Resumo de The Earth Is Flat

The World Is Flat

Poonam Dave.

This fast paced book by three time Pulitzer prize winning author Thomas Friedman replete with racy idioms and pithy metaphors delivering razor sharp observations on the topic du jour, Globalisation, that you cannot possibly miss even if you try, keeps you riveted from beginning to end, even to the flattest edge of your reading seat. Globalisation assumes a new avatar in his book more in the form of an exploration of the manifestation of the concept of globalisation than the concept itself, not only as we see it today but also as a precursor of things to come in the not too distant future.

The theory being proposed by Friedman is one of a world that has sprouted a brave new breed of conquerors, so to speak, keen on slowly, steadily and surely flattening the world aided with the many advances technology has made in the last decade, into a more level playing field of opportunities and access, in a metaphorical yet refreshingly contrasting allusion to the zealous spirit of conquest and discovery embodied by Christopher Columbus.

Friedman?s book is full of instances that bear testimony to his theory of the conquest of these modern day explorers over the disparities of social, economic and political forces of the present world ? the post cold war world, the post 11/9 and even as recently as the post 9/11 world, in the process having virtually shrunk the world into a highly navigable next door neighbourhood through powerful tools such as the internet, for one, in an era of outsourcing where, he says, practically everything can be outsourced. While reading this book, one cannot but almost acquiesce with his observations on the power that advanced technology has exerted in acting as the one great equalizer enabling such a near uniform transformation of the world and how it has been the silent agent of sweeping change behind the scenes, almost as if it were all happening ?while (we) I were sleeping?!

Friedman, the master visualizer and astute observer, attempting not to sound overtly partial to the growing forces of the developing world and trying to strike a fine balance between the haves and haves-not of the world, with a flourish of his reportage and investigative genius manages to vanquish almost all opposition to his views on the ubiquitous concept of a truly global world and what it has come to mean to different people in different places, and yet, he makes it a vociferous case pro-globalisation. It is in this sense and many others that the notion of the world as a ?flat? place lends itself very startlingly and yet appropriately to this modern day lore of globalization and the progress of technology.

It takes a writer like Friedman to so lastingly state his understanding of the obvious and yet not so obvious in a brilliant take on Globalisation, and although this is one subject with as many believers as disbelievers, the interpretation Friedman proposes is a survivor among clones.His caustic comments, while scathing, cannot but be respected for exposing the fast dribbling make-up off the faces of those he calls the self appointed czars of erstwhile global supremacy still keen on aspiring to the same edge, and very convincingly argues that it is none other than the tautness of the growing underbelly of talent from the peripheral forces of the ?lesser? world relentlessly celebrating global liberation that is stripping this very grease paint off their faces.

His work inhabits (occupies) the rarefied medium of uncommon genius in thought, intellect, analytical prowess and literary craft. And for those who may like their chocolate bitter, this does not taste like a pill so hard to swallow. He skillfully toys with the flattening notions of a rising globoscape, if you like, of intellectual property and wealth, and how it has the potency to decimate the vested powers of those technologically less conscious and still wearing blinkers.

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