USA: Observations from the edge - From Portage to Pune, our world is indeed flat

. GARY, Indiana (Post-Tribune), September 9, 2008: By Jerry Davich, Metro Columnist for the Post-Tribune Newspaper Call it old-school thinking or 21st century forgetfulness, but I sometimes lose sight of the fact that our world is, indeed, flat - an apt metaphor for cyberspace globalization. My most recent case in point: An ongoing email exchange I've been having with an extremely polite, witty, and knowledgeable man about myriad topics the past few weeks. A while back I blogged about senior citizens having more sex in their golden years, and this 65-year-old man quickly replied to me, explaining his personal situation with his wife, and similar situations with his senior citizen friends. I replied. He replied. We chatted it up. When I asked where "in our region" he lives, he replied, "from the city of Pune, located just east of Mumbai in western India." What?! I replied. I've been chatting with someone from western India all this time? This is when he reminded me of Thomas Friedman's best-selling book, "The World is Flat," and how it's so easy for "two bloggers from two ends of the world" to carry a conversation in cyberspace these days. I understand that this is a no-brainer for most of us - I carry such conversations with dozens of foreigners each week - but every once in a while it hits me: I'm "chatting" with someone from another corner of the planet. Someone whose life and lifestyle are so different than mine, yet who also shares such universal commonalities, as if we were next door neighbors. The again, in this new world I guess we are. © Copyright 2008 Digital Chicago, Inc