Sat13Dec - LONDON - Surviving The Global Financial Crash

[moeen yaseen]

THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRASH AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY

An emergency one day conference organised by Global Vision 2000 on Saturday 13th December 2008 10-6 at 43 Lancaster Gate, London
Leading Western and Islamic monetary revolutionaries and
sustainability experts will present an unique holistic diagnosis and
prescription to the unprecedented financial crash which is leading
to a global depression.

see
http://www.globalvision2000.com





http://gv2000.co.uk/index.php

[halva_gr]

Invitation
European cross network civil society meeting
for a common response to the global crises
Paris, 10th - 11th January 2009

Dear Friends,

The present financial crash is historically exceptional in depth and range. And the worst is still to come. The spill over to the real economy is fully under way and recession with all its consequences such as rising unemployment, pressure on social security etc. will come to a climax in 2009. We are at the beginning of a dramatic economic crisis. All sectors of social life will be affected, not only in the industrialised countries, but in the whole world. Together with the environmental crisis (climate, energy, biodiversity etc.), increasing food prices, hunger and poverty the world is confronting a dramatic challenge.

Civil society was not prepared for the financial crash. We are still not yet in the position to meet the challenges of such a dramatic convergence and to seize the unique opportunity for change, which is offered by such turmoil. An exceptional crisis requires an exceptional response.

Therefore, the undersigning networks want to invite you to an open consultation on how to build capacity for civil society, to organise and mobilise on a European level. In particular, we have to develop the capacity to influence the European position in the process of reforming the financial system, which has started with the G20 meeting on November 15th.

Date and venue of the meeting

The meeting, which we propose, will take place January 10th 11:00 a.m.
to 11th 13:00 h in Paris. The venue is at CICP (Centre International de Culture Populaire), 21ter rue Voltaire. Metro station: Nation.
Our meeting will take place two days after a conference convened by French President Sarkozy and ex British Prime Minister Blair, which is entitled: New World: Values, Developments and Regulation. It will be attended among others by progressive economists such as the Nobel prize winners Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.

Open for all organisations which are interested

Given the heterogeneity of civil society, we know that starting such an initiative has always to live with some limitations, in particular with a certain lack of participation and transparency. We have handled questions such as: who is inviting and who is invited according our limited perspective. But it is not our intention to play a role which would go beyond facilitating the start of a process of self-organisation.
Therefore, we would ask everybody to pass on this invitation to any organisation, network, citizens initiative or trade union, from which you think that they might be interested.

Opportunities for networking and political intervention

Apart from developing our own capacities and alternatives, 2009 offers several important opportunities for political intervention, which should be seized, such as the elections for the European Parliament. Further landmarks in the process are:
- World Social Forum in Belem (Brazil), 27th January – 1st April 2009
- Alternative European encounter at the end of March in Brussels
- the Alternative ECOFIN in Prague (1.-3. April)
- the G20 (for the first time with Obama) in London, April 2nd
- G8 in Italy end of June beginning July
- UN-conference on climate change, Copenhagen, December 2009

Draft agenda

The outcome of the meeting is open and will depend on the discussions in Paris.

Nevertheless, we could imagine an agenda as follows:

Analysis of the crises, including reports about ongoing dynamics within different European countries
Consequences for a civil society strategy and our alternatives
Opportunities for intervention in 2009
Practical consequences on capacity building and networking
Any other business

Perhaps, we also could have some working groups, which deal with sectoral issues such as the impact of the crisis on labour, environment and development. Of course, we are open to any further proposal. Please let us know, whether we can count on you.

Kind regards

European Attac Network
EURODAD
Euromarches
European Coordination Via Campesina
Friends of the Earth Europe
European Network on Finance and Development
S2B-Network
European Network for Public Services


Further supporters:
Frank Bsirske, President Ver.di (Trade Union of Service Workers) Germany
Ulrich Thöne, President of GEW (Teachers and Scientists Union), Germany
Gérard Aschieri, Secrétaire général of FSU (Fédération syndicale unitaire), France
Christophe Delecourt, Secrétaire général of CGT Finances (Confédération générale du travail), France
Pierre Khalfa, Secrétaire national of Union syndicale Solidaires, France
Fabrizio Tomaselli, National Secretary of SdL Intercategoriale (Sindacato dei Lavoratori Intercategoriale), Italy
Bob Crow, Secretaire general RMT National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers, Great Britain

[halva_gr]

Our meeting will take place two days after a conference convened by French President Sarkozy and ex British Prime Minister Blair, which is entitled: New World: Values, Developments and Regulation. It will be attended among others by progressive economists such as the Nobel prize winners Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.***

The notion that the ones whose politics have caused the crisis are the ones to save us from the crisis is disgrace to us who are allowing it to happen. And Sarkozy's promotion of Tony Blair adds a further layer of insult. Sarkozy would really like to see Blair as President of the European Commission. If he can succeed in getting his way on this we may as well give up all pretence at being in the game of politics.

