What do you do to combat poverty?

The war on want
Nature 449, 947 (2007). doi:10.1038/449947a
Many 'developing' countries are much more developed than some people think. Their rapid progress should inspire scientists and their institutions to do more to confront global poverty

Learning organization

Why Is Nissan Mimicking MySpace?
from BusinessWeek Online -- Most Popular Stories
The Japanese carmaker is rolling out a social networking site, called N-Square, designed to bypass bureaucracy by boosting informal contacts.

Methodology - The Role of Sunnah

Examples are in the article:

Puasa tidak boleh berpisah dari dalil sunah
Oleh: DR. MOHD. ASRI ZAINUL ABIDIN

Something on Ijtihad

Menentukan pendirian umat Islam terhadap Barat
Oleh: DR. MOHD. ASRI ZAINUL ABIDIN

The Greatest Economist

Prophet Yusuf as was the greatest economist ever. This great economist was able to make correct prediction of the economy

He claimed the post of an economist for Egypt and clearly he had the knowledge of the job.

[Quran, 12:55] Yusuf said: ?Make me the treasurer of the treasures of the realm (of Egypt); I will indeed guard them carefully for I know how to manage them.?

Meaning of Independence

When we worship no other god but Allah.

Merdeka: Antara penghayatan dan acara tahunan
Oleh: DR. MOHD. ASRI ZAINUL ABIDIN

Call for Muslim economists

More empirical studies must be done to counter-argue this:

In praise of usury
from The Economist Print Edition
Ignore credit snobs. It is no sin to profit from lending to the poor
IN DANTE'S "Divine Comedy", usurers are consigned to a flaming desert of sand within the seventh circle of hell. Attitudes have since softened a bit. Microcreditors, who offer small loans to self-employed poor people, enjoy hallowed reputations. One has even ascended to the rank of a Nobel laureate. But lending to the poor is still considered distasteful whenever it is pricey, short-term and profitable. In America, for example, many activists are quick to damn "payday" lenders, who may charge high fees for offering cash advances on a worker's next pay cheque.

Why this hostility? To profit from lending to the poor, critics say, is to prey on the most vulnerable, at their most vulnerable moment. Faced with desperate customers, loan sharks can charge well over the odds, even when the risk of default is slight. The money they proffer is often squandered on spurious consumption, critics say, rather than productive investments that would help the borrower repay his debts. Easy credit thus tempts people into a damaging spiral of indebtedness. …

My book

It's a book on Islamic Personal Finance (Malay).

Check it out: Hidup Kaya Tanpa Riba

Capitalism unresolved problem

Yawning rich-poor gap could hobble economy

Ethics, accountability, responsibility and proper mechanism are in Islam.

Inspiring stories

I find the stories in this website are very inspiring.

Steroid for religious department

Religious department is less efficient compared with other government agencies. The poor management is at the expensive cost of the ummah. Why can't those who work in the religious department be more responsible and effective in delivering their services?

Kenapa kepimpinan agama kurang berjaya?
Oleh: DR. MOHD. ASRI ZAINUL ABIDIN

OIC condition of health

Very few of the organisation’s members can claim infant mortality rates of better than 10 per 1,000 live births; 11 of the countries at the bottom of the world table in this regard are OIC members.

Save the Children
IT was at Malaysia’s behest that the Organisation of the Islamic Conference added a meeting of health ministers to its annual roster of events, as a further step towards meaningful co-operation beyond the existing annual conferences of foreign, information, cultural and tourism ministers.

Inequality

An overview of inequality

The Quagmire of Inequality
Citing income increases of the most wealthy evokes images of greedy CEOs and hedge-fund managers. But the story is more
complicated.

Measuring the economy

Offshoring and phantom GDP

The Real Cost Of Offshoring
U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn't hurt the economy. Here's
why those stats are wrong - BUSINESSWEEK

More on phantom GDP

Spiritual question

How much to donate?

Turning wealth into good works
With unprecedented wealth comes the moral
question of what to do with it – and many Americans are choosing to give it to
charity.

Clean river is a public good

If we treat the environment poorly, we'll pay the costs later.

India's rivers are drowning in pollution
The Indian government has spent half-a-billion dollars trying to clean up Delhi's Yamuna River. It's only gotten worse, says Fortune's Daniel Pepper. FORTUNE

Billionaire Robin Hood

Investing... It's hard to imagine the type of 'jungle' we are in when we have a billionaire Robin Hood...

The hottest investor in America

When you believe in market and then you confuse by the outcomes

Markets Make Sense, Except When They Don't

Free market.. Yes we need to regulate it. Government intervention is crucial to ensure people are following the rules of the game properly. But wait... Not everybody is nice. There are crooks out there ready to eat people. This is where we need a good 'internal control' to regulate human behaviour. Religion therefore is important and very significant in regulating behaviors..

About economy, economics and economist

I find this article is ineresting: An Economics Laundry List

Global peace index

This is another important indicator of a country's competitiveness level internationally. Can you find the best ranked Islamic country?