The Other Side of Paradise

Assalamu 'Alaikum,

The Other Side of Paradise

If you earn RM700 a month would you spent RM400 to rent a room? Would you?! The homeless are not beggars and vagabonds, they are collateral damage of an insidious monetary and economic system. An economic system that divides a millionaire’s RM1 million monthly income ,with a poor’s monthly income of RM200 and announce to the whole world that the nation’s  per capita income is half a million ringgit per month!

Would you spent RM400 a month for a room, when it could be sent and well used by wife and kids at home in the kampong? We have a new breed of homeless now. Yes there are still the family discards due to the individuals’ past mistakes, and the unfortunates who found themselves at the wrong end of a twist of fate. But increasingly we are observing the new breed of working homeless. Yes, people with jobs but living on the streets.

DIMANA TAHAP FAHAMAN KITA?

DIMANA TAHAP KEFAHAMAN KITA?

(Source : FB PAGE Towards a Just Monetary & Financial System)

Assalamu ‘Alaikum,

Tidak ramai orang faham sistem monetari kita mengkedanakan yang sudah miskin dan memperkayakan yang sudah kaya. Sistem monetari kita jelas menentang surah AlHasyr ayat 7 yang mafhumnya menuntut supaya kekayaan tidak hanya mengalir diantara yang kaya. Sistem monetari kita secara automatis merompak kuasa beli yang miskin dan dhaif untuk memperkayakan yang sudah kaya.
Cuba buat kajian berapa ramai rakyat bergaji rendah dan penuntut bergantung atas mi segera sebagai makanan harian. Sudah terbukti mee segera diseliputi lilin antara lain, dan memerlu penyucian 3 hari oleh sistem badan kita sebelum ia boleh dimakan semula. Berapa banyak orang bergaji rendah termasuk penuntut makan mi segera setiap hari?
Berapa ramai yang masuk kedai mamak dan makan hanya nasi dengan kuah? Berapa banyak warung yang menjual hanya nasi kosong dan kepala ikan kembong goreng kepada rakyat yang tidak mampu selebih itu? Ini adalah disebabkan pukulan inflasi kekal sistem monetari kita yang sentiasa melonjakkan harga bahan2, meletak harga sepinggan nasi berlauk biasa, diluar kemampuan yang miskin.

Let It Be Known We Still See The Emperor As Naked

Toward A Just Monetary & Financial System

Let It Be Known We Still See The Emperor As Naked

A hilarious story that’s making the round in this strange times.

"A very cold winter.

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

How many understand Greece as the tragedy of interest based lending as opposed to equity investing?

Toward A Just Monetary & Financial System via Global Research (Centre for Research on Globalization)

How many understand Greece as the tragedy of interest based lending as opposed to equity investing?

In Islam The Quran prohibits lending with interest, in fact in Surah AlBaqarah Allah and His Rasul declare war on the practitioners of riba.

Riba is usury and it is not about excessive interest, it is about interest in any lending and a debt which is never forgiven to those unable to pay.

LESSONS ON GREECE

LESSONS ON GREECE

I) IS IT POSSIBLE FOR GREECE TO EXIT EURO AND PRINT ITS OWN CURRENCY?

Based on the article here

http://www.wealthdaily.com/ar…/global-debt-cant-be-paid/6167

and the belief of many commentators it may be the only option open to Greece

Let’s dismiss certain myths about money. Money is not pegged to gold. Money is not scarce that Greece have to beg or borrow from other countries. It is perfectly possible for Greece to ignore current monies, exit Euro and print new currency.

Yes they may make it tough on Greece but if we digest the thrust of the article above, the European banks imposed additional loans on Greece not to save Greece but to save their own banks.

Dear Greece

Dear Greece

Kudos to you we just learnt you said no to the banksters. Allow me to suggest a path your nation might take. Do not negotiate with the Euro banksters, exit the den of thieves. Issue a new currency. But you have to be prepared and be resolute the banksters might use big bully Uncle Sam against you. Time to make new friends. How does GBRICS sound?