It is time to remember the British campaign to send Blair to the Hague as a war criminal,
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=Od_jdg7n6-s
and to make it a pan-European campaign as its initiators want it to be.

European elections are coming up this year and it would seem to be that a proposal to support this campaign would be a vote winner. It is justifiable in those terms alone even if (and let us not be fatalistic even on this!) the balance of forces is not such as to give it prospects of success. The best means of defence is attack and if Sarkozy and the other would be promoters of Tony Blair can be reminded of the political cost this preference of theirs will entail, we may be able to get them to desist, which in turn will enhance our position.

W. Hall
Aigina, Greece

[moeen yaseen]

THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRASH AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY

Saturday December 13 2008 10-6

43 Lancaster Gate,London

organised by

Global Vision 2000

Aims of the conference

Leading UK monetary reformers, bankers, economists, academics, journalists, social change activists and visionaries amongst others will be addressing the contemporary unprecedented financial and economic systemic collapse we are witnessing and focussing on the need for radical solutions addressing the causes as opposed to symptoms. This " black swan" event and contagion is penetrating and infecting the entire world. The event aims to make a contribution towards the debate on the restructuring of the Bretton Woods global financial and economic architecture with fresh thinking which for too long has been deemed fringe but is now actually being forced upon and taken up by Governments. An unique platform for those seeking radical holistic,innovative and sustainable financial, monetary and economic changes. An unique opportunity to participate and join this life and death debate. This event builds upon previous special events held since 2003 which focus upon pioneering a fundamentally different alternative diagnosis and prescription. Global Vision 2000 will chart out and the need to move towards the UNIVERSAL PARADIGM SHIFT by establishing a crisis and future proof architecture and system which works for all.
The desire for a peaceful world has to be strived and struggled for and all obstacles need to be removed and above all justice needs to be central to the new vision. The time for real change has arrived and the agenda for fundamental change has to move from the fringe to the mainstream.

This has been organised by Global Vision 2000 the independent international Islamic thinktank. It aims to provide a platform for a comprehensive debate from alternative social,political and monetary reform movements who believe that the dominant paradigm is unsustainable and needs to be reconstructed. This will be a catalytic event which will launch a powerful call for the liberation of our money, banks and economy from bankers and from debt bondage by moving towards the Universal Paradigm shift.

Introductory comments

It can no longer be denied that the free market globalised world economies face their most critical crisis since the great depression of 1929. The financial tsunami and bursting bubble(s) has swept away Trillions written off in the financial markets and Wall Street/ City is now hitting Main/ High street with the common man being hit hard. The triumphalism of Franicis Fukuyama's End of History in the end of the 20th century ended with the dominance of the free market over State control but the start of the 21st century is witnessing the self destruction of global financial usurious capitalism with Governments intervening unsuccessfully to halt this unending crisis. In only a couple of weeks with unexpected twists and turns the 2008 financial crisis completely reshaped the world and the financial system. After three months the global financial markets, the world economy is in impetuous breakdown. The turmoil is far from being over and has just commenced and will not recover until it's modus operandi is fully laid bare and diagnosed with a holistic remedy applied. It is clear that the world economy is going through a turbulent period similar to the ravaging times of the Great depression of the 1930s.With the abrupt announcement of bankruptcy of Lehman brothers in mid-September 2008 the financial crisis entered an acute phase marked by failures of prominent American and European banks and by the continuous efforts of American and European governments to rescue distressed financial institutions with bailouts.

The shocking events of September and October 2008 led to a disastrous loss of confidence in the global economy. Indeed doubts have been raised about the causes and previous decisions. Belief in free markets has been dissolved and the neoliberal market fundamentalism has been exposed as fundamentally flawed and leading financial giants in Wall Street and the City have disappeared or gasping for State intervention. Serious fundamental questions about the system need to be asked. This event goes deep into areas deemed to be no go or taboos as the future of society and civilisation is at stake in this age of instability and turbulence. We are at a crossroads either a new dark age beckons in which case we should all migrate to the nearest planet or chnage and move towards the Universal paradigm shift: we are fast facing the final or finest hour of humanity.

Global Vision 2000 rises to the challenge to raise the questions which need urgent answering about:-

Who really runs the country and world is it our democratically elected governments or unelected banking and financial oligarchs;

Who really creates and controls credit and the money supply ; is it central banks or private banks;

Why is usury taken for granted and unquestionable despite everyone drowning in debt;

Why we need to go beyond framing the debate beyond regulation and reform and advocate rejectionism of the status quo.

Why have our institutions from the government, political parties, media, unions been emasculated and what are the new
mediums for social and political transformation and new models of governance.

