Microsoft's Bill Gates is amongst those who say the world is 'flatter'
Posted on 02/23/2006 10:09:13 PM PST by Coleus
"Globalisation" has become one of the great buzzwords of modern times.
It came to the fore during the 1990s, and the impact of globalisation looks set to play a prominent part in shaping our world during the first decades of this new century. To see the advocates of globalisation at work and play there is no better vantage point than the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Its members have probably all read columnist Tom Friedman's best-seller, The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of the Twenty First Century, many times over.
Friedman accepts that what he calls the "flat world" - measured, say, by comparing the more equal life-chances of a software engineer in Bangalore with those of another working in California's Silicon Valley - is a great all-simplifying metaphor. While it certainly contains a truth, it is not so much a flatter world as one with many more peaks and troughs. There are of course the success stories of Indian software engineers, but, as Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek International told me, the process of globalisation is leaving hundreds of millions on the margins - Chinese, Indian, Africans and, yes, even tens of millions of Americans and Europeans too.
Asset and vulnerability
But progress has always been unequal. Of greater concern is what might be called globalisation's "dark side" - the extent to which the new linkages in this increasingly borderless world are helping to promote crime, terrorism and the spread of pandemic disease.
Globalisation is really about flows of everything, from money to microbes. And the bad inevitably travels with the good. As Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief technical officer points out, criminals are among the earliest adopters of information technology. If you visit one of the great hubs of the just-in-time economy - for example, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad's huge container terminal outside Fort Worth in Texas - you gasp at the way the modern world is joined up.
You gasp at the way the modern world is joined up 
Here, giant, brightly-coloured steel boxes with goods from China, Taiwan, Europe, Israel - all computer-tracked - are routed on their way to consumers in American cities. But as the commentator Philip Bobbitt told me, these linkages illustrate both globalisation's "greatest asset and greatest vulnerability." At the giant control rooms that regulate the passage of container trains on BNSF's tracks, you see the potential weakness of the emerging globalised world: break any one link in the chain and the result could be disruption on a major scale. Pandemic disease has the capacity to bring our world to gridlock.
Eastward shift
The key thing to understand is that globalisation is not "unequivocally good." John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, says that "like any other large historical change rooted in technological development , globalisation will have both good and bad aspects". Globalisation is not simply about China or India punching their weight in the world economy; as the "Davos view" would have it, becoming more like "us".
It is also about a fundamental shift of economic power - perhaps eventually even political power - eastwards. Professor Niall Ferguson of Harvard University calls it "a resurgence of the Orient"; part of what he describes as a "great re-convergence".
Scams like phishing occur as criminals worldwide exploit IT
In our new series for BBC World Service radio we grapple with the complex world that is slowly emerging from the fog of aspirations prompted by the ending of the Cold War. It's a world, which, as Moises Naim, Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy magazine told me, is crying out for some form of global governance. But who is to set the new rules of the game? Will it be the international lawyers? Or will it be re-vitalised international institutions that will take charge? According to Niall Ferguson, the new rules of the international system will not be so very different from those of the past. "The forms of the global order are far more elaborate than they were a hundred years ago," he says.
"But the fundamental content of international relations is just the same as it always was."Welcome to the shock of the not so new! The New Rules of the Game is broadcast each Monday at 0905 on BBC World Service from 20 February 2006.
'globalisation's dark side'
Must be referring to the 7 versions of Vista he's releasing.
You mean there are other people on the earth? Lets build a wall.
See my vanity on outsourcing here.
Cheers!
"Must be referring to the 7 versions of Vista he's releasing."
I heard it was gonna be 8.
50 years ago, a threat of sanctions against the USA would have simply brought a shrug from us. Today I'm not so sure.
Whether you lowly peasants want it or not.
The global elite knows what's best for you, and you're going to get it.
Herein lies the Great Fallacy of globalization.
Within the production/inventory supply line, transportation is inherently inefficient, adding only cost, not value to the end product. Global supply lines are a direct contradiction of the JIT imperative to eliminate such wasteful and inefficient motion. The more stable production model is to manufacture locally for the local market utilizing local raw materials and resources.
I don't think the 'global governance' that's coming is quite what they have in mind.
L
ping for later ranting
Yea, right...and I bet old Moises Naim expects to be right up there with those governing the rest of us serfs and useless eaters.
Well, I've got news for you, Mr. Naim, and all of your ilk. Until Jesus Christ himself comes back and institutes it, let these words stand as our response to your desires for global governance...
MOLON LABE!...Sic Semper Tyranus...De Oppresso Liber!
That line jumped out at me. Who exactly is crying out? I see the looney left focused on Iraq and Global Warming, even they are not out marching around demanding a world parliment. Where did the writer come up with that idea. I'd love to ask him.
(voice offstage:) "Hmm.. Some form, eh?"
"Oh, hey, I know! How about Socialism! Then we (the Elite) can be the tyranical oligarchy! Yea, that's it!"
