The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas Friedman

I've been slower than usual reading Thomas Friedman's, The Lexus and the Olive Tree - not because it's a hard book. It provoked a lot of thought, and did something which I have profoundly enjoyable - understanding the perspectives of globalization at a global level. Most of the time one gets stuck in a local context, and you may not realize it. Or you might find yourself thinking in a more global context, while people around you aren't. Either way, the net result is the same - there's an odd disconnection that one can't quite put a finger on. This book won't solve that disconnection, but at times it gave some good ideas on explaining it.

I can say I went into the book very negatively, mainly because I don't agree with the title of 'the World is Flat' which bloggers around the world still seem to use as an explanation and solution combination for so many things that it, whatever it is, has become so mundane that the purpose of most of the books bought are probably keeping bookshelves on the world attached to the floor. And it's because of that reason that I purchased this book.

Of course, it's not that simple - it never is. I purchased the book the same night I wrote of in, 'A Dinner of Peers' - over a month ago. But to date, I haven't seen this book in South Trinidad. And I looked. That's a story in and of itself.

Friedman paint a realistic picture, I think. Before I read the book, coming to terms with the concept of globalization seemed more a matter of either being for or against multinational corporations - McDonalds, what have you. While I've been reading up on economics (I remember Richard Jobity shaking his head at the first book I read on economics. It didn't even rate a review), understanding the global aspects has eluded me. I won't say that I completely understand it - I don't think anyone does - but I have a better grasp of what the global economy is doing, and a lot of the things friend Willy Smith has been telling me have fallen into place. I suppose it's the difference between micro and macro economics.

But what's in the book? A lot, really - and the best parts of the book are the examples that Friedman gives, from Mr. Singh, Minister of Finance in India (now the Prime Minister) to excerpts from Cuba to... the list goes on. This concrete hindsight Friedman offers is at the least hard to refute, and the perspective was something I found fresh - though it was written in 2004. Not much has changed.

Let it be said I didn't expect Friedman to write about the developing nations comprehensively. He did. It's hard to refute that globalization, as it is, does not allow for as much cultural segregation in the world - and that there is a trend toward integration that diversity advocates find difficult to grasp. I'm a diversity advocate to a degree. But:

diversity + integration = 0

In other words, the more integration there is, the less diversity is because they are relative to each other. And globalization is integration in an economic sense, and economics around the world. Friedman attributes this to a change around the world when the Berlin Wall came down - and I find it a little hard to swallow that all of these changes happened when the wall came down, but... who am I to argue? On November 9th, 1989, I was in Dallas, Texas and convinced that I would change the world and have it do my bidding.¹

But sitting here in Trinidad, at this dark hour, I have been remixing public domain works for OpenDepth.com which were originally written by an Englishman, instant messenging with my girlfriend in Suriname, and the best friend I have never met in Canada. Now, 'The Guru' is playing - a fellow from India searching for the 'American Dream' that many Americans can't even find. My Uncle called me to discuss the price of copper² in other parts of the world. And I'm looking for a job or contracts from... anywhere. Don't tell me globalization isn't happening. I may laugh at you. But for the average person in the Caribbean, globalization is an abstract concept which means Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coke - both definitions of the latter.

Friedman goes into detail explaining and presenting his perspectives - from Microprocessor Immune Deficiency Syndrome to the Golden Straightjacket which globalized economies are embracing to various degrees. Reading it all in, it equates to one thing to me - eliminating the fat, cutting out the useless bureaucracy. But others may get different things from the book.

This is not a book to read and accept without thought - having read this book, I found a respect for Friedman that I lacked before because his work begs scrutiny, as if in search for a better explanation for the way things are. This is not a book to be read in a day or a week either... it is to be digested. Thought of, thought through, thought agains - the theme is obvious. And because of all the thought that's going on, it's difficult to nail down too much about the book except that it requires thought going in and thought going out. Few books I have read have this effect on me. Well written? Yes. Good perspectives? Yes. Interesting hypotheses? Yes. Likely to be true on many counts? Yes. Worth the price? Yes, but only if you intend to read it instead of placing it on a bookshelf.

If you want to get a better grasp on how globalization is perceived around the world, read this book. I may have to re-read it next year.

¹ Being 17 was fun. Extremely.