35 years ago we witnessed the Iran Hostage crisis. Israel was at war with all of its neighbors in the region and fundamentalist revolutions were rampant.For many of us, our images of and attitude towards the Middle East, were frozen in place at that moment in time. The events of 9/11 and the wars that followed, further hardened those preconceived views.
But since 1978 a whole new generation has grown up in the region. Tahrir square was merely the most outward personification of that. These young people want to solve problems, they want technology and they want a better life. And like the forward march of creative destruction everywhere on the planet, the Middle East is no exception.
The world of startups and brain power in the Middle East is not limited to Israel. In fact, the whole of the Middle East has the potential to be as powerful a force as Silicon Valley. So says venture capitalist and entrepreneur Christopher Schroeder in Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East
.My conversation with Chris Schroeder:
