December 25, 2013

Dear Sir,

Appropriately as I sat down to write, the song “Stand up for your rights” by Bob Marley was broadcasting over the airwaves. I have to cross the idea of standing up for your rights along with parting wisdom from an old mentor C Harold Smith (deceased) who one day pulled me away from my youthful rant about rights. He said to me with emphasis “there is no such thing as rights, the only rights you have are the ones you create and learn to protect”. At the age of 18 I had become accustom to him chiding and schooling me on issues, usually late at night as I would arrive home and find the lights sill on in this old man’s kitchen next door.

The thing of interest that I find of late in our times, is the absence of the use of words like egalitarianism. The notion that all people are fundamentally equal and deserving of the respect of an equal has been an idea with many variables in attempts to underwrite its plausibility. We have seen Communism and the ideas of Karl Marx whether feasible or not they were both products of the ideal of achieving a just environment for equality. Freedom is also one of the ideals of humanity and there is no freedom under any form of tyranny that constricts the ability to expand on the creativity and innate talents that are inborn among the human family of individuals. In fact the world and society can be judged by the freedom afforded the individual.

Just as the 19th century bore out the fruits of a struggle whose words in the previous century could be found in France and England among some notable intellects like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, The 20th century tested both the ideas of Karl Marx and those of Adam Smith and we can see the ideological failures of both communism and naked capitalism. We are now into the 21st century with a global population beyond 6 billion with systems of transport and communications that have brought this generation of humans into the dispensation of multiculturalism and plurality where the markets are global. Nations still have relevance however there are many companies whose global reach far exceed many nations. Companies employing 2 million people and more roam the earth creating and searching new markets stretching their influence and competitive strategy around the world right into our neighbourhoods.

The thought of egalitarianism and free market economy once espoused the notion of the entrepreneur with a vision of companies enjoying free and competitive trade in a marketplace that supported equality. Chambers of commerce municipalities and antitrust laws were all created to advance and support the idea of fair competition and avoidance of monopolies in the market places. In spite of the dream of freedom and a level playground for the market place, the reality is that we have giants whose ability and reach have transformed the real options for the true budding entrepreneurs. Beginning with the near and complete destruction of the proverbial Ma and Pa shops and more as the spiral winds upwards we will witness the inability of local institutions such as banks and insurance companies to continue to exist as they become gobbled up by the mighty jaws of mega institutions.

Is it possible to have individual liberty and the freedom within a world where your options are defined by an economic superstructure? When we look at countries like Africa with it’s under development and impoverishment and see the type of investor capital schemes where resources and opportunity is snatched away from the indigenous populations, does it resemble any of the noble ideas of our modern era? We can go to central and South America and ask the same question.

How and who can we underwrite the cost of a wave that will give muscle back to individuality? Is such a scheme to empower individuality a moral imperative for our time? If there is any ideology that supports the notion of equality and individual freedom there must be an economic philosophy that facilitates it. The world with its 6 billion people is at a crossroad that will move them towards freedom and liberty or ensnare them into a corporatocracy whose bottom line is enjoyed at the top discounting any merit generated at the bottom. I am not talking about unionism or proper wages as a counter balance. The thought is that of supporting the spirit of entrepreneurship with the kind of economic partnership that connects them to earth’s resources.

Without belabouring the article, a new financial construct which is a not for profit facilitation having the kind of humanistic morality underscoring its methodology, is the bases for a new world movement. Partnering and sharing risk and sharing in growth or profit are the moral way forward with financing. The old method of building self-interested financial institutions that place their burden/profit by charging interest on top of the worlds need to grow is out dated and cannot furnish a continuous yield without crippling the growth of certain sectors.

The earth is rich with resources and governments now are replaced by corporations that are staking claim to them. As companies become larger their share of ownership of the earth’s resources increases. We can look at places on the globe with names of nations, which in reality would be more accurate to have placed a company name across them. The earth and its resources including things like water and rivers, belongs to whom? This is not communism or capitalism, it’s a human phenomenon. Democracy without a philosophy to bring equality is a tool to support the hegemony of a new oligarchy in the name of corporate expediency. This is where the ethics of Islamic financing gains its relevance and couched in that financial concept lies the truer concept of Islam, which will over time eradicate the current negative stereotype.

It’s really a universal issue we are set on a course where mega corporations will hoard and consume the earth’s resources beyond sustainability and deprive wealth from future generations or alternative economic models that are friendlier to natural growth will emerge and save us from self-destruction. We as people will either rise together or fall, so like Bob Marley said: “It’s time to Getup stand up stand up for your rights”.

KHALID WASI