SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Islamic Republic remains in many ways cut off economically from the rest of the world. Big-name Western brands shun the market for fear of violating sanctions that remain in place even after the country's landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
That means no KFC—just local upstarts like "Iran Fried Chicken"—or credit and ATM cards connected to global banking networks. Visitors to the country must carry in thick wads of dollars. Many popular social-networking sites like Facebook are blocked by government censors.
Order from Amazon or call an Uber? Forget about it.
In their place, a surprisingly active tech startup scene has sprung up. It's driven by a growing number of Iranian millennials who see their country of 80 million people not as an isolated outcast but as a market ripe with opportunity.
Among the fastest-growing companies in the digital transformation is Snapp, the ride-hailing app Meisami uses.
He estimates he makes more than $900 working in a good month, pulling in a much larger cut per fare than he would driving for a traditional taxi-style car service. His hours are long—12 hours a day most days a week—but he likes being able to pick when and where he works.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:58AM (4 children)
Give it 25 years. This may be a startling prediction, given current trends.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by linkdude64 on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:46AM (3 children)
The mid-east has had several thousand years, but yeah, could change in the next couple decades.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday June 06 2017, @06:12AM (2 children)
You are speaking of Iran, which produced spherical trigonometry about 800 years ago. Among about two-dozen of the mathematical and chemical fundamentals upon which Newton and others built.
Without Khayyam, there's no ballistics.
Even today, there are more engineers per capita produced in Iran, than US or Europe.
As for enlightened societies? Persia had clean, public drinking water, urban literacy and an enfranchised merchant middle-class, while the "Western" descendants of classical "civilization" slept in common lodges, on the same straw they spread table filth, and where their dogs urinated.
Historical ignorance is great hubris - and the prejudice, the bigotry grown from such arrogance is often made laughable by the swing of the pendulum.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:54PM (1 child)
I absolutely LOVE this argument, it is a blatant admissal of not thinking in terms of current reality. "They did good stuff 1,000 years ago, so the murder and terrorism they generate today doesn't matter."
By your logic, you would also be correct in saying that African tribes invented spears thousands of years ago, so clearly they are also responsible for the moon landing. Your contempt of Western Civilization is proof that you have lived within it far too comfortably for far too long, and assume it simply built itself.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:53PM
That is not my argument. I'm saying there are enlightened and technological features of the iranian society, that are cultural and have deep antecedents. Myopically viewing Iran through the lens of hostile, foreign-state propaganda is neither productive, nor a way to get accurate perception of reality.
In real terms, the US is a terror-state beyond the dreams of Iran, which merely supports Lebanese Hezbullah - arguably a national militia and NOT a terror organization like those sponsored by USA in Libya, etc.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...