Continuing on in the conversation, Rodney describes how he made peace with his Bedouin neighbors and what he learned about their culture, their customs and their lifestyle. He also tells his riveting, personal story from his deployment to Gaza as a young man in the Israeli Defense Forces, and what he was trained to do as a Sniper with the Special Forces. The conversation wraps up with his perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict overall, and the life lessons he’s learned over the years.

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It started with a buried bomb.

Rodney was born in South Africa. His family made “aliyah” and moved to Israel when he was a young boy, where he grew up in a local kibbutz community, and joined the Israeli Defense Forces when he was 19. Years later, after fighting through twelve years of bureaucracy to purchase land and settle south of Beersheba, thieves from the neighboring Bedouin village threatened to ruin his peaceful lifestyle. So he buried a grenade for the next intruder. But then something changed.

Listen in as Rodney shares stories from his life: his road trip from South Africa to Israel-Palestine, being put on trial along the way in Africa, his long journey to find a peaceful place to live, the resort area he built, and what he’s learned about patience. 

Check out Makman Dunes Resort here: http://www.makmandunes.com/ 

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Dr. Soumya Balasubramanya, an agricultural researcher for the World Bank, has a message for Western technology developers:

“To all those brilliant innovators in Israel, I would say get out there and just… go back to your backpacking days. Get out there and spend some time in the world. If there’s a problem you’re interested in, go see how people in Ethiopia or India or Nepal or wherever you’re interested in — how do they go about living their life — which will give you ideas for how do you have truly transformative technology. Right? Because I don't think we understand this enough. Because most innovation comes from the West. That’s the whole problem.”

Join the second part of the conversation as we dig into geopolitical topics in Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt: geography, groundwater recharging, community agricultural practices, government incentives, agricultural extension programs, the role of governments, challenges in the agriculture-water-energy-culture nexus, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, contextually appropriate technological solutions, and how to understand failures.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed by Dr. Balasubramanya are expressly her own and do not represent the views of the World Bank.

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