Why the Bretton Woods global financial architecture and the military-industrial complex needs to be shelved


PROGRAMME

Registration 9-10

First Session 10-10.45

Moeen Yaseen Global Vision 2000 Introduction

Canon Peter Challen Christian Council for Monetary Justice and GJM Opening speech


Second Session 10.45-2

Tarek al Diwany Zest Advisory The Credit Crunch: Cause and Remedies

Daud Pidcock The other Road to Serfdom

Jamal Harwood Hizb al Tahrir The Crisis of capitalism and the Khalifate

Alistair McConnachie Bromsgrove Group Putting the Horse before the cart again: The economy should come before the banking system

Muhammad Rafeeq Global Vision 2000 The Alternative options

Q & A

LUNCH 2-3

Third Session 3-5.30

Nafeez Ahmed IPRD Collateral Damage: The intersection of economic,ecological and energy crises and the end of industrial civilisation as we know it

Robert Corfe Arena Social Capitalism

Francis Mullerday WUBS Corporate social responsibility and social capitalism

Dr.Mustafa Ali Bandung2 The Field,the House and the Yard:Reflections on racial political economy


Dr.Irfan Alawi CIP Manhattanisation of Makkah and Madinah

Roy Tindle London 21 Sustainability a way forward

Q & A session 5.30-6 Panel

Closing Remarks

[moeen yaseen]

[TonyGosling]

This is an incredible event, bringing together trades unionists, anti-war activists, 911 Truthers and much much more.



Amazing initiative, if you're not there you're not part of the solution.

[moeen yaseen]

THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRASH AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY

Saturday 13 December 2008, 10am – 6pm
43 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3NA
Organised by Global Vision 2000

CONFERENCE AIMS

Leading UK monetary reformers, bankers, economists, academics, journalists, social change activists and visionaries amongst others will be addressing the contemporary unprecedented financial and economic systemic collapse we are witnessing and focusing on the need for radical solutions addressing causes as opposed to symptoms of this "black swan" event and contagion that is penetrating and infecting the entire world.
The event aims to make a contribution towards the debate on the restructuring of the Bretton Woods global financial and economic architecture with fresh thinking which for too long has been deemed fringe, but is now actually being forced upon and taken up by governments. It will provide a unique platform for those seeking radical, holistic, innovative and sustainable financial, monetary and economic change to the world order and a unique opportunity to participate in a life and death debate.

The conference builds upon previous special events held since 2003 which focus upon pioneering a fundamentally different alternative diagnosis and prescription to that promoted in the mainstream by the establishment. Global Vision 2000 is committed to charting out and moving towards what it refers to as the universal paradigm shift by establishing a crisis and future-proof architecture and system which works for all. The desire for a peaceful world has to be strived and struggled for and all obstacles need to be removed. Above all, justice, in all its varied forms, is central to the new vision. The time for change has arrived and the agenda for change has to move from the fringe to the mainstream.

This event has been organised by Global Vision 2000, an independent, international Islamic think-tank. Global Vision 2000 aims to provide a platform for a comprehensive debate involving alternative social, political and monetary reform movements who share a common view that the dominant paradigm is unsustainable and needs to be replaced. The conference aims to act as a catalyst, launching a powerful call for the liberation of our money, banks and economy from bankers and from debt-bondage by moving towards the universal paradigm shift.

INTRODUCTION

It can no longer be denied that the free market globalised world economies face their most critical crisis since the great depression of 1929. The financial tsunami and bursting bubble(s) have resulted in trillions being wiped off the financial markets and the chaos in Wall Street/The City is now hitting the Main/High street hard. The triumphalism of Franicis Fukuyama's "End of History" at the close of the 20th century was signalled by the dominance of the free market over state control. However, the 21st century appears to be witnessing the self-destruction of global usurious finance capitalism with governments intervening unsuccessfully to halt an unending crisis. In just a few weeks, marked by unexpected twists and turns, the crash of 2008 has completely reshaped the world and the financial system. After just three months, the global financial markets and world economy is facing the prospect of collapse. Despite government reassurances to the contrary, the turmoil is far from being over; in fact, it has just begun and the economy will not recover until its modus operandi has been fully laid bare and diagnosed with a holistic remedy applied. It is clear that the world economy is going through a turbulent period similar to the ravaging times of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Since the abrupt announcement of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in mid-September 2008, the financial crisis has entered an acute phase marked by the collapse of prominent American and European banks and the continuous, yet unsuccessful, efforts of American and European governments to rescue distressed financial institutions with bailouts.

The shocking events of September and October 2008 has led to a disastrous loss of confidence in the global economy. Indeed, doubts have been raised about the causes of the crisis and the decisions taken by those who are held responsible for its occurrence. Belief in free markets has been shaken and neoliberal market fundamentalism has been exposed as fundamentally flawed. Leading financial giants in Wall Street and the City have either disappeared completely or been kept afloat through state intervention. In such a climate of uncertainty, serious questions of a fundamental nature need to be asked. This event goes deep into areas regarded as off-limits or taboo since the future of society and civilisation is at stake in this age of instability and turbulence. We are at a crossroads. Either a new dark age beckons, in which case we should consider migrating to the nearest hospitable planet, or we should embrace radical change and move towards the universal paradigm shift.
We are fast approaching the finest - or final - hour of humanity.

