Interpreting Concepts of The World Is Flat Essay

For thirty years, an iron curtain lay across Germany. This iron curtain was called the Berlin Wall, and it represented the divide between East and West Germany. It also represented the loss of East Germany’s freedom and democracy. The Berlin Wall separated families and friends. This resulted in children growing up without a father and wives losing all communication with their husbands. The Berlin Wall poorly affected many people and businesses, and caused an ugly dent in Germany’s history.

The berlin wall was a big aspect of the cold war that greatly impacted on the everyday lives of german citizen and also caused immense inconvenience to them in many ways but, by the wall being up a potential world war three was avoided, so many could

In Friedman’s “It’s a Flat World, After All”, Friedman in a trip Bangalore, India accidentally “encountered the flattening of the world”. The following paper will analyze “It’s a Flat World, After All” and the flattening of the world. To conclude the paper I will summarize my thoughts on the flattening of the world.

On November 9, 1989 the Berlin wall came crumbling down. For 28 years the wall did nothing but make everyone's life worse. However, when the wall fell everyone’s lives were about to be impacted for the better. Families were reunited, friends saw each other again, and peace was restored. The fall of the wall marked the winding down of the Cold War, and started a new age where communism would cease to exist. Much of the credit was being given to Ronald Reagan, who had visited the wall just a few years earlier. When Reagan gave his “Tear down this wall” speech, no one could’ve predicted, that it would lead to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and the eventual end of the cold war. Although as a result all communist governments in Eastern Europe had come to an end, would be replaced by “democratically elected governments”. With all this, there was a glimpse of peace and a time of rejoicing for all of the world. ("Fall of

The Berlin Wall became a physical and historical symbol of the division of two ideologies; communism and capitalism. It also proved that there was a great amount of hostility and tension between the Soviets and Americans. It even showed the world the different ways one could rule a

These forces are the direct result of advanced technology. Moreover, the forces were made possible thanks to the World Wide Web (which is another force Friedman mentions). Technology and Internet are the real reasons our world became flat, and the reason the above flattener forces evolved. Companies, groups, and individuals – all connected together to form one global village. US companies started to outsource the back rooms of accounting firms and forwarding Dell customers to the 24/7 call center located in India. US companies were able to reduce cost, while making India a “customer service nation” and China a “low labor cost nation”.

Over the past decades, Globalization had made the world a much smaller place. In the passage While I was Sleeping by Thomas L Freidman and The Rise of the Rest by Fareed Zakaria, there is a connection between the two passage. Thomas L. Freidman use the metaphor "the world is flat" which mean there are many competition in the world now. Fareed Zakaria address the U.S power is diminishing because the rest of the world is catching up. Along with the diminishing power, America is also outsourcing jobs to other nations where labor are cheap, and abundant of natural resource are available for use, but it is taking jobs away from many American.

The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized a key turning even in diplomatic and government powers as it showed the supremacy of capitalist government system and brought the downfall of many communist countries.

The Berlin Wall had a major impact on humanity’s views on how society should be ruled. Berlin is the capital of Germany. After the ending of WWII, Berlin was split up into East Berlin, and West Berlin. East Berlin was communist, suffered from the repressions of the Communist Party. West Berlin had a better lifestyle, and had financial aid from the United States. From the years between nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, approximately 2.5 million people from East Berlin escaped to West Berlin. This toll included skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Because of the loss of these people, the economy in East Berlin was threatened. On August twelve-thirteen, nineteen sixty-one, the Berlin was built in order to stop the people of East Berlin from fleeing. The Berlin wall was a major point during the Cold War, and many opposed it. It gave another reason to detest communism.

Speaker Thomas Friedman is speaking at MIT, which is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “He is an American journalist specializing in foreign affairs, global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues. “ (Daniel H. Pink) He is talking about the basis on what the book is about and how he understood this new phenomenon. The book is titled “The World Is Flat”. This title is referring to “the global economic playing field being leveled.” This is a tremendous achievement that all started with Christopher Columbus discovering North America in 1492. This was the first development of the globalization of the world, which today has taken over economies all over the world. This advancement of technology has led to “accidently making Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors”. Mr. Friedman then references in chapter one of his book about all of the encounters he had in India that led him to the conclusion, “The World Is Flat”.

In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”

On June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan gave his speech “Tear Down this Wall,” in Brandenburg Gate West Berlin Reagan begins by discussing the purpose of the Berlin Wall and how the Communists in August of 1961 built it to keep the Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin, that this wall was more than just a wall; it was a stark symbol of decades of a Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia only to stop short of actual warfare. By giving this speech Reagan had intended to rally the people of West Berlin so the people would accept the western democracy and oppose the Berlin Wall. Due to Reagan being president the words he said had so much impact, he was able to use these appeals towards the German people and provide a very convincing argument.

Author Thomas L. Friedman analyses the technological advances that are creating a level economic playing field with previously disadvantaged countries rising in knowledge and wealth rivaling that of the United States and other world powers in the world. Telephone and computer technology, previously a stronghold only of developed countries, is now easily accessible and has been accessed and mastered by countries such as China and India, making these nations competitive. Friedman perceives the flattening effect as so insightful as to be compared in scope to the Industrial Revolution.

How many technological devices do you use daily? In this day and age, the list would probably include smart phones, laptop computers, tablets, or more, but do you know where these devices were made? Even if your device was assembled locally, there is a good chance that the parts inside come from a collaboration of companies working together from all over the globe that are part of the global supply chain. For the last few decades, more and more companies rely on outsourcing, to produce their products and to provide services. Which, in effect, has globalized our world and depends on countries being able to collaborate and work together to provide the products and services demanded by the customers at the end of the supply chain. As an example, journalist and author Thomas L. Friedman describes the global collaboration that took place in the production of a Dell laptop he had ordered, in his article, “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention,” from his book The World is Flat. Friedman speaks of the ‘flattening’ of the world, which is an international equalization of business competition, facilitated by increasing interconnectedness. He proposes that because of this flattening of the globe, the countries involved in the supply chains are hesitant to be involved in war because they do not want to risk losing their place in the supply chain and the higher standard of living that comes with it. These countries are

“Globalization is today's reality. Like it or not, the move to a world economy is a fact of life. At some point in the 1990s the process achieved critical mass and people started to sit up and take notice. Many were apprehensive.