who had had a significant impact on society and/or their communities through their careers.^{[citation needed]} This professional interest led to his involvement in the PBS series The Electric Company, for which he recorded several segments teaching reading skills to young children.

In 1972, Cosby received an MA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was also back in prime time with a variety series, The New Bill Cosby Show. However, this time he met with poor ratings, and the show lasted only a season. More successful was a Saturday morning show, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, hosted by Cosby and based on his own childhood. That series ran from 1972 to 1979, and as The New Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids from 1979 to 1984.^{[citation needed]} Some schools used the program as a teaching tool,^{[citation needed]} and Cosby himself wrote a dissertation on it, "An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning", as partial fulfillment of obtaining his 1976 doctorate in education, also from the University of Massachusetts.^[6][15] Subsequently, Temple University, where Cosby had begun but never finished his undergraduate studies, would grant him his bachelor's degree on the basis of "life experience."^{[citation needed]}

Also during the 1970s, Cosby and other African-American actors, including Sidney Poitier, joined forces to make some successful comedy films that countered the violent "blaxploitation" films of the era. Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let's Do It Again (1975) were generally praised, but much of Cosby's film work has fallen flat. Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976) costarring Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel; A Piece of the Action, with Poitier; and California Suite, a compilation of four Neil Simon plays, were all panned. In addition, Cos (1976) an hour-long variety show featuring puppets, sketches, and musical numbers, was canceled within the year. Cosby was also a regular on children's public television programs starting in the 1970s, hosting the "Picture Pages" segments that lasted into the early 1980s.

[edit] The Cosby Show and the 1980s

Cosby's greatest television success came in September 1984 with the debut of The Cosby Show. The program aired weekly on NBC and went on to become the highest ranking sitcom of all time. For Cosby, the new situation comedy was a response to the increasingly violent and vulgar fare the networks usually offered. Cosby is an advocate for humor that is family-oriented. He insisted on and received total creative control of the series, and he was involved in every aspect of the series. The show had parallels to Cosby's actual family life: like the characters Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Cosby and his wife Camille were college educated, financially successful, and had five children. Essentially a throwback to the wholesome family situation comedy, The Cosby Show was unprecedented in its portrayal of an intelligent, affluent, African-American family.

Much of the material from the pilot and first season of The Cosby Show was taken from his video Bill Cosby: Himself, released in 1983. The series was an immediate success, debuting near the top of the ratings and staying there for most of its long run. The Cosby Show is one of only three American programs that have been #1 in the Nielsen ratings for at least five consecutive seasons, along with All in the Family and American Idol. People magazine called the show "revolutionary,"^{[citation needed]} and Newsday concurred that it was a "real breakthrough."^{[citation needed]}

In 1987, Cosby attempted to return to film with the spy spoof Leonard Part 6. Although Cosby himself was producer and wrote the story, he realized during production that the film was not going to be what he wanted and publicly denounced it, warning audiences to stay away.^[16]

In the 1990s and 2000s[link]

Cosby at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, October 3, 2006

Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After The Cosby Show went off the air in 1992, Cosby embarked on a number of other projects, including a revival of the classic Groucho Marx game show You Bet Your Life (1992–93) along with the TV-movie I Spy Returns (1994) and The Cosby Mysteries (1994). In the mid-1990s, he appeared as a detective in black-and-white film noir-themed commercials for Turner Classic Movies. He also made appearances in three more films, Ghost Dad (1990), The Meteor Man (1993); and Jack (1996); in addition to being interviewed in Spike Lee's 4 Little Girls (1997), a documentary about the racist bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church in 1963.

Also in 1996, he started up a new show for CBS, Cosby, again co-starring Phylicia Rashād, his onscreen wife on The Cosby Show. Cosby co-produced the show for Carsey-Werner Productions. The show was based on the British program One Foot in the Grave.^{[citation needed]} It centered on Cosby as Hilton Lucas, an iconoclastic senior citizen who tries to find a new job after being "downsized", and in the meantime, gets on his wife's nerves. Madeline Kahn costarred as Rashād's goofy business partner. Cosby was hired by CBS to be the official "spokesman" for the WWJ-TV during an advertising campaign from 1995 to 1998. In addition, Cosby in 1998 became the host of Kids Say the Darndest Things. After four seasons, Cosby was canceled. The last episode aired April 28, 2000. Kids Say the Darndest Things was also canceled the same year. Cosby continued to work with CBS through a development deal and other projects.

