Globalization

This is a wonderful revisionary view of a bunch of authors who put me to sleep in high school. Peyser pulls the pants down on the "old grey ladies" of American literature. Someone had to do it (I guess) and I'm glad it was him and not me, but I'm also glad to have this rather strange and wondrous book.

Up until now, Peyser has been known mostly for his uproarious commentaries on NPR, and for his notorious flipping off of Cokie Roberts on the old David Brinkley show. (He has never been invited back.) I have to admit that when I first saw this book I just assumed it was another of his spoofs, but it turns out that Peyser is a bona fide literary critic. There is some very funny stuff about the vastly overrated Charlotte Perkins Gilman--Peyser cuts the old trog down to size--but mostly this is very smart and very down-to-earth cultural criticism. We have to be grateful for this book, but I for one cannot help but feel a little sad, too, since it would seem that with its publication P. has shed his youthful guise of hilarity, and that he has now stepped into full manhood, revealing what most of us have always suspected underlay the shimmering surface of his speech: knowledge of what Matt Arnold named "the eternal note of sadness."

You know, this is not the sort of book I would normally read. But there it was, suddenly, on the coffee table one night. How it got there I have no idea. Just curious, I began to leaf through the pages, and the words began to resonate with me. Unable to sleep, I read it through in one sitting by candlelight. The next morning, I began to look at things around me differently. First, I removed several unessential appliances from the house in an effort to simplify my existence. Then it became time to de-clutter and I threw out several items I realized I had no more use for. Then, and this all seemed so logical in light of the things I'd read, I divorced the wife and sent her on her why. Sure, she cried a bit, but I knew I was doing the right thing. And I've never regretted it. This is, indeed, one of the best books I've read all year.

Ark of the Broken Covenant

Reviewer: Professor Richard Lester from Montgomery AL

John Kunich has done it again! In this superb book, Kunich presents a fascinating and extraordinary map, guide and survival manual for protecting the worlds' endangered biodiversity. In more than any work on the market today, Kunich has written a most important and well-balanced book on this timely subject. He clearly explains how environmental neglect is destroying our quality of life and polluting us to death. His explosive, blockbuster style details the wasteful exhaustion of the world's natural resources. The issue addressed is a megaton bomb ticking. This is a must read. John Kunich's book is clearly a most intelligent, compassionate and totally understanding publication on this most important subject of universal interest. It demands our attention. If the academy had a Mount Rushmore for authorities on protecting the world's biodiversity hotspots, John Kunich would be up there.

This is the single book the world needs most right now. Professor Kunich has written a masterpiece, proving that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and the first one caused by human beings. He shows that the law has not prevented or stopped this carnage, and he offers a hopeful solution. What could be more important for our planet?

What is a hotspot and why do I care? Why should it matter to me where money is spent in finding and protecting the earth's resources? These questions, for me, were answered in John Charles Kunich's book "Ark of the Broken Covenant". In words and phrases aimed at dissemination of information, John Kunich allows the gentle reader to enter into a world of Global warfare. 'To maintain the legal status quo for the hotspots is to sign a death warrant.' Issues that up to now were not in the forefront of the mind are explained in such a way that by the time you are finished reading you also are ready to take up the cause to make sure that no more of our precious resources are decimated. Everyone needs to know what we are allowing to go to extinction because of our ignorance. You need to read this book. You should have read it yesterday.

This brilliant book makes a fundamental contribution to how globalization works. It is required reading not just for anthropologists but for economists, political scientists and others trying to grapple with the rapidity of cross-national economic, cultural and demographic flows in the contemporary world.

Professor Appadurai writes with an understanding, clarity, and erudition that is rare among scholars in any discipline. In a small, densely packed, smoothly written text, he provides anthropology and sociology with a powerful set of theoretical tools and concepts with which to grasp modernity and globalization. Like de Certeau, Appadurai examines aspects of intimate, everyday life in minute detail, but like Giddens and Lash, his reach is global. This book provides the integration of perspectives that anthropology desperately needs in order to finally become relevant in the twenty-first century. It is a wake-up call, a gift, and a masterpiece. No one seriously practicing anthropology in the high-modern era should fail to acquaint themselves with this rare gem of a book.

Dr. Appadurai's explanation on how fast things are changing is amazing. When he uses the concept of scapes he gives a new and profound explanation to the social and cultural phenomena that have been happening. By explaining Modernity, he states that time and space is contracting and giving us the idea on how things were and will be. Modernity is at large 'cause now exceeds the national frontiers.

