In “The Unflat World” Friedman suggests that the “flat world” has an obligation to collaborate and help the “unflat world”. To what extent do you agree with this idea?
How might developed countries or individuals in the flat world help those who are “too sick”, “too disempowered” or “too frustrated” to partake in the “flat world”?
51 comments:
Hooray, first one to post! The flat world should help the unflat world in only a few ways. Why only a few? If we help them too much, they'll grow dependent and won't leave us alone( when i mean us i mean the flat world). We should help with medical supplies and fund several programs to clean up streets and other somewhat destroyed areas of the world.
I agree and think that the flat world should only help the unflat world in a few ways. The more people we have in the flat world the better everyone will be able to communicate with eachother. But the flat world shouldn't help the unflat world too much because then it won't allow the unflat world to think for itself, we would be babying them along...and that is not a good thing.
I think the government should set up a program that allowes people to get educated on the flat world and the basic "how to's" of it. If more people were more educated on it...then they might understand it more and be able to help those who are sick also.
The flat world should help the unflat world by providing the technology to do things and give them opportunities to become flat. But, the flat world should not help too much because, like Cody said, they will become dependent.
I agree with Cody. If we, the flat world, help the them, the unflat world, too much they will become dependent on us. While they might not leave us alone it also is not helpful to them. They won't know how to do it on their own and we can not baby them forever.
I think the best way for people and contries to help those who live in the unflat world is to suply them with what they need: medical supplies, better education, nourishment, and support. I think that it is our duty as humans to do that; to help our human neighbors in need.
I disagree with cody and think that the flat world needs to help in many ways. That way you create more jobs, some untouchable, for people. We need to raise more awareness and raise more money to get them started.
It's not so much a question of how much should we do as it is how much CAN we do? As a flat world we only have so much power, even though it is a lot. Also we have to take into consideration the amount that balances out everything. Too much help causes the unflat world to become dependent on the flat world. Not enough help doesn't get them anywhere.
As for the second questionl, the only way we can help those people is if we show them how to become more prosperous and adoptable. We also must show them that the flat world is a good thing, not a thing to hate.
I agree in the thinking that the flat world should help the unflat world in only a few ways. Like Cody said in the first post if we help them too much then they will depend on all that we give them and not fend for themselves.
I think that we should being the flat world help the unflat world. We have enough of the resources and we should help our fellow humans in need by providing medical, and other to supplies.
So far I agree with everyone that has posted. I think that we should help the "unflat world" to an extent. If we help them too much they could surpass us in the flattening world.
As for the second question I am going to use an analogy you can fish for a fisherman and feed him for a night but if you teach the fisherman to fish he can feed his family until all the fish run out. So what I am getting at is that you can do something for someone but they will still depend on you to do that for them. Instead if you give them the knowledge they can benefit and prosper without too much more of your help.
i think that the flat world should help the unflat world but to a certain point because if we help them to much then they will become dependent on us. we should help by supplying programs and medical supplies to those areas of the world
I think that the flat world should help out the unflat world. the reason is, is because the flat world could provide new technology and also provide new jobs
The flat world should help the unflat world in lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of ways. We can give to charity's, and visit other third-world countries to help support them and give them hope. We could also let them in on our technology secrets, and we could ship medical supplies like cody said in his 1st post {woot}.
"Happiness is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it but only you can feel the warmth it brings..."
Umm... Blake. If you minus the "lots and lots and lots" from your answer, it's about this long, though I liked the quote.
The flat world should help the non-flat world to a certain extent. We should give them basic help along the lines of teaching them technology: "Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will be fed for a lifetime." We should teach 3rd world countries to "fish," and see what they can do with it.
I agree with the previous people. I think that the flat world should help the unflat worlds by helping them with supplies and showing them programs that we have already established but like most people have said, not too much because they could become dependent.
I agree with Cody, we should help the unflat world but if we help too much they will become dependant on us. We should help with things like natural disaster help and medical supplies.
The flat world should help the unflat world in a few ways like Cody has said. We should help them enough so they can get through a normal life, but not too much so they become dependent on the flat world.
We should supply the unflat worl with better education and medical supplies to help the sick and disempowered. We should also supply funding to improve the area people of the unflat world live.
