Carnegie’s role in facilitating targeted propaganda to distract the global community from domestic racism and corruption
Those who follow me on social media or have read my blogs know that I have always supported the pursuit of accountability from businesses, institutions and bad actors alike, while calling for the spotlight of transparency to shine on unchecked malevolence.
As one of the few who publicly called for the acknowledgment of Leopold II’s atrocities in the Congo Free State, long before it became a popular opinion I believe it is only a matter of time before greater public awareness turns towards those who continue to push their self-serving narratives without consequence and often with clear biases and inaccuracies.
In a recent 148-page report published by the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, titled, ‘Dubai’s Role in Facilitating Corruption and Global Illicit Financial Flows’, the second sentence of the summary states, “While the vast majority of financial, business, and real estate transactions in Dubai are not associated with illegal activity, part of what underpins Dubai’s prosperity is a steady stream of illicit proceeds borne from corruption and crime.”
Given you could replace the word ‘Dubai’ with almost any global city in the same sentence and it would be just as plausible, it is no wonder more and more people are questioning the justification for publishing such a specific report, about such a specific city.
It is worth mentioning the last time, ‘corruption’ was used in a Carnegie Endowment report title was in 2017 when it targeted the country of Honduras, in spite of the fact that in the same year there were 45 countries deemed, ‘more corrupt’ by the Corruptions Perceptions Index (CPI), an independent barometer that leverages datasets from 13 different sources, including institutions such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. One could argue that as the UAE currently outranks the United States in the most recent CPI, Carnegie might find more merit in addressing issues closer to home, before investing so much time and effort into making unfounded allegations against an ally halfway around the world. I understand detractors are to be expected in the wake of success, but given Carnegie Endowment’s trustees include senior figures from institutions such as Citibank, the recipient of the largest fine ever issued by the Bank of England for submitting incomplete and inaccurate regulatory information between 2014 – 2018, Bank of America, which leads the list of the most fines accrued since the financial crisis with $76 billion or the slightly awkward coincidence that includes a representative of DMCC’s allotted PR agency, Brunswick, it becomes harder to take the report seriously and mostly serves as a question mark as to the motivation of producing it in the first place.
It is made all the stranger by the fact that the Carnegie Endowment’s Chairperson is Penny Pritzker; a sincere and vocal advocate for domestic reforms that aim to proactively help tens of millions of Americans in the prevailing climate.
The bottom line is, unlike Ms. Pritzker’s altruistic efforts, reports such as their most recent one are not designed to provide strategic insight, innovative ideas, or advance international peace as they so claim, but instead, protect private interests or push agendas set by the financiers that fund them. I don’t believe any institution or country is perfect, and it is for this reason that I am losing patience with those who spend their time utilising budgets which could be better spent on actual positive causes, as opposed to writing extensive reports, which don’t serve any functional purpose.
Fortunately, in reality, Dubai has a strong working relationship with credible, U.S-based institutions, businesses and representative offices such as the FBI, CME Group and esteemed members of the U.S Embassy and Consulate that don’t attempt to smear its reputation or peddle speculative reports but instead work in partnership to overcome the challenges we face as a global community, while evaluating new ways in which to cooperate and achieve our common goals.
Recent examples include the approval of Al Etihad Gold Refinery DMCC by the CME for good delivery against COMEX Gold (GC) contracts, or the capture of serial fraudster Ramon Abbas (aka Hushpuppi), and his 11 gang members for money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, bank fraud and identity theft, whose arrest and extradition was made possible through cooperation between Dubai Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; who have since publicly shared their thanks.
While it is all too easy to highlight the flaws of any country; people and organisations that sincerely want improvement or make positive change reach out to talk and cooperate, not spread conjecture. When you understand this, it becomes clear why we all, as a global society need to scrutinise organisations that masquerade as credible or noble, while behaving in a way which is blatantly contrary to their publicised mission.
The good news is that in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the formal prosecution of Harvey Weinstein, through to the unravelling of Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid legacy and the Fox News scandal, awareness surrounding ‘abuse of power’, is no longer a matter to be swept under the rug, but a social cancer that is finally getting the treatment it so richly deserves.