The World Is Flat

Thomas Friedman explains very clearly with many examples from throughout the world how in recent years the advances in digitization, internet and communication technology have been empowering the individual, creating globalization at an individual level, but also creating risks of unemployment for people who do not realize what is happening and fail to educate themselves to adapt to these transformations.

In contrast with many futurology books that predict how the world and our lives will be transformed in the future, The World is Flat talks about not some distant future but about what has already been happening in recent history, today and the likely future trends. Yet as he explains many people are still not aware of what is happening although they may significantly be affected by it. Thomas Friedman uses the analogy ” the flattening of the world ” for the ongoing transformation of the relationships between people ; business, consumption, politics, economy and educational relationships both at domestic and international levels are being rearranged such that the vertical hierarchy that has been the characteristic of these relationships for centuries are flattening out. This is not a conspiracy nor a deliberate policy of any government or any organization. It is the inevitable consequence of the advances in technology, particularly digital communication technology.

In this book Mr. Friedman as an investigative journalist starts telling the history from the fall of the Berlin Wall, and walks his reader till today (2007). To keep pace with the rapid scientific development in the 20th century, and to afford production, we desperately needed to control costs. And the simplest way, was to have a world based market and the most efficient producer of a product gets to do it for the whole world. It was only after the fall of the Berlin wall that India and China moved towards capitalism and then the newly liberated Russian states. Accompanying the fall of the socialist economic system came the information highway spanning the world, crossing the oceans & deserts connecting practically anybody with every body. These changes have changed the way the world lives because more than 70% of world population lives on the eastern half of the world. With the latest IT connectivity an essentially untapped, technically educated cheap, labor resource of East has become accessible to the west, without binds of visas and travel needs, through outsourcing. When we talk of outsourcing it is not only data management, accounting or medical transcription but live call customer care centers & help lines for computer companies, telecom giants, Airlines booking just to name a few.

This outsourcing is not only about financial benefits but is affecting a canvas much bigger. China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland, Hungary, Mexico and India along many others have gotten together as partners of the world IT industry. Interestingly while UN is failing to improve and protect the world ecology, McDonalds has succeeded in pushing its suppliers the world over to change to eco-friendly food production and recycling policies. How Wall Mart is educating and sharing technology with its suppliers the world over and innovatively cutting costs and streamlining its delivery and distribution networks using “IT” is a different theme. UPS silently becoming “the friendly neighborhood courier” is another eye opener. How UPS has helped trouble shoot the distribution network for Ford’s fixing its dealer relations is mind boggling. Now it not only handles Ford’s distribution but also advises on Ford on production line priorities. UPS backs up every shopkeeper of Amazon and e-bay.

E-bay and Amazon.coms in their turn have allowed the common world citizen (not only a US citizen) to fulfill the dream of trying their luck at business without forsaking a stable job. Through e-commerce small entrepreneurs can develop personal outlets with a world wide customer base. The investment requirement is minimal, at which even in the third world no body can imagine to start any business.

Financing Bengali housewives Prof Younus has challenged modern capitalistic banking with his micro credit banking. Against the norms, working without lot of paperwork or collaterals this professor of economics is turning around millions of dollars, in small loans, with a 98% recovery rate from people who have no credit history but are credit worthy. Thomas is an ardent believer in the freedom offered by the democratic capitalism of America and is intrigued by the way it is being accepted all over the world. Rightly worried he describes how the flat world is not only benefitting by teaming cheap labor with better income opportunities but the communication highway is also freely available and being used by the negative forces. It is scary to know with what ease fanatics in the flat world can not only open bank accounts, transfer funds internationally, enter flying schools but if they wish to, even rent 747 aircrafts.