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Radiationx
Veteran Poster
Username: Radiationx
Post Number: 60
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 03, 2005 - 09:19 pm: | 
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Has anyone read Thomas Freidman's new book,The World Is Flat? |
Libralind2
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 167
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 01:49 pm: |
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Should I..?
LiLi |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 566
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 03:12 pm: |
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Haven't read it, but I did hear him on NPR (Science Friday) the other day. Very, very interesting.
What do you think of the book? |
Radiationx
Veteran Poster
Username: Radiationx
Post Number: 63
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 09:55 pm: |
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I purchased it the other day, i've only had time to read the first chapter though. So far i'm interested in what he has to say. |
Cynnique
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 11:34 pm: |
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According to the blurb which appears after its best-seller listing, this book is about "globalization." I anxiously await your telling us what that means. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1278
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 12:49 pm: |
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I have read Friedmans' books and columns since I read a book years ago he wrote about the Middle East--Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
He was very insightful about the situation there--it was written back in the 80's not long after the settlement of the Lebanese civil War.
As the years have gone on, he has become increasingly naive and unrealistic. He retains a belief that American style capitalism can take root all over the world and that in its wake Democracy and Freedom and Prosperity and World Peace will follow.
He is at a loss to explain the disastrous failure of these reforms in Russia. He is slowly coming around to the belief--after the examples of China and Singapore, that it might not be necessary to have Democracy at all in order for capitalism to flourish--which, as a Black man, he would know up front.
He is not an economist, he fails to explain how the rest of the world is supposed to consume resources at the rate America does--but a lot of people fail to understand that--a lot of the blessings that America enjoys are due to luck--occupying a vast continent with no powerful enemies nearby with an economy that stood untouched after WWII--
He is also a great proponent of the global economy--did not understand that not just manufacturing but white collar jobs would be outsourced and how this would affect America.
He seems to feel that if all the countries in the world were Capitalist democracies they wouldn't fight each other--all the European countries used to be monarchies (in fact before World War I all the monarchs were related) and this didn't stop them from coming into competition over markets and territory, which leads to conflict. |
Cynnique
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 02:21 pm: |
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Gee, Chris, you are so great at expository writing. When you know your subject, it's a pleasure to read your commentaries. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1279
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 03:22 pm: |
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Cynique:
Aw shucks m'am. T'weren't nuthin'! |
Cynnique
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - 12:29 pm: |
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Twas, too. |
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