Gulf Cultural Club
invites you to a discussion:
A widening chasm between the rich and the poor
Speakers* Professor Ali Allawi(Author, economist, scholar, politician)
**Iqbal Assaria(Director Afkar Group, Economist)
Time: 6.30 pm, Date: 7th July, 2026
Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, W1H 4LP
Dinner will be served at 8pmThe chasm of inequality between the rich and poor is widening in today’s troubled world. Millions of people are fleeing from poor countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Professor Ali Allawi explores the background and reasons for this dichotomy in his recent book Rich World Poor World: the struggle to escape poverty. The publication is a landmark history of the world economic order, exploring how developing countries have fought to escape impoverishment. Allawi traces the evolution of the world economic order from the late imperial era to the present day. In doing so, he argues that the current neoliberal consensus is only the most recent of a series of failed policy imperatives. Covering issues in the Global South as well as failures in the West, Allawi’s definitive account offers an impassioned and authoritative call for change.
Please register for catering purposes
email: d05sa@yahoo.co.uk or text 07795 660 438
Prof Ali Allawi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1947. He attended universities in the US and graduated from MIT (1968) and Harvard University (1971). He worked in economic development, first with the World Bank Group in Washington, and then as the managing director of an emerging markets investment bank. He was active in the opposition to the dictatorship in Iraq and subsequently served in the post 2003 Iraqi government as Minister of Trade and Minister of Finance. In 2020, he was named as the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq. He was also active academically as a writer and scholar, and was a visiting fellow at Harvard, Princeton and Oxford universities. He was a Research Professor at the National University of Singapore. He has published many award-winning books of biography, politics, economics and on Islam, all published by Yale University Press.
*M Iqbal Asaria is the director of Afkar Group. Iqbal was a member of the Third World Network. In this capacity he chaired the World Bank NGO Committee for four years. For his work in this field, he was awarded the CBE in the 2005 Queen’s Honours List for services to international development. For the last several years he has been involved in consultancy on financial product structuring and niche marketing services to faith and ethnic communities.
