AMERICAS GREAT SUCCESS STORIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST Today is Purim time here in Jerusalem, but what I wanted to write is not meant as a joke. It is all very real and hopeful. Because it is about American success stories in the Middle East it is not about the US government. Not about the CIA, not the IRS and not the State Department. Not about President Obama or his NSA or Obamacare. None of that. Instead it is about American successes here and with the US - Middle Eastern relationship. The good one, the one that works every day, 24 hours a day. Part of that is the Internet. It is an American network that is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Then there is Microsoft Corporation which translated its software, programming languages, and documentation into both Hebrew and Arabic long before it ever figured out a way to get its users to pay for the programs. As former Microsoft CEO put it (I paraphrase) MS Word is the most popular word processing program in Israel. Hardly anyone pays for it, but someday they will. In the meantime among pirated programs WE ARE #1! Now people all around the Middle East actually pay for the program. What Microsoft did by translating its software and programming languages and documentation was to help create an industry for writing software in the Middle East. They helped to create local employment creating solutions to local problems. Then there is Adobe Systems which had a sub-contractor in Grenoble, France that adapted first Adobe InDesign for Middle Eastern users. Then it was Acrobat, then Photoshop, then Illustrator. Finally they did their own word processor especially geared for InDesign. All of this made top flight modern publishing in Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi at a low price possible for the first time. Really, whats not to like? Then you have Cisco Systems of Silicon Valley which not only has R&D facilities in Israel, but also has gone out of its way to train Arabic speaking engineers both in Nazareth, but also in Ramallah to work on parts of the work that Israeli firms are already doing. Then there was the work done by Washington State US Senator Henry Jackson to free Jews from the Soviet Union so that they could then come to Israel. They came here in large numbers and in doing so began the slow process of changing the Middle East. These are much of the brainpower behind the Israeli high-tech miracle. I believe that this is what got Arabs all around Israel thinking in terms of starting their own companies to solve problems at home. When I came here in 1999 there were no Arab high-tech startups and now you can read about them in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Nazareth and Ramallah. The Haredim are not yet doing high-tech startups, but I have been hearing about startups geared to solving problems that they face in their own communities. Where that goes remains to be seen. Not a single failure in the bunch. The bad news you hear about in Syria is gruesome, but this is not that. This about the half of the glass that is full and wholesome. HAPPY PURIM !
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 10:10:49 +0000
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