Cosby volunteered his time and talent to promote causes he believed in, such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America's campaign to de-glamorize drugs during the 1990s and beyond. Cosby wrote the script and appeared in a PSA to discourage the abuse of illegal drugs by young people. Photo: going over the script with Partnership executive Ginna Marston (right) and a production assistant at Cosby's studio in Astoria, Queens in the 1990s.Photo by Bobby Sheehan

A series for preschoolers, Little Bill, made its debut on Nickelodeon in 1999. The network renewed the popular program in November 2000. In 2001, at an age when many give serious consideration to retirement, Cosby's agenda included the publication of a new book, as well as delivering the commencement addresses at Morris Brown College, Ohio State University, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.^[17] Also that year, he signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to develop a live-action feature film centering on the popular Fat Albert character from his 1970s cartoon series. Fat Albert was released in theaters in December 2004. In May 2007 he spoke at the Commencement of High Point University.

In the summer of 2009, Cosby hosted a comedy gala at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival, the world's largest.

Socioeconomic views[link]

In May 2004 after receiving an award at the celebration of the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that outlawed school racial segregation, Cosby made public remarks critical of African Americans who put higher priorities on sports, fashion, and "acting hard" than on education, self-respect, and self-improvement, pleading for African-American families to educate their children on the many different aspects of American culture.

In the "Pound Cake" speech, Cosby, who holds a doctorate in education, asked that African-American parents begin teaching their children better morals at a younger age. Cosby told the Washington Times, "Parenting needs to come to the forefront. If you need help and you don't know how to parent, we want to be able to reach out and touch" (DeBose, Brian).^{[page needed]} Richard Leiby of The Washington Post reported, "Bill Cosby was anything but politically correct in his remarks Monday night at a Constitution Hall bash commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision."^[18]

Cosby again came under sharp criticism and was again largely unapologetic for his stance when he made similar remarks during a speech in a July 1 meeting commemorating the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. During that speech, he admonished blacks for not assisting or concerning themselves with the individuals who are involved with crime or have counter-productive aspirations. He further described those who needed attention as blacks who “had forgotten the sacrifices of those in the Civil Rights Movement." ^[19] The speech was featured in the documentary 500 Years Later, which set the speech to cartoon visuals.^{[citation needed]}

Georgetown University sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson wrote a book in 2005 entitled Is Bill Cosby Right or Is the Black Middle Class Out of Touch?^[20] In the book, Dyson wrote that Cosby was overlooking larger social factors that reinforce poverty and associated crime; factors such as deteriorating schools, stagnating wages, dramatic shifts in the economy, offshoring and downsizing, chronic underemployment, and job and capital flight.^[21] Dyson suggested Cosby's comments "betray classist, elitist viewpoints rooted in generational warfare."^[20]

Cornel West defended Cosby and his remarks, saying, "he's speaking out of great compassion and trying to get folk to get on the right track, 'cause we've got some brothers and sisters who are not doing the right things, just like in times in our own lives, we don't do the right thing... He is trying to speak honestly and freely and lovingly, and I think that's a very positive thing."^[22]

In a 2008 interview, Cosby mentioned Chicago; Atlanta; Philadelphia; Oakland; Detroit; and Springfield, Massachusetts among the cities where crime was high and young African-American men were being murdered and jailed in disproportionate numbers. Cosby stood his ground against criticism and affirmed that African-American parents were continuing to fail to inculcate proper standards of moral behavior.^[23] Cosby still lectures to black communities (usually at churches) about his frustrations with certain problems prevalent in underprivileged urban communities such as taking part in illegal drugs, teenage pregnancy, Black Entertainment Television, high school dropouts, anti-intellectualism, gangsta rap, vulgarity, thievery, offensive clothing, vanity, parental alienation, single-parenting and failing to live up to the ideals of Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African-American ancestors that preceded Generation X.

Humanitarian causes[link]

Cosby has become an active member of The Jazz Foundation of America.^[24] Cosby became involved with the foundation in 2004. For several years, he has been a featured host for its annual benefit, A Great Night in Harlem, at the Apollo Theater in New York City.^[25][26]

Personal life[link]

Cosby met his wife Camille Hanks Cosby while he was performing stand-up in Washington, D.C., in the early 1960s, and she was a student at the University of Maryland. They married on January 25, 1964, and had five children: daughters Erika Ranee (b. 1965), Erinn Chalene (b. 1966), Ensa Camille (b. 1973), and Evin Harrah (b. 1976), and son Ennis William (1969–1997). His son Ennis was shot dead while changing a flat tire on the side of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles on January 16, 1997. Cosby maintains homes in Shelburne, Massachusetts, and Cheltenham, Pennsylvania.^[27]

Bill Cosby has hosted the Los Angeles Playboy Jazz Festival since 1979. An avid musician, he's best known as a jazz drummer although he can be seen playing bass guitar with Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis, Jr. on Hugh Hefner's 1970s talk show. His story "The Regular Way" was featured in Playboy's December 1968 issue.^[28]

Bill Cosby is an active alumnus supporter of his alma mater, Temple University, and in particular its men's basketball team, whose games Cosby frequently attends.

