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Next Arab American on a stamp could be Steve Jobs
- ck2 13y agoBill Gates should be in a "great American humanitarians" series. Why exactly should Steve Jobs be on a stamp? This gives me an idea, Post Office should sell application fees for stamp ideas like license plates to fund their insane retirement plan requirements. But then we might end up with confederate flag stamps like Georgia plates. Of course you can print almost anything as your own stamps legally now. And in the end I think people spend a whole second if any time at all looking at a stamp.
- swombat 13y ago> Why exactly should Steve Jobs be on a stamp? Iconic figure of the late 20th/early 21st century IT revolution? Led a company that was involved in multiple hugely-successful, era-defining products (the Apple II, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad) along with many industry leading products (the Macbook Air and iMac to name but two)? Had a unique management style - I don't mean the unpleasantness, I mean the laser-sharp focus on a few product categories and on pushing smart people to deliver amazing things that even they didn't think they could deliver - a management style which everyone tries to emulate in some ways these days...? Founded, built up, was kicked out of, came back into and rescued what became for a little while the most valuable company in the world by market cap? Any of the above is reason enough for a postage stamp, of all things. All of them together seem to make it a no-brainer. And yes, Bill Gates no doubt deserves a postage stamp too - but I'd argue it's for his relentless delivery of Microsoft's mission: a computer on every desk and in every home. They achieved it and they changed the world with that.
- j2kun 13y agoI've never found any of these reasons very compelling. Esp. that various Apple devices "define an era." I shudder to think that history will look back on the last twenty years and think primarily of iPads and iPods, and even worse that a manager will be considered the genius behind it all. Certainly he's an inspiration for business people, and maybe that's enough for a postage stamp, but I'd pick plenty of other people before Jobs.
- collyw 13y agoFor all the people ranting how great iPhones are at the moment, just look back 6 or 7 years to the "revolutionary scrollwheel!" rants that were going on back then. Seems kind of irrelevant and unimportant these days.
- artificialidiot 13y agoBecause he made more money than most people though was possible.
- dak1 13y agoThe title appears to be link-bait in order to discuss the (so far unsuccessful) effort to get another American of Syrian decent (Khalil Gibran) on a postage stamp.
- babarock 13y agoBig mistake calling Gibran Syrian... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran Actually, even calling him American is wrong. From the Wikipedia article: > The young emigrant from Lebanon who came through Ellis Island in 1895 never became an American citizen; he loved his birthplace too much
- dak1 13y agoThank you for correcting me, I skimmed the article quickly after realizing it wasn't really about Jobs and clearly misread something.
- dimitar 13y agoI'm probably going to be hated on for this post, but Steve Jobs doesn't represent Arab Americans, because he was adopted and wasn't brought up in Arab culture, religion or language. He called his biological parents 'an egg and sperm'. While this is probably obvious for most people, I don't think calling Steve Jobs "Arab" is really of service to anyone. If you want to rise the profile of Arab Americans or Arabs in general there are a lot of great people to choose from.
- amasad 13y agolike who? curious if you have a few examples.
- PeterWhittaker 13y agoFrom the article: Khalil Gibran.
- 0x0007 13y agoHe is half Syrian. Syrians are not even Arabs. Neither are Lebanese or Egyptian, or Iranian (Persian) people. It just happened that at some point Arabs invaded their lands. This is like calling Spanish people Arabs, because Arabs used to be there at some point, or calling English people French, because French used to be there at some point. The ethnicity knowledge of the Americans is no better than their geographical knowledge.
- nayefc 13y agoPeople living in Syria 3,000 years ago were not Arabs. People living in Syria today, are Arabs. Who is an Arab? Well, one that speaks Arabic and living in an Arab country. You want to get into DNA? I'm Palestinian, born in Jordan and now working in the US. My DNA tests show >60% Middle Eastern/Arab DNA albeit my paternal lineage tracing back to ancient Egypt.
- alaaibrahim 13y agoActually Arabs were living in Syria in 9th century BC.
