| www.DemocracyBonds.com |
 |
| Building International Bridges by Internet Do you want to help build a safer future? BIBBI |
| Take the FLAT CHALLENGE -- How much do you know about the 10 forces behind outsourcing of jobs to CHINA and INDIA? And where is Bangalore anyway? |
| Take the FLAT CHALLENGE -- How much do you know about the 10 forces behind outsourcing of jobs? And where is Bangalore anyway? |
| Learn about Thomas Friedman |
| Chapter One of The Lotus and Olive Tree TASKS: Explain in your own words what this chapter is about... (These are excerpts from the book's first chapter) ...the globalization system, unlike the Cold War system, is not static, but a dynamic ongoing process: globalization involves the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before -- in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations, and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before, and in a way that is also producing a powerful backlash from those brutalized or left behind by this new system. Globalization has its own defining technologies: computerization, miniaturization, digitization, satellite communications, fiber optics and the Internet. And these technologies helped to create the defining perspective of globalization. 1. If the defining perspective of the Cold War world was "division," the defining perspective of globalization is "integration." 2. The symbol of the Cold War system was a wall, which divided everyone. The symbol of the globalization system is a World Wide Web, which unites everyone. 3. The defining document of the Cold War system was "The Treaty." The defining document of the globalization system is "The Deal." Once a country makes the leap into the system of globalization, its elites begin to internalize this perspective of integration, and always try to locate themselves in a global context. I was visiting Amman, Jordan, in the summer of 1998 and having coffee at the Inter-Continental Hotel with my friend Rami Khouri, the leading political columnist in Jordan. We sat down and I asked him what was new. The first thing he said to me was: "Jordan was just added to CNN's worldwide weather highlights." What Rami was saying was that it is important for Jordan to know that those institutions which think globally believe it is now worth knowing what the weather is like in Amman. It makes Jordanians feel more important and holds out the hope that they will be enriched by having more tourists or global investors visiting. 4. While the defining measurement of the Cold War was weight -- particularly the throw weight of missiles -- the defining measurement of the globalization system is speed -- speed of commerce, travel, communication and innovation. The Cold War was about Einstein's mass-energy equation, e = mc2. Globalization is about Moore's Law, which states that the computing power of silicon chips will double every eighteen to twenty-four months. 5. In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was: "How big is your missile?" In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: "How fast is your modem?" 6. If the defining economists of the Cold War system were Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, who each in his own way wanted to tame capitalism, the defining economists of the globalization system are Joseph Schumpeter and former Intel CEO Andy Grove, who prefer to unleash capitalism. Schumpeter, a former Austrian Minister of Finance and Harvard Business School professor, expressed the view in his classic work, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, that the essence of capitalism is the process of "creative destruction" -- the perpetual cycle of destroying the old and less efficient product or service and replacing it with new, more efficient ones. Andy Grove took Schumpeter's insight that "only the paranoid survive" for the title of his book on life in Silicon Valley, and made it in many ways the business model of globalization capitalism. Grove helped to popularize the view that dramatic, industry-transforming innovations are taking place today faster and faster. 7. Indeed, if the Cold War were a sport, it would be sumo wrestling, says Johns Hopkins University foreign affairs professor Michael Mandelbaum. "It would be two big fat guys in a ring, with all sorts of posturing and rituals and stomping of feet, but actually very little contact, until the end of the match, when there is a brief moment of shoving and the loser gets pushed out of the ring, but nobody gets killed." By contrast, if globalization were a sport, it would be the 100-meter dash, over and over and over. And no matter how many times you win, you have to race again the next day. And if you lose by just one-hundredth of a second it can be as if you lost by an hour. (Just ask French multinationals. In 1999, French labor laws were changed, requiring -- requiring -- every employer to implement a four-hour reduction in the legal workweek, from 39 hours to 35 hours, with no cut in pay. Many French firms were fighting the move because of the impact it would have on their productivity in a global market. Henri Thierry, human resources director for Thomson-CSF Communications, a high-tech firm in the suburbs of Paris, told The Washington Post: "We are in a worldwide competition. If we lose one point of productivity, we lose orders. If we're obliged to go to 35 hours it would be like requiring French athletes to run the 100 meters wearing flippers. They wouldn't have much of a chance winning a medal.") 9. To paraphrase German political theorist Carl Schmitt, the Cold War was a world of "friends" and "enemies." The globalization world, by contrast, tends to turn all friends and enemies into "competitors." 10. If the defining anxiety of the Cold War was fear of annihilation from an enemy you knew all too well in a world struggle that was fixed and stable, the defining anxiety in globalization is fear of rapid change from an enemy you can't see, touch or feel -- a sense that your job, community or workplace can be changed at any moment by anonymous economic and technological forces that are anything but stable. 11. In the Cold War we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin -- a symbol that we were all divided but at least someone, the two superpowers, were in charge. In the era of globalization we reach for the Internet -- a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge. 12. The defining defense system of the Cold War was radar -- to expose the threats coming from the other side of the wall. The defining defense system of the globalization era is the X-ray machine-to expose the threats coming from within. Jodie Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her contribution to the International Ban on Landmines. She achieved that ban not only without much government help, but in the face of opposition from the Big Five major powers. And what did she say was her secret weapon for organizing 1,000 different human rights and arms control groups on six continents? "E-mail." Copyright © Thomas Friedman Task for students: Do a search on the Internet and find the full title of Mr. Friedman's book, which was published in 1999. Then write a letter to a penpal to describe what you learned from this page. If you need a penpal, go to www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com To earn the FLAT Certificate, please send your explanations by email to talkinternational@yahoo.com. Click here to hear quotes from Mr. Friedman's interview with Tim Russert dfriedmanrussert Click here to read quotes from The World Is Flat dfriedmanquotes Click here to read an excerpt from The World Is Flat (First Chapter) dfriedmanflatchapter1 Click here to read an excerpt from his book Lotus dfriedmanlotus1 Go to the TASKS page... What did Thomas Friedman say on the Tim Russert show that contradicts what the message is on this T-shirt? |
 |
| How well do you know geography? Know the borders, mountains, valleys, buildings and water (seas, rivers, lakes and oceans) of each country.... |
Click here to hear quotes from Mr. Friedman's interview with Tim Russert Click here to read quotes from The World Is Flat Click here to read an excerpt from The World Is Flat (First Chapter) Click here to read an excerpt from his book Lotus Go to the TASKS page... |
 |