Tom Friedman of the NYT shills his new book on The Daily Show. He talks about his visit to ‘Bahn-galore’ and how the chairman of Infosys laid the smack down on lazy Americans.
Friedman’s big thesis is that Americans need to churn out more scientists and engineers, a good moonshot-like project would be energy independence from the Saudis, and wouldn’t it be nice if the President drove a hybrid car.
He’s a surprisingly fluid, comfortable public speaker with good message discipline: his opening schtick is lifted straight from his column and probably even from the book jacket. Conversely, Friedman has a line, ‘Have you ever met a 12-year-old who said, “I want to be an engineer?” ‘ Hello, ever met any desi American kids?
I’m not sure what he’s gesturing about here, but let’s hope it has nothing to do with threading.
Oh Vij-ji – You missed on this story in TOI about the Speaker of Indian parliment refused to go to Australia because of their security policy of frisking even high officials from fellow democracies. Don’t know if SMers remember that a couple of years ago the Indian Defense Minister was frisked at an american airport on arrival. What a shame.
Well now Mr. Fernandes has vowed not to visit these shores again. And Speaker Somnath is doing INdia proud!!
(Perhaps the above deserves a separate post on SM Frisked! Somnath Won’t Do a George
Perhaps Mr. Friedman should reccommend that the US specifically and the West generally begin to respect other cultures and countries just a bit more. I wonder what the american reaction will be if Donald R. or Condi are frisked at an Indian airport.
I’m not generally a Friedman fan, but I thought he made some excellent points in this interview. Specifically he pointed to the example of Kennedy calling for a man on the Moon and how that big national project inspired so many other technological innovations. He is absolutely right that we need another technological cause. Its just not cool to be a scientist or an engineer in America anymore and no little kid wants to be an Astronaut. I don’t want to live in an America where kids don’t want to be astronauts.
Friedman’s interview on Charlie Rose was a must see. I am in totally agreement about getting Americans back on the math and science binge. The kids that were inspired by NASA are now becoming members of AARP. During the interview, He was a little too focused on being the mouthpiece of IIT CEOs. Americans are still pound for pound the most productive workers on the planet after…the French….
I’m a moderate on Friedman but there’s an old quote of his I really liked – (paraphrasing)
“when Bill Gates goes to China, the kids line up and pack standing room only theaters as if he was Britney Spears.
In the US, the only person who gets that sort of reception is…. Britney Spears.”
A little limerick/rap
Tom Friedman’s all shtick, no stick. His slick lines are makin my ears sick A teflon intellectual, His ideas are ineffectual, The world isn’t flat; that’s just a trick.
[Apologies…]
“…I don’t want to live in an America where kids don’t want to be astronauts.”
Oh, c’mon, give ’em a break, they’re still space cadets. Just wait till they grow up.
Friedman, despite his “love” for India, doesn’t understand the concept of the “village” as a part of economy and technological revolution in India. So, when he ran into some Indians trying to advance the village with technology, he just said “you’re wrong” and moved on (there’s a clip in his Discovery-Times piece, I’ll hunt it down, but if anyone has seen it or knows where it is…)
Why do we have to keep dealing with this idiot Friedman on this blog? Isn’t it enough that he has a Times column?
Yes, a new technological goal that we can mobilize behind would certainly be a great thing. But what should that goal be? I just don’t see independence from foreign oil as having enough behind it. Although i wish it could be, our national goal probably can’t be something that’s opposed by two of the largest industries in the country.
Abhi, what about new propulsion technologies? I know we’re working on ion engines, etc. But what about “warp drive”? obviously not in the cheezy star trek sense, but in the sense of freeing our space travel from the constraints of carrying fuel. do you know if there’s even a promising theory that could be explored?
(Not related to this topic but thought i would post. SM hosts – can you make a form for submitting tips. It will be easier than going to email. Thanks.) Indian scientist arrested in US for ‘DNA theft’
Here is the link on the scientist story http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/apr/08meena.htm
In response to SD …the people who Friedman said was wrong in the discovery piece are well known communist types(at least in India)who proclaimed that the salvation of India lay in Isolation and trying to have each village be an individual and self contained area, with everything homegrown from within that village. These types are the true bane of India, and I for one was thrilled with the blunt way he told them they were wrong. Most people over here tend to let these people spout way too much crap without rebuttal.
Energy independence isn’t sexy. Sending a man to the moon is. We need something that will sell. GW’s mission of a man on Mars is like a Michael Bay sequel, it’s been done before but just with larger explosions and even crappier dialogue. Nano is where it’s at. In response to lining up to Bill Gates, people in American will line up to see Serge and Larry. BillG is so 5 mins ago.
