“We The People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
How peculiar that this article should start with the beginning of the US Constitution; indeed, the perennial words of the preamble evoke the universal desideratum of unity between people in a simple and evocative manner. Emboldened, We The People, signals to all readers that the newly formed state is a united state, where people assist each other in the peace and sustenance of the community. The full constitution, by its nature, pronounced the highest ideal of democracy: government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Of course, the candyfloss, saccharine, love thy neighbour, unity that we all desire, and that is evoked by the constitution is rarely, if ever, manifested in the world. Even the USA is fettered by its own internal conflicts, whether on the highest level of government, or amongst citizens living within the country. So we need the rule of law to order individuals, restraining their dissolute tendencies. It is there to work for the community and against the corrupt.
Utopia is a distant hope particularly as humans have different needs and different ways of executing their needs. However, if there is one thing that unites all individuals is a desire to survive. Survival is a goal for all: it is primordial. Every single person lives with a fear of their own mortality – some more than others – and they forage for a way to live.
So we work. This is the primary reason for our ponderous trudging into offices every day. Once we have secured a sufficient level of income to survive, our next goal is to embellish our lives, to enjoy the finer aspects of life: the Iphones and the BMWs, trips to the Bahamas, and tasting the finer cuisines at exclusive restaurants. Perhaps we will have extra money to save for a rainy day, or to invest to generate more income to enjoy life’s offerings.
From survival to embellishment, the life of the worker can be quite insular. Often times the worker has little regard to the product or service that results from his efforts except for the money that it generates. Achievement is measured by purchase, and also, in the economic transaction the transferral of goods represents something more than just a transferral of money.
In fact, one can look at a price and view it as portions channelled to other individuals. One buys bread from the bakery, part of the price goes to each person working in shop, part of the price goes to the individual that sold the shop wheat, to the individual who works at a factory that sold the bakery the counter from which to serve, and so on and so forth. In the simple act of purchasing bread, money is being funnelled to the livelihoods of countless others.
And while we are not aware of this network, we are certainly contributors to a collaborative economy, each contributing to the other simply through the payment of the price of a good. But it is not enough to simply pay for goods that help people. Companies produce goods that we purchase, and they need investment to come to fruition. They need investment to bring in the labour and capital to produce the goods that will mutually benefit the customer and lives of the individuals working for the production of the good. It is in investment that this can be made possible, which has the added benefit of developing innovations and allowing man to progress.
The power of an idea
By no means is the world utopian, free from pain and destruction. It is in a state of perpetual conflict, if not with nature then with inhabitants hell-bent on exterminating the other. These are the extremes. In more calmer times, there are worries about health or boredom, and so we need means of mitigating these negative aspects of life. There are always gaps in the market that need filling, most of these gaps are not known. Perceptive individuals recognise these gaps and seek ways of filling them. For example, today the mobile phone is ubiquitous, but do we honestly need them to survive? The answer is no, yet look at how it has improved our lives in terms of communicating with loved ones spread out across the world. The first phone connected Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant in the next room. Now communication can occur instantly across distant spaces.
What Bell had was an idea and an inventive mind; it is what Bill Gates has, it is what Tim Berners-Lee has, it is what Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir had, it is what Leonardo Da Vinci had, it is what Abbas ibn Firmas had. Each one of these individuals contributed to the way we live and work in the world by their thinking. But it is not enough for a person to have an idea, and the ability to invent; he also needs the necessary investment to ensure their idea becomes a reality.
The power of this triumvirate – idea, ability and investment – can be seen behind the creation of any invention or innovation throughout history. A stark example is that of electricity to produce light. Thomas Edison’s long-lasting light bulb running off alternating current was used to power the lights in homes in New York; his company was heavily invested into by JP Morgan and the affluent Vanderbilt family. Without their investment, the proliferation of electric light would have probably remained an idea, to be exploited by someone else with money.
Today, electricity is seen as a necessity. If there is a blackout, there is usually an uproar and opprobrium against the electrical company or government. 100 years ago it was a luxury. This is the power of invention, to take what was absent and make it prevalent. All an idea needs is a little bit of investment, and its flowers will take care of itself.
Manifesto for change
The triumvirate changes the world; unfortunately, it is an equation that the Islamic finance industry has failed to take heed of. Instead there has been a focus on the needs of the retail or institutional customer, incentivising income generation not wealth creation. Wealth creation is facilitating the creation of assets from which its benefits can be appropriated. For some reason, the asset of choice appears to be real estate. The industry has an inordinate focus on investing in real estate whether in UK, Paris, or Dubai and profiting from the rent.