Global Vision 2000 aims to rise to the challenge by seeking answers to pressing questions such as:-

• Who really runs the country, the world? Is it our democratically elected governments or unelected banking and financial oligarchs?

• Who really creates and controls credit and the money supply? Is it central banks or private banks?

• Why is usury taken for granted despite the fact that everyone is drowning in debt?

• Do we need to go beyond framing the debate in terms of regulation and reform and advocate rejection of the status quo?

• Why have our institutions, from the government, to political parties, to the media, to the unions been emasculated, and what are the new mediums for social and political transformation and new models of governance?

• Does the Bretton Woods global financial architecture and the military-industrial complex need to be dismantled?

SPEAKER PROFILES

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Collateral Damage: The Intersection of Economic, Ecological and Energy Crises and The End of Industrial Civilisation as We Know It

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD) in London, and an Associate Tutor in the School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton. He is the bestselling author of The War on Freedom: How & Why America was Attacked: September 11, 2001, which won him the Naples Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary award, in 2003. The War on Freedom (2002), the first book to critique the official narrative of 9/11, was described by Gore Vidal in the London Observer as “the best, most balanced, analysis of 9/11”. Nafeez’s other books include Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq (2003); The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism (2005) and The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry (2006), which has been profiled in the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Times.
One of the world’s foremost authorities in terrorism and conflict analysis, in July 2005 he testified as an expert witness at a special all-day Congressional hearing on 9/11 and international terrorism sponsored by Hon. Reps. Cynthia McKinney and Raul Grijalva. He has written and reported for the Independent on Sunday, Raw Story, Counterpunch, ZNet, Dissident Voice, OpEd News, Online Journal, Media Monitors Network, The American Muslim, The Muslim News, Q News, and many other publications. He has been a regular political commentator on BBC Southern Counties Radio in Sussex, and has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows around the world, including BBC World Today, Channel 4, former Daily Express journalist Yvonne Ridley’s “Agenda” on the Islam Channel, PBS Foreign Exchange with Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria, Pacifica Radio, David Barsamian’s Alternative Radio, and so on. Nafeez worked for two years as Senior Researcher at the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in London, a leading human rights group with UN consultative status specializing in human rights violations in the Muslim world. There he authored IHRC Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, before moving to Brighton where he founded the IPRD in early 2001. At the University of Sussex, he teaches courses in political theory, international relations and contemporary history. As a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of International Relations, Nafeez is currently doing interdisciplinary research on genocide, imperialism and structural violence, and has published in many peer-reviewed journals. His work in human rights and foreign policy has been recommended by leading academic institutions and is used in university courses, including the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, the Department of Communication at California State University, the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, among many others.

Dr Irfan Al-Alawi
The Manhattanisation of Makkah, Madinah and Al-Quds

Dr Irfan Al-Alawi is a university lecturer in London\Leiden\California and a Barrister at Law. He studied at Al-Azhar University (C.Phil, Islamic History) and holds a PhD in Islamic Theology and Tasawwuf (Islamic Spirituality). He is a historian of Mecca/Medinah and an expert on radical islam and cultural vandalism in Saudi Arabia.
Dr Al-Alawi is a student of one of the greatest contemporary recipients of the Prophet Muhammad's heritage of knowledge, the famous Imam Sayyid Habib Ahmad Mashhur Al Haddad Al Alawi, whom he has known for the past 25 years. He studied and later taught Islam and other relevant disciplines at the traditional schools and learning circles at the hands of many leading sheikhs across the Muslim Arab world, particularly the senior Habaib of Hadhramaut, in East Africa and Mecca/Madina. Dr Al-Alawi is a student and representative and also has a licence to teach from the most famous Sheikh and Scholar of the Hijaz, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Alawi Al Maliki. The Al-Maliki family were the imam's and teachers of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Dr Al-Alawi is a member of many leading professional Islamic governing bodies across the globe. He is Executive Director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation (IHRF) whose activities include preservation and restoration of historical sites in the two holy cities and throughout the world. He is also International Director of the Centre of Islamic Pluralism (CIP), and a visiting fellow at The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars (Washington).
As well as being a writer for many leading British Newspapers including The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, he also writes for The Weekly Standard, The Spectator, and many Islamic journals across the world. He has translated many works in Arabic, English, Swahili and Urdu.

Dr Syed Mustafa Ali
The Field, The House and The Yard: Reflections on Racial Political Economy

Dr Syed Mustafa Ali is a resarch activist with Bandung2, a global movement of individuals committed to replacing all man-made forms of supremacy with a system of justice based on The Qur'an (www.bandung2.co.uk). His research interests include systemic racism (white supremacy), gender studies, politics and economics from an Islamic perspective. Dr Ali has been engaged in the study of The Qur’an for over fifteen years and has delivered talks and lectures on a range of topics including the rise and fall of nations, the origins of secularism and the nature of money at academic institutions such as The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and community events such as 2KEY: The Brixton Conference (2002) and The Bandung2 Conference (2007). He presented "The Colour of Money" at the Global Vision 2000
April 2008 conference.

