首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Bangladeshi educated in Britain, an admirer of Shakesp
Smiling and dapper, Fazle Hasan Abed hardly seems like a revolutionary. A Bangladeshi educated in Britain, an admirer of Shakesp
admin
2012-03-23
58
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.
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://www.kaotiyun.com/show/EbiO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
______isusuallyconsideredasthenationalsymbolofNewZealand.
Sometimesoon,accordingtoanimal-rightactivities,agreatapewilltestifyinanAmericancourtroom.Speakingthroughavoice
Sometimesoon,accordingtoanimal-rightactivities,agreatapewilltestifyinanAmericancourtroom.Speakingthroughavoice
NowadaysinChina,somefamousathletesandentertainersearnmillionsofdollarseveryyear.Doyouthinkthesepeopledeserve
IstoodatthewirefenceintheedgeofHilario’spastureand【M1】______watchedtheRussiansforlongtime,untilmostoftheo
A、derailtheshakypeaceprocessB、kill18governmentsoldiersC、retaliateforChechenrebelambushD、leavethesouthernareaof
TheidealseasonforplantingthecropinthemainfieldisJuly-AugustorNovember-December.Plantingisdoneonraisedbedsof
In17th-centuryNewEngland,almosteveryonebelievedinwitches.Strugglingtosurviveinavastandsometimesunforgivingland
Queenslandliesin______.
Argumentation:FunctionsandStrategiesⅠ.Functionsofargumentation:Youcanuseargumentationto1)makeapoint
随机试题
关于生殖器疱疹下列哪项是错误的:
哪项检查指标可作为缺铁的主要依据
A.井穴B.荥穴C.合穴D.经穴E.腧穴太溪在五输穴中,属
2014年12月17日,国家发展改革委发布《关于放开部分服务价格意见的通知》,决定放开部分地方实行定价管理的服务价格。根据这一《通知》,除律师事务所和基层法律服务机构(包括乡镇、街道法律服务所)提供的下列哪些律师服务收费实行政府指导价外,其他律师服务收费实
根据中心地理论,圆形市场是联系中心地与服务区的最有效理论图式。()
根据《建筑桩基技术规范》(JGJ94—94),下列建筑桩基应验算沉降的是()。
已到期的应付票据2500万元因无力支付转为应付账款,该项业务会引起等式左右两方会计要素发生一增一减的变化。()
证券投资基金的营销渠道有直销和代销两类渠道。()
为人的身心发展提供前提的因素是()。
Youaretostayatthehotelwhererooms____________foryou.
最新回复
(
0
)