The World is Flat

A couple of years ago I read Thomas Friedman's book on globalization, The World is Flat. Its core argument was that the world is effectively becoming a smaller place, and that geographic boundaries are less significant than they once were. I have two observations from our travels in Europe that support this, based on changes since I first spent time here when I was in university.

Not that many years ago, Europeans largely owned cars built by their own automakers - French drove Renaults, Peugeots, and Citroens, Italians drove Fiats, and Germans in particular drove German cars. Now it seems that anywhere in Europe one sees almost any brand of European car (but still far fewer Japanese cars than we are accustomed to in North America).

The other significant change I have noted is that a former distinction in women's fashion between Europe and North America has disappeared. At some point in the past couple of decades, European women have started to shave their underarms. I was teasing Martha before we left that her lack of armpit hair would mark her as a tourist, but I haven't observed any woman yet who deviates from Canadian or American practice in that area.