Saturday, October 14, 2006

The Noble Price of Peace

Muhammad Yunus has been awarded this Friday, October 13th with the Nobel Peace Price in hands of Dr. Ole D. Mjøs, Chairman for the Nobel Peace Price Commission in Oslo, Norway.

Mr. Yunus has proven that there is a price that a capitalist system is willing and able to pay in order to achieve a far better degree of quality of life for millions of inhabitants, in his particular case from his home, Bangladesh.

An Economist receiving the highest international peace prize is a quite distinct phenomenon, because it means that Economic thinking on how society works has brought progress, therefore peace.

Johan Galtung's definition of peace is: "The capacity to transform conflicts creatively, empathically, and nonviolently." In other words, the sustainable social skill of progress. This means that the possibility to launch a virtuous spiral towards peace can come either from Top to Bottom, from decision-makers, leaders, governments and going down, or from below, from the grassroot level, from the individual's inside, from his or her motivation to progress.

Mr. Yunus came up with an idea, one so good that transformed the lives of millions. But not one single life would have been transformed if neither one of those people would not have wanted to. It's a tandem between incentives and motivation, where incentives are external forces that move us in the direction of progress, and where motivation is the strength that each one of us generates from the inside out. It is the drive that keeps us going, waking up every day, and taking the necessary steps to be able to answer "better, better, better" when we ask ourselves "how am I doing?"

The world has a fabulous learning opportunity to reflect upon the learnings of this Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Yunus has proven that having four or five clearly articulated concepts about how the Market Economy works, and how Capitalism can be Socialist enough to help those that are most in need.

It is the noble price of peace.

No comments: