Bangladeshi thinker Prof Yunus to receive Olympic honour

Guwahati, 18 July: The lone Nobel laurate of Bangladesh, Professor Muhammad Yunus is going to receive a rare Olympic honour in Japan on 23 July next. The economist turned revolutionary banker, and social entrepreneur, Dr. Yunus will be honoured during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games organised under the shadow of Covid-19. 

The extraordinary orator becomes the second recipient of Olympic Laurel after Kenyan social changemaker Kip Keino. Olympian Keino  was awarded on 5 August 2016 at the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.  Initiated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to honour outstanding individuals for their achievements in education, culture, development, and peace through sport, the award is handed over in each summer Olympic Games.

Symbolising its connection with the ancient games, the trophy’s base reflects a stone from the site of Olympia, Greece. IOC President Thomas Bach commented that the innovative banker to the poor has been selected for the honour for his extensive works in sport for development, including founding the Yunus Sports Hub, a global social business network that creates solutions through sport. Prof.Yunus collaborated with the IOC on several projects, including educational elements of the IOC young leader’s program focusing on human development through peace and sport.

Prof Yunus shares his wealth of knowledge generously with the athletes and the Olympic community apart from helping athletes in their post-sport career development to become socially responsible entrepreneurs and he also shares the vision of how sport can contribute to the UN’s sustainable development goals. Recipient of numerous international awards for his ideas and endeavours including the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006, he remains a great inspiration for all, stated the IOC President.

Born in 1940 to a middle-class businessman’s family in Chittagong of south Bangladesh, Prof Yunus studied in Chittagong  and Dhaka and then reached Vanderbilt University with a Fulbright scholarship to pursue higher studies in economics. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1969 and after some years of teaching there, the young Bangladeshi scholar returned to his country in 1972, just one year after Bangladesh was born (out of eastern Pakistan).

“Sport is natural to all human beings. It brings all human strengths and emotions into play, irrespective of differences. That gives it enormous power. I urge that we channel this power to transform lives by galvanizing the world, and social business can be the most efficient tool to unleash this power,”  said Prof Yunus adding that the Olympic unites the entire world in peaceful competition, celebrating unity in diversity.

Speaking from Dhaka, the soft-spoken gentleman who created the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh reminded me that the novel coronavirus has brought numerous challenges to various events including the extravaganza like Olympic Games, but it also fetches a huge opportunity for the human race. Now it is necessary to put man back at the center and work together to rebuild tomorrow, looking not to the past but the future, stated the author of the acclaimed book ‘Building Social Business.

“If we embrace a new social and environmental awareness, a use of the economy not as a mere science, useful for maximizing profits, but rather as a tool to achieve the greatest possible happiness of individuals and the community, we can create a new world,” added Prof Yunus, who leads ‘Yunus Centre’, a global hub of social business, highlighting its mission to create sustainable social enterprises not just for profit, but to solve people's problems, specifically in the corona-recovering world.