Commercial Intelligence – Page 120 – Public Intelligence Blog

Huh?

Islamic Banks, Stuffed With Cash, Explore Partnerships in West

A noted Muslim law scholar, Yusuf DeLorenzo, recently pored through the books of Continental Rail, a business that runs freight trains up and down the East Coast.

Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, a Shariah scholar, at his home office in Ashburn, Va., in 2005. — Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, a Shariah scholar, in Ashburn, Va., in 2005.

Along with examining the company’s financial health, Mr. DeLorenzo sought to make sure that the rail cars didn’t transport pork, tobacco or alcohol. He was brought in by American investment bankers who want to take rail cars bought by Continental Rail and package their leases into a security. The investment is being built for banks that are run according to Islamic law, which, among other things, prohibits investments in those three commodities. If the cars are acceptable, or halal, the deal will be one of the first in the United States to be completed in compliance with Islamic law.

“It’s a new territory for all of us,” said John H. Marino Jr., chief executive of Continental Rail.

Read full article.

2013/12/252013/12/25

Inside the Zeitgeist Revolution | Exclusive Interview with Peter Joseph

Wikipedia / Peter Joseph

2013/12/252013/12/25

4th Media: African Development versus Debt, Rule of Law versus Western Subversion

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Unity and Economic Development Essential for Genuine Progress in Africa

“Africa in Review 2013, Part II: Unity and Economic Development Essential for Genuine Progress”

From Malawi to Niger imperialist states continue to hamper sovereignty and peace

President Joyce Banda of the Southern African state of Malawi is currently facing a crisis quite similar to her predecessor, the late Bingu wa Mutharikia, in that western capitalist governments are consistently attempting to influence the policies of African countries. Under President Mutharika the so-called donor states withheld assistance to his government resulting in hyperinflation, food shortages and political unrest.

Continue reading “4th Media: African Development versus Debt, Rule of Law versus Western Subversion”

2013/12/242013/12/24

Jean Lievens: R. C. Smith Alternative Philosophy of Social Change – On the Basic Income Law, Economic Democracy, Participatory Economics, and the Importance of the Commons in the 21st Century

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

On the Basic Income Law, Economic Democracy, Participatory Economics, and the Importance of the Commons in the 21st Century

R. D. Smith

Introduction

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the privilege of engaging with a number of people both in formal discussions and on Heathwood’s comment boards regarding a range of issues. These issues span from the structural problems of capitalism and the idea of the basic income law through to an alternative philosophy of social change, the questionable meaning of ‘social progress’, and potential social-economic alternatives. The following article, which I’ve broken down into a few different sections, carries forward these discussions in light of arguments made in: Gunn & Wilding, ‘Occupy as Mutual Recognition’, ‘Revolutionary or Less-Than-Revolutionary Recognition’; Gunn, Wilding & Smith, ‘Alternative horizons – understanding Occupy’s politics’; Michael Ott, ‘Something’s Missing: A Study of the Dialectic of Utopia in the theories of Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Bloch’; as well as R.C. Smith, ‘A series of essays on an alternative philosophy of social change’, ‘In defense of Occupy’s politics’, ‘Russell Brand, the question of revolution and why we need more than an abstract, grand narrative of social change‘.

I. One of the most fundamental philosophical problems of the 21^st Century

II. Economic Democracy and Participatory Economics: Complimentary systems in the transitory, historical process of societal change?

IIII. The basic income law

III. Economic Democracy and Participatory

IIII. Economics: A question of implementation

V. ‘Social progress’ is not limited to the horizon of capitalism

Read full essay online.

PDF (17 Pages): RC Smith Alternative Philosophy of Social Change – On the Basic Income Law, Economic Democracy, Participatory Economics, and the Importance of the Commons in the 21st Century

2013/12/24

Rickard Falkvinge: Copyright Infringement is Not Theft

Commercial Intelligence

Reminder 1: Copyright Monopoly Infringement Isn’t Stealing (Says The US Supreme Court)

Copyright Monopoly: Over the Yule holidays, I’ll be running a series of reminders of some of the most useful talkbacks. We open with one of the more common ones: copyright industry lawyers tend to insist that violation of the copyright monopoly is “stealing”. But in the judicial field, lawyers always go by what the courts say, and the US Supreme Court says it isn’t.

Continue reading “Rickard Falkvinge: Copyright Infringement is Not Theft”

2013/12/242013/12/24

SchwartzReport: Truths That Matter

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

There are, I believe, corporations that are functionally evil. BP is one of them, as is Chevron. Here is further evidence in support of my hypothesis.

BP, Chevron Accused of Illegally Dumping Toxic Radioactive Drilling Waste Into Louisiana Water
EMILY ATKIN – Reader Supported News/Think Progress

The American Gulag is a national shame. When I was growing up we used to judge the Soviet Union as evil in part because of its gulag. Ours is bigger, more pervasive and worse. Here is the latest on this trend. And once again, of course, it is all about placing profit first above humanity. It is America's besetting sin.

Food Behind Bars Isn’t Fit for Your Dog
CHRIS HEDGES – Truthdig

Another chapter of our past opens. It is fascinating to me that virtually everything I learned at school and university about early man has subsequently been overturned, and shown to be wrong. I consider this to be a good thing, and another example of why science and facts are important.

Neanderthals Used To Speak Like Modern Humans, Study Suggests
KAMAL NAYAN – Counsel and Heal

This is a very interesting development in science but, I fear, not good news because it may slow the transition out of carbon energy which is essential if we are to deal with climate change.

Scientists Cut Million-year Natural Process to Convert Algae Into Crude Oil to About an Hour
TRAVIS GETTYS – The Raw Story

The evidence of what climate change is going to do to the people and other beings of the Earth continues to build up. And the story just gets worse and worse. Here is the latest scientific report.

‘Whole World' at Risk From Simultaneous Droughts, Famines, Epidemics: Scientists
NAFEEZ AHMED, PHD, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development – The Guardian (U.K.)

2013/12/232014/07/01