Thursday, April 14, 2011

#TEDxAlger - An Insider’s notepad scratches–( Mm. Hind BENMILOUD )

 
I. Entreprendre en Algérie:
             2. Mm. Hind BENMILOUD
She is the first Algerian lawyer specialized in IT and cyber-criminality. She is also the president of the Algerian association of franchise.
 
TEDX-Alger-logo

10H01 :
- She studies computer science in the past, she even had a 9 months internship programming in COBOL. But, she converted to Law.
- She raised the question: Why is it hard to start business in Algeria?
- She started in 1991/1992, the very same period when terrorism started in Algeria. But Algerians defied it; they continued living their lives as normally as possible.
- She also said that in the Algerian (The comment of Majda showed me that I had misintrepreted what Mme.Hind BENMILOUD said,hence I apologize for this, but I keep the answer, not as a response for her, but for others') Foreign media they show only the Joumoua’a prayer (The Friday’s Prayer) rather than business and every day’s life’ issues. (Here I completely disagree! We are Muslims; they must show Friday’s prayer on TV, like they must also broadcast the Athan –the prayer call-. But, we also must not care less about science, politics, business, economy and daily life challenges. Most of people see it in Black& white. They’re either thickheaded fanatics or shallow-minded laics! Why can’t we just adopt the Malaysian model, where both Technology and religious principles are in harmony?!! Why just France, France and France?! If we have defects in Algeria, if we suffered from terrorism, if we’re still locked inside a black box of inferiority it’s because the Ignorance of those ruling over us and the isolation of the rich business people from their surroundings. We should stick to our OWN culture, religion, customs, language and characters. We have never been French and we will never be. There’s no pride in following everything people from the other side of the Mediterranean do, and there’s no respect for someone ashamed of his own gigantic cultural legacy. There’s a huge difference between openness and Mutation. I find it shameful for people living in Algeria not speaking a word in Arabic or Berber!! I cannot imagine a German who speaks only English, or an Indian speaking only Urdu while living in his homeland! Someone who doesn’t respect his own roots, culture and principles isn’t worth of respect. Social engagement is not only Charity! It’s promoting your native language, social values, philanthropy and welfare. It’s beyond material benefits or short-term consequences. Islam’s N°1 rule is the Nia = Intention. If the deed is only for boasting of showing off, it’s not accepted. What company accepts to do the good just for the sake of good; not just to LOOK GOOD?! )
10H05:
- She created her own Law firm.
- She has been a victim of an assassination attempt.
- She left Algeria and settled down in Tunisia. There she discovered the field of Business Law.
- She gained experience in Tunisia and decided to come back to Algeria.
- She said: “although I’m a jurist, I passed through the warrior’s path, it took me 2-to-3 months just to start my own firm; so, how would it be for a fresh graduate?!!”
- We’re living in a very difficult business context.
- The government vouchsafed many advantages for Foreign investors. But, investors didn’t play it right. They didn’t bring the knowhow to Algeria. Instead, they flew away with colossal amounts of money to their homelands, and as a result the Algerian government took steps backwards.
10H08:
- A couple of months ago, no one could foresee the Tunisian revolution. But, it did happen! In Algeria, We did it in October 1988. 20 years later, I’ve never been so uncomfortable, but yesterday when I met up with Youth in ETIC, I said: “There’s still Hope.”
10H10:

Mm. Hind BENMILOUD jumped off the stage.
My impressions:
- She was a bit more pessimistic about the Algeria economic status quo. I, myself, am skeptical, but what I wanted from this #TEDxAlger is to sweep away my fears, and build a positive state of mind, concerning the Algerian business opportunities by listening to older generations. But, if they have no faith in the future, what are we, the youth of today, expected to do?!! A Big question mark popping up from my head…
- Always, the same remark: The identity crisis! No word has been spoken in Arabic or Berber, the two official languages of the SOVEREIGNTY of Algeria. As long as we are considering Arabic as the cause of our decadence, we’ll always stay in the tail of the nations’ caravan. No plausible argument could be given upon this matter. e.g. Finnish, which is a young Asi-oralic language, could evolve, dramatically , in 60 years and be a language of technology. Nokia is just one example; China could launch its satellite’s when it used Chinese in Technical universities; Iran could acquire the nuclear High technology thanks to its language, and the list long…
I’m done with the second speaker. I’ll go for the next one to-morrow in shaa Allah.
Peace out,
























4 comments:

  1. في حين لا نقصي آراء المختصين فنحن نعتز بهويتنا ... كتأكيد فقط

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  2. Thank you for sharing your notes with us. For your comments I couldn't agree with you more.