Nik, There is only funding behind one major propulsion project right now. Project Prometheus. There used to be an office at Glen Research Center in Cleveland that was WAYYY out there. Highly theoretical stuff but pretty mindblowing. The most promising avenues right now are suprisingly the non-sexy ones. Thats why a lot of people are hoping small companies like Scaled Composites keep succeeding. By the way I’d just like to point out that Fuel Cells (which many people are hoping will be the central piece of the “NEW” energy economy) is a NASA spinoff technology.
AD… good point. I suppose I’m not so much in support of their point of view as I’m interested in Friedman communicating the relevance of the village in his. It’s an important concern when discussing technological economy and the way he presented it was to a) find what many consider to be the most irrelevant discussion of the village and then, b) disregard it.
The concept of the village is still important in India, it will be for a long while and to simply reject out-of-hand in lieu of a “technologically-advanced village” is vaguely similar to ignoring effects of the Industrial Revolution on U.S. agricultural communities… Friedman’s an intelligent guy and I think his interest in the “future” of India shouldn’t supersede his analysis of the past and present that lead up to it.
Amardeep says
Tom Friedman’s all shtick, no stick. His slick lines are makin my ears sick A teflon intellectual, His ideas are ineffectual, The world isn’t flat; that’s just a trick.
I agree w/ Amardeep whole-heartedly.. and would strongly recommend instead Bhagwati on globalization — far more solid and rigorous.
However, whether we like it or not, Friedman’s got far more visibility than Bhagwati. He’s got a captive audience, and is much more polished and slick — all in all, a better marketer.
Is the world really flattened?
Nope. That’s mostly hype – a hook on which to hang his book.
However, there’s some truth in what he says.
Is it original? Not really.
However, he’s reaching a wider audience — and hopefully, will counter some of the isolationaist/ protectionist pabulum spun by Lou Dobbs and his ilk.
The most defining characteristic that assures success is HUNGER for it. People who grew up in India will understand what I am saying, and so far not a single person I met, who grew up in USA understood what I am saying.
When u know what real deprivation is, when u know what standing outside and looking in through a glass window is.. then u will understand what defines the success of Indians.
Indians are hungrier than americans. i dint and none of the friends i grew up with and competed against gave a rats ass about things like popular culture. its not nerdiness its a maturity that adversities instill in a person. we were hungry and that is why we r successfull now.
counter some of the isolationaist/ protectionist pabulum spun by Lou Dobbs and his ilk
I used to agree with this, until I realized that single-issue work doesn’t work. Without providing a progressive alternative to the American working class (Which means talking to them about their issues, including job loss), you’re never going to get the kinds of politicians that are actually generally interested in a broad, decent policy towards South Asia–it’s a little bit like how the BJP, Islamists, etc. have a space to work in because secular parties haven’t delivered enough to poor people.
So you can have “free trade” (which may or may not be beneficial to different degrees to segments populations of varying developing countries) or you can have American politicians in 20 years that will fund malaria eradication, family planning, etc. instead of selling military technology to both sides.
It’s our choice; I prefer the more comprehensive approach.
Saurav says “Without providing a progressive alternative to the American working class (Which means talking to them about their issues, including job loss), you’re never going to get the kinds of politicians that are actually generally interested in a broad, decent policy towards South Asia”
Not sure if I get the point(s) here
a) Who is supposed to provide a “progressive alternative”, and what exactly does that constitute?
b) What do you mean by a “a broad, decent policy towards South Asia”
Sorry…I lose detail sometimes. Thanks for calling me on it 🙂
Somewhat decent American politicans (particularly democrats), social justice activists, and everyone else who’s interested in seeing the United States do the most good and the least harm it can is who I’m talking about are the people I’m talking about. And the alternative I mean, is an alternative to the divisive, scapegoating, and misdirected anger that the extreme right cultivates by promoting bigroty against gay people, immigrants, women, people in other countries, etc., instead of focusing and addressing the the real bread and butter problems (like lack of health care, job loss, college tuitions, etc.) the US that are afflicting the American working class (which creates the potential for the resentment).
I don’t have enough knowledge to put forward all the specifics of what a “broad decent policy” towards South Asia (and other developing countries) would be, but some steps that the U.S. government could take would be: cutting down on weapons development and trade by the American government; an end to stoking tensions between India and Pakistan; food aid; medical aid; more generous patent law; an end to unfair structural adjustment policies pushed by the IMF, World Bank, etc., an end to the interference in the sovereignty of other countries in the absence of an emergency (like in Sudan), the development of peace initiatives across South Asia, etc.
My premise is that a progressive, internationalist foreign policy by the U.S. is impossible without a progressive, internationalist consenus within the U.S. And the specifics of good, decent foreign policies are more likely to emerge from that kind of societal culture.
wow…sorry for all the typos and the atrocious grammar.