Cosby is a devoted fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2002, when the Eagles' starting and backup quarterbacks were both injured, Cosby sent a letter to head coach Andy Reid, joking that he was ready to play if needed.^{[citation needed]}

Cosby also attends many public events, such as the 100th Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York on February 2, 2007. His love for track and field athletics has also been shown with his long time sponsorship, and on-track work with the Penn Relays. For many years, Cosby has been known to work the finish line at Franklin Field and congratulate athletes.

During the 2009 NFL Draft, he celebrated the draft with former Texas Longhorns wide receiver Quan Cosby as a means of support, though the two are not related.^[29]

Sexual harassment suit[link]

In August 2006 Cosby settled a lawsuit against him by a Canadian woman who claimed he had attacked her in his Philadelphia home in 2004.^[27][30][31] The woman claimed she had been sexually assaulted after being given pills when she had complained of feeling stressed. The suit also alleged that at least 10 other women had been assaulted by Cosby in similar circumstances previously.^[32]

Awards and honors[link]

• 1969: Received his third "Man of the Year" award from Harvard University's performance group, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals
• 1998: Received the Kennedy Center Honor^[33]
• 2002: The Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to television
• 2003: The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award
• 2005: In a British poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders
• 2009: Presented with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
• 2011: Made an honorary Chief Petty Officer (Hospital Corpsman) in the United States Navy^[34]

Emmys[link]

Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series – Primetime Emmys
1966 I Spy – Alexander Scott
1967 I Spy – Alexander Scott
1968 I Spy – Alexander Scott

Outstanding Variety Or Musical Program – Primetime Emmys
1969 The Bill Cosby Special

Grammys[link]

Best Comedy Performance – Grammy Awards
1965 I Started Out as a Child
1966 Why Is There Air?
1967 Wonderfulness
1968 Revenge
1969 To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With
1970 Sports
1987 Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand

Best Recording for Children – Grammy Awards
1972 Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs
1971 The Electric Company – Cast member

Honorary degrees[link]

Cosby has received honorary degrees from more than a dozen colleges and universities:

• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, December 5, 2008.^[35]
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Carnegie Mellon University, May 20, 2007; he was also the keynote speaker for the commencement ceremony.^[36]
• Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, May 8, 2004.^[37] Cosby was also the host of the school's 60th Anniversary Concert in January 2006.^[38]
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Baylor University, September 4, 2003, at the "Spirit Rally" for the Baylor and Central Texas communities.^[39]
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Yale University, May 26, 2003.^[40]
• Honorary Degree in 2003 presented by President William Harjo LoneFight from the Sisseton Wahpeton College on the Lake Traverse Reservation for his contributions to minority education.
• Honorary Doctorate from West Chester University of Pennsylvania during the 2003 graduation ceremony.
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Haverford College, May 2002.^[41]
• Honorary Degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute^[17] and the University of Cincinnati in 2001.
• Honorary Doctorate from Amherst College, May 1999. (Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa)
• Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California, May 8, 1998.^[42]
• Cosby served as the commencement speaker ^[43] and received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut, 18 May 1996.^[44]
• Honorary LL.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, 1990.^[45] He also served as the commencement speaker in May 1997.^[46]

Works[link]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Books[link]

• Cosby, Bill (1986). Fatherhood. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23410-8. OCLC 15686687. 
• Cosby, Bill (1987). Time Flies. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-24040-6. OCLC 16081611. 
• Cosby, Bill (1989). Love and Marriage. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-24664-4. OCLC 18984758. 
• Cosby, Bill (1991). Childhood. New York: Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-13647-4. OCLC 23650310. 
• Cosby, Bill (1998). Kids Say the Darndest Things. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-11043-2. OCLC 39498709. 
• Cosby, Bill (1999). Congratulations! Now What?: A Book for Graduates. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6572-7. OCLC 40979923. 
• Allen, Dwight William; Cosby, Bill (2000). American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge. New York: IPublish.com. ISBN 978-0-7595-5000-1. OCLC 48915448. 
• Cosby, Bill; Booth, George (2001). Cosbyology: Essays and Observations from the Doctor of Comedy. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6810-0. OCLC 46359836. 
• Cosby, Bill (2003). I Am What I Ate ... and I'm Frightened!!!: And Other Digressions from the Doctor of Comedy. New York: HarperEntertainment. ISBN 978-0-06-054573-4. OCLC 52387894. 
• Cosby, Bill; Cosby, Erika (2003). Friends of a Feather: One of Life's Little Fables. New York: Harper Entertainment. ISBN 978-0-06-009147-7. OCLC 52206847. 
• Cosby, Bill; Poussaint, Alvin F. (2007). Come on, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-59555-092-7. OCLC 153581209. 
• Cosby, Bill (2011). I Didn't Ask to Be Born (But I'm Glad I Was). New York: Center Street. ISBN 978-0-89296-920-3. OCLC 707964887. 

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	African American portal

• List of comedians
• List of Omega Psi Phi brothers
• List of Temple University people
• List of University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni

References[link]

General References

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bill Cosby

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Cosby

• Official Bill Cosby Site
• Bill Cosby at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill Cosby at the Internet Broadway Database
• Interview with Cosby from 1990 (24 minutes)
• Interview transcript from interview after the Pound Cake speech
• You Bet Your Life home page
• Works by or about Bill Cosby in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Muhammad Yunus
মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস

Welfare economics , Development economics , Public Health , Gender Studies , Political Philosophy , Utilitarianism
Muhammad Yunus at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 25 January 2012
Born	(1940-06-28) 28 June 1940 (age 71) Chittagong, Bangladesh
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Institution	Chittagong University Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Middle Tennessee State University
Field	Microcredit, Welfare economics, ethics
Alma mater	University of Dhaka Vanderbilt University
Contributions	Grameen Bank Microcredit
Awards	Independence Day Award (1987) World Food Prize (1994) Nobel Peace Prize (2006) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009)
Information at IDEAS/RePEc

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস, pronounced Muhammôd Iunus; born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit (small loans to poor people possessing no collateral) to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below".^[1] Yunus himself has received several other national and international honors.

He is a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University where he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. He is the author of Banker to the Poor and two books on Social Business Models, and a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation. Grameen Intel is just one of hundreds of public and private partnerships now mediated through Youth & Yunus. In early 2007 Yunus showed interest in launching a political party in Bangladesh named Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), but later discarded the plan. He is one of the founding members of Global Elders.

Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN.^[2]

In March 2011, after months of government attack, the Bangladesh government controversially fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, citing legal violations and an age limit on his position.^[3] Bangladesh's High Court affirmed the removal on 8 March. Yunus and Grameen Bank are appealing the decision, claiming Yunus' removal was politically motivated.

Professor Yunus was chosen by Wharton School of Business for PBS documentary, as one of 'The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years'.^[4] In 2006, Time magazine listed him under "60 years of Asian Heroes" as one of the top 12 business leaders.^[5] In 2008, in an open online poll, Yunus was voted the 2nd topmost intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (United States).^[6]

Early life and education[link]

Early years[link]

Muhammad Yunus at Chittagong Collegiate School, while visiting the school in 2003.

The third of nine children,^[7] Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 to a Muslim family in the village of Bathua, by the Boxirhat Road in Hathazari, Chittagong, in Bangladesh.^[8][9] His father was Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar, a jeweler, and his mother was Sufia Khatun. His early childhood years were spent in the village. In 1944, his family moved to the city of Chittagong, and he was shifted to Lamabazar Primary School from his village school.^[8][10] By 1949, his mother was afflicted with psychological illness.^[9] Later, he passed the matriculation examination from Chittagong Collegiate School securing the 16th position among 39,000 students in East Pakistan.^[10] During his school years, he was an active Boy Scout, and traveled to West Pakistan and India in 1952, and to Canada in 1955 to attend Jamborees.^[10] Later when Yunus was studying at Chittagong College, he became active in cultural activities and won awards for drama acting.^[10] In 1957, he enrolled in the department of economics at Dhaka University and completed his BA in 1960 and MA in 1961.

