Friedman starts out by saying the Cultural Revolution is about to begin, and that globalization is really driven by American cultural Imperialism. It's true to some degree, we are the ones who are outsourcing to other countries and bringing our products international. We are Americanizing the world and they are eating it up, whether its McDonald's, Entertainment, or materialism. The U.S. has the ability to take advantage of this new world and we are. We are bringing diversity to a degree the world has never seen. Friedman says this is primarily due to the fourth flattener, Uploading. It is suppose to globalize the local, there are no barriers to entry as long as you have a computer, microphone, and a camera. The bad part is most of the world does not have the capacity to upload items onto the web with having 20% of India's population only has the ability. Only 31.1 million people in China have Broadband. Uploading can be a very negative aspect too. Terrorist are using the web to podcast terrorism and their beliefs. I saw a report on the news talking talking about we are winning the war, but losing the war on propaganda. Which is the most powerful tool of all, and they are turning people against us.
The biggest thing that got my attention in this chapter is the Sweat shops going on in China. I knew they were a somewhat communist country and repressed freedom of religion, but I didn't know slaves were still around. When Friedman talks about the Uighur and the iPod factories, that made me mad. You would Human rights watch or some organization for humanity would step in. Making young people work 15 hour days for $50 a month. Punishing them for screwing up, and warehousing them from the public. Sounds almost like a concentration camp to me. People say America is full of shit, but stuff like that makes me proud to be an American.
The biggest thing that got my attention in this chapter is the Sweat shops going on in China. I knew they were a somewhat communist country and repressed freedom of religion, but I didn't know slaves were still around. When Friedman talks about the Uighur and the iPod factories, that made me mad. You would Human rights watch or some organization for humanity would step in. Making young people work 15 hour days for $50 a month. Punishing them for screwing up, and warehousing them from the public. Sounds almost like a concentration camp to me. People say America is full of shit, but stuff like that makes me proud to be an American.
3 comments:
It makes me mad too that sweat shops are still going on in the year 2007!!! Ridiculous. However, we must understand that every country has their own laws and government and in their country $50/month may actually be a decent salary.
I don't remember reading about the iPod sweatshop factory in the book. Maybe I missed it. I hope this isn't true because I just bought a 2GB iPod Nano the other day.
I agree w/ y'all ... it's crazy! I must have had my mind somewhere else too because I don't remember reading that part either. What you're saying is true though. America is "Americanizing" the world! This chapter was interesting and made me realize how fast the world is changing and becoming "flat" right before our eyes.
Sweat shops are really sad. It makes me wonder. We are benefiting form trading with China. Ok, good. Their labor is cheap so better for our business, good. Well, is it really that good? Maybe we need to be paying them more. Many are still living in poverty. Little kids should not be working. Maybe us providing China with so many factory jobs is not that much of a good thing. Maybe China wants their economy to benefit from more jobs so much that, they are turning their heads on shady operations going on in their manufacturing facilites.. ?
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