Assalamualaikum.
I read the following on Fobes website. Its quite interesting. (Pls note I’m not an
Ismaili but a sunni). Just wondering if the so call “true muslims” would do the same, to help others with wealth??
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 1957. Prince Karim, a 20-year-old Harvard undergraduate majoring
in Islamic history, receives word that his
grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga
Khan III, has died. Sir Sultan’s will names
young Prince Karim his successor as spiritual
head of the world’s Ismaili Shia Muslims.
Millions of Ismailis (and gossip columnists)
around the world are caught by surprise.
Not passing the title to Prince Karim’s
father, the dashing and fun-loving Aly Khan,
divorced from Hollywood’s Rita Hayworth, is
understandable. But could the shy Prince
Karim possibly lead millions of scattered
Ismailis into the new millennium?
Today the doubts have been put to rest,
and in ways few could imagine. Now 62,
Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was early to push
the idea that the dispossessed could find
hope in private economic enterprise. He
grasped that government handouts and
multilaterally funded megaprojects?like
those from the United Nations or the World
Bank?can often foster dependence in the
people they’re meant to help.
Instead, the Aga Khan has become a kind of
venture capitalist to the Third World.
Through his economic development
institutions, he is increasingly taking equity positions in small-scale commercial
enterprises?about 100 so far. His goal: to
spur sustainable economic development and
individual self-reliance at the grassroots
level in South and Central Asia and Africa.
Poor countries like Tanzania, Pakistan and
Tajikistan don’t otherwise hold much hope of
attracting high-profile foreign investors.
“The era of giveaways is gone,” the Aga
Khan declares in the course of a long
interview at his secretariat in Gouvieux,
outside Paris. “This is a time to enhance
self-reliance, for grassroots groups to
generate profits and use money for
promoting social good.”
This is sober talk from a man whose
glittering lifestyle has long been fodder for
the world’s media?his racehorses, his alpine
skiing, his yacht on the Costa Smeralda. The
media hounds especially went to town on his
divorce in 1995 from his British-born first
wife, Princess Salma, and subsequent
remarriage to close friend Gabriele zu
Leiningen, a 35-year-old German princess.
His private life, however, is considerably less colorful than this tabloid image. What turns the Aga Khan on is changing lives through entrepreneurial capitalism?adapted to the historical and cultural needs of particular Ismaili communities.
The Aga Khan Development Network focuses
largely on health care, early childhood and
female education, building business
opportunities, clean water, farming and
housing.
What turns him on is changing lives through
entrepreneurial capitalism.
This year it will disburse more than $200
million. Much of the money will go into direct equity investments, which are under the auspices of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. (The Aga Khan also makes grants to social development and cultural projects.)
Of the 100 companies the network has
financed, 95 are earning profits, the Aga
Khan says. About a dozen of these ventures
are now traded publicly on regional stock
exchanges in East and West Africa, India
and Pakistan (see table).
Example: In the former Soviet republic of
Tajikistan, where a million Ismailis are being exposed to Western ways for the first time, the Aga Khan is focusing on promoting
agriculture and agribusinesses. Scorning the
old collectivist communes and cooperatives,
he gives loans to farmers and agri-entrepreneurs. In the last three years
he has made more than 600 loans ranging
from the equivalent of $100 to $5,000?big
money in the local context. Farmers can
now take pride in owning their land and not
slaving for some faceless state bureaucracy.
Plus, a new entrepreneurial class of
shoemakers, pharmacists and shopkeepers is
springing up to cater to the more well-off
community.
Like a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, he
looks at the equity stakes as future sources
of new money that can be reinvested in the
businesses?and eventually new projects.
Another source of funding are Ismaili Shia
Muslims themselves. There are some 15
million Ismailis scattered across 25 nations,
with large communities in Bombay, Nairobi,
Dar es Salaam as well as in North America
and Europe. Imbued with deep-seated
notions of charity, Ismaili communities
regularly give a portion of their wealth to
the poor, often through their local
congregations. In one way or another, every
year many tens of millions of dollars flow
through the Imamate.
The Ismailis do not expect their Aga Khan to
live a monk’s life, nor do they begrudge him
his personal fortune. The Ismailis do,
however, expect their Imam to choose
investments wisely.
Filtisac, located in Abidjan on the Ivory
Coast, West Africa, is a good example of the
impact the Aga Khan hopes his investment
activities will have. The Aga Khan Fund for
Economic Development set up Filtisac in the
1960s to provide jute bags for Ivory Coast
exports such as cocoa and coffee. In the
last ten years, annual production of such
bags has risen from 3 million to 18 million.
The company, which employs 2,000 people
and expects revenues of $60 million this
year, has now expanded operations across
West Africa. The government divested its
24% participation in Filtisac as part of its
privatization program, and now everyday
Ivorians can buy Filtisac stock on the
Abidjan Stock Exchange.
The Aga Khan Network has financed everything from banking to tourism. Tourism is another success story for Aga Khan Network, particularly in Kenya, where the Network’s Tourism Promotion Services Ltd. is traded on the local stock exchange. Tourism has been the major generator of foreign exchange?in some cases it has overtaken the traditional
foreign exchange earners of tea and coffee.
Aga Khan-funded companies have built three
lodges in Kenyan game parks and reserves,
and hotels in Nairobi and on the Mombasa
coast. In 1997-98 the company added three
new lodges and a luxury tented camp in
Tanzania’s fabled Serengeti game reserve
and a big hotel on the island of Zanzibar.
And then there’s banking and finance.
ong-held ventures such as the Jubilee
Insurance Co. in Kenya have been
successfully replicated in neighboring
Uganda and Tanzania. Diamond Trust, a
banking company, now trades on the Nairobi
Stock Exchange.
In India, the Aga Khan Network started the
Development Cooperative Bank. It was
originally a grassroots cooperative bank for
the Ismaili community, but has gone far
beyond the roots of the community. Three
years ago, the DCB was the first
cooperative bank in India to be converted to
a private sector commercial bank, giving
shareholder status to its 55,000 customers.
You don’t have to be an Ismaili Muslim to
participate in the Aga Khan Network. You
can be a Jew in Syria, or a Hindu in Pakistan
or a Catholic in Kenya, and be very much
eligible to participate in his programs. The
Frigoken Co. offers an example. The Aga
Khan Network established it with $5 million in 1994 in Kenya?where there’s been an
Ismaili community for a century?to assist
non-Ismaili local African farmers to grow and
can beans, and export them to European
supermarket chains. Frigoken provided seeds
and fertilizers, as well as crop expertise,
that enabled the farmers to increase yields
and also cultivate crops on a year-round
basis.