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The Arab world had a big problem of frankly venal elites. That is why these revolutions happen, because people didn't think the opportunities were being shared fairly.

Thomas Friedman

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Thomas Friedman
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: July 20
Columnist
Journalist
Screenwriter
Television Producer
Writer
Saint Louis Park
Minnesota
Thomas Loren Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman
World
Happen
Revolutions
People
Opportunity
Arab
Bigs
Elites
Didn
Frankly
Happens
Fairly
Problem
Shared
Think
Opportunities
Thinking
Revolution
Venal

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What if we're wrong and there is no climate change? Well, by doing everything possible to address it, we will still use less water, stimulate new energy savings and, in time, money-saving technologies, enjoy cleaner air, and preserve more forests and trees and animals.
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I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat.
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Yes, the world is now flat for publishing as well.
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The unemployment rate today for people with our-year college degrees is 4.1%, which is almost none. That's people switching jobs basically. That tells you that education is the only way up and the only way out. If that is the fact, then we've got to get more of it for more people.
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Optimists are usually wrong. But all the great change in history, positive change, was done by optimists.
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You'll know the green revolution has been won when the word 'green' disappears.
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Change your leaders, not your light bulbs.
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Geopolitics is all about leverage. We cannot make ourselves safer abroad unless we change our behavior at home.
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Once people get a taste for whatever you want to call it - economic independence, a better lifestyle, and a better life for their children - they grab on to that and don't want to give it up.
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I don't think the Arab Spring had much to do with energy. I think it was just the opposite, in fact. I think the Arab Spring happened because particularly young people knew they were living in a context where they could not realize their full potential, that they are being kept down by their own governments.
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Obviously China is clearly taking the lead in some areas, but when it comes to the most advanced innovation, it's still America.
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If we don't have a more serious energy policy, the difference between a good day and bad day for America from here on will hinge on how the 86-year-old king of Saudi Arabia manages...change.
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Never before in the history of the planet have so many people, on their own, had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people.
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You take one bomber and deploy him in Baghdad, and another is manufactured in Riyadh the next day. It's exactly like when you take the toy off the shelf at Wal-Mart and another is made in Shen Zhen the next day.
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In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny.
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McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15.
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No matter what your profession – doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant – if you are an American, you better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer.
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There are elites that are real leaders and role models. There are elites that are really selfish and want to pull up the ladder once they've reached the roof.
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Tap into people's dignity and they will do anything for you. Ignore it, and they won't lift a finger.
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The great thing about cheap natural gas, again it's cheap, and it provides a cleaner alternative to coal. But it's still a fossil fuel, and because it's still a fossil fuel, it still emits carbon.
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