Lessons from Obama's handling of the hot abortion "issue"

Today, President Barak Obama addressed the graduating class at Notre Dame University in Indiana. He gave what is called the "Commencement" speech. This tradition is common in all large US universities and the pick for this speech is usually loaded with significance. Notre Dame, for those who don't know, is the largest, most representative catholic university in the US. Catholics are at the forefront of the abortion debate and are clearly in the Pro-Life camp. So, given the public stance of president Obama on the subject (being openly Pro-Choice), this choice can be percieved as provocative to say the least. During the week before the speech, campus life was marked by protests and people opposing vehemently to the president's presence. This didn't the president from going to Indiana and delivering another master piece.

Obama entered the arena to cheer applause and a couple of protesters.

Lesson 1 : The majority of people are pragmatic and not dogmatic even though the latter ones are the ones who get their voices heard the most.

The speech in itself was typical Barak Obama : empathy and pragmatism at the same time. He advocates doing everything possible to lower the number of unintended pregnancies while increasing access to abortion clinics across the country and making services targeted at accompanying women after they get an abortion ever more effective given the terrible impact such a procedure has.

Lesson 2 : When you address people as adults and you show them that you understand their point of view and there common ground to both sides of an issue, they start listening.

He acknowledges that it's a difficult issue and that people are emotionally super-charged around it. He then states that people should be comfortable discussing difficult subjects and that it's the only way to move forward, all together.

Lesson 3 : Never position people against each other (us vs them), always be a Uniter

This leads me to think, why can't we have similar debates in our cherished country, Tunisia? There are so many "hot issues" starting with "Women wearing the veil" - This is a social issue that the legislator felt compelled to tackle but people still debate whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. There is a Laic camp and a tradionalist camp. People on both ends of the spectrum vilify the opposite side but there are a lot of moderates. All we need is a leader who can stand up and show people that the government understands everybody's concerns but that the law is intended to protect the majority. When you explain to people the decision process, they feel more comfortable with the outcome even if it's not what they expected in the first place.

We're still looking for a proper place to hold public debate since the traditional media by at large is not adventurous enough to explore these risky terrotories and the internet is such a chaos that only the extreme ends of the spectrum can scream loud enough to make a voice for themselves. We desperately need obama-style leadership.

Tunisia : Where do you belong?

I grew up in Tunisia in the 80's and 90's in a small-sized town, middle-class family to western educated parents. My parents lived in europe for almost a decade before moving back to Tunisia and settling down close to their parents. As far back as I can remember, we always had our eyes turned toward europe and the western world in general (Thanks to the parents) while being at the same time very deeply rooted in Tunisian traditions (Thanks to the grandparents). This double identity of some sorts manifests itself at various levels in Tunisian society starting with the school environment.

The educational system at that time taught people Arabic and French concurrently starting in 4th grade and through senior year in high school. French was considered as necessary for scientific education. Throughout high school, all science classes are taught in French (Math, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc). Arguably, some people never catch the French-speaking train and end up falling behind whether by dropping out of school or by pursuing art&litterature majors in High School where most classes are taught in arabic. This dual system ended up producing a small number (10%) of perfectly bi-lingual high school graduates, a significant proportion of people who were only fluent in one language (arabic or french) and sadly a large percentage of people who were capable of communicating fluently in neither languages. To make matters worse in certain cases, English is taught starting in 10th grade. Other languages like Italian, German or Spanish are available for people who want to pursue them for extra credit in their high school diploma.

To accentuate this, the arabic dialect spoken at home and on the streets is a mix of Arabic, French and other imported words from Italian and Spanish. For exmaple, the word "kitchen" in Tunisian is "koujina" which is an arabisation of the italian word "Cuccina". This mix of origins for the day-to-day spoken language reinforces the sense of Melting Pot and reflects the migratory influxes which are at the heart of tunisian history (from Carthage to the Muslim wave in the 7th century and then later the Vikings and the Spanish inquisition exodus and finally, french and italian settlers in the 19th century). At the same time, this makes people notice that their daily language is not arabic as perceived by the rest of the world. Pick an average person from the middle east and they can't undertand two tunisians discussing a casual topic.

So as a summary, we have a population that does not belong neither in the european sphere because of language barriers (but also, and perhaps more importantly, cultural barriers, we'll explore that another time) nor in the Middle East or african spheres for the same reasons.

This dichotomy exposes some of the schizophrenia and identity confusion that is inherent in tunisian society: Are tunisians "arabs" in the middle eastern sense? Clearly not. Are they africans in the subsaharian sense? Are they european? Certainly not. Are tunisians "mediterraneans"? euh, I guess so!

That's the best affiliation that I can find for tunisians in general. The tunisian way of life is so much closer to the way people live in Beyrout, Palermo or Malaga than it is to Amman or Kuwait city.

I was so hopeful about the so-called "Barcelona process" back in 1995 which was supposed to bring peace to the region by addressing the delicate issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (I hate it when people call this conflict the Arab-Israeli conflict because it is in reality not ...) and create a space where populations on both sides of the mediterranean could live together peacefully, coorperate and share the benefits of prosperity. This didn't happen and a new initiative was launched again last year by the President Sarkozy to little enthusiasm from all the involved parties. There is so much at stake in anchroing the maghreb (Tunisia+Algeria+Morocoo and someday Libya) to the mediterranean sphere instead of putting it in an inadequate box either with the rest of the african continent or the middle east at large.

This identity vaccum in the region is being filled today by imported identities from the middle east which do not correspond to historical values that tunisian society has. And the battle for our own identity is being lost everyday, satellite TV has too much impact on the population when no alternative solution is available ...

Silicon Valley is such a unique place - Part 1

I have been thinking lately about the opportunity cost of leaving Silicon Valley (as I mentioned in my previous post) so I started contemplating the last 9 years that I have been here in the "Valley", as the locals call it.

I finished school in 2001 and started looking for a job right when the internet bubble bursted. It was a very tough environment especially for people without real practical skills (as was my case at the time, we'll get to why that was the case in a later Post). I landed two job interviews which resulted in one job offer which I accepted happily. I was about to design my own Printed Circuit Boards to be used to test Networking gear. A significantly complex project for a guy out of school. Good times for a couple of months as I learned a lot on the job.

Given that this job was at a networking company, the bubble burst did eventually hit the company's finances and layoffs ensued - a round every quarter with 10-20% of the people laid off. After 18 months of stressful times (still with a job though) and a couple of cancelled projects, I decided to start hedging against this uncertain situation. So I contacted some of the people I worked with who have been either laid off at previous rounds and joined other companies or who moved on deliberately. The engineer who was sitting in the cube next to me and with whom I interacted at times (but not that much), passed my resume to the HR person at the company where he was working. Turns out he was an engineer at a well known graphics processors (GPU) company. I had no idea how transferable my newly acquired skills would be but I thought that I had little choice but to give it a shot. There I went and I interviewed with a team of engineers who was looking for somebody who could build a whole environment to help them test their new Chip design. I eventually convinced them that I was a good bet and they hired me. I was lucky enough to get the offer letter a couple of days before I finally got laid off from my first job...

let's take a look at the underlying threads here :

• Hire "smart" people, that's the only way to success : Even though I didn't have practical skills coming out of school, somebody was willing to take a chance on an energetic well-educated guy. (no pretentiousness here ...)
• Empower yourself, you're in charge you're not a victim : I took my fate in my own hands and I looked for another job instead of having to do it after losing my source of income. This is a common theme in how people behave around here.
• Hire "smart" people - take 2 : Even though I had experience in one field, somebody was willing to take a chance on me in a completely different field with a clear 3 months ramp-up time.
• Prioritize hiring people who are recommended by people you already know : peer validation is a very powerful selection tool. When people have their reputation on the line, they won't forward you a bogus resume. That was the case when my old colleague recommended me to get in.
• Recessions don't last forever and there is always somebody thriving in a recession : I didn't feel discouraged by the fact the internet bubble burst was pretty significant historically, I looked around to find out where the opportunities are ...

The combination of people's spirit and business' willingness to value human capital makes Silicon Valley a pretty special place.

Part-2 of this series will show how the concentration of talent and professional networking can be a key part of ones Valley experience.