" Countries which have a McDonald Francise don't go to war with each other - Op-Ed Journey of Thomas Friedman
Friedman is a purveyor of metaphors. When he found time after his labours around 911, he belted out a best-seller book, 'The World is Flat'. The 'Flattening of the playing field' metaphor used by Nandan Nilkeni during a Discovery channel shoot meets the 'World is round' realization, borne out of six centuries’ old misconception that Columbus harboured about reaching India when in fact he had reached America, and Friedman then conflates the two into a heady brew of the World is Flat. True, it does capture evocatively some truths, though may be at best partial. It talks of millions of people being pulled up the economic ladder in India, China & elsewhere by leveraging the technology to out-source and off-shore work in ways previously unimaginable. Yet he fails even to recognize, let alone acknowledge, the reality beyond the narrow islands of prosperity he visits.
One has to only turn to the pages of history to ascertain the veracity of these aphorisms. When America can sleep in the same bed with the autocratic, and often theocratic, rulers of Saudi Arabia & Kuwait, why so much fuss over Iraq & Iran? Answer is obvious. It has nothing to do with democracy.
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