I agree with Cody that we should only help in a few ways but I think the ways we should help them is mainly through education, and disaster relief, so they can take care of themselves in the future.
I disagree with Jessica because I think we should try and get everyone on the same plain. Like Bailey said we should help them and give them a hand. Once they can go on their own, let them be. We could help by giving them some type of technologies, fund for some school programs, and I agree with what Megan says such as medical supplies, and nourishments
I'm going to agree with Cody that the flat world should help the unflat world in a few ways. Once we start helping the unflat world they will expect us to do stuff for them from then on. What i mean is have you ever offered to do a favor for someone and after you do that favor that person expects you to do it again. Well thats happened to me and it can be quite annoying after a while. So what im getting at here is just like Cody had said once we do something to help the unflat world they might expect us(the flat world) to preform it again.
As for the second question I think we should help supply new jobs, medical supplies,technology, care, and other things. People in the unflat world can benfit from the technology to become part of the flat world.
We have an obligation to help "unflat" countries to an extent. Friedman uses a quote about fishing, about catching a fish for someone vs teaching them how to fish. As a country, we should feel no obligation to catch fish for others - that's not our responsibility. But, we should feel the obligation to teach others how to fish because, generally, we know how to well. We can't carry our country's problems plus the problems of others on our backs.
Now, as an individual, I don't see anything wrong with getting involved in helping others in lesser-developed countries; in fact I highly encourage it. However, it is not in the best interest of America as a whole to stick our noses where they don't belong.
To help the unflat world, I think our best bet is to support already-existing organizations. We've got to get the sick healthy and the poverty-stricken back on their feet. Organizations are going to allow specialization and the people who join and support them will really care about what the organization does.
I think that we, the flat world, should help the unflat world as much as we can because they need the help to improve their economies which will improve the U.S.It will improve the U.S. when their economies improve their citizens wil have more money which they could use to purchase things from U.S. companies. It also will bring forth more educated people into the world, so it will make Americans strive harder to compete with the rest of the world.
I think that we could help these countries by providing aide, medical supplies, and educational supplies. We could help them build schools or help dig wells. We could donate to charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other helpfull charities that help the unempowered.
The flat world helping the unflat world is so considerate but yet an obligation like the question said. So if it is obligated you kind of have to do it. Plus it will only the unflat into flat. I think that we, talking as the flat world, should provide help like disaster relief, medical supplies and other funded programs mentioned by others to help third world, unflat countries to get on their feet. But instead of having them rely on us, we should focus more on the teaching what to do not just the doing it for them. I liked the fishing analogy mentioned by Madison and Ben which helps put this into perspective.
I pretty much agree with what Friedman said about helping unflat countries. I think that flat countries should help them a bit but not make it the main goal in life. A little help can go a long ways. I really really liked the quote from the book Ben used. It's exactly how i feel. We shouldnt give these unflat countries everything they need but rather teach them how to earn what they need. That's how we could help the "too frustrated", "too sick", etc.
I agree with Kay that as a country, we shouldn't "catch the fish" for them, but as individuals we should help as much as we can. I think that we should help to set up/fix their exsisting governments and education systems and provide them with all the tools they need like technology and medical supplies. If we give them the tools, they should be able to jump start themselves and be close to independent.
Just to let you all know, I disagree with the idea that the world is flat. I believe that the world is round, and I dont get how some parts of the world is flat and some are unflat. Friedman is confusing and it seems like he's talking in riddles. His opinion is a waste of my time. No offense to anyone.
Anyway, if Freidman is talking metaphorically, then I agree. Have you noticed that the most of the countries in the "flat world" are developed and most of the countries in the "unflat world" are still developing? My point is that the countries in the "flat world" should help to give everyone the opportunity.
Let's take my home counrty, the Philippines for example, and compare it with the U.S.A. In America, a lot of kids hate school and purposely miss it. In the Philippines, kids there dream of going to America to get a good education. If the Philippines is developed and is part of the "flat world," people there wouldn't need to go to America. This won't happen soon if we just sit around. The "flat world" should help the "unflat world" so that everyone has equal opportunities. This can benefit us by helping the talented in the "unflat world" contribute, instead of worrying if they can feed their family. Who knows, the person that finds the cure for cancer is a farmer in Sudan.
