An overview of previous articles about democracy

    We talked I last 10 articles basically about one topic only, “the democracy of new century and its faces” and we tried to discuss the matter from different sides, political, religious, social, and economical.

    We mentioned the historical point about the democracy and the context which it took to be in the way we know today. Also the discussion shown some parts of its principles and main one regarding to the absolute freedom of human power with no interference from his religion and we brought some evidences besides makings questions, that background intervenes directly in every position comes in front of whether human being,  organization or government.

    The second aspect, about social life into the shade of the known democracy, displayed numerous problems inside, and how the life isn’t look the same like it appears generally, when we find out the details in depth of societies.

   The last one was talking mainly about the economic side, and this last has huge troubles and instability from the governmental procedures and regulations until reaching the simple income of family. And the world suffers from the inequality in different part of life and several degrees. Moreover the last writings gave some experiences from other places with different perspectives too. All those were only to spread this knowledge, in order to get benefits all together and exchange experiences which are efficient practically.

   This small study didn’t get a big impression and I saw that the majority of people in our world aren’t interested in those topics and issues, although it’s very important to have a glance about them, and think how the life is going in fact.  In next articles I hope that they’ll be more interesting and touch a different side too, because we always try to discuss the important matters in life for everyone.

Lending money by rates or simply the usury (part 02) : a different perspective

   When many economist admit the practical working of usury in monetary system now, and they justify that implementation by reason of the missed opportunities, today; many others are bearing the idea of cancelling the usury from all commercial contracts and lending policies, including practical Christians and Muslims who consider that as a violation of God’s legislation, in case of the big gap between the rich people who become richer, and the poor who became poorer too with time when many people can’t pay their interests regardless to the origin debt and its services which denotes a new crisis in the road. And the authorities prefer to escape forward in hoping to get results, but they don’t know how much they waste from time and from other hidden and fruitful experiences until now, or maybe deliberately isolated, but they agree also that these economic benefits of usury, “make enormous problem from ethical and philosophical aspects”.

    The Islamic banks provide several ways to invest in money avoiding the usury transactions, the first experiences in this way were unilateral tries since the forties of last century until seventies in Dubai. Then these experiences are expended in many countries when the UK integrated these transactions as a part among their financial systems to collecting more and bringing an important amount quantity from Muslim community in there.

    There are 7 or 8 faces of financial products in Islamic banking, and I’ll mention here the most important of them like:  “al-murabah” (win-win) or “al-musharakah” (contribution in the capital, and whether in benefit or losses), direct or indirect investments. Besides; some other procedures and mechanisms (which we can explain all of them in one article or two) to insure the legal transactions between people, organizations or banks.

    From their benefits on global economy, these rules decrease the inflation rates, because the money is used just in legal investments, and not to make a large expenditure without production increases the volume of cash without exchanging for foods or services. And we get a monetary inflation in fact. The Islamic perspective is based on the principle of lending money without zero interests but with a deadline of course. But in case of “procrastination” and delay in payment of debts, what should we do if someone exceeds that deadline?

Regardless to the sinfulness toward the god (the reason which push the majority of people to rushing in payment); the logical sanctions are the imprisonment, inhibition him from the licit advantages for whole people, prevention from the financial facilities in his transactions and the reputation of - person/organization/company- in business generally.

    And from practical solutions we can cite: the collaboration between banks and financial institutions against those who delayed intentionally to pay off their debts to adding them into the blacklist.  Or like it is going now by holding on some of his properties to the bank or the entering of bank by a certain portion with the debtor in his realties.

Lending money by rates or simply the usury

    I talked in two previous articles about “Ez-zakah” and I discussed the matter how to proceed the way to make an equality between people in their incomes. But the content was talking only about the cash sources to support the fund of this institution, because there are other sources are existing also to share them like we do with money and apply them too for the same purpose, like the agricultural crops yearly and livestock which are regarded as an asset too. Today we’ll turn to another topic knowing that we’re staying in the same context.

