Eastern Europe: Innovation’s hidden hub

Francis Tapon is author of The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us. He spent the past three years traveling throughout Eastern Europe. He plans to spend three years traveling to all 54 countries in Africa.

I was struck by a simple innovation, while I was washing my dishes in Belarus. The kitchen cabinet, which was placed over the sink, had dish racks embedded into the cabinet itself. Because the cabinet had an open bottom, you could place the freshly washed (and dripping) dish directly into the cabinet. Water would drip through the opening on the bottom and land into the sink (or countertop). Because there’s no need for a separate dish rack, Belarusians gain extra counter space while saving themselves the tedious task of moving dry dishes from the dish rack onto the counter. It’s a clever solution for those without a dishwasher.

Eastern Europeans aren’t known for being innovative, but in some ways the stereotype is unfair. Hungarians, for example, invented the ballpoint pen and holography. A Hungarian, John George Kemeny, co-invented the BASIC programming language with American Thomas Kurtz. Hungarians also invented artificial blood and the Rubik’s Cube. Four Estonians designed Skype. Russians were the first in space, made the biggest nuclear bomb, designed Tetris, and created the iPhone of assault rifles (the AK-47), according to a report in The Washington Post.

Considering you need respect for intellectual property and minimal corruption for innovations to proliferate, it’s remarkable that Eastern Europeans have been able to innovate. After all, the region has had a long history of heavy-handed governments and a weak rule of law — a history that persists to this day. Eastern Europe still struggles with widespread corruption.  >>More here

SOURCE: washingtonpost.com