Prof Yunus: Our national pride

We don't have enough words to wish you right now, we get lost in our highest joy and happiness for your grate success. This is the success of our nation, and success of humanity. We would like to congratulate you from the bottom of our heart. We pray together, "Let our country be poverty free". "Let's work together for peace and harmony". We will help you to make your dream (poverty free Bangladesh) true. We are with you.

On behalf of Probashi Bangladeshi from Canada.

Firstly, congratulations to the Nobel Peace prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus and his institution Grameen Bank. This is such a great achievement for Bangladesh that too made me feel very proud among my classmates here in the UK at London Metropolitan University. It was a great counter strike to my white classmates who consider that we, the Indian sub-continental Muslim people are terrorists and bombers. Now I told them that we are not such what you people think of us. We are the makes of peace on the earth and we won the Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations to Bangladesh for giving birth to a gladiator who fought his whole life for the poor, against poverty.

Muhammad Zakir Hossain, London Metropolitan University, UK

For last few years this kind of rumblings were going on that Prof. Muhammad Yunus might get the Nobel Prize. At last getting the adrenalin of the nation high Prof. Yunus and his Grameen Bank were declared to have won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. It makes the nation witness one of the biggest attainment albeit it was long overdue.

Prof. Yunus, a living legend and maiden Nobel laureate of Bangladesh has commenced the nation to walk into a new dimension. His innovative micro-credit programme helped poor people to develop their entrepreneurship skills. Over 6.5 million people, 96 percent among them are women, have so far received Grameen Bank's micro-credit and around 58 percent (approx. 3.8 million) of them have been able to ameliorate their conditions by breaking out of the poverty trap. A small comment from the Nobel Committee must be cited here, "Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development."

Concomitantly, this achievement also heralds the triumph of the spirit of fellow feeling and camaraderie and will help to brush aside some stereotypes about our country.

So, we must not be lost in reverie. It is time to come the whole nation together and croon the valedictory song to the poverty with Prof. Yunus in unison.

Sifat Mohammad Sayedee, SUST, Sylhet

Professor Muhammad Yunus has proved once again that the people of Bangladesh with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest wonders. In 1971, they earned their freedom, in 1990 they earned democracy, and in 2006, earned Nobel Prize for peace through economic development of the poor. Professor Yunus is now going after removing poverty from the country forever. It is a pride for the nation no doubt, but I consider it to be the greatest shame on those who promised the same ever since we earned our freedom.

Saiful Islam, On e-mail

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank is a propitious sign for Bangladesh. All eyes, internationally, in various sectors, have turned their direction toward Bangladesh and its talent, recognising one of its fulfilling successes rather than focusing on its unrest and needs.

It is the first time that the Prize has been awarded to a profit-making business. Yunus' effort and the Grameen Bank signify the critical role that the private sector and individuals must play in the realisation of socio-economic rights, specifically through innovative (and at times, riskier) initiatives and opportunities that unleash human potential.

The honour for the nation coinciding with Ramadan is an opportunity for Bangladeshis to reformulate their traditional notion of zakat.

Perhaps, a more beneficial form of zakat lies in more affluent members of society internalising a sincere desire to pursue the welfare of the nation and thus, creating a culture that demands that private enterprises take on the social responsibility of beginning such initiatives. The creation and sustenance of such a culture involves consumers rewarding those private institutions that support such initiatives.

Reconsidering zakat must also include recognising the importance of efforts to support not only human survival or charity, but also human potential, on a personal level. For example, those are in the position to do so must not only monetarily support charities during Ramadan and otherwise, but must consider the socio-economic benefits of volunteerism, like the free tutoring of young and teaching household staff how to read and write so that they are able to pass more along to future generations.

Samira Khan, Master in Public Policy from Harvard

"I got to know the news from a foreigner and I felt absolute rapture and got enthralled when everybody here was talking about our country. I can't just make you realise my feelings, particularly a Bangalee like me who lives abroad, when the whole world is talking of us."

The above quote is an immediate reaction from a friend of mine who is abroad now. This reaction was in response to the news of Dr Yunus's winning Noble Peace Prize.

When I first heard the news from my colleague I was speechless. I was speechless not because it was unexpected; it was very much expected as we were expecting to hear this news for last few years. But I was speechless because it was a mere coincidence for me. Last few days I was actually expecting some kind of miracle to happen at this crisis stage of our country to give us positive spirit. The way our leading two political parties were throwing dirt to each other, the way they are eager to project one another's dark side, the way our leaders have now become dependent on foreign power to take decision about country's fate, this really made us wonder whether there is any light any where for us! In this period of darkness, Dr Yunus's getting Nobel Peace prize is really a ray of hope for people like me who dreams for better Bangladesh even in the wildest darkness. He has now introduced Bangladesh to the world with a new look. It's really a great honour for all Bangladeshis at home and abroad and above all to our motherland.

Tahera Jabeen, A Development Practitioner

I, and perhaps many others across the world, were hopeful that he would receive recognition for his primary and visionary role as the global progenitor and executor of the (essentially-economic) concepts of micro-finance and micro-credit. May it not be argued for that Dr. Yunus's primary contribution was to the stunningly successful framework of alleviating poverty through the innovative, pragmatic, and sustained application of micro-finance and -credit? Therefore, may it not be reasonably argued further that he, and his groundbreaking credit institution were more-than-sufficiently deserving of the coveted Nobel Prize in Economic Science?

Sadiq S. Ahmed, On e-mail

The greatest news Bangladeshis can imagine! We all are over the moon! There was world-wide coverage in all the print and electronic media for the best reason imaginable. We are so proud that our heart aches, we hold our heads high; there is an ear-to-ear wide smile on our faces.

My son who lives in the USA is very pleased and proud, and so are the Bangladeshi expatriates living there. My son has been congratulated on the award of the Novel Peace prize to Dr Mohammad Yunus by his friends & colleagues as if he himself won the great prize!

He says, "Now hopefully, everyone will be proud to say that they are Bangladeshi!

What a perfect timing with election around the corner. Hopefully it will have positive impact on the election in some ways as well....."

Can we hope that this award will impact on the political situation in our country in a favourable positive way, as my son hopes? Or is it just euphoria and overexpectation and will ebb away in a few days?

Sayeed A. Chaudhury, Gulshan, Dhaka