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.

Canon Peter Challen

The Fierce Urgency of Now

Canon Peter Challen, MA, FRSA, Anglican, formerly Senior Chaplain of the ecumenical South London Industrial Mission (SLIM) for 29 years, Free Citizen of the Borough of Southwark 1996, Sloan Fellow of the London Business School, Fellow of the RSA and member of the Living Systems Work Gp. Currently Chairs the Christian Council for Monetary Justice which seeks the restoration of the creation of money to democratic accountability, such credit being lent interest- free into the economy, not issued as interest-bearing debt. He is co-author of Seven Steps to Justice. Challen co-founded and chaired the Southwark Credit Union Development Association and Southwark Heritage Association, and is a Trustee of the South East London Community Foundation and of Training for Life, specialising in opportunities for Care Leavers and Lone Parents. He works with the LETSlink London group to find synergy between Credit Unions, Time Hours, International Barter and Local Exchange Trading Systems..

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. He is also the author of many other socio-economic books which may be browsed directly from his publisher's website on  http://www.arenabooks.co.uk/

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. He can be contacted by e-mail on  tarek@zestadvisory.com.

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

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.