- prht 13y agoHow much of an Arab was Steve Jobs? Why not Swiss?
- toddan 13y agoHe was adopted from Egypt that is as arab you can get.
- ZanyProgrammer 13y agoHis father was Arabic, not his mother.
- toddan 13y agoI guess i had my facts wrong then.
- ZanyProgrammer 13y agoWTF? Steve Jobs was not adopted from Egypt.
- prht 13y agoHow much of an Arab was Steve Jobs? Why not Swiss?
- blumkvist 13y agoOh I see, arabs are opposed to differential treatment based on race only when they are getting the short stick.
- beedogs 13y agoYeah, bro, because getting your picture on a postage stamp totally makes up for 40+ years of systematic racial vilification.
- blumkvist 13y agoNo bro, because you don't have the right to scream racism while you have arab organisations who fight to "put pictures of an arab poet on a postage stamp".
- GFK_of_xmaspast 13y agoMost of my heroes don't appear on no stamp, sample a look back you look and you find nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check.
- vixen99 13y agoSo how many Americans will be described as X American where X is any other country? How about European American? If not, why not?
- alaaibrahim 13y agoYou know Europe is not a country, Although Americans seam to think Africa is :)
- Varcht 13y agoLast I checked Europe and Africa are both continents.
- theorique 13y agoEuropean background is not considered 'interesting' because most Americans have some. If someone's a first generation immigrant (whether from Europe, Africa, or elsewhere, then that's considered interesting). For example, one of the most dynamic young African-American entrepreneurs, Elon Musk, immigrated to the US.
- jakobsen 13y agoSpeaking of European Americans... I never really got if the term "Latin" in the US applies to those of Latin European descent (Spanish, French, Romanian, etc.), olny to Latin Americans (Mexican, Brazilian, etc.) or if it means something completely different?? Anyone can help me there?
- marcfawzi 13y agonature and nurture... you can't dismiss either. one is your genetic wiring (hardware) and the other is your indelible early childhood experience (firmware) ... and then there's your re-programmable self (software) ... His bio father being from that part of the world means his dad's genetic make is probably shared with 14% of Semites (Jews and Arabs of that area), 75% of south east Turks and southern Greeks, and 10% of sub-Saharan Africans. This is by no means an informed analysis of his dad's genetic heritage. Just an educated guess.
- linux_devil 13y ago“We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth.” - Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Nobel prize winner for chemistry in 2009
- nayefc 13y agoYou know how difficult it is to remove "religion" (using it as a general term; so nationalism is a part of) from humans? Very difficult. It's part of our biology. Although thousands of years ago it was crucial for our survival, it is primitive behaviour right now and destroys us unfortunately.
- powertower 13y agoI've always found it ironic that the same people that claim race does not exist are the same people who encourage and support these types of race-based promotions and classifications (well, as long as they are non-white).
- collyw 13y agoI find it ironic that the people who claim to be against racism actually seem to promote it with positive discrimination policies. Positive discrimination for one person is negative discrimination for the rest. Truly non racist behaviour would not mention the race, and treat everyone as equal. (I also find the attitude in the States kind of strange, as there is a lot more mention of racial background than in the UK. If someone "does well" in life and is from a racial minority, the background is pretty much always mentioned).
- joelgrus 13y agoIs being on a stamp even a good thing anymore? I'm not sure I'd want people to associate my picture with snail mail.
- nationcrafting 13y ago-"We've put your picture on a mail stamp. Now people will see your face everytime they send mail". -"You mean my face will be pasted in their signature?"
- geekam 13y agoIs it just me who thinks this heritage bullshit needs to stop? Why are people just content knowing that someone of their (or certain) heritage is the one who made it big? My question has always been what have I or you done or contributed? Granted I am far off from doing anything substantial in life but please, let's be a little mature here.
- frade33 13y agoAmericans claim, he is our, Buddhist claim, he is our, and now Arab. Solely because of his success, not because, who he was.
- azth 13y agoWell said.