A Nobel laureate will head Bangladesh's interim government after unrest ousted Hasina, official says

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head Bangladesh’s interim government after longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead and pushed the South Asian nation to the brink of chaos.

The decision, announced early Wednesday by Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of the country’s figurehead President Mohammed Shahabuddin, came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organizers of the student protests that helped drive Hasina from power, prominent business leaders and civil society members.

A longtime political opponent of Hasina, Yunus is expected to return soon from Paris, where he is advising Olympic organizers, media reports said.

An economist and banker, he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets. Yunus has been hailed for bringing thousands out of poverty through Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983, and which makes small loans to businesspeople who wouldn’t qualify for regular bank loans.

https://apnews.com/article/bangladesh-protests-interim-government-bca66e8251f86deb3fe28c913d0a1444

[SharonClark]

1. I wish him well.

"He is one of only seven persons to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal."
I met him when he was in Des Moines to receive the World Food Prize and I see his portrait when I take guests to the WFP Hall of Laureates.
He's done so much for humanity.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Just to note that he's 84 years old

A well-known critic of Ms Hasina, Mr Yunus called the day of Ms Hasina's departure Bangladesh's "second liberation day".

So what do we know about the 84-year-old Nobel laureate?

One of nine children, Mr Yunus was born to a family of Muslim merchants in the coastal Bangladeshi city of Chittagong. At 25 he travelled to the United States to study under a Fulbright scholarship, and returned to Bangladesh in 1971 – the same year the country won its independence from Pakistan in a brutal, bloody war.

Upon his return, Mr Yunus was elected to head Chittagong University’s economics department, and soon became passionately involved with combatting the famine that ravaged Bangladesh in the mid-70s.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz73jwy8nnwo