I am a Lebanese-American, a conservative and a capitalist evangelist. I was born in Lebanon, and had one dream and one dream alone – to come to America, and make my fortune as a capitalist. I did just that. I studied at The Wharton School, went to work at the most entrepreneurial firm on Wall Street, Drexel Burnham Lambert, became a global entrepreneur-financier

2. I am a Lebanese-American, a conservative and a
capitalist evangelist. I was born in Lebanon, and had one
dream and one dream alone – to come to America, and
make my fortune as a capitalist.
I did just that. I studied at The Wharton School, went to
work at the most entrepreneurial firm on Wall Street,
Drexel Burnham Lambert, became a global
entrepreneur-financier, and made my mark dealing with
some of the largest capital pools in the world,
orchestrating large scale buyouts and recapitalizations
and trading physical commodities the world over.

3. I travel extensively around the world and every time I
am abroad I hear naysayers complaining how America
has – to their big dismay – turned to be.
I thought I’d share this blog with you and set the record
straight for all the people out there who still don’t get
how the American system works and why this great land
is still as appealing to the world as ever.
1. It is a fact that despite all the negativism out there,
the US remains the world’s leading and most appealing
immigrant nation.

4. Last year — 2013 — over a million humans legally
migrated to the USA from around the world (more than
any other nation); several times that arrived inside her
borders illegally. They all didn’t uproot their lives and
head to the USA for no reason.
2. Granted the fact that the US as the sole hegemony of
the free world and now of the world in general, has a
giant footprint and has regularly thrown its weight
around in ways that are going to piss people off.
Many of those complaints exist with good reason and
the US should do more to understand that and ponder
those reasons openly and honestly.

5. But, without the US, the world would be far worse,
especially if — by some weird reason — the US were to
have disappeared at anytime post WWII.
3. When you go through the diplomatic quarters of
every nation, there’s still only one nation who has lines
of people outside their front gate, day and night waiting
to get in. Not Japan, not Germany, not Russia, not India
and not China.
Occasionally you see similar lines outside the embassies
of the UK and Australia and Canada, but none compare
to the lines outside the US embassy. Care to guess why?

6. 4. For those who claim that America is no longer a
manufacturing power and lost its edge in this respect –
America is still a manufacturing powerhouse more than
ever.
It’s just that most people don’t know it, because we no
longer produce the most toasters, toothbrushes, and
such. Now, our big areas of manufacturing are things like
satellites.
Also, keep in mind that although the iPod may be
assembled in China, a lot of the parts are made here. As
to the Toyota in your garage, well over 80% of the parts
and labor that went into it are American.

7. 5. For those who claim that America is no longer an
economic juggernaut given the recent crisis the country
has undergone through, well let me share with you the
cold hard facts despite all what you hear out there.
• The US continues to dominate several large strategic
industries (tech, entertainment, media, defense,
fashion, financial services)
• The US still has the strongest universities in the world,
and the best and brightest students the world over still
want to come here
• The US is on the path to energy independence

8. 6. For those who reminisce America’s good old days and
want them back, please let me know exactly what you
are reminiscing?
• when Blacks knew their place,
• when women were restricted to being secretaries,
nurses, and teachers;
• when non-Christian children had to sit through
Christian prayers in the public schools;
• when there was no Americans with Disabilities Act and
folks in wheel chairs had no access to schools, libraries,
or shopping malls;

9. • when no television show had Black characters unless
they were maids or butlers;
• when children with learning disabilities were kicked
out of the public schools;
• when 18 year olds were drafted and sent into wars
even as they were denied the right to vote;
• when people whose political opinions were ever so
liberal found themselves barred from teaching in our
schools and universities, serving in our government,
performing on our stages and on television, and having
their works published.

10. • when, in the absence of social security, our most
impoverished people were also our most elderly;
• when real estate contracts stipulated that the buyer
was prohibited from selling the property to Jews, Arabs,
and Blacks;
• when employers had the right to refuse to hire workers
because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or sex.
• when places of public accommodation (restaurants,
hotels, gas stations, pharmacies, amusement parks, etc.)
could deny service to people because of their race,
religion, ethnicity, or sex.

11. • when potential voters had to pay poll taxes or pass
rigged literacy tests in order to cast a ballot;
• when it was not considered a crime for a husband to
rape his wife.
If that’s what you mean by “the good old days,” I’m
certainly grateful that they’re gone.
7. To close, aren’t you proud of
• American economic ingenuity and scientific
inventiveness?

12. • The fact that we are a nation of wildly different ideas as
to how to run a country that—for the most part—gets up
and goes to work every day without ripping itself apart
(see: Egypt, Russia, Pakistan, Greece, Syria and others)?
• Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for doing the right thing
with their wealth upon their deaths?
• Apple announcing that they will begin building
computers in the USA again?
• All the foreign car manufacturers who build cars here,
well, profitably while taking care of workers thus
demonstrating that the USA has an amazing ability to
build great machines?

13. • Google, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Hollywood (in general),
Wall Street (yes, Wall Street), Facebook, Chevron, BoA,
Motorola, GE, Ford, JPMorgan and lots of other
companies that are innovating and creating jobs
(and making a very friendly workplace for women and
minorities)?
So for all the naysayers out there still bitching what
happened to America, how about rolling up your sleeves
and helping where you can to make sure this huge,
unwieldy, kind of leaky boat we call America stays on
course.

14. And the only way to do that is to look forward, be realistic,
understand that we’re all “real Americans”, and that we
sink or swim together.
Share your thoughts…
Follow Me @
https://www.facebook.com/ziad.k.abdelnour
https://twitter.com/blackhawkinc
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ziad-abdelnour/0/69/588
http://www.pinterest.com/ziadabdelnour