Hummus 2050 ~ Austrian Sigi Atteneder on MP.TV

I was very pleased to interview Sigi Atteneder -- co-creator of the Hummus 2050 initiative -- on my Maximizing Progress TV show tonight (f.k.a. HighTechFever). Sigi and colleague Lorenz Potocnik were among the four winners in the Jerusalem 2050 Competition organized by MIT's Department of Urban Studies & Planning and the Center for International Studies. The Competition sought ideas and imagined possible futures for building towards a more prosperous, peaceful, vibrant Jerusalem and larger region. The Hummus 2050 initiative is a proposed...

"East Mediterranean City Belt [...] alliance of about 20 cities which form a corridor of urbanization along the Mediterranean Coast from Turkey to Egypt, and include the corresponding desert hinterland. A high concentration of people, money, service and production will create a strong backbone for the area. By 2050, the belt's population will approach or exceed 200 million inhabitants."

"Jerusalem has very specific problems which cannot be solved in a micro or macro scale. Being a symptom of the whole region, we consider it necessary to think simultaneously of Jerusalem in the region, and the region in Jerusalem: without a peaceful and economically thriving East Mediterranean region, there can be no vital city."

Especially check out the lovely graphics and maps on the Hummus 2050 website which go well beyond this early summary view... By bolstering the connections and trade and prosperity in the region, they maximize the odds of ever-more friendly and civil engagement among the peoples involved.