Cologne 15-Mar-2004

Choose your nihilism.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_- artefact@... _-_
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

-------- Original Message --------
Betreff: NYTimes.com Article: Op-Ed Columnist: Origin of Species
Datum: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 16:55:53 -0500 (EST)
Von: artefact@...
Rückantwort: artefact@...
An: artefact@...

The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by artefact@....

\----------------------------------------------------------/

Op-Ed Columnist: Origin of Species

March 14, 2004
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN


Nandan Nilekani, C.E.O. of the Indian software giant
Infosys, gave me a tour the other day of his company's
wood-paneled global conference room in Bangalore. It looks
a lot like a beautiful tiered classroom, with a massive
wall-size screen at one end and cameras in the ceiling so
that Infosys can hold a simultaneous global teleconference
with its U.S. innovators, its Indian software designers and
its Asian manufacturers. "We can have our whole global
supply chain on the screen at the same time," holding a
virtual meeting, explained Mr. Nilekani. The room's eight
clocks tell the story: U.S. West, U.S. East, G.M.T., India,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia.

As I looked at this, a thought popped into my head: Who
else has such a global supply chain today? Of course: Al
Qaeda. Indeed, these are the two basic responses to
globalization: Infosys and Al Qaeda.

Infosys said all the walls have been blown away in the
world, so now we, an Indian software company, can use the
Internet, fiber optic telecommunications and e-mail to get
superempowered and compete anywhere that our smarts and
energy can take us. And we can be part of a global supply
chain that produces profit for Indians, Americans and
Asians.

Al Qaeda said all the walls have been blown away in the
world, thereby threatening our Islamic culture and
religious norms and humiliating some of our people, who
feel left behind. But we can use the Internet, fiber optic
telecommunications and e-mail to develop a global supply
chain of angry people that will superempower us and allow
us to hit back at the Western civilization that's now right
in our face.

"From the primordial swamps of globalization have emerged
two genetic variants," said Mr. Nilekani. "Our focus
therefore has to be how we can encourage more of the good
mutations and keep out the bad."

Indeed, it is worth asking what are the spawning grounds
for each. Infosys was spawned in India, a country with few
natural resources and a terrible climate. But India has a
free market, a flawed but functioning democracy and a
culture that prizes education, science and rationality,
where women are empowered. The Indian spawning ground
rewards anyone with a good idea, which is why the richest
man in India is a Muslim software innovator, Azim Premji,
the thoughtful chairman of Wipro.

Al Qaeda was spawned in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and
Afghanistan, societies where there was no democracy and
where fundamentalists have often suffocated women and
intellectuals who crave science, free thinking and
rationality. Indeed, all three countries produced strains
of Al Qaeda, despite Pakistan's having received billions in
U.S. aid and Saudi Arabia's having earned billions from
oil. But without a context encouraging freedom of thought,
women's empowerment and innovation, neither society can tap
and nurture its people's creative potential - so their
biggest emotional export today is anger.

India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan each
spontaneously generated centers for their young people's
energies. In India they're called "call centers," where
young men and women get their first jobs and technical
skills servicing the global economy and calling the world.
In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia they're called
"madrassas," where young men, and only young men, spend
their days memorizing the Koran and calling only God.
Ironically, U.S. consumers help to finance both. We finance
the madrassas by driving big cars and sending the money to
Saudi Arabia, which uses it to build the madrassas that are
central to Al Qaeda's global supply chain. And we finance
the call centers by consuming modern technologies that need
backup support, which is the role Infosys plays in the
global supply chain.

Both Infosys and Al Qaeda challenge America: Infosys by
competing for U.S. jobs through outsourcing, and Al Qaeda
by threatening U.S. lives through terrorism. As Michael
Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins foreign policy professor, put
it: "Our next election will be about these two challenges -
with the Republicans focused on how we respond to Al Qaeda,
and the losers from globalization, and the Democrats
focused on how we respond to Infosys, and the winners from
globalization."

Every once in a while the technology and terrorist supply
chains intersect - like last week. Reuters quoted a Spanish
official as saying after the Madrid train bombings: "The
hardest thing [for the rescue workers] was hearing mobile
phones ringing in the pockets of the bodies. They couldn't
get that out of their heads."   

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/opinion/14FRIE.html?ex=1080301353&ei=1&en=d2d0\
3472706cb8b0


---------------------------------


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company