Sunday, April 27, 2008

Defining Globalization

unlike those anti-globalization types, who tend attribute globalization to everything they don't like (poverty, war, disease, job-loss, etc.) I tend to use Tom Palmer's non-moralized definition , "The diminution or elimination of restrictions on exchange across political borders". That pretty much sums it up. But a friend of mine emails me this more funnier definition :
Question : What is the truest definition of Globalization ?
Answer : Princess Diana's death.

Question: How come?

Answer : An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by a Sri Lankan , using Bill Gates's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....

That, my friends, is Globalization!!!!