No country can dominate the technology and people, says Jared Cohen

There’s a reason why Jared Cohen has been named by Devex as one of the top40 people under 40 in the world. And you know it exactly why, when you hear him speak.

Smart. To the point. Brilliant story teller. And above all, someone who lets you speak, anxiously framing the right answers in his head, gearing up to drown you with his enormous data base of knowledge.

Very often, his eyes keep reaching out to other spectators involved in the listening process. He gives a blank expression. He is lost. Only to bounce back, again. Dressed in well fitted suit, trying to find relaxation after being jet lagged in his flight from New York to London, Jared Cohen knows when exactly the ball is in his court.

Loaded with statistical information, accurate digits and data, when Condoleeza Rice introduced him in as a member of US Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, he no doubt was the youngest member in the history of America. No one knew then, the history had just started for Cohen.

Now he is the director of Google Ideas, a new initiative which aims to reframe and function on the old challenges.

Not once in the entire interview did he bend in a lazy posture. With eyes direct to his target, he pounces. Listening to him demands recording him. With the pace so fast and so over loaded with information, the guy is a living wikipedia.

The 31 year old adjunct fellow lets you delve deeper into his life by stating how many years he studied about foreign relations and international policies. Few of the books which he has written, like ‘One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide‘, ‘Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels among the Youth in the Middle East’ give a fair idea of what his interests are.

Delving deeper into how the Obama administration works and giving real life examples of how he saw the President maintain the government obligations and still adopt the stand of a leader, Jared shares the example of ‘Neda Sultan’s death.’

‘If the data is good enough, it will go viral,’ he states.

Adding further to how fast communication has spread in the world, he reveals how President Obama could not avoid giving a speech on the death footage of Neda during the 2009 elections in Iran. ‘The footage not only reached him, he had to watch it. Even if Iran tried to control it, the footage had spread. Everyone was talking about it. How could President Obama not know about it? He knew and he had to address the population,‘ he revealed.

Therefore, he believes that technology has empowered the international domains to such a large extent that it can not be controlled or shut down.

Though, he also states that ‘Technology is a part of both the problem and the solution’

When I asked regarding how those rural masses can be involved in circulating the information to the wider world when they themselves hardly have enough money to buy a mobile, he recounted the example of Afghanistan.

He revealed how in Afghanistan, mobile devices are used to pay salary to the police officers. ‘Initially, the country witnessed bombing of towers. But when the police started getting their salary through mobile exchange, interestingly, in one of the only country in the world that does that, things changed.’

Thus, he hinted on development which occurs in various countries, both in terms of technology, combining the rural and the rich classes through ways of innovation and need.

The hint of ‘demand’ was more logically omnipresent in his voice, through out.

Well, one of the very reasons why he left his government job to join Google Ideas where different innovations with technology can be experimented and used.

He also hinted how several people in the past have  kept questioning him about the change his career and asked him if he did not love his government job so much but he humbly declines, giving a very straight answer stating how he loved ‘innovation’ more.

And as he approaches the end, sitting alert in the most vigilant position for an interviewee, he gets flooded with high profile professionals. And courteously speaking in his strongly accented American English and removing his collar mike, he runs out for his next endeavor.

Wael Ghonim: The man who caused Facebook Egyptian revolution

When Wael Ghonim, the head of marketing of Google in Middle East and North Africa, first saw the photo of dead Khaled, he had nothing but remorse for his friend’s murder.

30-year-old Ghonim, later became an international figure, demanding justice, democracy and human rights. Tahrir Square witnessed this young man organising massive protests, shouting at the top of his voice for empowerment and also being audaciously arrested by the police forces for twelve days.

The Egyptian police questioned him for his involvement in the uprising and the why he had started with the Facebook page ‘We are all like Khaled Saeed.’ Not only did this page make Wael the ‘Facebook Hero’, it also stimulated the entire uprising through social media, a phenomenon which had never happened before in the world.

‘The tears of a patriot’

After being released on 7th February, Wael went directly for an interview on the Egyptian Dream TV where he was shown videos of protestors being ruthlessly killed.

Wael broke down, openly revealing the pain he felt. That day, he had no idea, he was going to re-energise millions of people still fighting in Tahrir. In fact, no one knew this man would play such a pivotal role in ousting President Mubarak and become one of the famous names in ‘TIME 100’ list.

‘The bad people are not always the majority. They get away when there is a silent crowd. Our role was to expose what was happening in Egypt,’ says Wael, who does not want to call himself a ‘leader.’

‘Whose trail did Egypt follow?’

Debating whether Egypt witnessed a Tunisa sparked revolution or a facebook sparked protest, Wael simply answers that ‘we were more technological savvy, making it easier to communicate with each other.’

With no trace of accent in his language, Wael remembers the words that he used to shout in Tahrir Square. ‘Lets go on the streets. Lets just take a silent stand. Lets stop for one hour, stand like statues doing nothing-just like flash mobs. These people have killed Saeed. We have to fight against the emergency. Lets go.’

The reminder of pain, struggle and fight still lingers in his voice as he tries to remain calm. Currently, a hashtag by his name is circulating in twitter, trying to stalk him.

Trying to add humour to the interview, Wael said that ‘This was the first revolution in the world where the time, date and location had been stated from before.’

Inspite of belonging to a simple middle class family and being a father of two children, Wael did not leave optimism. He was not afraid.

‘There were times when I was frustated. I still am, sometimes. But I force myself to be positive,’ he smiles and says.

‘Just another guy’

Undoubtedly, he has heard a lot of applause but he wants to be called ‘just another guy’. The fame on TV did not mean anything to him.

All he believes about any dictatorship is that ‘the more the government tries to hide it, the more harder it gets.’

But he believes that not every country can fight against opression. ‘Change comes from within. There is no change in Iraq, as of now,’ he says.

Eventually, this egyptian states that he is not a politician but just a simple man who chose to fight. Talking about the current hulabaloo still going on in his country, he believes that he will do his best.

‘We just got rid of one nightmare. Yes, there are still small nightmares on the way. But the worst is over,’ he concludes.

‘I want Egypt to be in the top ten countries in the world by 2020,’ he speaks with pride in his voice.

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google officialy congratulated Wael Ghonim for his courage and mettle.

P.S: Photo from Getty Images