    This March, the EU bank cuts the benchmark of interest rate until 0% to stimulate economy, not only in Europe, even in US, Canada and Japan, the banks cut the interest rate to the negative rates, in order to insure some recoveries for economy and avoid the case of collapse or recessions, but the problem can be worse, in brief when the risks of inflation increase because of the big amount of money created and delivered without stock of gold or foreign currency, which leads to falls of prices then the weakening of production’s cycle, so the question is: what’s the harm on economy because of the existing of interest high or less from banks?  And why these rates of interests make negative effects on economies’ growth?

    From definition; the usury is an illegal action to lending money at high rates of interest. From the Christian perspective, clear chapters from the bible preventing the deal on usury. But the church –after many centuries- distinguished between the people in the same society about the way how to apply on them these rules of interests (the nobles were like victims who deserve to get compensations, else the money will stay between hand of church instead to direct toward poor), “that fact strengthen the financial power of church into the society.” so this practice is forbidden from all religions on account of its bad consequences on the economy, and social life in every society.

    Although the term “usury” is widely taken to mean “excessive interest” (which is never defined how many exactly) or illegal interest, now the usury is defined as a practice to lend the money with an interest.  This interest is fixed by time, and when the time isn’t enough to return (money + interest); this last will grow up more and more

    A European study about the “usury laws in EU” said it its main finding that usury ceiling had led to a high degree of exclusion from small loans for poor people in those countries and created a market of illegal lending.

    Of course, government policy for decades has been to encourage lenders to provide mortgage loans to lower-income families, “In this way, homeownership would be impossible to all but the wealthiest people they do”. That looks unjust in somehow when people can’t guarantee the basic needs for a normal life to a family (I mean to have a shelter). In the next article we’ll continue a second part to show a different perspective too going on the same way to fight the usury.

Some details about Ez-zakah mechanism

    I talked in the previous article about one important mechanism “EZ-ZAKAH” and I displayed generally how this system can affect on people’s life, like the social benefits on people, and the big results of equality in incomes even we don’t reach 100% but we can obtain better than we're in now. This system was used in past and its effectiveness has proven. But I didn’t mention how the mechanism is applied and how is the way exactly to apply that?

    To make it more obvious for people who read before, I’ll review some details:

    In first place; It isn’t easy to make rich people dispense of some of their money annually, and that calls in minds that the matter is depending on kind of attitude (conduct / manners), which work in starting from the human belief of whether charity and obligation to do. The feeling of guiltiness “in this way” is greater than when it comes “in policies’ way”. I mean the religious aspect in the human character, people can deceive rules but they can’t deceive themselves when there is a true belief inside, it’s necessary so to complete the integrity and sincerity of human being, and i talked before that we can't make a strict rules of all (social, economic and cultural sides) of society’s life without interference of manners and religions too.

    Secondly, i didn't mention the people who really deserve this money, besides to say they're 8 kinds of people, besides the strict procedures are detailed in this mechanism to function correctly and efficiently. And these people who deserve to get this amount of money, they're also needed to have some qualities (ethic), so like the first one accepts to give his money, the second also must have some characteristics. And that brings the mutual confidence and trust between all people in the same society, especially when they see the positive effects of their money appearing in the fact.

    Thirdly, I can notice some kinds who deserve to get that money, and give examples for that. The poor people (in 2 parts: who haven't the food even for one day, and who can't provide to themselves everything necessary to live (basic for life)). It’s a right for those in bondage and those in debt. For the wayfarer people who travel in everywhere for study or seeking livelihood. The people who employed to administer and gather that big money from rich people in all provinces, also they have a portion, like charitable projects,....etc and other kinds as well. The students (in different ages) also get their finance from this money. And every kind - among these 8 kinds - has a defined portion, precisely.

