Den danske reporter Tom Heinemanns dokumentarfilm “Fanget i mikrogæld” (Caught in Micro Debt) vakte opstandelse mange steder i mikrofinans-sektoren, der sørger for små lån og opsparingsordninger til fattige, mest i u-landene.
Af Hugh Sinclair
The documentary directly accused the Nobel Peace Prize Winners Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank of wrong-doing. This further aggravated an already polarized microfinance sector over the role of the profit motive and impact of microfinance.
Winner of various awards (bl.a. Timbuktu-prisen i 2009, red.), but vilified (lagt for had) by many, Heinemann was unheard of within the microfinance community until the documentary was broadcast in 2011, so I went to meet him.
Mid-50s, he lives on a boat in Denmark with his wife and a dog. A former brick-layer and social worker, he drifted into journalism following a back-injury, and became fascinated by the globalization unfolding over the last two decades. And in particular, it’s dark side.
In a world of PR companies and spin, Heinemann believes the role of a journalist is to ask the tough questions that others dare not ask.
His previous documentaries had covered the Indian exports of textiles, Kenyan tea, and the role of Ericcsson and Telenor in unsavory business practices, all in some way related to the ill-effects of globalization and a post-colonial profit-motivated trade strategy that keeps the poor in their place, apparently.
But it was in Bangladesh that he stumbled upon microfinance. His experience was rather different to what was being claimed at the time, piquing his interest in the phenomenon.
Despite the rosy images of microfinance as a silver bullet (mirakelkur), Heinemann saw little more than exploitation. “This is a story that needs to be told – I did not care if they liked it or not back in Europe, I am going to tell them that”. The rest, as they say, is history.
Razia Begums triste skæbne
In the fabled birthplace of microfinance Heinemann stumbled across a woman, Razia Begum, who seemed to contradict the microfinance legend. Divorced with 2 children, she had obtained 7 microfinance loans and become severely indebted.
First she lost her house, then she had to remove her daughter from school to work in the “micro-enterprise” to pay off the debts. An isolated case for sure, but this got Heinemann wondering about the other side of microfinance, which eventually led to the documentary.
Valid suggestions of a vendetta by the current Hasina government to oust Yunus have been widely circulated, and the U.S. Administration has stepped in to defend Yunus. Heinemann’s documentary was perhaps poorly timed for Yunus, and added further fuel to an already tense stand-off.
Yunus was fired on the trumped-up charges of exceeding the official retirement age, which had been mysteriously tolerated for a decade; but the Bangladesh government went a step further, wrestling control from the existing board of directors in what some have described as a de facto nationalization of Grameen Bank.
Yunus had trodden on (premierminister) Hasina’s toes previously, particularly when he openly considered establishing a rival political party – the politics are complex, but there is a strong whiff of revenge in the air.
Mange årsager til at Yunus måtte gå
Heinemann claims this was nothing to do with him, although he suspects an element of payback may be valid: “The role of a journalist is to report the truth, not become involved in the political consequences. And I am not”.
But he was surprised at the seniority of those leaping to Yunus’s defence. “Many Scandinavians do not approve of the US government killing innocent citizens with drone aircraft, but the Scandinavian governments do not threaten bilateral relations with the US, especially over the job of a single banker being fired. It is absurd”.
But Yunus himself suggested in an interview with Bistandsaktuellt (a NORAD publication) that it was the documentary that sparked his departure from Grameen.
The documentary was divisive, and centred around some questionable transactions between the Norwegian government and Grameen Bank in the 1990s.
The Norwegian embassy in Dhaka objected to the movement of funds between Grameen Bank entities, the transactions were reversed, and the issue was closed…. until Heinemann obtained access to the documents and splashed them across the planet.
Læs videre på
http://www.microdinero.com/index.php/english/nota/5364/the-man-behind-the-movie
Begynd fra: “Yunus reportedly refused to be interviewed by Heinemann, so….”
Artiklen er bragt på netsitet Microdinero fredag d. 26. oktober 2012 og derpå tilsendt U-landsnyt.dk.
