Tom Friedman

[MountainLaurel]

Can anyone provide info about this author, and what he stands for? He's the keynote speaker at the DC Library Association annual dinner, and wanted more info about him before I shelled out $30/plate.

[sasquatch]

1. Friedman is a whore for the right wing in this country

He's one of those zionist freaks that thinks the only good arab is either a slave or a corpse. He thinks the outsourcing of all american jobs is a good thing. Save your thirty bucks and spend it at a local mom and pop tavern because they need the money not him.

[Maple]

2. Friedman wrote

the bestseller 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree'...and just has a new one out called 'The World is Flat'. He is referring to a circuit board, and the changes in the world from globalization and the computer.

I did not like his columns post 911, but I enjoy his books about globalization.

[Catt03]

3. I agree

Every ting but the Middle East and Iraq PNAC positions

[SharonAnn]

8. He wrote "From Beirut to Jerusalem" and it's an outstanding book.

I highly recommend it.

[BillZBubb]

4. Please don't waste your time or money.

Unless you believe unchecked globalization is great and that the Iraq invasion will turn out to be an earth shattering success.

His latest work "The Earth is Flat" is his view on the fact that the US has lost it's dominant competitive position. Countries like India can now do most of the jobs better and cheaper.

[kliljedahl]

5. Was on the Daily show last night

Check Comedy Central, the interview's probably posted by now.

Here's his bio page: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/FRIEDMAN-BIO.html


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[autorank]

6. He's about the dumbest guy on the block.

He has a primo column in the NYT. What does he use it for? Fatuous bloviating on a variety of topics which he neither understands nor, in all likelihood, cares about. He strongly supported the invasion of Iraq, then said 'oh my, it's poorly executed', never Tom's intention. He is now saying we should have a major effort like the Moon landing aimed at energy independence so "we don't have to worry about women's voting rights in Saudi Arabia." Of course, it never occurred to him that the $300 billion wasted on Iraq could have accomplished energy independence two or three times over.

If you're with a bunch of friends and you're going to party before and after, it might be tolerable. If not, he'll just make you very angry. Arrogant, pasty, narcissistic, jackass. But, hey, that's just my opinion.

:hi: Tree hugger!

[bloom]

7. Discussion today in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3434195

[Snap]

9. Remember DEVO?

They had a song "Mongoloid" It was about this retarded guy that wore a suit, maybe he typed a newspaper column or sold insurance, and no one was the wiser because he had a nice manner and good eye contact, and I guess he could spell and punctuate. I can't remember all the details, but when I think of Friedman I think of that song.

[bloom]

10. FRIEDMAN's It's a Flat World, After All ARTICLE

(also his television documentary ''Does Europe Hate Us?'' will be shown on the Discovery Channel on April 7 at 8 p.m.)


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html?pagewanted=1&incamp=article_popular_3


It's a Flat World, After All
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: April 3, 2005



n 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met ''Indians'' and came home and reported to his king and queen: ''The world is round.'' I set off for India 512 years later. I knew just which direction I was going. I went east. I had Lufthansa business class, and I came home and reported only to my wife and only in a whisper: ''The world is flat.''

And therein lies a tale of technology and geoeconomics that is fundamentally reshaping our lives -- much, much more quickly than many people realize. It all happened while we were sleeping, or rather while we were focused on 9/11, the dot-com bust and Enron -- which even prompted some to wonder whether globalization was over. Actually, just the opposite was true, which is why it's time to wake up and prepare ourselves for this flat world, because others already are, and there is no time to waste.

I wish I could say I saw it all coming. Alas, I encountered the flattening of the world quite by accident. It was in late February of last year, and I was visiting the Indian high-tech capital, Bangalore,

working on a documentary for the Discovery Times channel about outsourcing. In short order, I interviewed Indian entrepreneurs who wanted to prepare my taxes from Bangalore, read my X-rays from Bangalore, trace my lost luggage from Bangalore and write my new software from Bangalore. The longer I was there, the more upset I became -- upset at the realization that while I had been off covering the 9/11 wars, globalization had entered a whole new phase, and I had missed it. I guess the eureka moment came on a visit to the campus of Infosys Technologies, one of the crown jewels of the Indian outsourcing and software industry. Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys C.E.O., was showing me his global video-conference room, pointing with pride to a wall-size flat-screen TV, which he said was the biggest in Asia. Infosys, he explained, could hold a virtual meeting of the key players from its entire global supply chain for any project at any time on that supersize screen. So its American designers could be on the screen speaking with their Indian software writers and their Asian manufacturers all at once. That's what globalization is all about today, Nilekani said. Above the screen there were eight clocks that pretty well summed up the Infosys workday: 24/7/365. The clocks were labeled U.S. West, U.S. East, G.M.T., India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia.... <more>

[MountainLaurel]

11. Thanks everyone!

I was mainly thinking about going as a tool for networking (I'm in the midst of a job hunt), but I think I'll gladly skip this one.

[northzax]

12. I'll chime in on the other side

I actually like Friedman (just read the World is Flat) he may have been wrong on Iraq, but I'm not a one-trick litmus test person, frankly,I think a lot of what he has to say about globalization is spot on, and has lessons and good food for thought (and even a lot of his stuff on the middle east, which I rarely agree with, is still good food for thought) if you only want to listen to, and read, people you already agree with on every single issue, then by all means don't read him.

but you'll be missing a lot of interesting stuff.

[Robert Oak]

13. don't waste your money

As far as I know he is a corporate pundit...even though he has
won Pulitzer prizes.

Here's a link to his latest book which rips it as propaganda:

http://nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

(this is actually pretty funny).

Here's a diary I wrote about one of his recent comments

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/4/3/183348/5736

He has absolutely ZERO education or even journalistic background
in economics, international trade theory or even any business
acumen at all...yet
now feels he can comment on global trade and the state of
white collar workers in the United States.

He is quite "smelly" as of late of being a paid for multinational
corporate operative for he presents useless page after useless
page now claiming in essence, "Americans are stupid" and that's why
we're losing our technical edge (only 4 years ago all American
high tech people were geniuses) and how globalization (WTO, trade and
so forth) are great.