Competition is good because it brings out the best in each country, company or person.
I started reading 'The world is flat' by Thomas L. Friedman; it is about globalization and the history of it. I never really thought I would be reading such a book, but my father gave it to my sister and the maids put it in my room, so I read a chapter before I sleep.
The book is interesting as it describe few things; the author said how globalization went through three steps:
1. Globalization 1.0: is up to 1800; when the competition was between countries.
2. Globalization 2.0: is from 1800 to 2000, where it was about cooperation's going international and competition between them.
3. Globalization 3.0: since 2000 the competition started between individual.
Globalization is when companies and individual work internationally, when Taxes of people in the US are done in the US, when CEO's in America and Europe has personal assistants in India, when call centers in America and the help line for Dell, Microsoft and so many other organizations is in India, when a city in China is to Japan what India is to Japan.
I don't know much about the author of the book but I know he is Jewish plus I know everything that was written in the book about him. My sister said that she saw him once in TV and that he was talking about Muslims and Islam in a not very nice way.
In our business courses, we are studying about organizations going global; maybe they should start giving more courses about 'the individual' and how can represent our selves in this world. Where are we, as Muslims, in this world? Some people would say that Dubai is the New York of the 21st century, but where does that put us as people who are from UAE or live here?
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Globalization
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45 comments:
Friedman is a very well-respected economist. I doubt he's said anything bad about Islam because he's Jewish. It's probably something driven by money and not much else.
Interesting post. I find economics always so dull, but it's extremely relevant and we should be more aware of it.
Whatever his personal opinion is,is his personal opinion. You can't disregard him as an economist because of how he views islam.
That has nothing to do with his studies or what he writes about.
I didn't disregard him as an economist becuase of how he views Islam, I don't even know how he views Islam.
I just mentioned that to make the point that i'm reading that book, I heard his views are not that great about Islam, I don't care about that, it would never stop me from reading the book, because:
1. I want to know more about the subject and I think his book is interesting.
2. A book like that has nothing to do about Islam, it will help me as a Muslim understand the world.
3. I personally don't care what's the believes of authors.
she didn't disregard him as an economist, i just made a comment about him.. aah.. i should have worded it better..
yalla baseeta..
so MJ ru going to change majors to econ?
Baseeta ma testabtashash. (I'm not sure i pronounced it right. lol. My little brother can say that 10 times, i can't even say it once. -slaps lil brother-
I just transfered this year to College of Business and Economics after studying in the IT college for two years. -slaps self-
I will probably study MIS, Management Information System.
Pienso que un sueno parecido no volvera mas
Y me pintaba las manos y la cara de azul
Y me improviso el viento rapido me llevo
Y me hizo a volar en el cielo infinito
Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu
:)
are you ready for today?
You gotta save your energy and I'll bring the coffee.
(i have a.d.d)
-jams to BEP*pump it-
ok. I don't know what all that was about. but thanks? :)
I'm not sure if I'm ready, BUT THE PART-YYY STARTED!!!
*dances to Let's get it started by Black eyes peas* :P
... *drinks pepsi*
MJ
MIS is cool.. one of my closest friends studied it in AUS. A good degree to have.
Z
where did you get that song from? is it supposed to be italian? the grammar is messed up and some words are not italian. spanish is my other guess..
anyway glad you can sing and appreciate songs in many languageZ :)
MJ
why can't we get the dancing banana icons in here like in that chat window at Neocounter???!
Guess MIS is cool. I don't really know what I think anymore. I can't decide if I want to work with people or not. At the moment, I just want to stay in a room and do my own stuff. That is not how life is to be, i'm having fun!
and Biz and her spanish... haha. last night... *headache*
i've been soo busy lately, i haven't had the chance to actually sit down and speak to my dad or my brother.
So it turns out after dinner (first time i've had dinner with them in forever) my dad was telling me about the books he recently bought.
He brought the world is flat by thomas friednman.
me" that books sounds familiar (5 secs later) OH MJ'S DAD GAVE IT TO THEM TO READ... What made you get that book?"
My brother pipes in 'We have a lot of his books. I have latitudes and longitudes in my room, Its an awesome book"
me... "wtf?! why are you reading that? what the hell?..."
yes yes a typical after dinner discussion. Kinda odd, kinda random and i had to mention it.
Oh MJ my dad said to continue reading, its a good book, and try to get his other books.
on another note, father says friedmen says ok things about islam (nothing too bad).
