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Mentor startups in Gaza

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Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#21

Post by pvaldes »

Sorry if I'm being rude, but this sounds like a really bad joke.

"This building is the new place for your new startup, the burocracy is atrocious and humiliating; not people neither prime matters can enter or go out freely from here, and the entire place is systematically ravaged and firebombed each two or three years killing your workers, otherwise is fine."

"Last year this nice new zone is flattened and 'cleaned' of people... 1000 or maybe 2000 people were killed, I don't remember... and now we want you (again) to give us your money and effort to clean our mess. We need reclaim the area rebuilding this new free space ASAP to secure the place. Thanks"

Just being as cold blooded and logic as I can... Can someone provide a reason to invest in such unstable place? Will you advise someone to create his/her new startup in a warzone? Why?

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#22

Post by kissickas »

golergka wrote: post #8
plug wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your desire to participate is commendable. I don't know anything about the safety risks of collaboration to Gazans, it's very sad situation and I appreciate that it's very complex and possibly dangerous. I'd certainly be interested to learn more. Otherwise, I'd imagine (possibly naively) that remote mentoring would be something good. If it were possible for you to participate - would you risk repercussions fo…

> would you risk repercussions for collaborating from other Israelis? What? I think that most of the Israelis, including the extreme right, would agree with me and help me, given the opportunity. We hate the terrorists who have power in Gaza and keep the people as hostages and human shields, but we want to help the people themselves, if anything.

Isn't it illegal for Israeli citizens to enter the West Bank? [0] Would the same rules not apply for Gaza?

[0] These signs are quite famous, but I know the rules on them are not always enforced - however I still assume they are being honest http://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Isra...

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#23

Post by pain »

golergka wrote: post #4
trhway wrote: post #2

i wonder whether there are student exchange or similar programs between Israel and Gaza. Specifically in this case - my understanding that Israel has pretty booming tech scene and one would expect that sharing the experience with Gazans would be a win/win for both sides.

As a developer from Israel, I'd like to participate in something like this — but I don't think that there's any opportunity for me to do this. From what I understand, even if someone tried to do something like that on the other side, they'd risk execution for "collaboration" if they did this.

I feel the fear of association to person-to-person humanitarian aid[1] is why we need to use community moderated, distributed, and anonymous tools[2] to monetize empathy.

We need to fund research, expression, and development without simply monetizing and recreating social contract barriers to entry as social media barriers.

To solve the pervasive language of hidden trauma[3] problems — so empathy is empowered over identity issues — we need less closed forms and more open fields. Taboo of sharing itself, is deeper than the digital divide.

[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-isnt-person-to-person-humanitarian...

[2] http://www.getaether.net

[3] http://www.amazon.com/The-Unsayable-Hidden-Language-Trauma/d...

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#24

Post by wazoox »

pvaldes wrote: post #21

Sorry if I'm being rude, but this sounds like a really bad joke. "This building is the new place for your new startup, the burocracy is atrocious and humiliating; not people neither prime matters can enter or go out freely from here, and the entire place is systematically ravaged and firebombed each two or three years killing your workers, otherwise is fine." "Last year this nice new zone is flattened and 'cleaned' o…

To support people of Gaza through something really helpful and not politically laden, I'd guess.

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#25

Post by golergka »

kissickas wrote: post #22
golergka wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would you risk repercussions for collaborating from other Israelis? What? I think that most of the Israelis, including the extreme right, would agree with me and help me, given the opportunity. We hate the terrorists who have power in Gaza and keep the people as hostages and human shields, but we want to help the people themselves, if anything.

Isn't it illegal for Israeli citizens to enter the West Bank? [0] Would the same rules not apply for Gaza? [0] These signs are quite famous, but I know the rules on them are not always enforced - however I still assume they are being honest http://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Isra...

It is illegal, but the sole reason is the risk for israelis. In 2000 or 2001 (I don't remember exactly) two soldiers took a wrong turn and got into a palestinian village by mistake; they were literally torn to pieces by an angry mob. If the risk would be gone, these rules would be gone too.

Still, I have a couple of friends who travelled to the territories illegally, with help from their local friends — just for sightseeing. Personally, I think that they were being reckless and stupid, but it's certainly not unheard of.

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#26

Post by pliny »

kissickas wrote: post #22
golergka wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> would you risk repercussions for collaborating from other Israelis? What? I think that most of the Israelis, including the extreme right, would agree with me and help me, given the opportunity. We hate the terrorists who have power in Gaza and keep the people as hostages and human shields, but we want to help the people themselves, if anything.

