Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Two Champions Of Entrepreneurship Win The Presidential Medal Of Freedom

They are Noble Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus and the late congressman Jack Kemp. You can read about this at President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients. Here are the testimonials for these two winners:

Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp, who passed away in May 2009, served as a U.S. Congressman (1971 – 1989), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1989 – 1993), and Republican Nominee for Vice President (1996). Prior to entering public service, Kemp was a professional football player (1957 – 1969) and led the Buffalo Bills to American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965. In Congress and as a Cabinet Secretary, Kemp was a self-described "bleeding heart conservative" who worked to encourage development in underserved urban communities. In the years leading up to his death, Kemp continued seeking new solutions, raising public attention about the challenge of poverty, and working across party lines to improve the lives of Americans and others around the world.

Muhammad Yunus
Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and has pioneered the use of "micro-loans" to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral. Dr. Yunus, an economist by training, founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 in his native Bangladesh to provide small, low-interest loans to the poor to help better their livelihood and communities. Despite its low interest rates and lending to poor individuals, Grameen Bank is sustainable and 98% percent of its loans are repaid – higher than other banking systems. It has spread its successful model throughout the world. Dr. Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work.

Dr. Yunus has is own website at Muhammad Yunus.

You can read more about Jack Kemp at PRIVATE SECTOR; Coaching Entrepreneurs for Profit and Jack Kemp: A Champion of Small Business.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Cy
I watched the ceremony on C-SPAN and found it very moving. It was wonderful to celebrate the lives of great people from all over the world!

Carl

Cyril Morong said...

Carl

Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Hope things are going well for you.

Cy