BUJ,
>>Z
where did you get that song from? is it supposed to be italian? the grammar is messed up and some words are not italian. spanish is my other guess..
anyway glad you can sing and appreciate songs in many languageZ :)<<
That song is by
the Gypsy Kings -Volare.
Its a mix i think between spanish and Portuguese? Im not sure, i'll have to check.
Come on you have to know who the gypsy kings are! Wait,maybe you don't. It was a big hit back in the 80's and 90's. Virtually nobody my age has any idea who they are :/ They kick ass!
and mi casa su casa (spanish), I don't know italian >Pizza< is as much as i know.
Z,
OF COURSE I know the gypsy kings! they are very famous, a bit dated now but still famous. Volare means I want, i think.
Spanish and Italian are very similar, if you can speak one you can understand the other. mi casa su casa is similar to mia casa e sua casa in Italian (my house is your house).
Actually when I went to Mexico (they speak Spanish there) I communicated fine with my broken Italian. It all works!
So father agrees with Fried-man?
What's this latitude longitude book? sounds interesting.
I got leo the african back!! :D
Biz,
Can you imagine what would happen if my dad and your dad start talking about books? haha. I can't stop laughing, they would be worse than us, and people think we are 'bad' enough! :D
*is being pulled to go to mall of the emirates* :S
-sneaks into brothers room while he's sleeping-
ok i go to his desk and its packed full of books...i skim through the titles (what went wrong? -bernard lewis-, the place of tolerance in islam-khaled abou el fadil *haven't read that one yet*)
ahh found the book "longitudes and attitudes" by thomas l.friAedman
(LMAO @ typo from previous comment.i just noticed it.sorry!)
HAHAAH MJ!! MY DAD POST HIS OFFICIAL SEAL (STAMP) ON THIS BOOK. heheh.
oh my god,i can imagine your dad and my dad sitting there discussing books and going on and on. i can also imagine us recording the conversation and placing hidden cameras, which we will probably do soon -winks-. muhahah.
Buj,
I know they speak spanish in mexico. hehe. I'll give you the titles of a some great spanish and italian music. I mean i have an expert in my own family. Fadeha if i didnt appreciate it or even like it.
and my dad and brother booked liked the book. said its a good read.
have you read books by karen armstrong? read holy war if you haven't. great read.
*both instead of booked.
oh and MJ>> i should have been there today at mall of the emirates. damn!
my dad may drag me to the book fair again. I'll try to get out of it (so i wont get harassed there) and work on my project.
ooo more books by thomas l. friedman
From Beirut to Jerusalem
and
The lexus and the olive tree.
From Beirut to Jerusalem I was told is a textbook in some high schools and colleges in the middle east.
I didn't find the books I want in Virgin Mega store, Identity by Amin Maalouf (which Biz didn't finish reading yet and I would like to have that book in my library) and Prince among slaves. I just sent the driver to Sahara Mall, hope he will find them.
and mall of the emirates today... *headache* I might write about it later.. or maybe Biz can write about it. :P
I want an official stamp for me too!!
I promised to get you (and the others) the custom made official stamp..
From the libaray of (insert name here)
and MJ i can't write about today;s incident since i dont know all the details.
lol@official stamp!
when i was in uni i got myself an embossing stamp with my initials,, i didn't use it much other than to emboss my piano music (to differentiate it from my brother's) but since our names all start with the same letter there was no point really.. still gonna be a long time till i have an official stamp though.
i like the idea of recording coversations between 2 fathers. i once discussed it with a childhood friend of mine to do it with our fathers. their father has a lot of b3eers by the way, much much more than us :(
one day i'll have my OFFICIAL stamp and my own b3eers!
oh yeah, also thanks guys for all the suggestions about the books. I will be on the lookout for them when i finish my to-read list. i have no idea why i'm still re-reading the Alchemist when i have a few that i haven't read. on the list is:
-Bidayaat, Amin Maalouf (Translated from French to Arabic, his latest book).
-The Travels of Marco Polo (I had to read this after I read Ibn Battuta, so I can argue to the Italians that we Arabs did it first, and we did it better. Apparently although Ibn Battuta was younger by a few decades than Marco Polo, his travels covered 3 times the Italian's distance)
-The Valley of the Assassins.
-The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.