Isn't it illegal for Israeli citizens to enter the West Bank? [0] Would the same rules not apply for Gaza? [0] These signs are quite famous, but I know the rules on them are not always enforced - however I still assume they are being honest http://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Isra...

It's illegal for Israeli citizens to enter zone A of the West Bank, which is a set of noncontiguous land masses within the West Bank.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank_Areas_in_the_Oslo_II_...

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#27

Post by DanielBMarkham »

pain wrote: post #23
golergka wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer from Israel, I'd like to participate in something like this — but I don't think that there's any opportunity for me to do this. From what I understand, even if someone tried to do something like that on the other side, they'd risk execution for "collaboration" if they did this.

I feel the fear of association to person-to-person humanitarian aid[1] is why we need to use community moderated, distributed, and anonymous tools[2] to monetize empathy. We need to fund research, expression, and development without simply monetizing and recreating social contract barriers to entry as social media barriers. To solve the pervasive language of hidden trauma[3] problems — so empathy is empowered over id…

Meta: I understood this, but dang, this comment was thick with obfuscation. Somebody told me once that many times you can tell the contentiousness of an issue by noting the impenetrability of the verbiage used to converse about it.

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#28

Post by pain »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #27
pain wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the fear of association to person-to-person humanitarian aid[1] is why we need to use community moderated, distributed, and anonymous tools[2] to monetize empathy. We need to fund research, expression, and development without simply monetizing and recreating social contract barriers to entry as social media barriers. To solve the pervasive language of hidden trauma[3] problems — so empathy is empowered over id…

Meta: I understood this, but dang, this comment was thick with obfuscation. Somebody told me once that many times you can tell the contentiousness of an issue by noting the impenetrability of the verbiage used to converse about it.

Cryptology and psychology are related.

Equally cryptogrammar and cryptoempathy.

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#29

Post by 616c »

pvaldes wrote: post #21

Sorry if I'm being rude, but this sounds like a really bad joke. "This building is the new place for your new startup, the burocracy is atrocious and humiliating; not people neither prime matters can enter or go out freely from here, and the entire place is systematically ravaged and firebombed each two or three years killing your workers, otherwise is fine." "Last year this nice new zone is flattened and 'cleaned' o…

I could respond with snark and derision, but the short answer I will give is: you wanna help Gazans, and maybe help those who help Gazans. Socio-political or ethical network effect, if you will.

I know many Palestinians where I live and work. Many of them, even in their place of residence, are politically hampered into living in a country in the Arab world but not free to travel because they are devoid of political rights. If not because of their country of residents, the issuing body of their travel papers or passports, for many this is Egypt, was so destabilized until now Egyptian authorities would reply officially or otherwise to Palestinians for basic requests like passport renewal: go away, we're busy. And that went on for years.

I know of one person I work with who has a family in Gaza. Her family runs car shops and make decent money where I live. They have had their family's buildings knocked down twice in Israeli military ops in the last five years. They go back and rebuild every time. If we praise SV people for handling "tough problems", how is this not indicative of real entrepreneurship and determination to potentially solve other tough problems in ways we have not conceived? Lots of Africa is now doing WAPI and SMS entrepreneurship in light of limited network infrastructure and proving an interesting counterpoint to our mobile broadband-enabled view of digital startups. Shall we dismiss them because they have situations not much better or worse than Gazans in some of those cases?

Plus, the Palestinan expat community is wide and diverse, in the US, Europe, the Persian Gulf, Africa, and Asia. Misplaced or not, many non-Palestinian Arab communities would buy or donate to any Palestinian cause out of sympathy. Targeting them as a demographic could be viable. And frankly, using the famed "hustle as much as you hate" meme my friends throw around, I would milk that for all it is worth if I was Palestinian.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Mentor startups in Gaza

#30

Post by arikrak »

trhway wrote: post #2

i wonder whether there are student exchange or similar programs between Israel and Gaza. Specifically in this case - my understanding that Israel has pretty booming tech scene and one would expect that sharing the experience with Gazans would be a win/win for both sides.

Nice idea, but not practical. Before the first intifada, a large number of Gazans worked in Israel. Afterwards, Israel put up security restrictions to prevent terrorism. Hamas also restricts travel to Israel since it's afraid people will develop positive attitudes to Israel or become collaborators.
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