Marx-capitalism

“protect the poorest of the poor, protect un-organised workers, protect womenfolk who have no income.”

The capitalist communist
from The Economist Print Edition
How a poetic Marxist has transformed business prospects in West Bengal
UNTIL a few years ago foreign capitalists were unlikely to look for investment opportunities in the Indian state of West Bengal, seat of the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist government. They were about as likely to ask for the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Bengali, the local language. That both are now readily available is largely down to one man. He is Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the state's chief minister, a poet and playwright, the translator of the great Colombian-born novelist--and a life-long communist.
Since taking charge of West Bengal in 2000, Mr Bhattacharjee has embraced business with apostate zeal. The results have been little short of revolutionary. Under a coalition of leftists led by his own Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has won seven consecutive elections, West Bengal was previously best known for industrial action, capital flight and the immiseration of its capital, Calcutta, recently renamed Kolkata. Things improved slightly in the mid-1990s, after investors were officially invited to the state. But only in recent years, after Mr Bhattacharjee began travelling the world and wooing foreign companies, have many actually come. They have joined an influx of Indian firms in computer services, manufacturing and steelmaking. Tata Motors says that next year it will start producing a new low-cost car--expected to sell for less than $3,000--at a factory it is building at Singur, near Kolkata. ...

Ethical business

Hold other things equal, what Wal-Mart has done according to this report is exemplary:

Wal-Mart's mixed 'green' bag
Results from the giant retailer's audit of its social and environmental practices show just how hard it is to grow a company and be eco-friendly at the same time, writes Fortune's Marc Gunther.

The dollar we no longer trust

What's sinking the dollar?
Fortune's Geoff Colvin takes a closer look at the greenback's spiraling decline

What's the purpose of your existence?

As far as Islam is concerned, religion is the course for man to serve his true purpose of existence. When human being declare war against Islam, it's a war against one's purpose of being. The outcome, one will be lost in ignorance.

I found this article was unintellectually written, written by a man whose vision has been blinded.

everywhere this century; it will do so least when it is separated from the state
Nov 3, 2007 (4 days ago)
The new wars of religion
from The Economist Print Edition
Faith will unsettle politics everywhere this century; it will do so least when it is separated from the state

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