This is an opinion article does not represent khazen.org 

by Jeremy Bowman -- fool.com -- Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become a trillion-dollar company for one reason above all others: its strength as a disruptor. Starting out with traditional retail, Amazon has waged war on established industries including book publishing, supermarkets, enterprise computing, cable TV, and logistics. Now, healthcare seems to be securely in its sights. For a while, Amazon's intention to disrupt healthcare has been coming into focus. The company acquired online pharmacy PillPack last June and launched a joint venture last year with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) that is focused on health insurance. But Amazon just made its biggest move yet to break into the $3.7 trillion healthcare industry.

It just introduced Amazon Care, a virtual and in-person clinic currently only available to Amazon employees in Seattle and their families. The service provides help with issues like colds and infections, preventive-care visits, and tests for things like sexually transmitted infections. Amazon is partnering with Oasis Medical, a family practice clinic in Seattle, to provide the service. Though this is just a pilot program for now, it's clear from the company's history where it's going with Amazon Care. It's also evident why Amazon has a better chance of disrupting the industry than anyone else does.

A time-tested start-up formula

After a number of adventures -- successful and unsuccessful -- into different industries, Amazon has developed a playbook for disruption. The company puts the customers first, inventing on their behalf, and then tests its ideas internally, building the new business for Amazon employees before opening it up to the general public. The best example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS), by far the company's most important business outside of e-commerce. AWS started almost accidentally as the company began building the internal cloud infrastructure to handle its own massive computing demands. By 2003, the tech giant began to realize it had built a group of infrastructure services that would be desirable to outside developers and companies. The AWS team developed the idea over the next few years before formally launching what's now known as AWS in 2006.

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al-monitor.com -- Hanan Hamdan -- BEIRUT — A scarcity of US dollars is causing a crisis for Lebanese citizens. In a Sept. 25 statement, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners reiterated its commitment to uphold the 48-hour deadline it had given to the concerned parties to find a solution for fuel traders to the dollar shortage. “Any new deadline would be tantamount to a declaration of bankruptcy of all station owners,” the statement warned. This comes against the backdrop of a Sept. 24 statement by the governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, confirming that he would issue a circular next week regulating the financing and importation of wheat, medicine and fuel in dollars. Salameh took his decision after consulting President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and other ministers. The hydrocarbons sector had threatened to stage a sudden and open strike if the consultations with Hariri and the concerned parties fail to provide the dollar liquidity needed by fuel traders to buy their goods.

Fadi Abu Shakra, the representative of the union for fuel distributors and gas stations in Lebanon, told Al-Monitor that consultations are ongoing to avoid the strike. Yet he also pointed out that “97% of gas stations abided by the one-day strike carried out by the hydrocarbons sector in Lebanon on Sept. 18, with a full abidance by oil importers.” Hariri met delegations from the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners and the Syndicate of Tankers on Sept. 23. At a press conference following the meeting, association President Georges Fayad announced that Hariri promised to meet with other officials and was inviting the delegations to discuss the proposed solution Sept. 25. Fayad said that as a result, "We will freeze our strike for 48 hours.”