As you see I have a lot to do, and I'm a very slow reader (compared to you two) so it'll take a while, but once I'm done I'll share my thoughts with a blog post for sure :)
I don't think I will ever want an official stamp. (I don't even have a signature) BUT I want that stamp because it is soo cool and it will say 'From the library of (my name!)' so MY books won't be taken by my sisters when they get married (that the main point! :P) and I will just go stamp all my favourite books even if they are my sister's, I don't care!! (6)
I'm also sure that I will never want to own any b3eers, especially after last week (there was national day celebrations all week in uni and there were b3eers) and I took like a 101 showers since then! (I have a feeling Biz will say 'and you call yourself emaraty!)
oh and about the recording fathers. I like taking pictures and videos, I funniest videos are the ones that you tell the person you are going to take a picture and they wait for you to take it and you are taking a video of them... right Biz? ;)
If my grades were not that great this semester, I can blame it on reading!!
HAHAHAHA.
(i'm laughing at both your comments)
where to start? I've read all about Ibn Battuta. I mention him often, as well as ibn arabi, but for different reasons.
Buj i should get you this official stamp we are talking about, its sooooooo coool. You see my brother in law got it custom made for my father as a gift for fathers day. Its AWESOME!
about the b3eers, i dont think i will ever own them. I have no use for them? I'd own horses though!
and yes MJ what kind of emiraty are you, not wanting b3eers! But b3eers betray their owners!Horses dont. so HA!
oh and i never follow my reading lists because then i feel obligated to do it, and thus lose intrest.
ohh and damn you MJ with the whole 'im going to take a picture of you' and you are actually taking a video and we look like fools!!
well what goes around comes around and we did it to you MANY MANY TIMES! so HA!
yes, I SAW and HEARD you laughing!! hahaha.
and I would own horses!... maybe we can add to the castle idea? ;)
hmm maybe..yes...maybe..but where would we gather that much 'MULLA?'
lmao i just remembered Mulla plaza. Is that in sharjah or dubai?
anyways....
Maybe I should explain what is going on here. We are sitting in the tv room 'studying' so our power points slides are open and we are kind of 'reading' what is in it. BUT we are also checking blogs. When I busted out laughing, Biz said 'Internet blah blah blah' as an explanation to my brother as to why we are laughing.
... and the videos... *cries*
yes yes... i dont think they bought that...ahahaha.
and me teaching your younger brother 'WARNING WARNING MAJOR LOSER CROSSING BY' and we applied it to your sister who entered the living room.
yes yes quite funny.
The proposal is about starting a marketing department for the university, run by students. and they agreed. Would you call this a sign?
BIZ
OYE! you gonna get me a stamp, but I'm not that old!!! Not as old as your dad at least.. hehe.. Anyway it's the thought that counts..
You gave me a good idea about the official stamp biz-ness.. I migth make one for my dad. He doesn't have a stamp (official for books) but he has a company stamp, but wouldn't that just be so luzery (is there such a word?) to use that on one's personal books?
Wouldn't it be cool to get a stamp/embosser combo? So with time when the embossing loses it's curves u still have the ink.. i gotta look into this!
its not INK! lmao! Ink is like ...ghetto.
Its an embosser!!
I found this quickly online..
http://www.bizsiteusa.com/seals.html
my dad has the silver one.
oh and it came in handy for my dad, because people are ALWAYS borrowing his books, for work and outside of work.
He has to keep track of them, especially the ones at work, because you can't find them here.
he has soo many books... -mumbles-
>>but I'm not that old!!!<<
Your age is probably closer to her dad! mwahaha.
and each one of us has their own reasons for the stamp, mine was exaplained about. Ma sistas ain't takin me books.
... why do I need to know what slides in a PP are important for a final exam when I only have to study from them and I don't need the book!!
i just bs'd through my quiz. INSHALLAH KHAIR!
*people didnt know what bs'd meant
bull shitt-ed
i got mj's permission to cuss, but only me!
Did u get written permission?
do you want written permission? i can send you one!
-screams at MJ!-
"write up a permission for BUJ. NOW! CAPISH?!"
cool.. can I have a coke with that as well? :)
>>can I have a coke with that as well?<<
:S
what are you talking about? *gives Buj a coke*
it's just that u've been so nice to me giving me permissions and all.. i thought i'd ask for a coke coz i was thirsty... thnx :)
maslaha, wallahhhhhhhhhhhh
was6a
the "wow" factor
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