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
60
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
Weuselanguageeveryday.Weliveinaworldofwords.Hardlyanymomentpasseswithsomeonetalking,writingorreading.Indee
Greece,economically,isintheblack.Withverylittletoexportotherthansuchfarmproductsastobacco,cottonandfruit,th
TheFormMaster’sobservationsaboutpunishmentwerebynomeanswithouttheirwarrantatSt.James’sSchool.Floggingwiththe
HowtheSmallpoxWarWasWonTheworld’slastknowncaseofsmallpoxwasreportedinSomalia,theHornofAfrica,inOctober
Inearly19thcenturyAmerica,careforthementallyiiiwasalmostnon-existent:theafflictedwereusuallyrelegatedtopriso
A、onFridaymorningB、onFridayafternoonC、atduskonFridayD、onFridaynightC
Itis1a.m.andthelastcompetitorinthelastroundoftheSantanderPianoCompetitionisstillonlyhalfwaythroughTchaikov
AreFamiliesNecessary?Ashumanchildrenareunusually【1】foranunusuallylongtime,it’sobviousthateverysocietymustp
Halloween’soriginsdatetotheancientCelticfestival【M1】______ofSamhain(pronouncedsow-in).TheCelts,whichlived
Thewaysofhistoryaresointricateandthemotivationsofhumanactionssocomplexthatitisalwayshazardoustoattempttor
随机试题
支气管哮喘长期反复发作,最常见的并发症是
为D—苯丙氨酸衍生物,被称为“餐时血糖调节剂”的药物是()。
良好行为记录信息公布期限一般为()年。
全面摊薄法就是用发行当年预测全部净利润除以( ),直接得出每股净利润。
下列关于企业重组业务特殊性税务处理的表述,不正确的是()。
某空调企业打算新增加一个零件装配车间,希望该厂能尽快投入生产,需要招收大量的加工员工,这些被录取的工人将马上被安排到生产线上。为了在短时间内筛选出大量合格的装配工人,最适合采用的方法是()。
设一批零件的长度服从正态分布N(μ,σ2),其中μ,σ2未知.现从中随机抽取16个零件,测得样本均值=20cm,样本方差S2=1cm2,则μ的置信水平为0.90的置信区间是()
数据库系统在其内部分为三级模式,即概念模式、内模式和外模式。其中,【】是用户的数据视图,也就是用户所见到的数据模式。
Judgingfromrecentsurveys,mostexpertsinsleepbehavioragreethatthereisvirtuallyanepidemicofsleepinessinthenatio
Youshouldnotfearspidersbecauseoftheirpoison.OfallthespidersinNorthAmerica,onlyonekindisvery【B1】______andmo
最新回复
(
0
)