It has become this year's most prestigious rich list. If your name is not on it, you are either not a billionaire or, in the financier Ted Forstmann's words, you are both a billionaire and "a jerk".
So far, 58 billionaires have signed The Giving Pledge, an initiative made public by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett this year, whereby individuals or families pledge to give at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charitable causes.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Facebook, the world's youngest billionaire, is the most recent high-profile signatory, but Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates and George Lucas are all on the list, and the AOL co-founder Steve Case and the former junk bond trader Michael Milken have also just signed up.
It is not unusual for the wealthiest Americans to commit so much to philanthropy, in a country where the prevailing view is that the job of looking after the most vulnerable in the society should not be achieved by the government levying more taxes on the rich but by the rich volunteering more cash from their own pockets. However, the scale of The Giving Pledge and the publicity that it has generated is unusual and in many quarters controversial.
What has this wave of pledging by America's super rich achieved? With 58 billionaires currently signed up, you could argue that that already represents a pretty good fund-raising drive.
But essentially, The Giving Pledge is just a high-profile statement of intent. The pledge represents a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract, and those pledging their wealth have only to say that they will commit these funds to philanthropy at some point during their lives or after they die.
Furthermore, although part of the idea is that The Giving Pledge will become a forum to exchange ideas about the best way to make philanthropy count, the emphasis is much more on who is donating than on how the cash will be disbursed.
The Giving Pledge neither pools funds nor supports particular causes. That is left to the individual, who is under no obligation to reveal what causes he or she supports.
These high-profile but vague avowals of support have generated much criticism.
Non-profit groups have expressed concern that there is no evidence that those who sign The Giving Pledge will specifically funnel cash to the most vulnerable in society - those who have been hit by cuts in government support and a decline in philanthropic giving during the recession.
Some who are part of The Giving Pledge have already made such a commitment: Mark Zuckerberg recently gave US$100 million (Dh367.3m) to the public school system of Newark, New Jersey. But overall, critics say The Giving Pledge offers no master plan, or indeed any plan, to solve society's problems.
And far-right advocacy groups are angered by what they see as an effort to press-gang the wealthy into parting with their money. The Ayn Rand Centre, a group modelled on the libertarian views of Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged, has criticized Mr Zuckerberg and the others who are part of The Giving Pledge as trying to make other business people feel guilty for trying to keep their money.
A September article in Forbesmagazine jointly written by the centre's executive director, Yaron Brook, and of its analysts, Don Watkins, argued: "The Pledge treats your wealth, not as a justly earned reward, but as a gift from society - one that came with plenty of strings attached. The message is: Fulfil the obligation that came with your riches, give your wealth away - or hide your face in shame."
Of course, if this initiative succeeds in galvanising other wealthy potential philanthropists into action, even if their motivation is the positive publicity and the opportunity to avoid looking like shame-faced jerks, many would consider that a very good thing.
But beyond this, it is almost impossible to assess what the real-world impact of The Giving Pledge will be.
business@thenational.ae
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
Available at Magrudy’s , Dh104
The Word for Woman is Wilderness
Abi Andrews, Serpent’s Tail
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Pathaan
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Manchester United's summer dealings
In
Victor Lindelof (Benfica) £30.7 million
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) £75 million
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) £40 million
Out
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Released
Wayne Rooney (Everton) Free transfer
Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad) £9.8 million
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
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MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Fixture: Liechtenstein v Italy, Tuesday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match is shown on BeIN Sports