Robert Corfe
Social Capitalism

Robert Corfe is the Founder & Secretary of the Social Capitalist Network, the website of which will be available by the beginning of January. He is a political scientist, author, freelance journalist, and industrial publicist, who has been a life-long student of the social sciences. His professional life has been in senior management in manufacturing industry, and subsequently in management consultancy advising SMEs. In his commitment to working for global social justice and an equitable society, over a three-year period he worked intensively on producing the tetralogy of what was to become the source material for the Social Capitalist Network, viz., the three-volume work, Social Capitalism in Theory & Practice, and its introductory volume, Egalitarianism of the Free Society and the end of class conflict. These four books were published early in 2008.

Tarek El Diwany
The Credit Crunch: Causes and Remedies

Tarek El Diwany was born in London in 1963. He graduated in Accounting and Finance from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom in 1985. Tarek has worked as an interest rate derivatives dealer in the government bond market, and as head of Islamic finance for a major financial institution based in London. In 1997, he completed the first edition of The Problem With Interest, and in the same year launched www.islamic-finance.com, where he is now the Editor. In addition to his work as a writer, Tarek is a partner at Zest Advisory LLP, a London-based firm providing consulting services in Islamic banking and finance, and is a frequent speaker on the topic of Islamic banking at conferences throughout the world.

Jamal Harwood
The Crisis of Capitalism and The Caliphate

Jamal Harwood is an Islamic economics expert, who has studied comparative economic models for over two decades. He is an accountant by training, and has debated and sat on panels with James Woolfeson of the World Bank and former Chancellor Lord Lamont. As well as debating at the Oxford Union he has been interviewed for Time magazine. His is a member of the executive committee for Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain.

Alistair McConnachie
Putting the Cart Before The Horse Again: The Economy Should Come Before the Banking System!

Alistair McConnachie is the Editor and Publisher of PROSPERITY: Freedom from Debt Slavery, which is a 4-page newsletter dedicated to reforming the money system. It is based at 268 Bath Street, in Glasgow. He works closely with James Gibb Stuart, who is known to many Muslims as the author of The Money Bomb -- and who has spoken at a previous conference organised by Global Vision. Alistair and James organise the annual Bromsgrove Conference, which brings together Money Reformers from all over the world, to network and share ideas about reforming the world's economic system and combating debt and usury. Its twelfth annual conference was held this October.

Frances Mulleady
Ethical values, corporate social responsibility and social capitalism

Francis Mulleady specialises in International Business.. He has a BA in Economics and Sociology (Maynooth) and an MA in Economics (Dublin) and currently lectures in the theory and practice of business, global markets and international business management at the University of Westminster.

Daud Pidcock
The Other Road to Serfdom

Daud Pidcock is a technical writer, monetary reformer, historical researcher and political analyst. Pidcock's research interests lie in political economy, rational economics, Islamic banking, L.E.T.S. (Local Exchange Trading Systems), local currency systems, barter trade, interest-free and debt-free alternatives to Western, fractional reserve banking systems. He assisted Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, in averting the Asian Monetary crisis in 1997. Pidcock was responsible for the compilation of Satanic Voices Ancient & Modern, a definitive reply to Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. He also arranged publication of Napoleon & Islam (1999) and completion of The Other Road To Serfdom (2005). Pidock is also responsible for the republishing of Propaganda In The Next War (2002), originally published in 1938 and published The Truth About Money – Even Unto China in 2002. Pidcock was co-founder of The Islamic Party of Britain in 1989, Candidate for Bradford North in the 1990 By-Election and Candidate for Bradford West in the General Election of 1992, in both elections campaigning on the issue of debt and interest. Pidcock is a member of the Forum for Stable Currencies, House of Lords/House of Commons; Co-Founder of The National Association For Victims Of Fraud & Banking Malpractice (1984); and Director of the Institute for Rational Economics.

Muhammad Rafeeq
What are The Alternatives?

Muhammad is a Management Consultant with over 20 years experience in the banking and finance arena. He has acted as a consultant to leveraged credit institutions, asset management companies, insurance companies and pension funds. He also has central banking experience, going back to the implementation of big bang at the Discount Houses of the Bank of England, where he gained detailed experience of Gilt Market Making, the UK Treasury Bill market, the London Money Market, Certificates of Deposit, Promissary Notes, Corporate Bills and Trade Bills. Since that time his financial product experience has expanded to cover the eurobond, equities, exchange traded derivatives and OTC derivative market places. He was a founding director of the first company to stream real-time product prices over the air using GSM technologies (1997 - partnered with Bloomberg and BT) and was a founding architect of the first UK Islamic Investment Fund, the Al Safa Fund, which was launched in 1999. In the last 9 years he has focused on financial risk management as set out in the Capital Accord and the New Capital Accord frameworks, with a specialism in complex OTC derivative products.

