The end is upon us

            

                            Module 9!

        Looks like this is the last of the book, I never thought I would see the day but of course this is the beginning of the last portion of this class. So here it is, the beginning of the end, and let us hope I don’t screw this up.

Building a Dell

            So Mr. Friedman wants to explore the supply chain and everything that it took from the first mineral on a chip-set that created the computer that this book was written on. Did we not already talk about supply chains? I just felt this was a little redundant but I will type away for the sake of keeping an acceptable grade. Friedman’s laptop is a custom built Dell that he had ordered over the phone, requesting custom features that eventually led to the writing of this book. I learned that Dell, at the time, has six factories around the world, Ireland, China, Brazil, Tennessee, Texas, and Malaysia. After Friedman had contacted the sales rep his order was placed through email to the factory in Malaysia and parts were ordered from various supply centers near Malaysia and as you guessed it those supply centers had a supply chain of their own to get materials they needed to make the various parts needed to eventually assemble the computer sitting in Friedman’s lap. To me I find it interesting that even though there are various competitors in the computer manufacture world, they all still work together, example, Friedman’s laptop uses a mother board from Samsung, who of course makes computers of their own, you would think they would try to make a mother board of their own design but as it turns out it is cheaper and more efficient to have that contract with other competitor companies to manufacture their chip-set. I would go into more detail on what parts came from where but I feel like you get the point.

Al-Qaeda Supply Chain?

            I am trying my best to wrap my head around this concept without being too prejudice thanks to my American upbringing, because of course since 9/11 there has been a surge of racism to those of middle-eastern decent. From an outsiders perspective it looks like a third world country so to my belief it seems like their possibilities or likely hood of having a supply chain or knowing what one is would be inferior, lest we not forget though that we do live in a connected world and such people most likely do have access to technology to better connect and communicate with others within their network of globalizing terror. So yes, al-Qaeda does have a similar supply chain to companies that benefit from it like Infosys, but instead of making a product to increase company profits it is used to streamline global murder, terror, and mayhem, but the first rule of fight club is we do not talk about fight club, and the first rule of project mayhem is we do not ask questions, so I will end that thought here.

The curse of oil

            Where there is oil, there is some asshole that sees dollar signs and seizes power in some form to collect profits in his or her own greedy pathetic lives. Friedman mentions something that really had me thinking, of a ruler has control of oil, then he or she could use the money earned to run their country instead of taxing the people, so without taxation why should there be representation, it’s not the people’s money so why is it their business to ask questions as to where the money is spent? Hell, why not keep the people silent, on top of not taxing the people we could keep gas prices lower because we control the world’s oil supply as well. In that kind of world, I probably would not even think to question my government because of how much power they would have, I would be afraid to. So the curse of an oil rich government is the people suffer, if I had control over that kind of money and that country, why should a democracy be in place to decide how my money is spent when it is only my money being spent, thus there is no benefits the people get to take part in, schooling, roads, voting, and so on.

            Well, talking about the book, though I felt some parts were vague there were times it made me think differently about the world and how to perceive it or the society we live in, thanks to Columbus, Steam, the PC, and the Internet, our world is flatter, smaller, and better connected.