More on flat worlds

Tom Friedman continues to churn out books about what the world is going to look like. I suppose he should be commended for being prolific. Can't comment too much on the quality of the content he produces in his books though. I haven't actually read any of his books. But, I do read his columns on NYTimes sometimes. I used to read back before the whole Iraq war marching drums started rolling . And then for some reason, he jumped on the Iraq war bandwagon and the fact that it was the right thing to do and it was absolutely necessary (discussed here earlier).

What does that say aboutFriedman's ability (or lack thereof) to make sense from nonsense - is really up to whoever cares a sh*t to judge.

But he's out now with another book. This one apparently drubs on about how the green revolution will be the next big industrial revolution of-sorts, the next technology driver, the next culmination of all known/hoped/wished-for messianic movements and events all wrapped into one (including the love children of Gandhi and Mandela, marrying those of MLK, and JFK before finally being crowned kings and/or queens of Mother Earth).

Slate's got a review of this one. Clearly, the man loves jumping onto the latest bandwagon - no matter what it be. Whether it's for the war when it was popular, before going against it when it was unpopular. Gotta love a weathervane.

The world is a flat circle

... going round and round.

NY Times, which a couple of years ago had made its Op-Ed section a paid access site, has finally realized the error of their ways and are now back to allowing free access to all. In case you can't make the connection - they have come full circle. That's good news - right?! Perhaps. Trouble is, most of their columnists have really lost credibility, at least in my opinion, since their blind support for the war on Iraq and the no-questions-asked clean chit to the bullcrap fed to them by the Bush administration with respect to Iraq.

One of the chief defaulters on the credibility front is Tom Friedman, columnist and author who wrote, among others, the famous "The World Is Flat" which touts outsourcing as a great positive movement. Recently he wrote this column in the NYTimes.

While the article may not signify a full circle traversal by him - it clearly implies a backtracking from his earlier position of being gung-ho on the war on Iraq. In fact, he's backtracked so much so that, off late, he has been rather apologetic about that error in judgment. Well - good for him, I say.

But it's difficult though to figure out what his true intentions are with all this - to borrow a Republican term used very effectively against John Kerry - flip-flopping. Tough to figure out if he's just trying to win back credibility and through that, readership for his next edition on outsourcing or Iraq - or that he really thinks deep-down inside that he somehow screwed up and now he's trying to make amends for it. He may be back to being on Bush's case now - but when it really mattered in the buildup to the most useless and counter-productive war in recent times, he failed f***ing miserably in exhibiting good sense.

But then again, he wasn't alone in that.