Governor Hickenlooper: Trip to Israel was “The Most Remarkable of My Life”

John Tackeff — May 7, 2013 – 3:07 pm | Democrats | Israel Comments (0) Add a comment

In April, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper visited Israel for the first time.  In an interview with the Colorado Statesman, Governor Hickenlooper shared a few thoughts about what he called the most remarkable trip of his life:

You know, it was the most remarkable seven-day trip of my life, without question. I wouldn’t say it was the most relaxing. You can’t travel for seven days and be completely relaxed. But it was the most remarkable… on so many different levels. There’s so many things that we don’t really understand. You can read words in a book, [but] when you actually see it and experience it, especially when you’re meeting people… I really feel that I went as one person and I came back as a very different, hopefully more improved person.

Later in the interview Governor Hickenlooper shared that his state has a lot to learn from Israeli technological advances:

Well, I think some of the things that they’re really good at - software development, geospatial technology, aerospace and defense. We want to try to connect some of those dots. There’s also how do you approach agriculture and water conservation in a semi-arid climate. They’re world leaders in that. I forget what they said, 55 or 65 percent of the water they consume every day is recycled, the next highest country on earth is like 25 percent. I mean, they’re the world leaders on a lot of these things.

At the end of the interview it was revealed that the State of Colorado will be investing in Israel Bonds, and Governor Hickenlooper stated that he is hopeful that Colorado and Israel will be able to work together in the future.

I think that there are so many ways that Israel and Colorado can work. I mean we’re sort of the same… Colorado’s almost five and a half million people, Israel’s just about eight million people. I mean they’re not that much bigger than we are. They’re a long way away but they have similar needs… in terms of their agriculture and their water use, and they also have the challenges of assimilating all these different people from all over the world that we have. They have just recently the potential to become energy independent, which is similar to us. They have a huge entrepreneurial kind of startup mentality… How do we start more businesses? I think the more we cross pollinate the two places, the better.

Click here to read the full interview between Governor Hickenlooper and the Colorado Statesman.

 

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