-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier this year the famous New York Times columnist and three time Pulitzer prize winner, Thomas Friedman, published a best-seller titled " The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the 21st Century" (which does not seem to have attracted any attention on goanet at least to my knowledge). By "Flat World" Friedman means the modern age of globalisation which has acted as a flattening or levelling force enabling extremely wide access (including to the people of countries like India) to the fruits of progress and prosperity.
At the outset Friedman lists "ten forces that flattened the world". The first of these, a veritable genesis of his flat world, is 11/9/89 (written American style, month first) "When the Walls came Down and the Windows went Up". The Walls he is referring to is primarily the Berlin Wall. He writes: "The fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9/89 unleashed forces that ultimately liberated all the captive peoples of the Soviet Empire. But it actually did so much more. It tipped the balance of power across the world towards those advocating democratic, consensual, free-market-oriented governance." The initial account seems to be of the 'effect' of the flattening force #1. The way the wall 'actually' came down is described towards the end of the book, almost anticlimactically as " .. on 11/9/89 border guards just opened the gates " (to the innumerable East Germans who had suddenly converged on it). Lately, I have been thinking: can the Naval presence at Dabolim be considered as a "Great Wall of Goa"? How would Goa be different -- politically, culturally, socially, economically, technologically -- if it was not there all these years? Has anyone thought about this? It may well be worth pondering. Just suppose that Dabolim, under civilian leadership that was as intent in aviation as Kerala's government is these days for the sake of its people, and its airport had grown 'somewhat as fast' as IT juggernauts' Bangalore and Hyderabad. Can you imagine what Goa would be like today? More important, if the "great wall" analogy is valid, what would it take -- at the state and national levels -- to flatten this particular "wall" and unleash the forces of self determination, innovation, openness and advancement if these are considered desirable? Anybody want to hazard some guesses? (I am using the word 'hazard' advisedly)! Cheers!