純粹真實的自我

最近，之前一起受訓的同事提及Cheers雜誌提到了未來產業外移、白領階級開始失業與全球化的議題；另一位同事則分享了Thomas Friendman的演講。我想這些是我們這個年代的人多多少少可以參考的看法，時代在變，未來會怎麼樣，誰也說不準囉。<演講網頁 in MIT OCW>
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在當今的社會中，很有可能你下次拍的 X 光片是由印度邦加羅爾的 Bhavva 幫你判讀，或者是就像 Thomas Friedman 的第一手經驗一樣，「穿著睡袍的祖母貝蒂」在她鹽湖城的家中替你預定 Jet Blue 的機票。在「全球化 3.0 」的世界中， Friedman 認為，身在遙遠國度的人將會成為市場上的重要關鍵。

Chances are good that Bhavya in Bangalore will read your next x-ray, or as Thomas Friedman learned first hand, “Grandma Betty in her bathrobe” will make your Jet Blue plane reservation from her Salt Lake City home. In “Globalization 3.0,” Friedman contends, people from far-flung places will become principal players in the marketplace.Friedman 在他最新的著作「世界是平的」中，他描述了一個預料之外的科技與社會變動，夷平了整個經濟世界的崎嶇，「意外的讓邦加羅爾、北京和美國的貝西達成為隔壁的鄰居。」今日，「各種膚色的個人和團隊將都可以隨插隨用各種資源。」

In his latest book, The World is Flat, Friedman describes the unpl anne d cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and “accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors.” Today, “individuals and small groups of every color of the rainbow will be able to plug and play.”

Friendman 所描述的夷平機制包括了柏林圍牆的倒下，包括了 Netscape 的興起和網路熱潮，以及其所引起數以百兆計的光纖纜線的投資，讓全球跨國合作得以發生的共通網路平台和開放原始碼軟體，外包、海外生產、供應鍊規劃、內包（或稱委內，承接公司內部業務）的興起。 Friedman 認為這些夷平機制在 2000 年時統合在一起運作，「架構了一個平坦的世界：不受時間、距離、地理和越來越超越語言的限制，透過網路的平台來進行各種知識和工作的分享。」正在這平台出現的時候，三個巨大的經濟體跟著踏入世界舞台，印度、中國和前蘇聯。「三十億人口原先只能袖手旁觀，現在正式踏上了舞台。」

Friedman's list of “flatteners” includes the fall of the Berlin Wall; the rise of Netscape and the dotcom boom that led to a trillion dollar investment in fiber optic cable; the emergence of common software platforms and open source code enabling global collaboration; and the rise of outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining and insourcing. Friedman says these flatteners converged around the year 2000, and “created a flat world: a global, web-enabled platform for multiple forms of sharing knowledge and work, irrespective of time, distance, geography and increasingly, language.” At the very moment this platform emerged, three huge economies materialized -- those of India , China and the former Soviet Union --“and three billion people who were out of the game, walked onto the playing field.”

最後一次命運的匯聚決定了美國在這個全球化的最終章中扮演的角色， Friedman 將其描述為「政治的完美風暴」：網路泡沫化、 911 恐怖攻擊和安隆假帳事件，正當我們必須面對全球化的事實和在新世界中競爭時，「讓我們整個國家都分心他顧，注意力完全集中到了別的地方。」

A final convergence may determine the fate of the U.S. in this final chapter of globalization. A “political perfect storm,” as Friedman describes it -- the dotcom bust, the attacks of 9/11, and the Enron scandal -- “distract us completely as a country.” Just when we need to face the fact of globalization and the need to compete in a new world, “we're looking totally elsewhere.”

有關講者：
Thomas L. Friedman 獲得 2002 的普利茲獎中的評論獎項，這也是他為紐約時報所贏得的第三個普利茲獎。他在 1995 年成為這份報紙的國際事務專欄作家。之前他是華盛頓的經濟事務首席評論員人，在那之前則是白宮的首席評論員。

Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for The New York Times . He became the paper's foreign-affairs columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau and before that he was the chief White House correspondent.

Friedman 在 1981 年加入時代雜誌，並且在 1982 年被指派擔任時代派駐貝魯特當地的主任。 1984 年他被從貝魯特調到耶路撒冷，並且擔任時代派駐以色列當地的分部主任直到 1988 年為止。 Friedman 先生在 1983 年獲得普利茲國際報導獎（從黎巴嫩），以及 1988 年的普利資國際報導獎（從以色列）。

Friedman joined The Times in 1981 and was appointed Beirut bureau chief in 1982. In 1984 he was transferred from Beirut to Jerusalem , where he served as Israel bureau chief until 1988. Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon ) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel ).

他的著作《從貝魯特到耶路撒冷》（ 1989 年出版），獲得 1989 年的美國非小說獎。第二本《凌志汽車與橄欖樹》（ 2000 年出版）則在 2000 年時獲得了海外出版商俱樂部的最佳外交政策非小說獎項，並被翻譯成 27 種語言。

His book, From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1989 and The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy and has been published in 27 languages.

Friedman 出生於 Minneapolis ，在 1975 年於 Brandeis 大學獲得地中海地區研究的學士學位， 1978 年他則是從牛津大學獲得了中東研究的碩士學位。

Born in Minneapolis , Friedman received a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford .

Friedman 在紐約時報的網址 Friedman's site at The New York Times