What every Muslim in colonised countries must know

Assalamu 'Alaikum,

A lot of angst has been thrown at a Mufti in Malaysia for saying what is only right about the dressings of a certain victorious Muslimat gymnast in the recent Sea Games. I do not wish to say much except to make the point that a wrong is a wrong in Islam. Hideous name callings at a respectable Mufti still does not make a wrong, right.

That is why it is so so important for all of us, Muslims in Malaysia, and Muslims all over the world who has lived in colonised countries, to read the writings of Professor Syed Naguib AlAttas on "Islam and Secularisation". 

Before we dismiss Prof Syed Naguib do take note that he began life in the Prasantren of Indonesia before being amongst the best Phds in today's academic world. He is one of the few world class academia, acknowledged by the world, that hails from this land. Learn and find out about the man and his thoughts before dismissing him, or we will forever remain unlearned.

Employers looking at cutting staff as GST starts to bite businesses

Assalamu Alaikum,

In the article below Bank Negara replies "but there has been growth." Yes 

there might have been growth in the same way huge increases in a country's wealth does not make the poverty stricken, millionaires. A 

quadrupling of the per capita income of a country does not change the 

rock bottom poor. In the same way growth does not translate into 

employment. Growth may even occur with a cut in employment.

It is about time the clever people running the economy dump the western model and start looking at the more humane economic model. The most important factor in an economy is not profits of organisation but jobs for its citizens. What is the joy of an 8% economic growth when we have half a million graduates unemployed and non graduates earning pittance at menial jobs. Is the problem with MAS the 20,000 humans about to be dumped? 

‘Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa’ – Thomas Sankara

http://thisisafrica.me/debt-cleverly-managed-reconquest-africa-thomas-sankara/

By Paula Akugizibwe on July 23, 2012 — 

A week before he died, Sankara said, “revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, but you cannot kill ideas”. And so, for us today, the final challenge rests not in finding more Sankaras, but in becoming them – in bringing these ideas to life

Thomas Sankara. Photo: AFP

Thomas Sankara, former leader of Burkina Faso, was the apparent opposite of everything we are often told that success should look like. Mansions? Cars? Who? What? Get out of here. As Prime Minister and later as President, Sankara rode a bicycle to work before he upgraded, at his Cabinet’s insistence, to a Renault 5 – one of the cheapest cars available in Burkina Faso at the time. He lived in a small brick house and wore only cotton that was produced, weaved and sewn in Burkina Faso.

Going by his lifestyle, Sankara was the antithesis of success, but it is this very distinction that enabled him to become the most successful president Africa has ever seen, in terms of what he accomplished for and with his people. Sankara would not have chopped P-Square’s money given twice a chance – in fact, he might have sat him down and taught him a thing or two about the creeping menace of pop culture patriarchy – because Thomas Sankara, “The Upright Man”, was a feminist. In this and many other ways, Sankara was the African dream come true, the only living proof that hopes of African independence are not dead on arrival.

Banks do not deserve the right to create money

Refocussing the Valid Criticism on Islamic Banking

Toward A Just Monetary & Financial System

Refocussing the Valid Criticism on Islamic Banking

There has been a lot of criticisms on Islamic banking but it has to be addressed correctly.

Criticisms of Islamic banking includes it being too expensive and just a mirror image of conventional banking.

To get credibility of the criticisms we must address the Shariah issues of Islamic banking whether Islamic banking in practise contradicts Shariah.

We cannot say Islamic banking is wrong because it is too expensive. It is a makruf (known) principle in Shariah not to interfere in normal market pricing. If that is our line of criticism we have to prove the point with statistics and be sure we are comparing like with like. For example are we comparing fixed rate Islamic finance with floating rate conventional finance? In which case is our conclusion conclusively proven with numbers to support?
We must also be cognisant that Islamic banking is not meant to operate in a dual environment and in a real Islamic economy it is haram for Muslims to frequent conventional banks. In today’s economy Muslims are allowed to also use conventional banks and conventional banks do not have to abide rules Islamic banks have to. This means Islamic banks by default have to be “like” conventional banks to survive and thrive.
In this case it is not appropriate to level criticism only at Islamic banks; the bigger criticism have to be levelled at the government for allowing conventional banks to continue operating at a distinct advantage over Islamic banks. Governments have also failed in their duty to prevent the Muslim ummah from using riba institutions.