     It’s true that the world has a huge diversity between people, and that appears also in their experiences, and they’re amazing and successful experiences which are able to change our world is we apply them, a lot of experiences are in different nations and accumulated for several years to be fruitful. If we learn from each other and share the valuable knowledge (wherever it is), we can get many benefits and have better life in all sides mentioned above.

One from systems of fighting the infringement on rights

    There are many different ways to insure some social rights for people in the economic side, and to make the equality more efficiency between them in distribution & redistribution of wealth in way that all people of nation feel by equality and justice. I don’t mean to distribute and give to anybody a certain amount of money “NO”, but according to specified rules and for people who really deserve we can guarantee a certain positive results after a while. We always need to discover the world and learn from experiences of different nations – useful experiences – to choose the best for applying them in life as models, today I want to talk about one mechanism in the same context (redistribution of wealth) and share you the information which i know about, it isn’t just a theory but it’s existing in fact.

    “AZ-ZAKAH” it’s the first organized system in history devoted to realise this purpose, it is not just a way to make charity, but it’s an obligation on rich people to give (to acquit) 0.4% (in every year) for the poor.  This system is defined by 3 verses are revealed on Mohammed: the 1^st imposes on the government to take this ratio through an administrative organization (it looks like taxes in first time). In this fact; the rich people believe absolutely that they apply their faith well when undertaking that (dogmatic obligation), and that’s useful for their moral, for their psyches, their feeling and mood as well. Because they obey a religious order and they know properly where their money will go in the end.

    The 2^nd verse assigns precisely the kind of people in society who deserve really a proportion of this wealth (they’re mentioned in 8 different kinds from people). The 3^rd verse show us a moral (ethical) value between people that they don’t ask anyone for money in order to satisfy their needs, and they should be satisfied by the disposable resources the most possible of time.

    The purpose from this system is to guarantee social and economic rights respecting the various segments of society. Furthermore; the people who get this income -in respectful way- they don’t feel anything bad like deprivation or shortcoming. All this harmony inside the society is coming from the interference of faith in the conduct of state. Because of the ethical values derived from belief and everyone can feel the worth of his existence with no marginalization, then a lot of social diseases will disappear from the social life because of the satisfaction feeling (we find a social equilibration). This is not everything; other procedures also are applied in order to organizing more and cover every form of instability (like: preventing the usury and resisting against the monopoly, and decreasing the inflation).

    Of course we can’t please all people 100%, but you can teach them how to be pleasant and satisfied in their lives and this mechanism can play an important role instead of actual tax measures and it results will be more practical and efficacy than now. In the ruling of Omar ibn Abdul-Aziz; the nation reached a perfect application for these rules into society on a very big area in that age, but sadly these amazing solutions aren’t applied in their home countries today because all legislations and laws are inherited from the colonial institutions of the 20th century.

    I’m sure that there are many creative solutions in our world, to save resources, time, and more positive effects, besides to avoid complexities, and only we don’t know or never heard about them until now, but they deserve to consider them, get lessons and look toward the best world.

The income inequality and its effects

    Statistics: The richest 1 percent of the world's population has access to nearly 14 percent of global income, while 20 percent of the poorest people are getting on the 1 percent only.

   The main economic challenge in our century is to decrease the immense gap in the incomes between people in the same country, and insure the most possible of transparency in the redistribution of wealth. All the disposable ways and procedures for achieving that goal are working within partial efficiency, which means that the inequality of income is a big problem in every country not only in the economic aspect; but also social and ethical sides in society as well. In many economies, the fiscal policy is used to maintain the financial system for supporting the economic efficiency (e.g: to reduce the tax evasion or cutting unproductive expenditures), then to spend these revenues more equitably.

   “Many policy makers view a more equal income distribution as a desirable goal, although the underlying motivations may differ. Lower income inequality is often viewed as important for achieving greater equality of opportunities to access economic, social, and political resources.”

