
Next Arab American on a stamp could be Steve Jobs - Varcht
http://thearabdailynews.com/2014/02/21/next-arab-american-stamp-steve-jobs/
======
dimitar
I'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.

~~~
0x0007
He 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
People 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
Actually Arabs were living in Syria in 9th century BC.

~~~
nayefc
9th century BC is ~100 years more recent than 3,000 years ago.

------
ck2
Bill 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
> _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
I'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
For 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.

------
linux_devil
“We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth.”
- Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Nobel prize winner for chemistry in 2009

~~~
nayefc
You 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.

------
dak1
The 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
Big 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
Thank you for correcting me, I skimmed the article quickly after realizing it
wasn't really about Jobs and clearly misread something.

------
powertower
I'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
I 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).

------
frade33
Americans claim, he is our, Buddhist claim, he is our, and now Arab. Solely
because of his success, not because, who he was.

~~~
azth
Well said.

------
vixen99
So how many Americans will be described as X American where X is any other
country? How about European American? If not, why not?

~~~
alaaibrahim
You know Europe is not a country, Although Americans seam to think Africa is
:)

~~~
Varcht
Last I checked Europe and Africa are both continents.

------
geekam
Is 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.

------
joelgrus
Is 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
-"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?"

------
prht
How much of an Arab was Steve Jobs? Why not Swiss?

~~~
toddan
He was adopted from Egypt that is as arab you can get.

~~~
ZanyProgrammer
His father was Arabic, not his mother.

~~~
toddan
I guess i had my facts wrong then.

------
marcfawzi
nature 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.

~~~
collyw
I know two identical twins (well they have an unidentical triplet sister as
well). Interestingly they have reasonably different personalities - the nice
one and the arse (relatively speaking).

------
blumkvist
Oh I see, arabs are opposed to differential treatment based on race only when
they are getting the short stick.

~~~
beedogs
Yeah, bro, because getting your picture on a postage stamp _totally_ makes up
for 40+ years of systematic racial vilification.

~~~
blumkvist
No 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
Most 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.

