Teams in MIT hackathon give Lebanon’s virtual salvation their best try

ENAR

The only things that are growing fast are bouts of desperation and the holes in people’s pockets. At least that’s the popular impression of the Lebanese crisis, one that can locally be reinforced by a trip to any supermarket and that has in recent weeks further been exacerbated by superficial and repetitive international media reporting. There are other signs, albeit less visible, that point in direction of economic hope and best efforts. One such sign comes in the realm of entrepreneurism, in particular through development impulses for the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem. More concretely, the current entrepreneurial signs are pointing to a pioneering virtual competition of some 600 participants that has been put together in the course of just five to six weeks by volunteering graduates, alums, and friends connected to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  The declared goal of this MIT Lebanon Challenge is to “rally different stakeholders from