"Problem solved"
No problem. Just make me Brave Incredible General, Supreme Head Imperial Tyrant (B.I.G. S.H.I.T., for short), and I will mandate that it will be illegal for women between the ages of 19 to 25 to wear clothing.
Bill Gates thinks the world is flat because be conducts business world wide and sees the value for Microsoft in a world economy. His business world transcends cultural and legal boundaries so he fails to see them. I like Bill as there are so many issues that he drives well but there are so many more that he fails to grasp; world governance being one of them.
HMm I am not so sure..There are some in that age bracket that should never be seen naked. Of course you will need people to inspect bodies and determine those who should be clothed and unclothed -- I can submit a resume if need be. :-) LOL
Babylon bttt!
How many days food supply do you have in your home? Do you friends and neighbors have the same?
Reliance upon foreign nations for our food supplies, is criminal! Our nation wide daily food requirements could be interrupted so simply. With foreign ships refusing to unload at our foreign controlled ports this will bring America to her knees in ten days or less.
Starvation isn't something that cannot be fought with bullets or nuclear missiles. The mere threat of terrorist attacks upon the foreign ships after they leave our ports, if they have unloaded at our ports will be enough for them to refuse to bring our daily food requirements.
The ship owners would apologize up one side and down the other, explaining that we can't protect them with our shrinking Navy. The foreign controlled port authorities would pretend to beg for our salvation, meetings of the General Assembly at the United Nations would be held. In the end America would collapse and heed the wishes of the Islamics.
Do you remember what six men in a rubber boat with a couple of rockets in a rubber boat did to the warship, the USS Cole? What could those same men do to unarmed, unprotected cargo ship? Could they sink it next to a major pier in ___________.(you name the city port) How many months would it take to remove the sunken ship? How many ships would they have to sink before foreign ship owners would order their Captains to stay away from American ports?
Men and nations lay down to die. Why are we laying down? Are we just relaxing or are we sleeping while our President and the Congress sign our death certificates?
To All Americans: Do you want to see this movie or would you prefer to live this one event to the end? Is it time to stop globalization or shall we continue walking to our graveyards?
"Peace and Security through Disarmament". (U.N. slogan)
It's for the children......
So they can control them.
I love it when someone has firsthand experience under the UN's One World Plan. GATT or NAFTA didn't do much for you did it?
ISn't free trade a great idea?
Free trade is a great idea......within the country.
This is going to happen, and perhaps sooner that folks think. But I think a systemic economic crash (imploding hedge funds, unwinding derivatives, bank transfer cascading cross-defaults) will be the proximate cause. IMHO the most likely trigger for this sytemic crash will be a middle east crisis, resulting in the closure of the Hormuz Strait to petroleum shipments, but there could be other triggers as well.
When that "just-in-time global conveyer belt" grinds to a halt, even if for a few weeks, our cities will literally explode. We have no surplus inventory, no way to ride out the disruption. One week after our ATMs, gas stations and grocery stores are emptied out from panic, our cities will be in flames.
It will be damned hard to just start up the machine again after that. An analogy is strangulation. If you choke someone for 7 minutes, you don't just let go and say, "You can get up now! Resume your heartbeat and breathing now, please!"
For example: once the gas stations have been drained to the last drop, and real panic sets in, a laden gasoline tanker truck will be worth a king's ransom. Fuel trucks will not be able to make routine deliveries. Criminal gangs will hijack them enroute, their cargo will be worth a fortune to anyone who controls it. A gasoline tanker will be an unguarded Fort Knox on wheels to anyone who can take it. There will not be enough police and national guard to protect every shipment of food and fuel.
This is the dark downside of our total global interconnectedness, based on JIT delivery. Shut that global conveyer belt down for any period of time.....and it's like shutting off the HVAC system in a modern skyscraper. The results will be swift.
Buy gold.
Yep, and keep it physical. Paper gold (GLD, etc) will be just paper after a systemic crash, and worth what all paper assets will be worth. Zero.
Buy a way to keep your food and gold!
Ugh. Ever been to the hills of Tennessee. That idea would go out the door real quick.
We have to many patriots and Christians to tamely submit to a world government without making a try at retooling like we did in WWII. But what do I know.
Some of my other friends point to China. China has been purchasing a significant chunk of our debt instruments, and just one wrong move with them and they will foreclose. H-E-double-toothpicks breaking loose then.
Well, isn't it about time that those who have been in the troughs for a long time get their turn and the ones ho've been on top, like us, have to spend our turn in the trough?
When you have a few million people who are hungry, retooling isn't an option. I would doubt that, during the winter months, if one was to gather every can of food in the entire North America that you could feed us all for 15 days.
That takes into consideration all the canned food in Canada and Mexico plus our own. The crop production during those months is miserable.
The supermarkets in a city use to have five to seven days food for the city, now we are down to three and the shelves would be bare.
The USDA won't permit Country of Origin (COO) labels on fresh meat or vegetables. Why do you think that is? Could it be that they don't want us to know just how much we rely on foreign foods today?
We are way too vulnerable, IMHO.
BAsically women should either be wearing a burqa or nothing at all.
