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In a flat world
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Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman on globalisation and the story behind his book, “The World Is Flat”
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Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Hardtalk Thomas L. Friedman and Nandan Nilekani during the lecture
“He is like the 24x7 broadband Internet connection,” Nandan M. Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies, introduced him. The man who never lets his laptop sleep and is at Jerusalem one moment, Basra or Beirut the other, is the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner columnist of the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman.
In the Capital this past week for The Penguin India Annual Lecture, Friedman unwrapped the tale behind his best-selling work, “The World Is Flat.” He peppered it with his take on the reign of the fibre optic cable, the software revolution and the new rules set by globalisation.
“Why does everyone hate America?” was the nagging query that led Friedman to the “The World is Flat” revelation.
“The book came out by accident. I can’t tell you it was fully blown in my head,” joked Friedman. A search for the answer to the question took Friedman to Bangalore to interview young call centre employees.
The revolution
“I shot about 60 hours of interviews and I got sicker and sicker,” exclaimed the veteran columnist. While America was still pursuing September 11, Friedman points out the globalisation revolution had taken over the world.
“And I had completely missed it,” Friedman enacted out his surprise yet again, this time to a rapt audience at the India Habitat Centre.
Friedman’s Bangalore bomb was not yet over. It took Nilekani to deliver the final blow. “Nandan told me the global economic playing field is levelled and Americans are not ready for it,” recounted Friedman.
From a “levelled” playing field, Friedman evolved the idea of a flattened world and “The World is Flat,” hit the stands about 13 months after the conversation with Nilekani in Bangalore.
“I keep writing about it as the subject is still alive,” said Friedman.
Charting out the significance of globalisation, Friedman, hailed as the “guru of globalisation”, said, “What sets this era of globalisation apart is the extent to which individuals are required and enabled to compete and collaborate globally.”
Gleaning out the milestones in this modern revolution, Friedman recounted, “At 9 a.m. on August 9, 1995, Netscape went off and the world changed forever.” The Netscape browser brought alive the Internet and re-defined communication and connectivity.
Friedman admitted the new platform created a “lot of new rules on how to do business.”
“One of the new rules was that whatever can be done will be done. The only question will be whether it is done by you or to you,” he said indicating the level playing field globalisation has brought about.
In the current era, the competition is no more between countries or companies, said the columnist. “It is between you and your imagination. I believe not in the Gross Domestic Product but the Gross Individual Product,” he said. But Friedman warned, “In the IT revolution, either you change or you die.”
Throughout the lecture, Friedman tempered the weighty issue with his humour.
Further, he never shied away from taking a dig at his own country.
“Our Government is brain dead but our country is alive,” he reminded.
P. ANIMA
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