Roy Tindle
There's Another Bus Coming Along Behind: Free-market capitalism and Climate Change

Roy Tindle is a Trustee of London 21 Sustainability Network, Chair of the London Thames Gateway Forum, founder of Faith Sustains, and a member of the Sustainable Development Research Network. Has been an industrial chemist, theology student and international banker before forgoing job security for the not-for-profit sector over two decades ago. Tindle has since worked on aspects of sustainability, community development and regeneration, establishing and running successful national campaigns during this period. Tindle returned to science seven years ago in order to concentrate on climate change and other issues of sustainability, but with a continuing interest in monetary justice. He is currently also engaged in several interfaith initiatives.

Moeen Yaseen
Introduction

Moeen Yaseen is Director of Global Vision 2000. Established in 2000, Global Vision 2000 is a private independent company based in the United Kingdom. It is a catalytic multi-level organisation committed to a holistic global Islamic renaissance and working towards the universal paradigm shift. Global Vision 2000 is an independent international Islamic thinktank and operates on a flat network centric basis. It is facilitating the evolution of global human consciousness by focusing on an universal transcendentalist Islamic vision. Global Vision 2000 as a consultancy is also engaged in business events and activities which are focused on developing and promoting the new paradigm. Global Vision 2000 has been research-focused on pan-Islamic thought, technology and modernisation within a global framework. It has been developing a, network of networks and community of collaboration comprised of the Muslim intelligentsia, business, finance and industry in association with aligned partners seeking fundamental transformation in society. Global Vision 2000 operates in a collaborative model and has formed powerful alliances and partnerships with a number of innovative organisations across the globe.

[moeen yaseen]

REBUILDING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Global Vision 2000 the independent international Islamic thinktank held a successful emergency conference on the Global Financial Crash and a sustainable future for humanity on December 13 2008 in London. It brought together leading monetary reformers, bankers, economists, academics, social change and political activists, ngos and journalists from across the UK to focus on the current crisis and chart out new directions to rebuild the system.

see http://www.globalvision2000.com/images/GV2000/gv2000conference.pdf

After the opening formalities and welcome from the host, the opening address and inspirational illumination was given by Reverend Canon Peter Challen, Chairman of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice , who gracefully began with the simplest plea: love God (the universe/nature) and love your neighbour (all people). This guiding light extends to respect for all life. So what is it that underlies so much of the friction between people, and between people and nature? Canon Challen explained that we live in a system that is unjust because it is based on exploitation. The drivers of this exploitation are in the ideologies that lie behind property and corporate law, and the exploitative root is the usurious debt-based money system , with its hidden but incessant imperative: exponential growth. Exponential growth is not part of Earth jurisprudence; it is not natural; nature is based on cyclical flows, not linear expansion. Inclusive justice requires finding common ground; our shared earth identity. We have to move from love of power to power of love; from markets to networks; from competition to collaboration. Moreover, it is important to recognise that aspects of truth come from many sources and in many terms, but as William Shakespeare reminded us ' A rose by any other name would smell as sweet' , and we must learn to discern and honour the sweet smell of inclusive justice in whatever terms it is expressed.

Moeen Yaseen the convenor and Director of Global Vision 2000 opened up proceedings by emphasising the emergency context of the conference with the implosion of the global financial system with "black swan" events and an impending 2nd Great Depression. Neoliberal free market fundamentalism and the global financial usurious capitalism is built on the sand of a gigantic Ponzi scheme and is self destructing before our eyes and is being propped up for the moment by government intervention with taxpayers money being used as bailouts of the criminals. This is a great and unique opportunity to realise the vision for every human being to be afforded dignity and respect and live according to the laws of abundance as opposed to false laws of scarcity. This necessitates the need for an alternative diagnosis and prescription of the global financial crash with radical solutions addressing causes as opposed to symptoms and moving them from the fringe to mainstream. There was a need for moving towards an Universal Paradigm shift by establishing a crisis and future proof financial architecture and system which works for all. The conference was a powerful catalyst calling for the liberation of our money, banks and economy from bankers and from debt bondage. We are at a crossroads now and we are approaching the finest or final hour of humanity.

Bringing their expert perspectives on this vision were the following speakers. Muhammad Rafeeq of Global Vision 2000 one of the world's leading banking consultants argued that the technical cause for the current global financial crisis is the New Capital Accords , not any particular financial 'product' like sub-prime CDOs or derivatives. What was known as fractional-reserve banking, which was based on cash, finished in 2000. The New Capital Accords are based on the level of deemed risk in various tiers of assets, called 'capital'. The New Capital Accords caused and allowed the explosions in financial bubbles. Now, all the big banks would be bankrupt, not just insolvent, if litigation action were taken. The problem we have to face is the widespread confusion between financial fiction and the real economy. If this confusion remains, the fictional financial mess will have damaging impacts on the real economy, and society. At present, the government can only get money through taxes on transactions in the real economy, unlike banks and finance market players, who make up numbers. But in the desperate attempt to make those numbers stand, we have seen the government intervene on an obscene scale, handing over more money than is provided for health or education. So far, about £1 trillion has been taken from the real economy to try to restore the banks' balance sheets, but the banks have to hold and keep the bail-out money in their books, they can't use it to make loans. While that £1 trillion is still counted as being in the overall money supply, it is locked-up out of circulation, so effective purchasing power in the real economy has dropped by 20-25%. The result will be goods and services not being purchased, so more job losses, and a downward spiral of slowdown/downturn, shrinkage/deflation, slump/depression.