After graduation[link]

Following his graduation, Yunus joined the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant to the economical researches of Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan.^[10] Later he was appointed as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College in 1961.^[10] During that time he also set up a profitable packaging factory on the side.^[9] He was offered a Fulbright scholarship in 1965 to study in the United States. He obtained his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States through the graduate program in Economic Development (GPED) in 1971.^[11] From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Yunus founded a citizen's committee and ran the Bangladesh Information Center, with other Bangladeshis living in the United States, to raise support for liberation.^[10] He also published the Bangladesh Newsletter from his home in Nashville. After the War, Yunus returned to Bangladesh and was appointed to the government's Planning Commission headed by Nurul Islam. He found the job boring and resigned to join Chittagong University as head of the Economics department.^[12] He became involved with poverty reduction after observing the famine of 1974, and established a rural economic program as a research project. In 1975, he developed a Nabajug (New Era) Tebhaga Khamar (three share farm) which the government adopted as the Packaged Input Programme.^[10] In order to make the project more effective, Yunus and his associates proposed the Gram Sarkar (the village government) programme.^[13] Introduced by then president Ziaur Rahman in late 1970s, the Government formed 40,392 village governments (gram sarkar) as a fourth layer of government in 2003. On 2 August 2005, in response to a petition filed by Bangladesh Legal Aids and Services Trust (BLAST) the High Court had declared Gram Sarkar illegal and unconstitutional.^[14]

Early career[link]

Grameen Bank Head Office at Mirpur-2, Dhaka

In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a poor person. Jobra women who made bamboo furniture had to take out usurious loans for buying bamboo, to pay their profits to the moneylenders. His first loan, consisting of US$27.00 from his own pocket, was made to 42 women in the village, who made a net profit of BDT 0.50 (US$0.02) each on the loan. Accumulated through many loans, this vastly improving Bangladesh's ability to export and import as it did in the past, resulting in a greater form of globalization and economic status.^[8]

Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development), is credited alongside Yunus for pioneering the idea.^[15] From his experience at Jobra, Yunus, an admirer of Dr. Hameed,^[15] realized that the creation of an institution was needed to lend to those who had nothing.^[16] While traditional banks were not interested in making tiny loans at reasonable interest rates to the poor due to high repayment risks,^[17] Yunus believed that given the chance the poor will repay the borrowed money and hence microcredit could be a viable business model.

Yunus finally succeeded in securing a loan from the government Janata Bank to lend it to the poor in Jobra in December 1976. The institution continued to operate by securing loans from other banks for its projects. By 1982, the bank had 28,000 members. On 1 October 1983 the pilot project began operations as a full-fledged bank and was renamed the Grameen Bank (Village Bank) to make loans to poor Bangladeshis. Yunus and his colleagues encountered everything from violent radical leftists to the conservative clergy who told women that they would be denied a Muslim burial if they borrowed money from the Grameen Bank.^[9] As of July 2007, Grameen Bank has issued US$ 6.38 billion to 7.4 million borrowers.^[18] To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of "solidarity groups". These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-advancement.^[13]

The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it started attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells.^[19] In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Motsho (Grameen Fisheries Foundation) and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi (Grameen Agriculture Foundation).^[19] Over time, the Grameen initiative has grown into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, including major projects like Grameen Trust and Grameen Fund, which runs equity projects like Grameen Software Limited, Grameen CyberNet Limited, and Grameen Knitwear Limited,^[20] as well as Grameen Telecom, which has a stake in Grameenphone (GP), biggest private sector phone company in Bangladesh.^[21] The Village Phone (Polli Phone) project of GP has brought cell-phone ownership to 260,000 rural poor in over 50,000 villages since the beginning of the project in March 1997.^[22]

The success of the Grameen model of microfinancing has inspired similar efforts in a hundred countries throughout the developing world and even in industrialized nations, including the United States.^[23] Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain its emphasis on lending specifically to women. More than 94% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.^[24] For his work with the Grameen Bank, Yunus was named an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public Global Academy Member in 2001.^[25] In the book,^[26] Grameen Social Business Model, Rashidul Bari shows how Grameen Social Business Model(GSBM)- has gone from being theory to become an inspiring practice adopted by leading universities (e.g., Glasgow), entrepreneurs (e.g., Franck Riboud) and corporations (e.g., Danone) across the globe. Through Grameen Bank, Rashidul Bari claims that Yunus demonstrated how Grameen Social Business Model can harness the entrepreneurial spirit to empower poor women and alleviate their poverty. One of the conclusions of Yunus' concepts is that the poor are like a “bonsai tree,” and they can do big things if they get access to the social business that holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

Recognition[link]

Muhammad Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. In the prize announcement The Norwegian Nobel Committee mentioned:^[1]

Muhammad Yunus at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.

