TEDxSMU 2011: Disruption AND/OR what Disruption has most impacted you?

Here is my entry to the TEDxSMU-2011 entry lottery -

In short - Disruption is in the air

Disruption has been the theme of the world for the last decade. Interestingly Middle-East, Europe, Asia and the America are all going through major disruption at a time when the world has never been more interconnected.

The political unrests in the Arab world - Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia that have been for decades ruled by dictatorial regimes now join the free world. The people there realized, they are no longer ready to accept being left behind, unemployed, un-educated and powerless compared to rest of the world. The economic instability in the European Union that is testing the Euro Model and keeping the world economy on its heals. The question now is - how long can the Germans keep the PIIGS from defaulting? or is there an alternative here?

In Asia, China's controlled-currency/low-consumption/high-export growth model is being put to rigorous tests of a kind that does not have a precedent. And finally the middle class in India has woken up to a mass movement against corruption and this is just the beginning for Indians. Last but definitely not the least, the tremors the America's credit driven capitalistic economic model is facing day-in and out, with the ever increasing Debt-to-GDP ratio and unemployment. I believe, the only way to get ourselves back up and running is to have leader who believes in a good mix of spending cuts, tax increases/reforms and investments in our future i.e. education, research, infrastructure and production.  

On the brighter side - Disruption is the fundamental tenet of progress. History has proven more than once that past actions of disruptions be it in politics, business, economy and technology etc. have essentially provided and ambiance for a  better outcome for the greater good. If we all don't wake up and act now, it might be too late to prevent a global crisis.

Ideas for this essay were derived from Thomas Friedman's article and a few pod-casts of Planet Money

Link to TEDxSMU-2011

http://www.tedxsmu.org/events/tedxsmu-2011/