The World is Still Round

The Montenegrins opted for independence. The immediate outcome of the election seems to be the repetition of the unfunny joke of people my Montenegrin coworkers to show their visas. There is also a lot of rumbling about whether Vojvodina (the autonomous province in the north of Serbia) will follow Montenegro and, most likely, Kosov@ in leaving Serbia.

I just starting reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It’s all about how technology and political and economic integration are making the world a smaller, more competitive place and raising the overall standard of living.

From my corner of the world, this seems like a fantasy. Countries are dividing themselves into smaller and smaller units. (Was it Jon Stewart who said, ‘give the Balkans a few decades and everyone will live in their own independent-republic-of-myself-istan?’) Serbia’s EU accession process is on indefinite hold. I don’t want to be overly pessimistic, but it is hard to draw any parallels between the wonders of offshoring, supply-chaining and open source software and the world that I experience daily. (Okay, not the open source software bit. I use Firefox and you should too.)