Falling Off the Edge
by Alex Perry
Bloomsbury Press, HK$90
'If globalisation is standardising the world, and anti-globalisation is resistance to that, then terrorism is a subset of the anti-globalisation movement.' So argues Alex Perry in his book, whose title plays on New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's metaphor of a world flattening owing to globalisation's creation of a level playing field. The problem is that people fall off the edge, which explains the opposition to the phenomenon. Perry's book looks at, among other things, al-Qaeda as well as Nepal's Maoists, Sri Lanka's Tamils and India's Naxals, all of whom baulk at standardisation 'in the image of the elite'. Their anger stems from what they see as an unequal reaping of benefits, says Perry, who blames globalisation not only for conflicts around the world but also the spread of Aids, Islamic fundamentalism and more. Where China is concerned, the author argues that the Chinese Communist Party, by rejecting the 'global norms of democratic governance', has the muscle to handle globalisation. Falling Off the Edge is nothing if not readable, although readers may tire of Perry's 'I went there, I saw that' style of writing.