'Poverty a Threat to Peace' - Muhammad Yunus

Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, in the lecture he presided over last Dec 10 upon receiving the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, pays homage to the prestigious institution for giving "the highest honour and dignity to the hundreds of millions of women all around the world" who work day and night to bring a better life for their respective families.

Below are excerpts of his speech:

" By giving us this prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has given important support to the proposition that peace is inextricably linked to poverty. Poverty is a threat to peace.

"World's income distribution gives a very telling story. Ninety four percent of the world income goes to 40 percent of the population while sixty percent of people live on only 6 per cent of world income. Half of the world population lives on two dollars a day. Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. This is no formula for peace...

" Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. For building stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives."

For the complete text, visit http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lect_2006b.html.