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COPYRIGHT 2005 Professors World Peace Academy
THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Thomas L. Friedman
New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishers, 2005
Hardcover, 488 pp., index, $27.50
Thomas Friedman brings us this globalization sequel to his best seller The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999) by providing his take on globalization, its causes and consequences. One can be sure they all are positive as Friedman is an avid proponent of globalization as the solution to humankind's challenges. Friedman takes the narrative one step further by leading us to his explanation of the reasons for the 9/11 event in the U.S. The book attempts to provide a framework for understanding globalization and is a call of alarm for the U.S. public and policy makers.
Friedman outlines his ten forces that promoted globalization. They are (1) the fall of the Berlin Wall, (2) when Netscape went public, (3) the advent of work flow software, (4) the rise of open-sourcing, (5) the rise of outsourcing, (6) the rise of off-shoring, (7) the rise of supply-chaining, (8) what he calls in-sourcing, (9) what he calls in-forming, and finally (10) steroids. These forces are quite a collection of current happenings that Friedman communicates with catchy transpositions: he refers to the fall of the Berlin Wall as 11/9 in juxtaposition to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
These ten forces are captured by what is called the "triple convergence" occurring around the year 2000 or shortly thereafter. The first convergence is the ten forces converging in a complementary manner to enable the world to "take-off" into a new level of development--this is the new playing field where everyone, anywhere can compete (in the economic development process). The second convergence is that these events...
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