Comments on A minotaur's þencan: A Critical Approach to Friedman: When Man and Meta...

In a movie I once saw, a character said, "What is ...

2006-09-03T00:12:00.000-05:00

In a movie I once saw, a character said, "What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions. Money."

That was Tom Cruise (as David Aimes) in the movie "Vanilla Sky". A good fantasy drama with some hilarious scenes (and Penelope Cruz!).

Did anyone see Friedman on TIm Russert a few months back? The facial expression on Russert, always leads me to believe that he eats up anything his guests say (whether or not that's true)!

In my search for other viewpoint, I came across th...

2006-07-11T07:37:00.000-05:00

In my search for other viewpoint, I came across this blog. I appreciate your post and comments. I am a fifth grade teacher in Texas, in a school district that is very advanced when it comes to technology. I choose this school district because of its commitment to technology. However, I learned quickly that what students need the most are a "world view" and a tolerant nature.
I have just read Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat. He basically believes that technology has flattened or leveled the world and made it possible for any individual to use their imagination and energy to succeed in this global world.

It was an interesting read. He believes that his world view is global, but he still is writing history from a "western" viewpoint. What I did like about the book - is that it is waking Americans up to the realization that we all - every person who breaths - we are all humans and that we each have the capability to use our talents to end up on an equal economic and technological plain- without the influence or help of western nations. Friedman and many in the west, think that if the other people in the world come into "our" influence and sphere - they will be influenced enough to make these transformations. This is flawed thinking that continues to anger and frustrate those around the world. Civilization started in the East. We are still the "New World" and we have a great deal to learn about humility and humanity.

Where did Columbus come up with the skills to travel west? From the Middle Eastern and African explorers that had the ideas and skills - centuries before the "barbaric" Europeans. Every part of our western "history" is flawed by our pride. Take agricultural history. Do we ever consider the starving people in early Colonies and how the Native Americans taught them how to plant and yield a good harvest? Do we hear about the farmers in the Western Coastal States who were jealous of the Japanese-Americans whose crops yielded more fruit, because of ancient practices coming from the East? I do not want to get into an "Us versus Them" argument - "Western versus Eastern" - "Old World" versus "New World". The birthplace of all civilization comes from areas of our world that we look down on. We are all humans, bleed the same blood and have the same human brains and if we do not have that view of other humans, our viewpoint is flawed and will only cause more chaos and division.

Friedman in interviews keeps saying that when he was young, he was told to eat everything on his plate because people in China were starving. Now he tells his children, "Do your homework... people in China are starving for your job". Yes, this is waking Americans up! Friendman is using "shock" tactics and anecdotes that stick in your mind - to wake up America. He is speaking in a language that everyone can understand and he is a great "motivational" speaker. After you read the book, listen to him speak... you want to learn more, you want to go out and become prepared for the "uncertain" future. Like so many leaders in the west - we think the only way to motivate or reach Americans is from the angle of "fear".

I hold a very simplistic belief -that if we all loved each other or at least were tolerant with each other, the world could and would live in peace. For the sake of future generations, I will continue to hope and pray for tolerance. Every year my fifth grade students write to other children around the world and we send and receive "cultural" packages from many countries. Yes technology is making this exchange easier but before technology we had snail mail and pen pals. The lessons the students learned are the same then as now. We are all human and each person's culture, viewpoint, and history is to be honored and respected. We don't have to agree on everything but we do have to share the same planet.

Until tolerance and love bring peace to the nations of the world, until the wars stop, the poor are fed, the leaders become servants, - well until then - the world is not flat enough. Technology has flattened our world but it will be love and caring that really finish the job.

(Writer: Seven years as teacher; Graduate of Global Business Institute, University of Tennessee; Twenty years working with refugees from Eastern Block countries and Russia; traveled to every continent except Antarctica.)

Talk bout the story under the storyI went looking ...

2006-07-02T14:03:00.000-05:00

Talk bout the story under the story

I went looking for reviews on the World is Flat as I pick up the updated edition. My intent was to see what's new in the new version.