The only solutions that will work are ones that get more money into people's pockets as directly and fairly as possible. To get this, we have to drive home to people that it's our money , not the government's – it's the goods and services we generate in the real economy which generate the values for the 'tax events' that currently underpin the entire monetary, banking and financial system. We the people prop-up the system, so we don't want to be damned for generations for our efforts. If we pay the tax, then we should call the shots, if we have a government that is truly responsible to the people. We need to redesign our monetary, banking and financial systems, not keep 200-300-year-old systems going in the 21 st century. Monetary reform makes sense on all grounds; financial, economic and ethical.

Tarek El Diwany, Zest Advisory LLP claimed from the experience of those who work in them, what actually happens in banks and financial markets is the opposite of the economic theories taught in universities and schools. This can lead one to conclude that economics, as presently taught, is a lie invented by bankers and financiers to justify their corrupt practices. We can live without usury. There are plenty of financing models that offer win-win situations, using a partnership approach. Presently these models are usually placed on the fringe by the financial establishment. The established players do understand that the bad effects are bad, but they don't see the main cause, usury, as bad. The problem is we don't have enough money, the solution under the prevailing wisdom is to have more borrowing/lending, more debt, which is what got us into this mess. The inertia to change is largely one of political will. The usury system will be attempted to be propped-up at all costs, but either we change it, or total collapse will force it to change.

Alistair McConnachie, of Prosperity UK and the Bromsgrove group reinforced the policy that a sustainable future for humanity requires the return of the money power to where it belongs, the people, through democratically-elected government. Commercial banks are presently given the privilege of the power to 'make' our money when they advance us our credit, but they also run the risk of some of that money being lost from their books due to defaults, so the practical limit to their money-making is our creditworthiness. Investment banks issue and trade in bonds and buy and sell financial 'products', and to finance this they borrow money from commercial banks, and have a special relationship with them. Deregulation pushed away barriers that had prevented commercial banks from creating money for investment banks to use for empire-building or gambling on various types of financial markets. The current global financial crisis is partly a result of schemes dreamed-up by deregulation-era whiz-kids to try to remove the risk of defaults from the books of banks by using exotic financial 'instruments' called credit risk derivatives, where the risks and profits of debts are shared with other parties, but this just spread the risk further and opened the door to ever riskier levels of exposure to defaults. Apart from the 'moral hazard' involved, the schemes didn't work. The consequence for us is the 'credit crunch'. It is clearly evident that the firewalls between commercial and investment banking functions have to be rebuilt.

Banks have found their shell-games are hollow and crumbling, and are trying to save themselves. To do this they have stopped advancing us our money as our credit, and they are hoarding as much money as they can get. This is a classic example of the misuse of the money system. The privilege of the money power given to the banking system has been used irresponsibly by a very few, and now we are all about to suffer the consequences. The banking sector is the author of its own downfall, so it is highly questionable why it should be bailed-out. In a proper money system, it shouldn't matter to us if any banks have got themselves into a difficult position, but it does matter to us at present because the banking system is currently the source of 97% of our money supply. The obvious ultimate solution is to switch from a system where the money supply is directly dependent on the banking sector to a system where the money supply is directly dependent on the good credit of society. This is the essence of the Robertson-Huber and the American Monetary Institute (AMI) reform proposals, which incorporate these main components:

· forbid banks from creating money;

· an independent public body to create all money as required;

· government spending money into society;

· banks compete to attract savings for finance.

A pragmatic interim solution could include the measures advised by notable monetary reformers to assist Malaysia to protect its economic sovereignty in the wake of the Asian currency crisis of the late 1990s:

· start using exchange controls;

· stop the deregulation process;

· stop public asset privatisation;

· stop borrowing money from overseas;

· start using debt-free sovereign government money.


The relationship between the banking and financial system and the real economy can be viewed as a horse and cart relationship. The real economy is the horse, doing all the real work, and the banking and financial system is the cart, which should follow the horse. The big problem is that at present, we have got the cart before the horse! People have to ask and must be able to answer this question: to whom does the power to create money belong? – It belongs to "we the people!"

