The Lockdown With Bryan Bruce: GUEST BLOG: Day 10 Interview with Nobel Prize Wiinning Economist Muhammad Yunus
You don’t get wealthy making documentaries but I can tell you my job has made me rich in so many other ways.
Seven years ago, for example, I had the privilege of interviewing Muhammad Yunus who had won the Nobel Prize for starting a bank that provided unsecured micro- loans to people so they could start small businesses. It earned him the title of Banker To The Poor
You can find that interview by clicking on the link immediate below:
https://www.nzptv.org.nz/videos/the-lockdown-day-10
You will see my interview with him however focused on his concept of doing what he calls “Social Business”. This is the idea that profit in and of itself is not a bad thing – it’s what you DO with it that counts.
As we contemplate what kind of society we want New Zealand to be in the post-pandemic era, Yunus challenges us with the question – What is the purpose of doing business anyway?
Is it simply to get rich ? Or do you want to do good in the world by running an efficient business that employs people so that they can look after themselves and their families?
How can we make profits in a good way?
I filmed the interview for my 2013 documentary : Mind The Gap and found it today when I was going through my archive . It’s 20 minutes long but it gave me plenty of food for thought at the time …and indeed many times in the 7 years I recorded it.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Geez Bryan, I remember watching that a few years back and thinking what a marvelous example that man was,…
Your documentary’s continue to hit all the high notes and show for themselves what is possible with but a small amount of vision and creativity to problem solving, – and how that can snowball to involve whole community’s prosperity and health,… expand that formula to many community’s and the knock on effect is more efficient trade, and of the things that are needed… first on local scale , then on a global scale… and yet the concepts are simple, – and adaptable.