Thomas Friedman offers some advice for his daughters about today’s society: “Girls, finish your homework—people in China and India are starving for your jobs” (p. 277).  While modern society has been asleep, the competitive playing field has been leveled, thanks to a series of events that have served to "flatten" the world and bring globalization closer than ever before. 

It is time for a wake-up call, and Friedman is just the man for the job.  In his book The World Is Flat, he paints a lucid picture of the world as it stands in 2006 and what it might look like unless things change—and quickly.

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 did more than unify a divided Germany.  According to Friedman, it was the domino that started a chain reaction of innovation, creativity, and collaboration the likes of which the world has never seen.  Major software applications (such as Linux and Firefox) have been created and developed by scores of programmers, many of whom have never met face-to-face.  Several companies, in an effort to compete in the global economy, have moved their entire operations base to another country in order to save on labor costs and taxes.  Some organizations have outsourced some of their projects to countries such as China and India, where work can continue 24/7.  In addition, Yahoo! and Google will provide information on any subject requested.  And if something happens in a famous celebrity’s life, anyone can instantaneously update the information on Wikipedia.

These “flatteners” are part of what Friedman calls the triple convergence, a period of time in 2000 where the global community realized the power they had to create, compete, and collaborate with the rest of the world.  This brings added challenges and concerns to the table, and Friedman is unafraid to tackle them.  The US, while complaining about the outsourcing of jobs to India and the Far East, is unwilling to be the leader of creativity and innovation it have been for the last few generations.  The education system needs a major overhaul to avoid falling farther behind the rest of the world.  And parents need to learn how to be parents again, instead of allowing television and XBox to be the teachers. 

The issues are not unique to the United States, however.  China’s experience with capitalism has, as a by-product, added 30,000 new cars to the streets of Beijing monthly, triggering concerns of an imminent environmental disaster unless something is done.  India’s emergence as a technological leader has been at the expense of much of its population that still doesn’t have modern amenities like reliable electricity or clean drinking water.  The Middle East, with its unwillingness to join the rest of the flattened world, has fostered a haven for terrorists bent on destroying what has materialized in the last few years. 

That’s a lot to think about. 

Although the subject material in The World Is Flat has the potential to be incredibly complex, Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the New York Times, writes with a grace and style befitting his accomplishments.  Incorporating firsthand accounts, interviews, news articles, and wry humor, he presents the material in an engaging and effective manner.  The book has a definite technological slant to it, and there are times where the reader can feel Friedman’s frustration with America’s indifference to the transformation happening around them.  Yet he allows readers to form their own opinions and consider the changes necessary to be an active part of the flat world.

At one time, the people of the world decided to build a city with a tower that stretched to the heavens.  The ultimate goal of these collaborations was to become God.  However, God confused their languages and the building stopped.  In today’s flat world, the situation seems eerily like the story of the Tower of Babel.  However, the goal today is not to become God, but to make the world a better place for all people, regardless of the country or socio-economic condition they live in.  We all have a role to play in that, and it’s time to start now.

Consider The World is Flat your wake-up call.