The "flat world" could help the "too sick," by giving them proper shelters, a constant medicine supply, and most importantly, education. The shelters don't matter if they're huge warehouses that has room for 250, or single family rooms, as long as everyone has a place to stay. These will give people protection from cruel mother nature, to the annoying mosquitoes that carry malaria. The medicine supply would help by giving the sock some nutrients and also to boost their immune system. Education would help by giving the sick knowledge. Have you ever heard of the saying "Knowledge is power?" Well, that's what I'm talking about. People in Africa would know that making love would transmit STDs, and most likely stop speading it. The "too sick" would also know how to prevent and treat diseases and injuries.
I already stated how we could help the "too disempowered." Look at the 3rd paragraph. In the 3rd paragraph, the things that I said we could do to help the "unflat world" can be also implied to the "too disempowered."
Let's not forget about the "too frustrated." They obviously have some anger management issues, and since they do, let's treat them like how people treat the people who have anger management problems. Let's not piss them off. Like Friedman said, Spain pissed the Arab world off by having a higher GDP than all the arab states combined. We can't help having a higher GDP, but we can increase theirs by helping them become more "flat."
I would also like to comment about what other people have said.
I disagree with Cody M. I dont think that we should only help them in a few ways. How do you know that developing countries will grow dependent on the "flat world?" I don't think it's good for countries to depend on other countries and I think that they won't.
I also disagree with what Madison M. said. I only have one sentence to say about her comment on the first question: How can developing countries surpass us if they're relying on us?
Lastly, I agree with what Kay F. said. We should do things for the "unflat world", but teach them HOW to do it. It would also be less work for us.
I agree with everyone that has said we should help the unflattened world, but only a certain amount. They will become to dependent, and that's not a good thing. We should help with medical supplies and stuff. We should also set up programs to help educate them.
I believe that the flat world should help the unflat world to a certain point where the unflat world can live well yet not so much that the unflat world will need the flat world for many many things.
The flat world would be able to help the unflat world in many ways, in which could give both similar properties that could amoun to being good or bad. Like cody said earlier though, after too mych help the unflat world might become over dependent, that would be a negative aspect in this situation.
Developed countries might be able to help balance problems for those who live in the "too disempowered" flat world, by funding programs, that would come out being a positive idea.
Way to go Cindatu! You wrote more than every single one of these posts combined, and I agree with you too.
i think that the world is becoming flat after reading this book. With the flat world everyone can comminucate with one enother.
The best way to help people who are in the unflat world would be to give them the most up-to-date electronics such as computers and communication devices.
I agree and think that the flat world should only help the unflat world in a couple ways The more people we have in the flat world the better everyone will be able to communicate with eachother globally.The flat world shouldnt help the unflat world too much because then it would not allow the unflat world to think for itself we would be spoiling them along.I think the government should set up a program that allowes people to get educated on the flat world and the basic "how to's" of it.
As my good friend jake said...I also agree that the flat world and the unflat world should work together in a few ways. By the flat world working with the unflat world, they could help with teaching the unflat world new programs and technologies in order to keep our world a little less flat. THis would help communication greatly.
As my good friend jake said...I also agree that the flat world and the unflat world should work together in a few ways. By the flat world working with the unflat world, they could help with teaching the unflat world new programs and technologies in order to keep our world a little less flat. THis would help communication greatly.
I think that the flat world should only help in certin areas and to a certin extent. Just like Cody said, along with many others, i feel that if we do help them too much, they will become attached to us and will depend on us for a lot of things in the future. But I believe that the countries we would help, would then be there in return for us.
I think that developed countries could help others who are not able to be apart of the flat world by informing them with the necessary information. Like skills to be in the global work force and global networking.
I think the most developed and flat world countries should be obligated to help the undeveloped countries. So i agree about 75% with this idea. The only thing I dissagree about this idea is that in a way i think counrties should help themselves before others.
I agree with Evans point about how we could help other countries by giving them medical and other aid.
I agree with everyone else. We should help them get started, like with their education and law enforcement but we shouldn't help them alot so that they depend on us.
To help the unflat world we should provide aide like medical supplies and jobs to get them going again.