   A lot of economists say that this inequality is useful for the economic growth, but today they believe by the contrast of that. Because of many social and ethical advantages coming by reducing the inequality affect positively on the economy. And the most used measure (to show what happen in fiscal policy and to measure its trend in every country) is GINI coefficient (from 0 “absolute equality” to 1 “complete inequality”). “The failure to redistribute income may also reflect a political reality, but it can be limited through more of conscious government policies.”

   Disposable Solutions: Fiscal policy has played a significant role in reducing income inequality in advanced economies, especially in economies with high initial pre-tax and transfer inequality.

   The government’s fiscal policies were a logical reaction to reduce the income inequality over time, especially in the advanced economies through direct taxes (like the income taxes) and indirect (like the expenditure on the education and healthcare or public pensions) to reach a positive points in contributing of growth of economy. And the studies viewed that many countries achieved a substantive progress in decreasing the inequality, but these policies weren’t efficient enough in longer-term.

   “Some economists said that the pursuing the equality can reduce the efficiency and the incentive to work and incest.” Furthermore; “the poor will not receive all the money that is taken from the rich.”

    I copy the same example I found in interesting article about this matter, when the tide is rising, it lifts all boats and helps whether the big and small boats in the port. Where the focusing is only on the small boats can lead to indirect help for all equally. In other way; the government subsidy (financial support) must be oriented to serve the fragile classes in society by projection on them in assigned methods guarantee the proper channel until the targeted people.

   “Still, there may be some win-win policies, such as better-targeted subsidies, better access to education for the poor that improves equality of economic opportunity, and active labour market measures that promote employment.”

Other victims in the societies (part 02)

   Another face to the same situation: (the details of laws in several articles in order to organize well the relationships, the labour market, families, upbringing and care of children), this large quantity or different articles make the social life more difficult because of immobility in these laws. When these articles are detailed to provide more protection and care for different categories in society. But the fact is looking a little different, when these laws bring some risks on family ties and probably to destroy its relations because of no flexibility in the laws and all articles are written by some bare minds from any emotional senses or humanitarian aspects, it’s an abstract law and not enough to cover all society’s sides and circumstances.

   Sometimes I think that we can make robots to manage issues and to announce provisions, without any need to human in these judgments. To tell the truth; the human legislations can’t never cover all matters occur in the society; therefore we need always a proportion of moralities and interference of the human aspect to complete the shortage of the abstract laws.

   Honestly the world today creates many fears. I saw many families can’t live together because of illogical reasons because the law imposes on the family members to live separately when the parents can’t provide the suitable care for children, therefore the government takes them to orphanage, or the separation between couples from different nationalities in reason that they don’t demonstrate substantial evidences for their living together under the same roof. A lot of issues are so clear to make decisions about them, but the details in laws through some articles hamper to go directly to this decisions and the problem  expands more and more.

   It hurts me a lot when I see some families can’t live a normal life like every family, when the laws make the life difficult to some people because the missed link in the matter is the emotional part and our laws are empty from every sense of humanity. And for example, instead to help the low-incomes’ families by governmental programs, they demonstrate their no-ability and spend more expenditures on making solutions for these demonstrations.

What we should do in that situation now?

   I know that the laws are unjust sometimes for some people because they aren’t enough to treat certain issues. But when you can’t get what you want like I said the first example above; why do you think its failure? Maybe only because the results can't come quickly, they need a little time more to come, you should be patient in your steps, to don't give up, and this is an important factor to continue the life normally. And the livelihoods’ ways are available constantly to everyone, only the necessary conditions didn’t gathered yet together, soon that’ll be changed and that’ll be your chance. In other words; never lose your hope about circumstances better for you than you are now.

    I appreciate very much the associative activities from several associations to help these people to fulfilment their goals in life and realize what’s necessary for them to continue a normal life, also the local agencies which provide some services to integrate people in context of certified lifestyle with some innovative solutions to avoid many social problems and conflicts, these activities can allowing to governments to look back in previous steps and correct some rules to reform better the society and give certain rights for a normal life to a wide segment in society.