I'm Completely Standing Beside Myself

Wasn't it Apu from the Simpsons who said, "I'm completely standing beside myself"?

I laugh, but it is one of the hardest things in the world for me to stand beside or outside of myself. Isn't that what makes us human beings different from the rest of mammals?

My parents asked me on Facebook, why do I have so many Pakistanis and Israelis in my network?

I checked to see if it's true, and yes, out of around 1200 in my network, which I value the quality of and not the quantity, the three top areas in my network are Pakistani, Israeli, and Silicon Valley. Why? Does it matter?

I remember in 1994, I first heard about the Macarena dance from a Pakistani girl who I had made friends with on the Internet. It became popular in the United States around 1997. Everyone who knows me, knows I love to dance. I want to thank her.

In 1995, I met a few Israelis over the net who showed me the Internet Phone by Vocaltec. The base of the Internet Phone, the invention of Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty, was something named the "Audio Transceiver". It managed the dynamic jitter buffer that was critical for achieving adaptive lower possible audio latency along with handling packet loss, packet re-ordering, and receiver transmitter sample rate adjustments. I used this on my Tandy in the middle school classroom in Century, Florida where I taught English, Civics and Internet Research. We used this to realize the importance of speaking standard English with those who speak English as a second language. I want to thank Alon and Lior.

In 1997, I believe that's the correct date, I traveled to Karachi, Pakistan to see Rehan Ahmed marry Saima. He would soon become my business partner in which we would start up Super Technologies, Inc. in 1999. The wedding dress was red. The bride was a Barbie doll. The family and wedding guests were warm and welcoming to me. I was thrilled to be able to be a part of this beautiful event. I want to thank the families of Rehan and Saima.

Today, I do have friends, family, business partners, suppliers, clients and colleagues all over EARTH, and many times some of them are a combination of several of the above. I am a very lucky lady to have so many to think with, work with, laugh with, cry with, invent with, and grow with from Pakistan, Israel, Silicon Valley and about 170 nations in the world especially because of our world communications changemaker called DIDX.

Everything that I have ever accomplished is because of the diversity of my global circle, one of quality. I want to thank you all and ask you and myself to not judge anyone on the basis of nationality, religion, ethnicity, life style, hair color, skin color, hair length, financial status, education level, technical knowledge, and other what you might call characteristics or idiosyncrasies.

I bring up hair length because I recently cut most of my hair off, so that it is shorter even than my husband's. It will grow back but meanwhile I am experiencing the world from a different view, outside of myself. The stories I could share of the prejudice that some people feel against women with short hair, would raise the hair on your arms. ;-) Aw, it's lovely.

To me, to you: Stand beside. Stand outside. See what it's like. Don't be afraid.



... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.