The Guiding Principle for Going Global Online

A solid piece of work, highly recommended to anyone who must understand how to develop a successful global Internet business. De Palma comes with an ace pedigree, widely respected, coming out with "customers are three times more likely to buy from websites in their own language", an industry standard mantra.

De Palma hits key areas, highlighting best practices of the market leaders and their global websites and systems. For once, we have web-based globalization ("Marketing and Selling on the Eight Continent") analysed within a business context. If only pets.com had read this book ...

Content is extensively researched. Case studies are made; corporate budgets, marketing plans, infrastructure, etc., are dissected. Plenty of practical examples, including the names we're all familiar with for the right reasons (eBay, etc.) and the wrong reasons (boo.com et al) too.

If you're in the business of expanding your markets through the web this is the book for you. Increasingly, "E-Commerce" is less dependent on the US ($600 billion worldwide versus $850 billion in the US estimated for 2003). If you want to grow your business, look outside your own borders.

De Palma shows how a successful web business deals with "big issues": Education about global and local markets; planning for international web business; implementing technology and translating into foreign languages, organizing people and resources and, crucially, measuring the return on investment. Of course, parts of what he says applies to international business in general, so don't think this book is just for the web-literate.

The tone is pragmatism. De Palma is realistic about the planning and management of a global web business (it does NOT mean translating into every language under the sun). Much to his credit, he provides valuable information on areas that competing titles duck to avoid, e.g., international tax, contractual and legal requirements - and provides good advice for staying out of trouble.

A technical foundation is included. This isn't a book for techies, but it does educate the executive and student audience about implementing globalized web technology. Experts will contest his comments on TMX, Machine Translation and Unicode, however, the rest of the technical stuff is sound (no "did you know that they have different shaped mailboxes in England?" nonsense).

De Palma, throughout the book, underpins his thesis with the need for a Chief Globalization Officer (an executive to champion web globalization in a company). You can cringe at Grand Poo-Bah titling redolent of dot coms, but fair enough, it does underline the critical importance of bringing globalization issues to senior management attention. Basically, if you're not getting the message through to board level, your enterprise will remain a beggar at the globalization banquet.

In sum, you can take this book as The Guiding Principle for Going Global Online. Recommended to seasoned executives, students of international commerce and technology, globalization gurus and the plain interested. OK, we know business book sales are down 30% since the end of the 1990's. So, if you're going to buy one, buy this one.

Managing myself Web sites in the EMEA region, I have recognized Don's expertise as a globalization veteran. By reading his book, you will understand and learn how to take up the multiple challenges of going global. A must for anybody who is thinking about a global business approach.

Business Without Borders, the first book produced on the important topic of website globalization, is a great resource for anyone wanting to take their business global online. As someone who consults professionally in the web globalization space (...), I found Don's book to be well-written and thoroughly researched. His real-world examples of major firms and how they tackled the globalization quandry are understandable and relateable. As the nature of the Web is inherently global, Business Without Borders will help guide you through the worldwide maze of information and business. I recommend this book highly!

Given the subject matter, one can be forgiven for expecting Hope's Edge to be a depressing read--after all we are pushing our planet to its absolute limit and hope sometimes seems a great folly. But rather than increase my sense of helplessness, the mother-daughter team of researchers and writers (Frances Moore-Lappe and Anna Lappe)have inspired me and indeed pushed the edge of hope a little further. With its documentation of individual lives and community-based solutions, the book reminds me about the importance of our individual decisions. It is easy to become complacent when I live in one of the wealthier parts of the world. It is just as easy to feel helpless and apathetic and to not see the impact I can make simply by supporting my local organic farmers and making other conscientious consumer decisions. Hope's Edge eloquently points to the power of imagination, of envisioning new ways of living and working in community. Thanks Anna and Frances for making the journey and sharing it with the world!

This is one of the most creative, courageous books I've read in a long time, drawing lessons from something as essential as food to renew our hope in an era of anxiety, cynicism, and learned helplessness. Hope's Edge offers a welcome alternative to a world increasingly dominated by global capitalism, where more is often spent on processing, packaging, and promotion than on the nutritional value of the food itself and where American citizens are becoming unwary guinea pigs for GMO foods.
From their grassroots research spanning five continents, Frances and Anna Lappe bring heartening evidence that democracy is still alive, that our personal choices can add up to make a tremendous difference, and that, as Margaret Mead once said, "a small group of highly committed people can change the world." I recommend this book highly for its compelling vision of creativity, community, and positive social change.