    I am really disappointed by this behind closed doors TEDxAlger... no videos to be seen anywhere!!!

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  3. I'm really starting to think I'll love that series of articles ! I find it intresting the way your reviewing nearly everything :)

    Just wanted to clarify something : when Hind Banmiloud talked about the media only showing "Joumoua’a prayer rather than business and every day’s life’ issues". She was talking about *foreign* media ! She said that they showed the huge number of people praying (even out of the mosquee), and took it as a proof to say that Algeria is still and always will be an exstremist country filled with potential terrorists everywhere. She argued that they've never shown the way our fellow citizens survived and defied terrorism by standing out and *not* stoping living normally (that's the everyday life' issues she was talking about). What do you think of it now ? Your comment remains true globally but not against Hind Benmiloud, she really didn't intend this !

    Now about the language issue, I completely agree with you about Arabic but hell not about Berber. (But let me first make it clear : I've nothing against berber people, culture or language, I'm against "regionalism" and believe I'm Algerian over and before everything, so please don't accuse me of such thing as racism or so !). Let me ask you a question : how much people in a room of randomly choosen Algerians would fully understand a speech in "kabyle" ? Not quite a lot, I bet ! A speech in this language would reduce the potential reach to nearly 1% of the listeners. That's not fair ! It would mean that even in our country, in a typically not foreign language, we (and I personnally) wouldn't understand a single word of the speech ! That's abnormal !
    Altough for Arabic, the 99,9% of the listeners would understand. Plus, it's an internationnaly recognized language not a simple dilect.

    No really I can't see why you're expecting speakers to talk in this language. Maybe I'm wrong and if so I'd love to hear arguments against mine ;) "De la discussion jaillit la lumière", right ? :)

    Anyway, great series so far, keep it up !

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  4. @Djam: مشكووووووووووور الاخ هههه
    نحن نناقش الافكار بغّضّ النظر عن قائلها كما هو شعار المدونة ^^

    @bentaljazair : You're fully welcome :)
    I've talked with the organizers about this, and they told me that it takes 37 hours to visualize all the videos recorded by 3 or 4 cameras. It takes 2 weeks for them to collect all the pieces. The Closed doors is because of the license (They mustn't exceed 120 if no one from TED USA is present)
    Thanks for dropping by

    @Majda:
    Thanks for your comments :-) –I’m a details maniac :p-

    Well, I guess I might have missed out on what Mm. Hind BANMILOUD wanted to say. That phrase was ambiguous. I do really apologize to her if I misinterpreted her words (I’m curious, how did you see it that way?), that’s why I always keep a margin of error.

    Talking About Berber, I get your idea (I’m not Berber by the way, I’m 100% Arab); but, I see it differently. The regionalist or Kabyle Separatists have been using the language as an ace in their dirty game. I’m just not buying it. We cannot judge a 1/3 of the Algerian population based ona a handful of racists. I support the Tamazight 100% as a language and culture, and I really hope to see books published in this language (I don’t consider it as a dialect, because dialects are derived from a language. So, if Berber is a dialect, what’s the main language?!). For instance, a language like Yiddish which is spoken by 1,7 million ppl in the world is used in many publications and is an Official minority language in Sweden. Berber is spoken by, nearly, 40 million.
    Answering your question:

    “how much people in a room of randomly chosen Algerians would fully understand a speech in "kabyle" ? “
    I, myself, don’t understand a word in Berber, but I’d rather read subtitles than hear it in plain French. It’s not a matter of understanding, I see it as a struggle to conserve & preserve our Algerian identity. Berber even if it’s not quite adapted to science, yet, they can revive it. Take Esperanto as an example, it’s a recent language that has no roots but its inventor Ludwig Zamenhof but it’s a wide language.

    Thanks again for your elucidation:)

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