Jamal Harwood, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain emphasised that the financial crisis is a human crisis, because people will lose their real wealth and the rich/poor divide will grow even more. To counter this, we need a financial system that is geared towards real wealth-generation and better distribution, and that ensures basic necessities are met for all. To get spending going again, we need to keep more money in circulation in order to get real wealth (goods and services) circulating, and not accumulating. There are many features of Islamic banking and finance that may facilitate this. Open trading is required and true lending of surpluses is actively incentivised, with the actual results equitably shared according to fair dealing, with clear accounting procedures, and within a corporate legal framework where there is full liability and responsibility. Usury and gambling/speculation are prohibited. In the real economy, land and resource utilisation also needs to be optimised to make the most of available productive capacity. As presently operated, free trade and free markets are myths, nothing more or less than price-fixing rackets, but tariffs and price controls are not seen as good substitutes, so let us have a real free market of open trade with clear rules, on the basis of ethical laws.

Daud Pidcock the leading British monetary refomer was delayed in coming due to the publication of his seminal book in New Delhi. He was planning to speak on the theme of his book and it's relevancy. The book's title is, " The Other Road to Serfdom. How unregulated capital caused the crash of 2008" by Arthur Swan with a foreword by David Pidcock and published by Pentagon Press in India. It covers the history of monetary failures from Plato to Nato.

The evidence presented convincingly shows that a far greater threat is posed to our freedoms by usury and unregulated unfettered capital which is not only responsible for the Crash of 2008 but has also been the cause of every recorded economic catastrophe since the Bank of England was founded in 1694. The good news is that the second Great Depression does not have to happen and is avoidable and correctable overnight. More on this later and watch this space. Likewise Robert Corfe was caught up in a nasty accident and extended his apologies and best wishes and was unable to present his thoughts on his voluminous work on Social Capitalism. Dr.Alawi and Roy Tindle were put out of action with illness.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Institute for Policy Research & Development stressed that the financial and economic crisis is a civilisational crisis and we are entering a period of transition to a post-industrial age. There are 3 aspects to this:

1. Global Warming/Climate Change; 2013 is the deadline, but the current remedies only aim to extract more from consumers (carbon taxes); it seems UK government policy is not to avoid climatic catastrophe, but to continue business as usual and adapt to changes;

2. Energy Crisis/Peak Oil (directly related to the above); world oil extraction peaked in 2006, but there will be an undulating plateau of supply responding to recovering and collapsing demand for 5-10 years before falling away by 7 % p.a.; Natural Gas extraction will peak in 2030s, Coal extraction will peak between 2050-2100, Uranium extraction will peak by 2030, Tar Sand/Oil Shale is currently pointless in terms of energy in-out;

3. Post-Industrial Civilisation; economy and nature can no longer continue to have a dysfunctional relationship, 'neo-liberal' capitalism has failed, even on its own terms; decline of progress/increase of inequality.

So-called 'neo-liberal' capitalism is inherently unstable due to the unresolved unrealistic relationships between production and consumption in the real economy and the monetary and financial system. Whilst the ' Washington Consensus' created the crisis it cannot stop it. The basic problem is that to eat, people have to work in a job because they no longer have access to land and resources to support themselves. By making unlimited growth the only answer, the problem only gets worse. By pumping more debt-money into the system, it compels more conversion of nature into products. The financial system has consolidated ownership of productive industries. We need to change to a system which results in distribution and decentralisation, otherwise any recovery will only be temporary.

Dr.Syed Mustafa Ali, Bandung2 argued that the choice we face is a sustainable future for humanity or controlled chaos. There is no point talking about sustainability without asking what is being sustained and who is it being sustained for? The system that operates in the world can be viewed as a global plantation of masters and slaves. There are three types of slaves; house, field, and yard – the yard slave is used by the masters to produce a buffer between the field and house slaves. The system of slavery is so entrenched, it is almost unnoticeable, and as such, the system requires only a little effort on the part of the masters to maintain the desired order. The culture has been made into a psychological trap; image has replaced reality, and language has been altered to suit the agenda, so that 'change' means business as usual. The big idea is to confuse and divide any opposition to the status quo. The technical cause is monetary, and the steps towards revolution and reconciliation are also necessarily monetary in nature:

1. Cancellation of debts;

2. Abolition of global debt-based money system;

3. Reparations for all victims.

Francis Mulleady from Westminster University focussed on Corporate Social Responsibility, ethical business and sustainable capitalism and felt that different ideas and idealism are useful if they can co-exist with reality and practicality.

CSR recognises that logic and ethics are common in all cultures, and goes beyond minimum legal requirements (some of which are unethical) to actively promote social mobility. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, blocks distribution of ethics that are not based on exploitation. False creation of money and values are based on short-term returns over long-term development; need to sift reality from rhetoric. Businesses have a range of stakeholders; shareholders, consumers, workers, communities, governments, other businesses, NGOs. The origins of CSR and ethics in business are in stakeholder theory, cause-related and green movements. There was also a need to avoid generalisations about democracy and capitalism.

In his closing remarks Moeen Yaseen stated that Global Vision 2000 would continue this work and collaborate with others who are serious in re-designing and rebuilding the system and would convey the proceedings to the Government as they have expressed interest in our agenda. There would also be a special satellite tv documentary produced and broadcasted round the conference and themes discussed on Islam Channel in the New Year.

seehttp://www.globalvision2000.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=391&pid=2 238#pid2238