Friedman is known for writing his interpretations of world affairs. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes as a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. In his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman talks about his extensive travels and experiences with people around the globe and how globalization has affected all types of people from all walks of life. He shows how the Lexus represents advancements in technologies and the pursuit of a higher standard of living while the Olive Tree represents a peoples' roots. Friedman is a supporter of globalization and describes thoroughly how the best course for the world to take is to nurture this new system. Friedman looks at globalization as the system to take over after the collapse of the "Cold War system. " He describes the Cold War system as a focus on division and with the collapse of the Berlin Wall came the collapse of the Cold War system. Globalization, with a theme of integration, quickly took its place.
Friedman portrays three fundamental changes as the initial steps towards globalization; changes in how we communicate, how we invest and how we attain information about the world. The democratization of technology " was the initial step. Innovations in the 1980's and 1990's such as computerization, Internet tools and telecommunications are the driving forces behind the democratization of technology. The ability to communicate with anyone around the world easily and cheaply allowed the potential for wealth distribution to be evenly distributed geographically. The "commercial paper" market actually started the democratization of finance." These were bonds issued by corporations directly to the public to raise capital. Bonds stopped the monopoly that banks held over people, which allowed for credit to flow freely. The third and final change was the "democratization of information. This change began with the globalization of television.
"Globalization is not just some economic fad, and it is not just a passing trend. ... We need to understand it as such," as Thomas L. Friedman explains it in the first chapter of his renowned book. ... Globalization replaced this system with its own unique attributes. ... According to Friedman, the main idea of globalization is the promotion of free-market capitalism. ...
In laymen's terms, the world now recognizes globalization because it has been extremely "globalized". The Internet has allowed this, yet it is globalizations offspring. "Globalization means the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world, (Thomas L. Friedman)." ... These groups that are protesting against globalization are pointing to the global market as an evil and an oppressor in which a few become extremely powerful and are gaining "global" attention. ...
Power has shifted hands and this shift in power as well as information is imperative in the shaping of global affairs. Friedman's "It's a Flat World, After All," accurately depicts this technological revolution and is in my opinion, the most relevant to the current and the future of global affairs. ... "[The] main objective in this era is building strong individuals" but the US is lacking in this department" (Friedman, p. 6). ... Simply put, the US has both an "ambition gap" as well as a "numbers gap" (Friedman, p. 7). ... This revolution, Glob...
During this period, strategies, programs and information circulated globally. ... It was not a major issue in the 1975 and 1980 global women's conferences, although it was mentioned in the 1980 Copenhagen document (Thomas 1999: 244-5; Stephenson 1995). ... Global activism by women's NGOs drew attention to the issue of violence against women . A worldwide petition campaign gathered over 300,000 signatures from 123 countries, putting the issue of violence against women at the center of the conference (Friedman 1995: 27-31). ... II, B, para. 38, UN Doc A/Conf.157/24 (Oct. 1993, quot...
