The World Is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of New York Times Bestseller by Thomas Friedman by Mtetwa Ramdoo - A Perspective from India

Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution, and is threatening to hollow out Americas middle class.
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Millions of Americans are preoccupied with the outsourcing of American jobs and the threat of global economic competition. From boardrooms to classrooms to kitchen tables and water coolers, globalization has become a hot topic of discussion and debate everywhere --including a best-selling book by a famous journalist. However, Thomas Friedmans runaway bestseller, The World is Flat, is dangerous. Friedman makes arguments by assertion, assertions based not on documented facts, but on stories from friends and elite CEOs he visits --not even one footnote reference. Yet his book influences business and government leaders around the globe. By what it leaves out, it does nothing more than misinform the American people and our leaders.

Aronica and Ramdoo show that the world isnt flat; its tilted in favor of unfettered global corporations that exploit cheap labor in China, India and beyond. This concise monograph brings clarity to many of Friedmans misconceptions, and explores nine key issues that Friedman largely ignores, including the hollowing out of Americas debt-ridden middle class. To create a fair and balanced exploration of globalization, the authors cite the work of experts that Friedman fails to incorporate, including Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz.

Refreshingly, you can now gain new insights into globalization without weeding through Friedmans almost 600 pages of ill-informed, grandiloquent prose and bafflegab.

A Perspective from India

Thomas Friedman's book was triggered by the CEO of an Indian software
company in Bangalore who said the playing field was being leveled. Then,
as only a celebrity pundit can do, Friedman spun a sound bite, "The World
is Flat," and garnished story after story from his elite contacts,
while avoiding contact with the likes of Dr. Vandana Shiva, Director
of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology & Ecology and others
who have a different perspective on what's really happening in India.

Here's a snippet from Dr. Shiva in Aronica and Ramdoo's book,
"Friedman presents a 0.1% picture and hides 99.9%. And in the 99.9%
are Monsanto's seed monopolies and the suicides of thousands of
farmers. In the hidden 99.9% economy are thousands of tribal children
in Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan who died of hunger because the public
distribution system for food has been dismantled to create markets for
agribusiness. The world of the 99.9% has grown poorer because of the
economic globalisation. Free-trade is about corporate freedom and citizen
disenfranchisement. What Friedman is presenting as a new `flatness'
is in fact a new caste system, a new Brahminism, locked in hierarchies of
exclusion. By presenting open sourcing in the same category as outsourcing
and off shore production, Friedman hides corporate greed, corporate
monopolies and corporate power, and presents corporate globalisation as
human creativity and freedom. This is deliberate dishonesty, not just
result of flat vision."

Small wonder that at the last minute, Friedman cancelled the appointment he had with Dr. Shiva.

Perhaps Friedman could have borrowed a more appropriate title for his
book from former Harvard B-school professor, David Korten's book,
"When Corporations Rule the World."

If you want to understand the megatrend of our time, this book
offers a great starting point.
For someone looking for a more complete picture of globalization,
Aronica and Ramdoo offer a concise, but comprehensive overview.
And if you want more, the book provides a roadmap of extensive
resources for further exploration. Aronica and Ramdoo are
pro-globalization, but open your eyes to the many forms of
globalization that Friedman ignores. There is also a
companion web site which contains a number of links
to articles and presentations from some of the most qualified thinkers
on globalization: www.mkpress.com/flat

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