Muhammad Yunus was the first Bangladeshi and third Bengali to ever get a Nobel Prize. After receiving the news of the important award, Yunus announced that he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor; while the rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh.^[27]

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton was a vocal advocate for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Muhammed Yunus. He expressed this in Rolling Stone magazine^[28] as well as in his autobiography My Life.^[29] In a speech given at University of California, Berkeley in 2002, President Clinton described Dr. Yunus as "a man who long ago should have won the Nobel Prize [and] I’ll keep saying that until they finally give it to him."^[30] Conversely, The Economist stated explicitly that Yunus was a poor choice for the award, stating: "...the Nobel committee could have made a braver, more difficult, choice by declaring that there would be no recipient at all."^[31]

Muhammad Yunus at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He is one of only seven persons to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom,^[32] and the Congressional Gold Medal.^[33] Other notable awards include the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1984,^[34] the World Food Prize,^[35] the International Simon Bolivar Prize (1996), ^[36] the Prince of Austurias Award for Concord ^[37] and the Sydney Peace Prize in 1998,^[38] and the Seoul Peace Prize in 2006. Additionally, Dr. Yunus has been awarded 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities across 20 countries, and 113 international awards from 26 different countries including state honours from 10 countries.^[39] Bangladesh government brought out a commemorative stamp to honor his Nobel Award.^[40]

Professor Yunus was named by Fortune Magazine in March 2012 as one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of the current era.^[41] In its citation, Fortune Magazine said ″Yunus' idea inspired countless numbers of young people to devote themselves to social causes all over the world.″

In January of 2012, Professor Yunus featured in "Transformative Entrepreneurs: How Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Muhammad Yunus and Other Innovators Succeeded" a book by Jeffrey Harris.^[42]

Professor Yunus was named "Nobel-Laureate-in-Residence" at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) on July 15, 2011.^[43]

Professor Yunus delivered the Seventh Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture.^[44]

In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared 14 January as "Muhammad Yunus Day".^[45]

On 15 May 2010, Yunus gave the commencement speech at Rice University for the graduating class of 2010. On 16 May 2010, Yunus gave the commencement speech at Duke University for the graduating class of 2010. During this ceremony, he was also awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Professor Yunus was invited and gave the Wharton School of Business commencement address on 17 May 2009,^[46] the MIT commencement address on 6 June 2008,^[47], Adam Smith Lecture at Glasgow University on 1 December 2008^[48] and Oxford's Romanes Lecture on 2 December 2008.^[49]

He received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service from the Eisenhower Fellowships at a ceremony in Philadelphia on 21 May 2009. He was also voted 2nd in Prospect Magazine's 2008 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals.^[50]

Yunus was named among the most desired thinkers the world should listen to by the FP 100 (world's most influential elite) in the December 2009 issue of Foreign Policy magazine.^[51] On 1 March 2010, Yunus was awarded the prestigious Presidential Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. This is the highest honor available from the University.

A documentary on Yunus' work titled To Catch a Dollar was shown at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and is due to be released in theaters in the US on September 2010.

In 2010, The British Magazine New Statesman Listed Muhammad Yunus at 40th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".^[52]

In October 2010, He received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at The Asian Awards^[53]

On September 22, 2011 the documentary film, "Bonsai People – The Vision of Muhammad Yunus", the first documentary film that looks his full body of work from microcredit to social business, premiered at the United Nations.

Yunus received 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA and Peru.^[54]

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, invited Professor Yunus to serve as an MDG Advocate. Professor Yunus sits on the Board of United Nations Foundation, Schwab Foundation, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Grameen Credit Agricole Microcredit Foundation. He has been a member of Fondation Chirac's honour committee,^[55] ever since the foundation was launched in 2008 by former French president Jacques Chirac in order to promote world peace.

Professor Yunus has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, The Colbert Report in 2008, Real Time with Bill Maher in 2009 and The Simpsons in 2010.

On Google+, Professor Yunus is one of the most followed person worldwide, with over 1.7 million followers.^[56]

Political activity[link]

In early 2006 Yunus, along with other members of the civil society including Professor Rehman Sobhan, Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman, Dr Kamal Hossain, Matiur Rahman, Mahfuz Anam and Debapriya Bhattchariya, participated in a campaign for honest and clean candidates in national elections.^[57] He considered entering politics in the later part of that year.^[58] On 11 February 2007, Yunus wrote an open letter, published in the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star, where he asked citizens for views on his plan to float a political party to establish political goodwill, proper leadership and good governance. In the letter, he called on everyone to briefly outline how he should go about the task and how they can contribute to it.^[59] Yunus finally announced that he is willing to launch a political party tentatively called Citizens' Power (Nagorik Shakti) on 18 February 2007.^[60][61] There was speculation that the army supported a move by Yunus into politics.^[62] On 3 May, however, Yunus declared that he had decided to abandon his political plans following a meeting with the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed.^[63]