I have felt deeply moved and inspired reading "Hope's Edge". Travelling with Fances and Anna Lappé around the world to learn about alternative ways of thinking and living has been a wonderful, exciting inspiration to look at life and my place in life with new and different eyes and to find out how and where I can change my perceptions.
The actors in this book try to overcome and change the pain and problems of destructive ways of living. The book made me feel that my life, and everyone's life, can make a true difference, and that it is worth trying.
For me, it was one of the most important books which I have encountered, and the ideas and thinking of Frances and Anna Lappé will accompany me for many years to come.
What an interesting, exciting, wonderful book!

We have heard much about the crisis of third world debt and what to do about it from liberal ("forgive the debt") and right-wing ("bankrupt the suckers") commentators. James Henry asks a more fundamental question, where did the money go? Why is there so little to show for the more than $2.7 trillion of debt, aid, and investment made available to the developing world since the 1970s? One answer is that it was not spent but stolen and wasted, maybe as little as one-third of it ending up on the ground. Much of the rest has gone to provide the political elites of recipient countries with retirement homes in pleasant places.

Henry, a lawyer and economist by training and an investigative journalist by avocation, has been working on this story since the late 1980s. He travelled to more than 50 countries in pursuit of it and his book contains original, first-hand accounts of decades of unscrupulous financial behavior in the Philippines, Brazil, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Mexico.

What started off as an economist's enquiry into the paradox of third world debt has ended up as an indictment of the first world corporations that helped to create it. Henry tells how many of the world's leading banks and financial groups have, often with the complicity of their governments and supranational institutions, created and fuelled the new high-growth global markets for dirty debt, capital flight, money laundering, tax evasion, corruption, illicit weapons traffic, and other new transnational forms of dubious economic activity.

This is an essential book. Corruption is the scandal of third world debt. Attempts to relieve it must include the means to prevent its happening again.

For anyone wishing to get a clear and concise walk through the back-door dealings of International Banking, in specific what it has done to consistently derail and sabotage emerging financial markets, this is a must read.

The book hinges on true and methodical investigative journalism (sadly, a talent in these precarious times often more feared than revered), and its revelations take you far beyond whatever information has been garnered from the print media's attempts to unravel the blatant crime behind the Third World Debt Crisis.

Whether it be an account of what essentially killed the revolution in Nicaragua, the insane excesses of Imelda Marcos, or the twisted money trail leading to Sadam's WMDs, Mr. Henry will not disappoint in his efforts to reveal how we got ourselves into the Emerging Markets debacle, and what this has to say about the growing worldwide terrorism directed at the West.

I'm a Latin American scholar. Henry's well-written book manages to get below the surface, and deliver some amazing new revelations about Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, in particular. I was also interested to find out exactly where Paraguay's General Stroessner, the Phillipines' Marcos, Pakistan's Bhutto, Zaire's Mobutu, and quite a few other Third World thugs kept their foreign loot -- and not only in Switzerland! Not easy reading, but it will definitely change your perspective on the global economy....

This book covers such issues of web site globalization as translation, design, development and management. Besides that, it shows in various examples and case studies that globalization aspects should be taken with care to avoid cultural, legal, technical and linguistic traps and pitfalls.

However, not all of the advices should be taken literally, because they can be the author's guessing, not experience. An example is the advice to use Unicode characters to display textual language selection menu in a global gateway web site. Rather than merely not displaying the characters of fonts not installed on a user's computers, a web browser may offer the user to download and install all the fonts needed to properly display all of the characters used on the page. Thus, the North American user will need to download fonts for Traditional Chinese, Kanji and so forth. The user may however choose to skip downloading fonts, but the question dialog box may nag the users, but the author writes nothing about this.

The book tends to expose problems, rather than to focus on solutions, because the solutions in this particular topic (web globalization) may quickly become outdated. Thus, the book encourages the reader to do further research, and offers references to companies that provide translation services and software for web content-management frameworks with globalization support.

Overall, this book to be very thoughtful, insightful, and well-organized.

The book is a helpful introduction-- and probably invaluable to someone who wants to get into the business-- but some of the hands- on was a little lacking.

However, it's really not geared towards those of who are decision makers at larger companies-- for example, Yunker praises the infrastructure underlying Fedex.com, but fails to mention the company that designed the infrastructure--OnlineFocus. Additionally, the ESPN comments lack any reference to Starwave's global reach and how that may have helped them design ESPN for diverse audiences.

This is a solid reference book which can assist people who are planning multilingual website design and development projects. The case studies will definitely provide readers with good information from firms who have already created global websites, and the Hands-On chapters will benefit those who want to experience first hand some of the language issues you encounter when creating a multilingual web presence. I am with a firm who provides website globalization services and found Yunker's book to do a great job summarizing the issues.

