So that's how they do that..

This week I finished my book, Thomas L Friedman, The World is Flat 3:0 A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Further Updated and Expanded, 2007). This book was pretty powerful and brought so many thoughts and ideas to me that I never had thought of before. I will discuss how a Dell laptop is made, if Al-Qaeda has a supply chain, and the curse of oil.

I read about how Dell has an amazing supply chain set up, and that it takes multiple companies to actually produce all the parts needed. They have innovated the custom home computer. Dell waits until a customer places an order for a computer, it then goes into an ordering management system. Your payment is then verified, and the information is then sent to one of Dells many factories to produce the specific part. During your order you put together your dream machine, you are then charged for each individual piece you order. This may be more memory, a larger screen, or a bigger hard drive, the point is, every computer is custom designed to fit what you want out of your personal computer. Many companies use this model as it keeps costs down from producing too many units, which can easily become obsolete within a few years, and will not be sold.

Al-Qaeda definitely has a supply chain. It may not be the biggest, but technology has changed the way terrorists do “business” in the flat world. Communication is key. I have heard that more than once in my life, and Friedman really shows you how real this statement is. Before technology, we did not fear as many terrorist groups as we do today. Now, they are able to communicate more efficiently with each other and make a presence in our everyday social media. They are even recruiting via the Internet, and they are able to gather more people to support their cause. Freidman quotes, “you cannot understand the rise of al-Qaeda technically without reference to the flattening of the world”. With the use of this flat and ever-changing world, terrorists have been able to strike more fear and inflict more damage than ever before. I wonder how differently 9/11 would have turned out, or if it would have even happened at all without technology. Technology is amazing, and yet it can be the one thing we created than can destroy us just as quick.

I never really took into consideration the curse of oil and how powerful it really is. Its value can be stronger than gold, and can control a whole under developed country. Friedman discusses that a country that is run by oil has no need to develop. When all the money that is made is from oil, it can cause tensions and a gap between the people and the government controlled product. As long as oil is being pumped from the fields, they make money and stay in control. This type of power cannot last forever. Once the oil dries up, the money quickly disappears, and the control is lost. This is the only way a country can move forward.