The World Is Flat by Thomas Freidman

I do not normally not finish books, I guess it is a form of OCD or wishful thinking. I always think I am going to miss something or the good part of the book starts the very next page from where I quit and I need to give the author just one more chance. But then again it is I who is looking for entertainment and education thus perhaps I need to honker down and finish reading and quit expecting the author to entertain me and make things easy. However, whatever may be the case I have decided to stop reading The World is Flat. The following is my review of what little of the book I did read, and dear reader you are welcome to stop reading my review prematurely just like I had stopped reading the book.

First of all, I would like to state that when I read books I view them as a research paper that sets out to prove some point to me. It is the job of the author to make sure that I believe his argument and take his side, or at the very least accept that his points are valid and argument is structurally sound. What I found in Freidman’s book, all too often, was the mention of how many other people agree with his argument. Personally I do not care if the rest of the world agrees with the author it is his job to tell me why I should believe along with the rest of the world.

Second, I find that there is very little room in an argumentative book for personal prose. I see it as perhaps a necessity when making connections between the chapters, or points but in no way should it be the main portion of the book. Just as I do not care about how many of the author’s personal friends agree with his opinion I do not care whether or not the flight that he took for his next interview was in first class or coach, and how many times he called his wife during the trip.

Third, personally it seemed to me that the book had accumulated water weight during its many revisions. I have only read the very beginning of the 600+ pages but the fact that those first 30 pages could have been condensed into 5 killed all desire to continue reading. Yes sir I understand that the internet shrunk the world, but do I really need to know about the different types of browsers and languages and startup companies in order to understand your argument that the world is shrinking? I do not think so. Walking away from this book I do not want to know more about the internet than a computer science graduate, I want to walk away believing that, in fact, the world shrunk.

Finally, while I do agree with the idea of the shrinking world, I have issues with the opinion of the author that the shrinking is good for everyone, and that you better learn to adapt or be left in the dust. Is it really good that US jobs are shipped overseas? Sure it’s cheap and it increases productivity of the doctors and tax accountants and hedge fund managers, but what about those who did not have access to top notch education? What about those who are just not as smart as doctors or nuclear physicists? What about those who would be perfectly happy with a middle class job of being an assistant or a secretary? Yes the world is shrinking, but I would not be so hasty in deeming it a good thing.

99 Red Balloons

99 Luftballons Lyrics

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99 Red Balloons Lyrics

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I am here again for yet another review, this time for the song that so many of us have heard, and probably like “99 Red Balloons”. Honestly, this is one of my all time favorites, both in German and in English. I understand that the lyrics of the two are slightly different, but I love the German version for itself, and the English for the message it contains.

It is no secret that the song was written during the age of the Cold War and the image the lyrics paint is something we would expect from the escalation of the situation between the two countries. But even though the cold war is over would’t we expect political powers over exaggerating a similar occurrence even now?? After all they exaggerate so many other things that are no big deal. Think about the Cuban missile crisis, now I know that it took place during the Cold War but still too many people on both sides got too antsy and exploded the situation into an almost world catastrophe. And when people get antsy about something and don't think things through terrible mistakes are made, for which other people, those that are innocent, have to pay. I mean what harm is there to take a step back and rethink the situation and the possible actions.

I guess I can see one positive thing about being hasty when you are political leader. The faster you do something the less chance there is for someone to notice what you are doing. Also, if the decision you are making is a very difficult one and there is no telling which action guarantees the correct response the faster you make the decision the less chance there is that someone will notice you mistake, if it was the mistake, in the future.

Laziness and fear for their own behinds are what drives hasty decisions of every politician, because when something that requires hard work and difficult negotiations, (like welfare reorganisation) comes to the table no one wants to be the first one to go after it. The instant leap and deadly strike of the "enemy" make you look more like a hero. The tedious work which is often required of political leaders doesn't give them enough time in the spot light, so no one wants to do it.

Thus, in our future we should expect more of the instantaneous attacks against "something" we do not understand rather than the work preformed on identifying and clarifying that "something". And hopefully we do not wind up like the end of the song where the civilization is brought down to dust. Even though the current direction we are heading predicts nothing other than dust in our future.

Dea

Flightplan

July 27, 2007 watched the movie Flightplan.



Interesting, somewhat exciting, not going to watch it again most definitely. Interesting enough that the production of plots for movies that have something to do with planes has become so difficult in the post 9/11 world. The subject is carefully tiptoed around, and the presence of a Muslim character(s) is highlighted.

However, let us return to the movie. there is not much action, and surprisingly one woman is able to defeat 2 evil doers by herself without even a scratch and without even using the power she has, superior knowledge of the plane design. There were a couple glimpses of her knowing the wiring and the access to certain areas, yet there was no obvious attempt to "play god" while the hijackers attempted to control the plane. I mean yeah the whole idea with blaming the hijacking on the insane woman that thinks she lost her daughter and getting away with $ is really smart, it does not leave room for the "god mode" plane tempering. Perhaps if the two ideas were used on two different occasions that would allow for the full exploration of the possibilities.

Speaking of exploring the possibilities to the fullest, the word on the net is "script writers will soon strike" so shouldn't the producers stretch ideas out as far as they possibly could instead of bungling a few ideas together throwing them into the blender and setting it to "liquefy". It would be much pleasant if the ideas were sampled like fine wine and not mixing in a belly of a partying college kid.

Well the rant has continued on far enough. in the end i would like to summarize, it is honestly not worth watching. It is OK to watch it on a Friday night when there is nothing else on TV and you are brain dead from the five days of work. But don't go out of your way to buy it, or illegally download it.

Thanks for reading,
Dea