Karliner has a rare eye for absurdity that makes this more than a mere indictment of corporations. His description of how Chevron pacified an indigenous tribe in Papua New Guinea--by creating a Disneyland recreation of their own culture to impress them--is something so terrifying that no novelist could conceive it. He describes how, years later, the tribe had changed their traditional war paint to mimic the Chevron logo. This isn't just a dry treatise on the perils of globalization. It's a book filled with color, stories, and fascinating details about this bizarre time in the world. From the smell of gasoline seeping up through the richest homes in Playa Del Rey, California, to the history of Standard Oil, to the fight over the forests in the Northwest, to the structure of Japanese corporations--Karliner's book is an overlooked masterpiece that details so many unexpected facets of the global economy.

Here are some excerpts from other reviews of The Corporate Planet

Thoughtful analysis of globalization's ecological and social impacts and of efforts by "corporate environmentalists" to control how problems and solutions are defined....With ecological sustainability, social justice, and democratic participation as his guiding principles, Karliner celebrates "grassroots globalization"--citizens demanding responsible environmental behavior from global corporations--becoming stronger and more articulate around the world.

-- Booklist

A fine effort....The book reads easily, without being breezy, moving from concrete illustrations of how giant global corporations are affecting the lives of ordinary people to more abstract discussion of underlying issues.

--The Ecologist

In The Corporate Planet, [Joshua Karliner] explains how transnational corporations like Dow clean up their image rather than their act.

--The Nation

A Magellan-like journey around the globe, giving readers a guided tour that identifies the protectors and poisoners of planet Earth.

--Monthly Review

A thoughtful examination of the new international balance of power in the global economy.

--San Francisco Bay Guardian

Joshua Karliner's "The Corporate Planet" was published prior to the Seattle WTO protests. The book's expert analysis of the relationship between private corporations and the plundering of the earth's resources successfully contextualized the protests as few other books written at that time were able.

Since then of course, many have written about globalization and its effects. But I think Karliner's work continues to stand out from the pack and has in fact gained strength as events continue to unfold. The ascendancy of the pro-oil industry Bush administration and its strident anti-environmentalist agenda seems to confirm his thesis: namely, that corporations and their elected cronies (or unelected cronies, in Bush's case) often proclaim themselves to be environmentally friendly on the one hand while simultaneously rolling back environmental protections on the other.

When push comes to shove, the quest to accumulate profits wins over the environment. Karliner does an excellent job of showing how corporate PR or "greenwash" and corporate sustainable development initiatives provide smokescreens for doing business as usual. But when given the opportunity, Karliner documents how companies such as Chevron lobby hard to roll back protections when given a favorable political situation like the one that existed when Republicans gained control of Congress in the mid-1990s.

The author supports his theory by effectively using case studies to illustrate how these dynamics play out in the real world. Large corporations such as Mitsubishi use their economic power to bend governments and citizens to their will, in the process impoverishing communities and environments as local resources are stripped away for the benefit of distant investors.

Karliner proposes a number of remedies that can help turn the situation around. He reasons that greater democratic input and corporate acocuntability is badly needed if we want people and the environment to be given primacy over the rights of the privileged few to reap the rewards of globalization for themselves. While Karliner may not have detailed a specified course of action -- no single person could be expected to do that -- it seems obvious that he has successfully defined the parameters of the struggle.

Intelligently written and supplemented with numerous footnotes and statistics, I believe it is not too much to say that "The Corporate Planet" is a classic work. I strongly recommended it for those who want to learn more about globalization and the central role corporations are playing in the destruction of the environment.

This is an excellent book that dwells in to the effects of globalization, related issues and potential solutions. It discusses social issues and policies within the context of globalization. It also dwells in to the issues related to labor standards and income distribution. Rodrik presents good solutions but they are debatable and not easy to implement.

I feel that Rodrik discusses solely from the perspectives of industrialized nations' interests. I would have liked him to explore more from the perspectives of under developed/developing nations'.

In his spellbinding account of the economic realities of globalization, Dani Rodrik gets it right. Whether it is his accounting of the increased elasticity in the job market or his discussion of labor as a factor bearing a higher incidence of non-wage costs, today's economy makes Rodrik seem prophetic. It is a book whose time has come, any thinking person should buy this book.

It seems that over the past few years, the topic of globilization aond free trade have become hot topics because of events like the WTO protests in Seattle, the World Bank protests in DC and Ralph Nader's run for the presidency in 1996 and 2000.

Has globilization gone too far? is a good source for those people trying to find out more about the issue because it shows what happens under globilization both theoritically and in real life. It presents the arguements against free trade and the problems associated it with it like loss of jobs and capital outflows so it is good to understand the oposing view.

