TWIF+Chapter+12

Chapter 12- The Unflat World (I have a different version so this chapter is chapter 15 in my book) SUMMARY BEGINS In the beginning of the chapter Friedman talks about his ride back from Minnesota and how he met up with his friends (Ken and Jill) for lunch and were discussing the new gun laws they heard about. This reminded Jill of the poster on the front of the health club she goes to which said “No Guns Allowed” and “No Cell Phones.” People in the health club were using their phones to take pictures of people changing in the locker room. Technology has become so advanced that now you may snap a photo of anyone, anywhere at anytime. Students were even using their phones to snap a picture of a test and sent it to their friend who had the test later in the day to get a heads up on some of the information. How crazy is that? Too Sick The next section discusses the class system and how most Americans classify themselves as part of the middle class. This means that “its another way of describing people who believe that they have a pathway out of poverty or lower income status toward a higher standard of living and a better future for their kids” (537). This is quite different from the way people in Africa, rural India, China, and Latin America live. They have no hope of ever entering this class. These lower class sections will never be a part of the flattening world. However, with the help of charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the unflat world may receive help. One example used was the fact that malaria doesn’t kill people in the flat world but in the unflat world more than one million people die from this disease. Therefore the unflat world can benefit greatly with help from the flat world. The Gates foundation wants to collaborate and find different solutions to numerous problems around the world. Too Disempowered This section states how many people live in between the flat and unflat world. Which means, “they are healthy people who live in countries with significant areas that have been flattened but who don’t have the tools or the skills or the infrastructure to participate in any meaningful or sustained way” (546). We need to help the unflat world by getting them tools to help themselves. An interesting example Friedman used in this section dealt with the company Hewlett-Packard. HP created a public-private partnership with India asking as series of questions such as “What are your hopes for the nest few years?” “What changes make your life better?” etc. HP spent some time researching how the people in these communities lived. When assessed the company decided they would help the people living in the village. They selected five women and gave them cameras so they were able to take pictures and develop other pictures of their lives and other peoples in their community. It gave the people a sense of self worth and in return they were able to make money to help out their families. Given the right tools to live change was inevitable and had impacted the people of the community greatly. Too Frustrated This section discusses the Arab culture and the reasoning behind Bin Laden attacks. He felt the Arabs were too humiliated and far behind as a culture so they had to show the Americans they mean business too. “Many Arabs and Muslims were celebrating the idea of putting a fist in Americas face-and they were quietly applauding the men who did it. They were happy to see someone humiliating the people and the country who was humiliating them” (566). If the Arab countries were part of this flat world, would these attacks have happened? Too Many Toyotas The final section of this chapter talks about the conservation of energy and natural resources. The book talks about technology and how great it would be if more people were to be a part of this flat world. However, if everyone were to enter the flat world it would create problems too. Too many resources would be used, we would have energy shortages, and our planet would be in danger. These “low-impact people are becoming high impact people” (571). Friedman goes on to state that a thousand cars are added to the roads in Beijing everyday! With that being said the pollution cost in China reaches 170 billion a year! We cannot allow all these people to consume all this energy; the argument here is why should China have to restrain its energy when America and Europe don’t have to? We (meaning the US) need to set and follow the example to conserve energy. Go Green!

SUMMARY ENDS-YVONNE PESCEVICH

Chapter 12 Globalization of the World Analysis – Judy Hampson

Friedman’s perception of the globalization of culture is full of paradox. Globalization at first seemed as if it would homogenize culture, making everything American, as the US was the first to export goods, movies, entertainment, fast food etc. in mass quantities, yet the flattened world has the potential to nourish diversity. People all over the world now have access to the tools that enable them to create their own news, music, photos and software, and share them through uploading, enabling a variety of cultures to flourish. Friedman uses the phrase “globalization of the local” to describe this phenomenon. Globalization can empower, or disempower, present opportunities or increase criminal activity. He clearly shows that it can open multiform opportunities, but also be dangerous. His advice is to get the best out of it, and try and prevent the worst. This chapter linked with Pink’s book, particularly the chapter on “Abundance, Asia, and Automation”. The two authors share the view that the expansion of the Internet and widening of the global market changes priorities in many aspects of life, and specifically human intellectual achievement. Pink describes the shift from jobs that require left-brain skills to those that are right-brained, fostering “greater creativity, artistry, and play.” Friedman gives the example of descendants of Hindu temple sculptors and painters using their skills to out-source game designs and cartoon animation. Pink emphasizes how perceptions have to change in the job market, even for previously clear-cut professions like doctors and lawyers, and Friedman demonstrates ways in which this is happening. In Shanghai there is a podcasting website that enables any Chinese to create a video and share it. All over the world people are inventing, composing, creating recipes, and sharing opinions cheaply, so that cultural change is being driven from the bottom up. Pink illustrates how automation and outsourcing has taken jobs away from the Western hemisphere and moved them east, predominantly to India and China. Friedman builds on this concept by showing that because Indians and Chinese do not have to emigrate to obtain these out-sourced jobs, they can thrive at home, and their cultures are strengthened because they are “nested in environments”. Those that do still emigrate to the US and Europe hold on to many aspects of their own culture through the Internet, TV, radio, and newspapers in their own language, and improved telephone communication. Friedman concludes that globalization will become a process driven “from all four corners of the flat world.”