Thomas Friedman Visits The Global Village
And peers into the two faces of globalization:
India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan each spontaneously generated centers for their young people's energies. In India they're called "call centers," where young men and women get their first jobs and technical skills servicing the global economy and calling the world. In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia they're called "madrassas," where young men, and only young men, spend their days memorizing the Koran and calling only God. Ironically, U.S. consumers help to finance both. We finance the madrassas by driving big cars and sending the money to Saudi Arabia, which uses it to build the madrassas that are central to Al Qaeda's global supply chain. And we finance the call centers by consuming modern technologies that need backup support, which is the role Infosys plays in the global supply chain.ÝÝBoth Infosys and Al Qaeda challenge America: Infosys by competing for U.S. jobs through outsourcing, and Al Qaeda by threatening U.S. lives through terrorism. As Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins foreign policy professor, put it: "Our next election will be about these two challenges ó with the Republicans focused on how we respond to Al Qaeda, and the losers from globalization, and the Democrats focused on how we respond to Infosys, and the winners from globalization."
Every once in a while the technology and terrorist supply chains intersect ó like last week. Reuters quoted a Spanish official as saying after the Madrid train bombings: "The hardest thing [for the rescue workers] was hearing mobile phones ringing in the pockets of the bodies. They couldn't get that out of their heads."
Isn't the solution to outsourcing to be the sort of local talent that people want to hire? I suppose that means more education. Anyway we've heard this song before, back when it was manufacturing that was going overseas.
And since the Spanish voters rewarded the pre-election bombers (whoever they were) with a Socialist win, should we in the States expect a 'soft-target' on Halloween night?
Crid at March 14, 2004 6:44 PM
The sort of local talent "people" (some big corporations) want to hire are, apparenly, people making $2 an hour. You can't even hire an illegal immigrant locally for that money!
Amy Alkon at March 14, 2004 6:51 PM
ISPAT is actually requiring American workers to train their Indian replacements before their jobs are outsourced.
Jeep Crew at March 18, 2004 11:36 AM