I spoke with Ameen Talib in Singapore recently. Ameen is Singaporean, but also an ethnic-Hadrami. The Hadramis originate from Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and rank among the world’s great traders. I first encountered Hadrami traders in China buying goods for export to Saudi Arabia. Ameen is a fascinating individual and a major figure in Singapore’s Hadrami community. He is also responsible for the revitalization of the city’s Arab quarter having opened a number of Arabic restaurants in the Sultan Mosque area. We met at his first restaurant Café Le Caire and talked about Singapore’s Hadrami community and the importance of ethnic networks.
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Q&A: Ameen Talib on Singapore’s Hadrami community
Thai shippers and Bangladeshi crew
I was in Bangkok on Friday, speaking with the Bank of Thailand about relations between China and the Middle East. I also stopped by Precious Shipping, a large shipping company. The owner is an ethnic-Indian, but his father was born in Rangoon, before eventually migrating to Thailand where he got his start as a rice-trader. The company is now staffed by largely ethnic-Indians. It is an impressive operation and a reminder of the region’s deep commercial ties.
I was fascinated to learn that the shipping industry has laid-off a large number of Bangladeshi crew in recent years. It seems Bangladeshi nationals have had trouble obtaining United States visas since 2001.
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Islamic finance reaches China
I was recently in Malaysia and spent a valuable hour with bankers from Maybank Islamic. In the process, I learnt something about Islamic finance that has implications for the entire region.
I had assumed that the bank’s Muslim clients would be the biggest buyers of Islamic wealth products. But it turns out I was wrong. It is the bank’s ethnic-Chinese clients who are account for nearly seventy percent of sales.
How so? The bank’s Chinese clients are attracted by the straightforward design of Islamic wealth products.
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Chinese banks plant a flag in the Gulf
It’s earnings season, and the Chinese banks are reporting.
In its 1H09 release today, China Construction Bank said it plans to earn more revenues from overseas lending. By coincidence, a colleague sent me a separate report today saying much the same thing. IFR, a popular financial magazine, writes that Chinese banks have started to fund some large Gulf projects, stepping in to fill the gap left by other foreign banks. The report notes that while only four deals have been signed so far this year, their average size is large.
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Yemeni authorities take a stern view of Chinese massage parlors
You won’t find this type of trade recorded in the official statistics. Yemeni authorities have closed down Chinese massage parlors and restaurants in the country’s capital, according to this article, claiming the premises were being used to promote prostitution. In one incident, witnesses saw Chinese women being ushered out from the “Arabian Night” onto to the street, after which the doors of the building were firmly locked. The authorities say that they don’t know how the women entered the country, but that they certainly didn’t have the appropriate health or work permits.
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Syria’s Al Thawra links China’s U.S. assets to unrest in the western provinces
Syria’s Al Thawra, a state mouthpiece, has written an editorial that manages to tie the recent unrest in China’s western provinces to China’s purchases of U.S government debt. In short, it argues that the U.S. has criticized China’s policies in the western provinces while ignoring its own policies towards “Muslims all over the world”. I find the reference to China’s purchases of U.S. government debt a bit obscure, but it is used to make the point that China, as a result of the economic crisis, is already seeking to challenge “U.S. hegemony”, and that its “determination” will only increase in the face of U.S. criticism.
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Visa Problems
There are some smart people starting to wonder if the United States should be focused on Somalia rather than Afghanistan. The risks of Somalia turning into an Islamist stronghold are growing, and that’s bad news for countries hosting large Somali populations.
Last month, for instance, the Kenyan authorities arrested several Dutch-nationals of Somali origin near the Somali border. The authorities suspected the young men of trying to join extremists.
Eight of the world’s ten largest economies welcome immigrants, including Somali migrants.
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Hugh Miles and CCTV Arabic
Hugh Miles, author of “Al Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel”, had a piece in the “The National” over the weekend looking at China’s CCTV Arabic. He makes the interesting case that the channel will only advertise China’s reluctance to take a stance on key issues in the Middle East. (So far, the channel is firmly focused on China-related issues). Such a position may be increasingly unsustainable, especially if the economic benefits of engagement appear one-sided as a surge in China’s exports to the region results in further factory closures.
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