I am interested in how various people have interpreted the book and the lenses that they look thru reading it.

Here are my observations.
1. The title of the book is catchy enough and simple enough to get some people to read it that may not normally have read it.
2. He could have gone into a lot more detail on the poverty-wealth, abused-advantaged however, I think this is another book - and there are many that cover this.
3. This books focuses on getting people - our kids, our decision makers, our citizens, ... - to wake-up and discuss what is happening to us and to the world.
4. Technology IS one of a key number of factors that has and is flattening the world - I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit since the 80s - and the changes are close to exponential - I could write a book.
5. Our leaders in politics and business in our North American countries can set us up for failure or success - if we outsource too much the wrong way, we are likely to head towards our people losing out in the years to come - some will win, many more will lose
6. we need to wake-up and talk about it - much more and more often - this will also lead to discussion around the poverty and abuse which can get worse or better depending on approach - I know this may be trite - but this again could be a chapter
7. we need to make the list of options on the World is Flat wikipedia site on how we can succeed thru the coming outsourcing changes - we can't stop them - but we can do them in a smarter way - if we want to - and legislation could help guide us
8. other countries have sent their people to our countries to learn from us - we need to lean from them as well - our kids and their kids need us to talk about this more now
9. forget the metaphors - forget the writing style - forget what is wrong with te book - focus on picking out the underlying message - which we do need to talk about - we need to either regroup on our approach or .... others will and are regrouping on us ...
10. the changes that are happening are actually allowing the poor to make a difference – even though it is small groups today – changes are happening – to borrow from another book, the Tipping Point is quickly coming upon us – I personally hope that it will be towards more positive than negative for us –

Today I am not sure which is winning – this is one heck of a way to play a strategy game. We need to get our kids to be non-complacent and have a sense of invention and contribution to maintain and hopefully grow our place in the world economy. Talk bout the story under the story

Thank you for your comment - I like knowing that I...

2006-06-20T11:58:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your comment - I like knowing that I do have some readers.

I take issue with only one point though: My attempt is not to discredit the work. I need to make that totally clear.

As I say in the essay, I am trying to draw the attention of scholars in the humanities to a book mostly examined by economist.

This is a fine and important distinction. To discredit a work implies the work is no longer worthy of discussion after illuminating its flaws. An attempt to generate discussion around a particular work implies there are important aspects to the work that need to be thoroughly examined and critiqued. And hopefully, during the discussions we can better understand the work and how to fit it into the global canon.

That being said, several of my sources do attempt to discredit the book. These sources include the review by the Economist Magazine, just to name one example.

Joseph R. Thompson

Good try, but your attempt to discredit The World ...

2006-06-19T22:47:00.000-05:00

Good try, but your attempt to discredit The World Is Flat falls short on a number of levels.

First, Friedman does in fact mention people who cannot access computers briefly, but does not dwell on them because in view of his economic theory, they are expendable. Those people are not and cannot be players on the global level so why mention them.

Secondly, Friedman changes his definition of free trade as you call it because he calls Americans to examine the consequences of a flat world on a number of levels; That is not only what is best for me and my people, but also what is best for me and people as a whole regardless of their nationality.

I contend that Americans with the economic power will start adopting a more global point of view merely for economic reasons. In a movie I once saw, a character said, "What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions. Money." Why should David Glass (ex-CEO of wal-mart) care more about the people of South Carolina than China, when China is more critical to Wal-Mart than South Carolina. Why should I care about people in Indiana losing jobs when people in India are better equipped and willing to work for less to do the same work. Perhaps that will motivate those Indianans who lost their jobs to become more specialized and therefor more valuable in the global sense.

I agree that The title is slightly flawed in that America must not be flat is we are seeing the world as flat.

Nice work but sometimes your sentence structure becomes a little too convoluted. It is not nearly as the syntax in some articles I have read though.

email me at HobartKing@hotmail.com if you have a response.