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by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

The author of the book Thomas L. Friedman, ingeniously chooses to describe the world as flat, attributing his inspiration to an Indian software executive who explained to him how the entry barriers into the globalized world are being destroyed and that the economic playing field was being leveled. Any individual or company located anywhere in the world could compete and cooperate globally.

Complicated Thoughts Turned Easy

The author of the book The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman makes complicated ideas easy with the help of making the readers travel with him, meet his family and do various other things that some readers may find irritating. Take the example of Jerry Rao, an Indian entrepreneur, whose accounting firm was preparing the tax returns for US nationals. He now planned to join forces with an Israeli company which can transmit CAT scans over the Internet so the US doctors could get second opinion from cheaper Indian or Israeli doctors.

The World Was Wired

Thomas L. Friedman says the flat world was created by the robust performance of technology forces at work. The dot com bubble also played a large part in this development. The large telecommunications companies got huge amounts of cash from ignorant investors which they used to wire the world through laying fiber optic cables on the ocean floors. The result was well connected Bangalore, Beijing and Bangkok with the most industrialized nations of the world. The connectivity was now in excess supply and the cost of Internet connections, data transmissions and phone calls went down considerably. Many of these companies which laid these cables went bust, but the work was already done.

The Bubble and Bust, Both Helped

The dot com bust also played an important part in the situation. Companies started cutting costs everywhere possible which made sure the work would travel to cheaper destinations. General Electric had already shown the world how it could be done and in the 1990s most of the companies had realized most Indian engineers could handle the most technical of jobs at one tenth of the cost. The millennium bug also hastened the process as armies of cheap software professionals were needed to recode all the computers.

Technological Forces at Work

A large part of the book discusses the technological forces at work in the modern world and the way businesses are reacting to these developments. The way work flow platforms were created which made it possible to work together for a large group of people sitting anywhere in the world. The way Thomas L. Friedman does his business reporting is extremely entertaining as he would tell you things you didn’t know and in a way that will surprise you.

India and China Form a Large Chunk

India and China form a large chunk of the book The World is Flat because these two countries are benefitting the most from a flat world. A large part of the goods imported by Wal-Mart comes from China, and the Indian story is also along similar lines, though it remains limited to the services sector. He doesn’t say China and India are threats to the world economy, rather he sees them as opportunities as numerous other consumers are also being added to the world. According to a Morgan Stanley estimate, the imports from China have resulted in a saving of close to 0 billion for American people, and the American companies have saved even more money.

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by World Economic Forum

China Remembers Singles while U.S. Remembers Veterans

November 11 in the United States means we are to remember every single veteran who served our country. We call it Veteran’s Day. Meanwhile, in China that day, they simply focus on every single man and woman. They call it Guang Gun Jie. It means “Singles’ Day or One’s Day.

It’s a pop culture holiday that was started in the 1990′s at multiple universities in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu. College students created the celebration date based on the four lonely ones that make up the 11th day of the 11th month. The special day graduated with the university tradition and grew way beyond it. Now Singles’ is recognized by all kinds of young men and women across Chinese society.

Much of the activities are centered around good food and good friends. Certain foods mark the occasion, but really the main way to celebrate is for singles to enjoy dinner with their single friends. The tradition makes it important for each person to pay for his or her own meal to show their independence.

Some singles throw blind date parties to try to find a husband or a wife. Other singles take a husband or a wife by getting married on this day.

There is also a major online component to this day. Singles shop in what is like an internet supermarket looking for a spouse or their one true love. They pay what equates to to post photos and vital statistics of themselves. What I like is they even are required to show official documents to prove what they post is the truth.

Every day in China, the pressure to find a spouse rests squarely on the shoulders of the guys who greatly outnumber the girls. It’s been widely documented that much of the Chinese society favors male babies. According to government Social Sciences research, by the year 2020, more than 20 million Chinese men will be forced to remain bachelors.

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