This book does a good job of presenting a summary overview of the subject matter to beginners. Because the broad scope of this work involves string together information from many fields; I can see how errors will be made in areas that are not the authors realms of specialization - but nontheless; I want to note a few of these errors; mostly about the analysis of situations in Africa:

1. The author erroneously injects the Tribal context into his analysis. Why are Indonesia's peoples Ethnic Groups but the Yoruba's are a Tribe? Are these terms synonymous or is something else at work here? The Yorubas number 40Million - the Hausas even number more than that - they have the Oyo, Benin Empires etc the Sokoto Caliphate etc to their credits. What is the idea of Tribe meant to imply?

2. The carving up of Africa with disastrous results was not inadvertent. The "divide and rule" policy was mentioned - it was implemented deliberately - how then can its results be inadvertent?

3. Again; the authors erroneously uses the Tribal context to refer to the Wabenzi or the Beento. Neither are Tribes! Anymore than one would refer to Upper Class socialites in the UK as a Tribe. Again - why do authors persist in conextualizing Africa in a tribal concept that has no foundations nor usefulness? Again - what is the subtle implication behind this usage?

4. The Authors state that the British built Urban centers in Nigeria. This is false. Lagos, annexed by the British was already founded as a coastal trading community long before the British arrived - Lagos does not experience any development until the Oil Boom of the 70's - there are hardly any significant acrhitectural edifices in Lagos today that were built by the colonial administration - Indeed; the colonialists decided not to stay in Lagos because of the climate and administered it from Freetown Instead.
Furthermore; by the 18th century, Ibadan, the capital of the Old Oyo empire was already the largest city in subsaharan Africa - this was not the work of the British; neither was the Urban Center of Kano - Today; Nigeria has about 150 cities with populations of over 100,000 - neither of them was founded by the British and development has always been inevitable tied to Oil and a local Government presence. In fact; the British didnt lay the foundations of anything - rather; they annexed and stringed exisiting entities together - something that the authors also note.
The idea that people flocked to Urban centers established by the British is faulty.
The migration to Lagos started in the 70's because of Oil.
Other cities continued their normal pace of population growth - Ibadan today still has a population of over 1.5 Million people - in 1890 it had a population of about 200,000.

5. The idea that Shell was somehow drawn involuntarily into Nigerian Oil politics is ridiculous. Shell was implicated not only in the Murder of Saro Wiwa but in the burning down of several other villages and the murder of thousands of people. This was active; not Passive participation.

6. Kimchi Matters is a good book. I understand that Zonis et al analyse from a particular perspective; but I was especially sensitive to some assertions made because they represent a slight misrepresentation of the kimchi at work in Nigeria/Africa. In the conclusion; Zonis et al sound like apologists for colonialism - what simplistic way (as they assert) represents the orthodox view of the effects of colonialism? Is a 50% reduction of the population of the Congo simplistic in its effects till day vis-a-vis other imperialist factors?
Do rich countries continue to oppress poor countries? Well - if Racism still exists in the U.S - if people (according to a recent study) are 50% less likely to get a job just because their names sound "black" - then who are we to contend that such attitudes do not project on the realm of the International?
If the countries of the West do not curb oppression and police brutality within their own borders - then what makes Zonis et al think that the same attitudes do not project unto the International realm?
For sure there is State Government failure - but there is also the reality of a tendency towards Hegemony and control by the United States and other Western States.
Where this tendency or the actual Hegemony exists - there will always be oppression.
If the US hasnt curbed itself of Race Riots etc - then how can it hope to effect any change in Zimbabwe? A reality check is needed.

As an American living in a third world country, I greatly appreciated this book.

Utilizing poignant examples, the authors delve into what make a country and its systems successful or dysfunctional. Many factors are considered: politics, corruption, social change, stability, leadership, public unrest, bureaucracy, social institutions, government intervention, etc. And all is placed in the context of rapid globalization.

Most notable is the revolutionary insight that, no matter what other factors are involved, a country will not grow prosperous in the absence of good institutions. The rules, both overt and non-visible, by which we play are very important.

This book helped me to understand my own situation. It helped me to recognize the world's interconnectedness and the fragility of world economics. Despite America's shortcomings, it helped me to appreciate the moral fabric of America's institutions. And, finally, the book deepened my feeling that America bears great responsibilty in the world community, as a leader, a guide, and an example for others.

Foreign policy-makers and international businessmen should pay careful attention to this book's lessons.

This book provides great depth of detail about various emerging market countries and the factors affecting stability and business success. It really has everything one needs to know about the principals involved in successful emerging market investment. The breath of the authors' knowledge is impressive, and the writing style is highly accessible.