Monday, October 16, 2006

A Success Story - Repeatable Here?

My friend Wazi from the Bay Area alerted me to this story: Jawed Karim, one of the three founders of YouTube, is the son of a Bangladeshi father and German mother. More here.

I met the father-and-son team at Wazi's house in 2000, when Jawed came to the Valley for summer work (which ended up with his PayPal stint.)

Too bad the NYT article does not mention the Bd connection.

Couldn't kids based in Bangladesh have dreamt up and implemented YouTube? I believe this kind of innovation is absolutely possible here, but we must create the right environment. We must inspire the kids in the right way and give them the right tools and resources.

If we make a breakthrough like this once, the IT dam will break.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is certainly repeatable in Bangladesh. The older generation should try to create an encouragin environment for the young people. Politicians will try their best to impede all national development to maximize their personal/family/party gains, but we will have to fight back no matter what. Dr. Yunus, Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Prothom Alo, and many other people/institutions are doing their bit. I am sure, Bangladesh will rise.

--Bilash
Columbus, Ohio

ulysses said...

I sure hope you are right. I see many kids, so full of promise, and it is frustrating to know there is not enough outlet for them to realize their potential, and that politicians play with these lives so callously. "Fight back" - good operative words.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's kind of fighting back with the politicians. They will do all they can to stop good people from doing good, but good people will have to continue working in the face of all odds. When the last good man will fail, Bangladesh will fall to the bottom of darkness, in the same place with the poorest African countries.