On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity together to the world. Nelson Mandela announced the formation of this new group, The Global Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday.^[64][65] Archbishop Tutu is to serve as the Chair of The Elders. The founding members of this group include Machel, Yunus, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, and Mary Robinson. The Elders are to be independently funded by a group of Founders, including Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, Ray Chambers; Michael Chambers; Bridgeway Foundation; Pam Omidyar, Humanity United; Amy Robbins; Shashi Ruia, Dick Tarlow; and The United Nations Foundation. Yunus is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), an independent authority on Africa launched in April 2007 to focus world leaders’ attention on delivering their commitments to the continent. The Panel launched a major report in London on Monday 16 June 2008 entitled Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects.^[66]

In July 2009, Yunus became a member of the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation International Advisory Board to support the organisation's poverty reduction work.^[67]

Since 2010, Yunus has served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a UN initiative which seeks to use broadband internet services to accelerate social and economic development.^[68]

He also serves on the advisory board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, a foundation supporting initiatives that combine sustainable construction solutions with architectural excellence.^[69]

Controversies[link]

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page.

The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (March 2011)

Since late November 2010, several allegations have been made against Yunus. These allegations started when a documentary, titled “Caught in Micro Debt”,^[70] was aired on Norwegian television on 30 November 2010, criticizing microcredit and blaming Grameen Bank on several points .^[71] They developed during a time when larger questions were being raised about the benefits of microfinance and its effects on poverty alleviation, particularly in regards to several microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India^[72] and Mexico .^[73]

The allegations against Yunus turned political in nature when the government of Bangladesh – led by ^[74]Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who reportedly has viewed Yunus as a political rival since he looked into setting up a political party in 2007^[75] – suddenly turned against him and the concept of microfinance (which she had formerly championed ^{[citation needed]}), accusing it of “sucking blood from the poor” .^[76] In the book,^[77] Grameen Social Business Model, Rashidul Bari wrote that the political vendetta in Bangladesh by Sheikh Hasina against Muhammad Yunus^[78] could be understood as a modern-day replay of the famous conflict between Pope Urban VIII and Galileo Galilei.^[79][80]

"Pope Urban VIII put 70-year-old Galileo in prison in 1632 for condemning and rejecting Ptolemy's geocentric model, which was adopted by the early Christian Church. In the same spirit, Sheikh Hasina who labeled Yunus as a “blood sucker of poor people^[81]”—unleashed her propaganda machine (e.g., AMA Muhith) to remove Yunus from Grameen—and used the High Court and Supreme Court to justify her decision. Why did Pope Urban VIII insult the Father of Astronomy? Because Galileo rejected the accepted Christian Church view, that the earth is the center of the universe, and that all other celestial objects orbit around it.^[82]

The Government announced a review into the activities of Grameen Bank on 11 January 2011 ;^[83] this review is currently ongoing. In February, several international leaders, such as Mary Robinson, stepped up their defense of Yunus through a number of efforts, including the founding of a formal network of supporters known as “Friends of Grameen” .^[84]

On 15 February 2011, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, declared that Muhammad Yunus should “stay away” from Grameen Bank while it is being investigated.^[85]

On 2 March 2011, Muzammel Huq – a former employee of Grameen Bank and vocal critic of Yunus ^{[citation needed]} whom the government had appointed Grameen Bank chairman in January^[86] – announced to the media that Yunus had been fired as Managing Director of the Bank .^[87] Jannat-E Quanine, General Manager of the Grameen Bank issued a Grameen Bank Statement clarifiying that Yunus was “continuing in his office” pending review of the legal issues surrounding the controversy .^[88]

On 3 March 2011, Muhammad Yunus filed himself a writ at the High Court challenging the legality of the decision from the Bangladeshi Central Bank to remove him as Managing Director of Grameen Bank .^[89] The same day, nine elected directors of Grameen Bank filed a second writ petition .^[90] The High Court hearing on these petitions, initially planned on 6 March 2011, was postponed. On 8 March 2011, the Bangladeshi Court finally confirmed the dismissal of Yunus as Grameen Bank Managing Director .^[91]

Following Hillary Clinton, John Kerry expressed his support to Yunus in a statement released on 5 March 2011 and declared that he was “deeply concerned” by this affair. In Bangladesh, thousands of people protested and formed human chains on 5 March 2011 to support Yunus .^[92]

Disproved allegations from a Danish documentary[link]

A Danish documentary called Caught in Micro Debt,^[70] produced and directed by journalist Tom Heinemann, aired on Norwegian national television NRK on 30 November 2010. It made a number of allegations against Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. Those allegations have been disproved by later inquiries.