This is sensible but embarrassing. The industry speaks of benefiting the community, helping the community, equity, poverty alleviation; yet it is not willing to take the risk required to truly benefit communities for the long term. Without taking this risk, Islamic finance will remain in the domain of the affluent. There needs to be a paradigm shift, a change of thinking, a focus on building entrepreneurs and investing in ideas that have the potential to change the way humanity lives. It should not be about a certain group of people, it should be about all people.
Investing in ideas means developing products; developed products are then purchased, and there is a flow of income affecting the lives of millions. A true collaborative economy arises when the investor, the idea, the product, the labourer and the consumer are united.
Ideas
Think of the potential of some of these ideas. Imagine investing in them. Envision the potential
Can we smell diseases? There is a growing body of research that show diseases leave a “smell print” that can be traced. If harnessed, there is potential to remove the more invasive methods of treatment for certain diseases such as colon cancer, or catch a disease early before spread resulting in terminus to the individual. A number of organisations have been set up, oftentimes in partnership with leading research universities. The eNose Company has developed the AeonoseTM, an electronic, prefabricated diagnostic that functions like a nose. It picks up chemical from the breath of a user and identifies any abnormal chemicals. These abnormal chemicals cause changes in electric conductivity that can be measured. Building up patterns can identify certain diseases.
Idea
In our metabolic system, waste products are flushed out through breath, blood, urine and skin. Chemicals released can indicate the type of disease and utilising sensors and computer analytic properties, it is hoped that we will be able diagnose certain diseases early including forms of cancer.
Potential
There will never be a cure for death. On the other hand, the way we die, and when, can to some extent be controlled. Cancer has been a particularly aggressive and pernicious disease; if not caught early it can lead to an insufferable life regardless as to leads to death or not. Detecting smells marks a way forward and can affect the lives of billions.
The importance of clean water. As any person who is from or has visited a developing country, water sanitation is a huge problem. According to the United Nations that one in six people have inadequate access to safe drinking water. This results in an array of diseases, more or less absent from more developed countries. Technology that helps purify water will assist in freeing poor families the worry of drinking contaminated water Alfredo Zolezzi is the founder and the Chief Innovator Officer of the Chile-based Advanced Innovation Centre. Zolezzi, his team and outside partners have been working on developing a water purification system that can be produced at low cost. The fruit of their efforts is the Water Plasma Purifier. The system converts contaminated water into matter similar to gas, known as plasma. In this state, it kills 100 percent of bacteria and microbes it carried. According to Zolezzi, the system can 35 litres of water in 5 minutes using the same amount of energy as it takes to power a light bulb. He is looking to mass-produce the purifier to be sold at an affordable cost.
Idea
Removing contaminants from water supply is practiced by the utilisation of high-capital salianation plants. This is not feasible in poorer countries, shackled by lack of funds. Reducing the costs of water purification will help poor communities to have access to purer water and avoid contracting water-based diseases.
Potential
According to the World Health Organization, more than 11% of the world’s population do not have access to safe water. Globally, diarrhoea is the leading cause of illness and death, and 88% of these deaths are caused by a lack of access to safe, sanitary water, one of the primary needs of human beings. The potential is huge.
A Return to the beginning
These were only a couple of ideas, served to only whet the appetite. Perhaps these products will not be successful, but they show the power of innovative thinking. Google Inc has been particularly ambitious in fostering, curating, developing and deploying products that have stretched the imagination. In essence, they have hoarded a bunch of intelligent engineers, gave them a blank cheque and encouraged them to think outside the box. Now we have Google Glasses and driverless cars. We do not know how successful they will be, but the blank canvass, the think and create ideology, the spot a gap and fill it approach brings a whole new meaning to the idea of progress. Singularity University, an unaccredited university based in Silicon Valley, is highly ambitious, a well-funded institution committed, in its words, to “address humanity’s grand challenges”. It brings together scientists, engineers, funders, innovators, social workers, etc, together under the umbrella of Think Change, Bring Change. Its remit is broad from trying to find the cure to cancer, to exploring space through the creation of groundbreaking technologies. Recently, it announced a $50 million venture capital fund to invest in building ideas into tangible products. The university is connecting money with ideas.
This is what Islamic finance needs to do, and needs to do soon. It has to go back to its roots of profit and loss sharing. This is not only monetary. It means really sharing in the ideas of the creator, investing into the ideas that can truly benefit humanity. People are far too concerned with how loss means loss of money, and profit is about gaining money. Rather it should be about profiting from what a product can do for people. This is what We The People is about. It is about help, not competition, universal progress and not individualism. We need to return to the beginning. It just makes sense to do so.
