A hellish limbo, a darker future

There’s nothing like entrepreneurial energy — if it’s there, you feel it as soon as you walk in the room. That’s what I felt when I recently addressed the Start Up Lebanon conference in New York. The room was buzzing with creative talent — our talent — ready to storm the American startup scene. Why were our kids doing this in New York instead of Beirut? The most glaring reason: US officials and executives really believe in young entrepreneurs. They listened intently to these fresh voices — which made the presenters even more serious and more determined to realize their ideas. Who does that here in Lebanon? I can think of just one person, our central banker. Every other official is too worried about shoring up their own personal fiefdom to see the extraordinary potential in our youth. So our youth leave — for Dubai, Paris, San Francisco and New York