The documentary falsely accused Yunus and Grameen Bank of:

• Diverting 7 billion taka (about 100 million dollars) given by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) from Grameen Bank to another organization called Grameen Kalyan in 1996 – an allegation widely spread in the Bangladeshi electronic media on December 1, 2010.^[93] Nonetheless, on 6 December, NORAD published an official statement^[94] clearing Yunus and Grameen Bank from any wrongdoing on this point, following a comprehensive review of NORAD’s support commissioned by the Minister of International Development.

However, the allegations quickly spread through the Bangladesh media. To quote a leading Bangladeshi economist Rehman Sobhan,^[95] “Rather than first seeking clarification and response from Grameen Bank as to the validity of the TV program, some sections of the media and society pounced on it with unseemly enthusiasm, using it as an opportunity to cite wrongdoing in a widely respected organization.” Muhammad Yunus asked for consistent and transparent investigations on these matters.

Questioning microfinance – the ‘loan sharks’ issue[link]

The allegations against Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have been made in a context where some people have begun to question the effectiveness of microfinance, prompted by the actions of some for-profit MFIs in India^[96] and Mexico.^[97] Coercion, peer pressure and physical harassment have been reportedly used as loan repayment practices in some specific microfinance institutions.^[98] Commercialization of microcredit^[99] prompted Muhammad Yunus to state that he “never imagined that one day microcredit would give rise to its own breed of loan sharks.”^[100]

The lure of profits has attracted some for-profit microfinance institutions to hold Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), including the largest Indian microfinance institution, SKS Microfinance, which held an IPO in July 2010.^[101] In September 2010, Yunus and Vikram Akula, founder of SKS, debated during the Clinton Global Initiative meeting,^[102] where Yunus made his position on the SKS IPO clear: “Microcredit is not about exciting people to make money off the poor. That's what you're doing. That's the wrong message completely.”

It is widely assumed that the government of Bangladesh is exploiting this “moral crisis around microcredit” to oust Muhammad Yunus.^[103]

Political motivations behind the allegations[link]

Though Grameen Bank was quickly cleared by the Norwegian government of all allegations surrounding misused or misappropriated funds in December 2010, in March 2011 the Bangladeshi government launched a three-month investigation of all Grameen Bank’s activities.^[104] This inquiry prevented Muhammad Yunus from participating in the World Economic Forum.^[105]

On 18 January 2011, Yunus appeared in court in a defamation case filed by a local politician from a minor left-leaning party in 2007, complaining about a statement that Yunus made to the AFP news agency, “Politicians in Bangladesh only work for power. There is no ideology here”.^[106] At the hearing, Yunus was granted bail and exempted from personal appearance at subsequent hearings.^[107]

These latter investigations have fueled suspicion that many attacks might be politically orchestrated,^[108] related to difficult relations between Sheikh Hasina and Yunus that date to early 2007, when Muhammad Yunus created his own political party, an effort he dropped in May 2007.^[109]

Transition to a new management[link]

Muhammad Yunus is now 71 years old, 11 years beyond the legal retirement age for banks in Bangladesh.^[110] The Finance Minister, who is himself 77 years old, has called for Prof. Yunus to step down and declared, ”We need to redefine the bank’s role and bring it under closer regulation.”^[111]

The government recently appointed a new chairman, Muzammel Huq, who was a former Grameen Bank employee.^[86] He has publicly criticized Prof. Yunus, saying, ‘I think he is a good man with a small heart ... He cannot give credit to anyone but himself”. On 28 February 2011, he presented a letter written by a Bangladesh Bank official at a meeting of the Grameen Bank Board of Directors,^[110] saying that Muhammad Yunus “staying in the post for an indefinite period ... was not within the law,” and asking that the meeting be adjourned; however, because the letter was not addressed to the Managing Director, the rest of the Board – including the two other government-appointed Directors – determined that the meeting should continue as planned.

A journalist of the Telegraph has commented that “the Bangladeshi Government should remove Chairman Huq immediately. If calling Yunus a ‘chicken hearted man’ in the New York Times is his way of showing commitment, independence and integrity, then something is seriously wrong. In his defense, it’s a pretty accurate description of someone who is determined to destroy a force for good!”^[112]