Winds of change in history!

Hussein Shobokshi Strangely, we live in an era of “unfamiliar” global change. The richest man in the world in Mexico is of Lebanese origin; the tallest skyscraper in the world is located in Dubai, UAE; the largest public listed entity in terms of value of assets is a Chinese company. All these facts and information are “shocking” mainly because one usually expects millionaires, largest public companies and institutions to come from the West. However, one should understand that all these changes are taking place because of globalization. Manifestation of globalization has enabled new states and new characters to come into the limelight and to leave an impact and distinctive imprint in the international arena. So there is a change and shift in business models from the Western world to “others”. Perhaps one of the main reasons for the success of “others” is the breakthrough in technology, which has left behind traditional methods that had hampered the availability of innovative and creative new opportunities in the past. This explains the success of one of the largest transport companies like “Uber” which does not have its own car or the largest publishing company in the world known as “Facebook” which does not own a newspaper product or a book, or the largest store the “Amazon” which does not own a storeroom facility but it sells its products through a network of Internet. Then there is also the “Airbnb”, one of the popular websites for real estate and rental deals, which does not own its own real estates but sells its products through the Internet network. These are the benefits of modern technology, which enables us to break all obstacles, restrictions and barriers that had dwarfed development and growth. This forces many of the regimes and governments to completely reconsider the traditional methods of education, investment and trading systems and applies modern method of technology in order to survive in the modern globalization. For example, the recent protests by taxi drivers in Germany, Britain and France and also in Egypt against “Uber” company will force many of the governments and institutions to pay attention to the developments and changes that are taking place aggressively around the world and it is time that those lagging behind will have to be well aware about the winds of change. Just as history teaches us about the ancient Egyptians, Athens and Rome did not fully understand the human evolution for change by self-criticism and the development of rule of law and instill the rights in its various forms of investment in technology, science and education and knowledge-based economy. It is not aware of the importance of monitoring the direction of the winds of change, development and insists on living in the event of denial would be a very appropriate place in the archives of history books.