Jack Yan: the Persuader Blog: The world isn’t ﬂat

I received an interesting email from a publishing house that has released a book critically analysing—and in some cases debunking—Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat. Hang on, guys, I was only 20 pp. in when I wrote my blog post yesterday. And I do not get suckered in to any book too easily—as those of you who have read some of my 2006 posts know. But it’s interesting to know that some people are keeping tabs on this book and using the “level playing ﬁeld” to get their own points across.
It may be worth repeating, nonetheless, to get a fair and balanced viewpoint.

Thomas Friedman’s recent New York Times bestseller, The World is Flat, asserts that the international economic playing ﬁeld is now more level than it has ever been. As popular as it may be, some reviewers assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman’s book is dangerous.
The world isn’t ﬂat as a result of globalization, say Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo, business analysts and authors of a critical analysis of Friedman’s book. Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution, says Aronica. But by what Friedman’s book ignores or glosses over, it misinforms people and policy makers.
Aronica and Ramdoo’s concise monograph, The World is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of Thomas L. Friedman’s New York Times Bestseller, brings clarity to many of Friedman’s stories and explores nine key issues Friedman largely disregards or treats too lightly. To create a fair and balanced exploration of globalization, the authors cite the work of experts that Friedman fails to incorporate, including Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz.
Refreshingly, readers can now gain new insights into globalization without weeding through Friedman’s almost 600 pages of grandiloquent prose and bafﬂegab. If you read Friedman’s book, and were awed, you really should read more rigorous treatments of this vital subject, says Ramdoo.
Aronica and Ramdoo conclude by listing over twenty action items that point the way forward, and they provide a comprehensive, yet concise, framework for understanding the critical issues of globalization. They paint a clear and sometimes alarming picture of the early twenty-ﬁrst century landscape, and present timely information needed by governments, businesses, and individuals everywhere.
Watch a thought-provoking 13 minute Overview on the Web:
www.mkpress.com/