In this lecture covering topics from his latest book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes the unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and "accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors. This lecture is available through the MIT Open Courseware Project.

For an interesting companion piece to this lecture, have a look at the recent short film Ha Ha Ha America, by Jon Daniel Ligon, available on the Sundance Festival site at:

http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC