Hope, Change, 455 Million Dollars and Two Perspectives

Barack Obama's "Cairo Speech" is generally considered a brief high point in the US president's attempts to start a new relationship with the Muslim world (and more accurately, the Arab world).

He said (almost) all the right things, and in typical Obama fashion, promised a lot of great stuff. The perpetually displeased in the region dismissed the speech and its promises almost immediately, although plenty took it as a thin thread of good intentions that maybe, just maybe, could be grasped and turned into something better.

One year on, the perpetually displeased appear to have won the argument. Few still think of Obama as anything but another typical US president executing the same failed policy toward the Arab world. Even fewer think he has what it takes to address the Middle East's most pressing problems.

But. Our man Barack sure knows how to spend money. And over the weekend, it was announced that

. Like the recent

, the investment backs up one pledge made in the Cairo Speech: to support scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs in the Muslim world.

The cash comes from the

, a US government agency that issues loans to support economic development and diversification in a bunch of countries around the world. It also gives loans and political risk insurance to American companies doing business in these countries.

Jordan's

will get a US$25 million investment as part of the OPIC initiative. Accelerator is the parent company of

, the region's best venture fund for internet businesses. The money will form the basis for a new US$75 million fund targeting internet, mobile and digital tech businesses

Sure, US$25 million may seem small compared to the US$100-150 million being invested in private equity players like

,

(Egypt) and

(Kuwait). But as we have seen with the IV Guys so far, investing in web businesses isn't like privatising a failing fertilizer company or restructuring a bank. Twenty-five million goes a long way in the internet space.

I'll be writing something longer about this whole investment, which should be published on Tuesday. But for now, I'd just like to say that it is nice to see the interests of US foreign policy (a capitalist, US-friendly Middle East) manifest themselves in a way that is good news for the brightest and most ambitious young people in the region - there are now 455 million more reasons why a smart kid in Byblos, Alexandria or Amman has a chance to turn their talent into a business.

Not everyone agrees with my cheery prognosis though. To provide a rebuttal, I invited the

- who was vocal in his criticism of this new OPIC initiative - to put his thoughts into a format longer than 140 characters. And he did not dissapoint. Here's his response:

----Most Love is Conditional----
By Dubai Jazz

I'm the only son of my parents. In an Arabic household that means an awful lot. And as my dad got older, my mom had no one to dote on but me. I've learned that nobody ever loved me unconditionally except my mom. Even then, sometimes a weird thought would creep up on me: that lurking behind the façade of maternal tenderness is an ulterior motive. But I'd always write this thought off as a case of extreme paranoia.

It is with this cynicism that I received the news of the Obama administration's new initiative to establish "five private equity investment funds designed to invest in companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)". I'm always wary of people accosting me to ask for money. But I reckon I'd be more wary of people offering me money (although the latter never happened). I look at the press release harder and realize that there's something called "OPIC-eligible countries". The prospect of eligibility got me intrigued, so I check the list of the projects looking for what kind of countries are eligible. Lo and behold, Syria (where I come from) is not on the list. I look a little harder and realize that Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Palestine aren't on the list either.

My cousin is an entrepreneur in the IT business back home. He'd only learned about Google Chrome web browser while inspecting my laptop last October. My friend Abd Al Salam Haykal, an entrepreneur from Damascus, asks: "Why can't a Syrian girl download a song from iTunes, why her cousin in Lebanon or Jordan can?" 

The answer to these questions is of course: US imposed (and periodically renewed) sanctions.

In her piece for the Guardian, my friend Jillian C York tackled the implications of Syria Accountability Act and its effects on Syrian netizens: they can't download softwares like Acrobat Reader or Java; they are met with a block when visiting sites like Linkedin or sites that rely on SourceForge as its code repository.

The endeavor of the Obama administration to spread and support technological development and entrepreneurship in the MENA area is indeed commendable. But beyond the "beaux yeax" of the OPIC press release; we see lack of consistency and a propensity to support allies and prop up 'moderate' governments in need, while exerting pressure on those who dissent or disagree with the grand plan. Even when the said pressure comes at the expense of average citizens. I'd never known my entrepreneurial cousin to be a nervous fellow, but I thought I'd seen him clench his fist when he realized what he's missing out on, an act that would certainly be perceived by Obama as counterproductive and unfriendly.