On the family farm we own the production per crop has increased incredibly since the 80's I am told, so I am not sure I see the food problem like you do. It is everything else that is the true problem. Besides if you remember everybody was told to have a garden in their back yard during WWII, they also began keeping chickens and rabbits in their yards also.
Over all food has been a very strong point for America.
The Department of Homeland Security and my state emergency management agency recommend a 72 hour emergency kit for most disasters. I gather that this type of emergency may go on quite a bit longer than three days?
...It's a world, which, as Moises Naim, Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy magazine told me, is crying out for some form of global governance. But who is to set the new rules of the game?...
Our home grown treason club, the CFR, is planning to set the rules in the North American Community, starting iin 2010.
Here's a list of members, could come in handy.
http://www.geocities.com/benribqqq/cfr2005roster.html
Based on some of the recent threads I've participated in here, many folks would welcome global governance so long as it was "privatized" and run by a multinational corporation.
Unfortunately, we now live in a country where people no longer have loyalties to our Constitutional Republic. The massive influx of immigrants means that many of those folks have loyalties to their homeland or culture. And most native Americans have no loyalty beyond the pursuit of a quick buck.
And lead.
According to the USDA, we import about as much food as we export. This is the first time we've approached equilibrium in over 50 years. (Prior to now, we've always exported more food than we imported).
What has happened to change that?
NAFTA, GATT, globalization, greedy corporations, shareholders, and politicians.
We are supposed to have enough food stored in reserve to feed this country for a long time in case of war, has that changed also and if so who did it?
I've never heard of that, and doubt it exists.
On the family farm we own the production per crop has increased incredibly since the 80's I am told, so I am not sure I see the food problem like you do
One reason for that is oil based products, such as fertilizer and fuel for more efficient machines. When foreigners cut off our oil supply (or Peak Oil hits), those efficiency rates will come crashing down.
Over all food has been a very strong point for America.
This isn't the same country it was 100 years ago, or even 10 years ago.
Yes indeed. What a position to be in, depending on communist China to buy our treasuries!
Most people are too busy watching Desperate Housewives or the football game to care. Even after Katrina, etc...., they still aren't taking steps to be prepared.
Thanks.
I think two weeks, and we're in serious trouble. It's back to choking somebody for 7 minutes. Doesn't matter if it's 7 minutes or 7 hours, the result is the same. I'm liking the skyscraper analogy here. A modern skyscraper can be compared to a modern city, run with a modern "just in time" delivery system. The skyscraper allows a tremendous number of peope to live on a few acres, with an incredible amount of conveniences and even luxury. Climate control, hot and cold water on demand, etc. But if an explosion in the sub basement takes out the pipes and destroys the water and HVAC system, how long can people live in the skyscraper, and where would they go? Big trouble results, in a hurry. Our cities are like that. If the ATMs, gas stations and and grocery stores are cleaned out during any type of panic, then what? Chaos, fear, panic and hunger. Fathers will not sit around while their children cry from starvation. We will see either brutal martial law to keep order, or total anarchy.
Sad but true. Add fear and hunger to the mix, and people would support any dictator who promised to restock the grocery shelves.
snips from http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/food-cn.htm
Dawkins said in 1994-95, 10 cents out of every food dollar spent in the United States went to Philip Morris and another 6 cents went to CongAgra. Four companies - IBP, ConAgra, Cargill and Beef America - sold 87% of all slaughtered beef. Two companies - Kelloggs and General Mills - sold two-thirds of all ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. Campbells sold 73% of all canned soups. Frito-Lay sold 85% of all corn chips and 40% of all potato chips. Kraft is owned by General Foods, (the latter is owned by Philip Morris) sold more than half of all sliced processed cheese.
Small farmers are paying the price for this corporatisation. They have been seen as dispensable in the US and the dispensability of the small farmer is now being globalised through trade liberalisation.
The main argument used for the industrialisation of food and corporatisation of agriculture is the low productivity of the small farmer. However, even the World Development Report has accepted that small farms are more productive than large ones.
In spite of all evidence pointing to the high diversity, productivity and sustainability of small family farms, globalisation is wiping out these efficient systems and replacing them with inefficient and unhealthy industrialised food systems under corporate control.
The myth of low productivity of diversity-based small farms is also being used to promote genetic engineering. In her paper on 'Biodiversity and Biotechnology', Beth Burrows called genetic engineering a form of Structural Adjustment but directed by Ciba-Geigy and Monsanto rather than by the World Bank and IMF.
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How many family farmers/ranchers do you know who do not have either the wife or the husband working in town at another 'cash' job today? I don't know a single one and I know a bunch of these folks.
40 years ago the big shots decided that they needed these people as part of the labor force where their wages were taxable.
More family farms have been sold out to the top four or five ag corps in the last 25 years than you can imagine. In many instances the farmer still lives on the land but the crop belongs to Monsanto or some other world wide corporation.
I maintain several months worth of caloric intake as body fat.
I'm ready.
Would you care to imagine what the 12th and 15th days would be like or do you doubt that you still be alive?
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