I agree with cody. if we do indeed help the unflat world they will become dependent on us, the flat world. we should supply vaccacines and clean drinking water and maybe the occasional food item, but i don't think we need to baby them.
I agree with Friedmans idea to create a single "flat world". The only way to do this would be to give everyone equal opportunities. A completely flat world would result in every job being done by the best person for doing that job. When you have 6 billion people competing for jobs compared to 3 billion, it doesn't make much of a difference since you have 6 billion consumers in the global market instead of 3 billion.
I think that the developed countries only have one way to help the "to sick", "too disempowered" and the "too frustrated". I think that way is to pick them up and show them the benefits of living in a flat world. Then after doing that giving them a jump start by teaching them how to start off in a global economy. After we get them on their feet we can focus on our own economy and the benefits a newly added country to the global economy can bring.
The flat world should help the unflat world, but not too much. I read somewhere that our helping isn't helping as much as it could. For example. Take japan and china. They were once third world. Now they are on the top of the world. Did we try to help them? not really.
We could help them by teaching them not to be frusterated or how to not be so helpless. Maybe we can't help everyone all at once but we can at least try to help some of them.
If the unflat world is helped by the flat world it may not necessarily be good because the people are unflat for a reason, and they may not even want to become flat.
We can help those who are too sick, disempowered etc... by showing them how to live and prosper in the flat world today.
The flat world should help the unflat world to become flat. They should introduce them to new technology and opportunities and such. The unflat world will become dependent on the flat world if they try to help too much.
Although i agree with EVERYONE else i disagree with how we should help the unflat world. I think it would help them more if we gave them a platform to build on themselves such as laying a goverment down and a system to help them generate money and what not. This would be a permanent solution instead of having everyone throw their money away into a lost cause like many projects in Africa where they provide the necessities and keep donating without truely accomplishing anything. This will help the sick because soon the goverment we layed down will afford manditory vaccines. and as for the too disempowered or frustrated i can't say how to help them. i am not in complete agreeance that the world is flattening and i know that alot of people who work hard don't always get ahead in their jobs and blaming it on their work ethic is a naive opinion from those looking down at this new world instead of those looking up at it like kids our age. i don't think a "level playing feild" is possible because theres only so much room at the top and too many hardworking people at the bottom.
Ok i agree with pretty much everyone. We should only help the unflat world to a small extent, otherwise they will have too much power and will rely on us alot. We help medical wise, and only a tiny bit buiness wise. Everything else they can do or figure out for themselves. Like Jessica said, we should have a how to program teaching you the basics of living and thriving in a flat world.
I agree with this because countries are using each others ideas that are making the "world flat" but then they are advancing their technology and not sharing it which is making the world "unflat".
I think that the flat world should help the unflat world in a couple ways. Communication: BIG!!! Everyone needs the whole entire world to be able to communicate just in case. But if we help to much how will the country learn to act on its own? Then as America does we should help with medical, natural distsers, and when we can, hunger.
I agree with Cody. The unflat world would be plain bothersome if we didn't at least let them try to accomplish being a flat world mostly on their own. Maybe, like Tabby said, if we laid out certain things for them, they would be on their way in no time, and we (flat world) could help the unflat world in desperate times of need. People who have the knowledge of creating the flat world would most definitely be able to help those sick, or confused.
I agree with him to a certain extent, we could help them but they need to do it themselves also. They might become lazy. we could give them food water and have volenteers build shelter for them. If they have survived this far with out being connected to the outside world, they should be fine without a "Flat World"
I agree and disagree. Yes if we help tho other countries will help us in the future if we would ever need it. The bad thing though is if we help too much they will depend on us way too much and then not know much because we are just giving not teaching. We need to teach them so they can do it on there own someday.
I think that the entire world has an obligation to help, not just America, in our class discussion I heard that America had an obligation and not the world. I think it's a global effort and that everyone will have to pitch in and help out. Tia made a great comment in our discussion that you have to give them the tools and not give them the reward, becuase then they will depend on us, and I think that is what we have to do.
The flat world should help the unflat world by showing them how to become more flat and by providing them to do so. But I do agree that we cannot help to much or the unflat world will probably become depentdent.
I think that as individuals in the flat world we could donate every now and then to the the "too sick".
Post a Comment