The World Is Flat: A breif history of the globalised world in the twenty first century – Thomas L Friedman.

Meenakshi Doctor digs deep into the subject of globalisation and emerges with an enthusiastic recommendation for even the most resistant technophobe .

For those of us who view ‘globalisation’ to be a distant, detached and decidedly geeky word, here are two books that really make this phenomenon come alive.

Thomas L Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winning foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, which, by his own admission, is ‘the best job in the world.’ All doors to the global village are now open to him and he is an interested globetrotter who tells his stories vividly in a rather Marco Polo manner of discovery and excitement – making him emerge as a respected Guru of Globalisation.

Where’s my Olive Tree, then?

For the uninitiated, we recommend that you read ‘The Lexus and The Olive Tree’ first’ It is so named, because, one day in 1992, Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and was awed by the complete automation of the robots that put arguably one of the most popular luxury cars in the world together. That very same evening, as he ate sushi on a super fast Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East wrangle between the Palestinians and Israelis. And then it hit him – half the world was lusting after those Japanese Lexuses and the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree in the dessert. Through absorbing real-life anecdotes, Friedman traces how globalisation in a world, pre 9/11, replaced the Cold War systems with technological information and ideas seamlessly integrating national borders. He tells us how Berlin Walls and even LoCs are of little relevance in a global or should we say, Google economy! There is a ‘Disneyfication’ happening on all corners of the earth. On the flip side, Friedman also talks of the backlash that globalisation produces amongst those who feel left behind or brutalised by its relentless onslaught. The rise of global markets also leads to a rise of the power of individuals (think Bill Gates and Osama Bin Laden) who wield more power than many nation states. Who is the Lexus and who is the Olive Tree? No points for guessing there! But finally, The Lexus and the Olive Tree need to be kept in fine balance. and while he does not actually predict it, 9/11 becomes rather inevitable.